- All Resources
- By Ms. Valerie
- Games
- The Principal’s Desk
8 Household Items
Summer is here! School obligations have ended or have at least tapered off and, no matter where you live or how old your kids are, there will inevitably be rainy days or even late summer days when your kids (and even their neighborhood friends) will lie around your house complaining about how bored they are. […]
Supporting The Arts In a Climate of Financial Crisis
In a financial climate that calls for prioritization, sacrifice and often a day to day fight to keep our heads above water, interesting (yet entirely explainable) contradictions appear: Sales of $50 video games remain strong if not increase. The price of gold continues to rise. It seems that while historically America has seen, understood and […]
Upstage/Downstage: Why?
One of the first lessons that I teach young performers is how to take direction and move across stage. When I say young performers, I am typically referring to elementary school students. However, anyone who is new to the rehearsal process, regardless of age, needs to be able to recognize basic theatrical lingo in order […]
Ten Playwrights Every Theater Person Should Know
If you are a high school student who has aspirations of obtaining a degree in theater or if you are an adult who finds him or herself newly and unwittingly drawn to theatrical pursuits, I urge you to get acquainted with the following ten playwrights. Theater, like fine art and music, encapsulates a wide range […]
The 5 Elements of Reading Instruction and How They Relate to Theater
In our fast paced world of smart phones, GPS, tablets and other forms of near-instant information, it may seem that literacy skills have become less important than the tactile navigational routines we have developed. On the contrary, the acquisition of literacy skills and the teaching of them remains a central and evolving component of education. […]
Great Playwrights on Acting Vol. 1
Shakespeare The following noteworthy speech is from “Hamlet.” In it, Hamlet provides acting instruction to a troop of performers who have agreed to present a play that is intended to expose Hamlet’s step-father as a murderer. Despite the intense given circumstances, this speech offers excellent advice to all actors. Through the character of Hamlet, Shakespeare remarks about gestures, […]
Miss Valerie’s Cure for the Monday Blues
The Monday Blues is a very real part of life in the theater whether you just appeared in your elementary school production of Cinderella or just completed a tour of Wicked. Monday Blues refers to the Monday that immediately follows the final performance (or “closing weekend”) of a show’s run. Mondays are typically “dark” days […]
Directing or Micromanaging? Part I
INTRODUCTION A theater director’s job, at the very minimum, is to manage every aspect of a theatrical production. A director should be willing to and capable of collaborating with everyone participating in the project including designers, actors, engineers and stage managers. A director spends a lot of time in production meetings and even more time in […]
Encouraging Reading
There are many ways in which participation in theater can encourage reading. Educational standards in reading comprehension, fluency, phonics and vocabulary instruction are all reinforced when an early reader participates in a script-based (as opposed to improvisational) theatrical production. Typically, when play rehearsals begin, students are given a script and asked to work on and eventually […]