Unit 1 — Characters- Dramatic Essentials
Description
This opening unit focuses on the fundamental roles of the theatrical process as students gain experience as actors, writers, designers, and directors. Students begin by learning to embody characters through understanding circumstances and wants, making vocal and physical choices. The unit then moves into the writing process as students imagine how circumstances and wants create conflict in storytelling. Collaborative playmaking includes the study of theatrical design, where students make choices about costumes, props, and sets. The unit culminates with a play festival where students celebrate class work and reflect on the process of dramatic development.
Essential Questions
- How does a play become a play? What are the steps to making a play happen? Who contributes to that process?
- What are the fundamental tools that actors and writers have to create characters?
- Why do performers rehearse? What is the value of reflection in the rehearsal process?
Learning Objectives
- Build trust and establish group norms.
- Make choices to embody truthful choices in performance.
- Analyze the fundamental elements of story structure.
- Use empathy to understand characters' emotional circumstances.
- Develop and resolve conflicts in storytelling.
- Reflect on the individual's role in the process of developing a play.
- Analyze how design elements enhance truth in performance.
Supplemental Resources
- Chart paper for blocking diagrams and scene planning
- Index cards for character notes and beat breakdowns
- Markers and colored pencils for set and costume design sketches
- Sticky notes for script annotations and character motivation notes
- Printed graphic organizers for character analysis and conflict mapping
Visual Arts - Creating
Visual Arts - Presenting
Students engage in collaborative discussions, present claims and findings using pertinent descriptions and details, and write narratives and arguments to develop real or imagined experiences and support claims about dramatic works and character development.
Students examine how theatrical spaces and traditions reflect cultural perspectives and values, analyze how different cultures express identity through performance, and research historical contexts of theatrical works including Commedia Dell'Arte traditions.
Formative Assessments
- Improvisation: participate in group games and individual improvisation scenario practice in preparation for performance.
- Scene writing: write and perform original scenes created collaboratively in small groups.
- Monologues: read aloud informal monologues and other public speaking in response to informal topics in preparation for writing.
- Peer reviews and informal observations during group work.
Summative Assessment
Play festival in which students celebrate the class' work and reflect on the process of dramatic development; monologue performances read aloud following specific elements outlined in an established monologue rubric.
Benchmark Assessment
A brief scene performance or character monologue task assessing students' ability to make vocal and physical choices that reflect character circumstances and wants, measured against established performance criteria covering the fundamentals of character embodiment and story structure covered in Unit 1.
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate character understanding through guided discussion with the teacher, physical movement responses to character scenarios, or collaborative creation of a character chart with visual supports instead of independent written work. Participation in group games and improvisation may be modified to include observer roles or peer-supported partnering as needed.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students benefit from having character and story structure concepts broken into clear, manageable steps, with visual supports such as graphic organizers that map out circumstances, wants, and conflicts before performance or writing tasks begin. For improvisation and monologue work, students may respond orally, through movement, or with a partner rather than independently in front of the full group, reducing performance anxiety while still meeting the learning goal. Extended time and frequent check-ins during collaborative scene writing help students process expectations and contribute meaningfully to group work.
Section 504
Students should have access to a quiet or low-distraction space during individual reflection and writing tasks connected to scene development. Preferential seating during group instruction and performance observations supports sustained focus, and extended time on written components of the monologue or peer review process ensures equitable access to demonstrating understanding.
ELL / MLL
Visual supports such as labeled images of costume, prop, and set elements help students connect design vocabulary to meaning as they explore theatrical roles. Simplified directions for improvisation and scene-writing tasks, paired with the opportunity to rehearse ideas with a partner before sharing with the group, support both comprehension and confidence. Where possible, allowing students to draw or gesture to communicate character choices before putting ideas into words helps bridge language and dramatic expression.
At Risk (RTI)
Connecting character work to familiar, real-life circumstances and emotions gives students a concrete entry point into understanding wants and conflict before applying those ideas to fictional scenarios. Offering structured options—such as sentence starters for scene writing or a defined role within a collaborative group—reduces overwhelm and builds a sense of success early in the unit. Positive reinforcement of participation in low-stakes improvisation games helps establish trust and willingness to take creative risks as the unit progresses.
Gifted & Talented
Students can be challenged to explore the layered relationship between a character's internal emotional state and their outward physical and vocal choices, moving beyond surface-level characterization toward nuanced, psychologically grounded performance. In collaborative playmaking, these students may take on the role of dramaturg or director, analyzing how design decisions and story structure choices interact to shape an audience's interpretation. Encouraging independent research into a specific theatrical design discipline or dramatic tradition deepens their understanding of how form and meaning connect across the theatrical process.