This collection of videos underscore the power and capability of hypermedia integration in the 21st Century high school Theater classroom.
The following video is a collaborative effort between British and American linguists. They address differences between British and American English pronunciations. They offer embedded links to each of their respective YouTube channels and links to further lessons. Lessons are intertwined to advance concept retention. These videos would be helpful to teach and reinforce dialects for the stage.
This video presents seven expressions and what they mean. Videos like this would be excellent for a script writing unit. It would help potential playwrights grasp expressions of a given generation and possibly the need for some sort of clarification, either through stage directions or script notes to insure the performers understand the language used. There are many more of these videos at the host website and all videos I watched had a link to a quiz to test comprehension and retention.
This incredibly short video packs a huge punch. I teach a Theater Etiquette unit in my Intro to Theater classes. This material is revisited prior to attending a production. The video could be used in small groups, challenging them to list the various issues gone wrong and present what and how one should act at the theater.
Stage lighting is integral to theater and performance. All members of the class should have a working knowledge of lighting. This video explains the three main types of lights, shutters and gobots generally found in a public high school theater or performing space. This video and either a Google Form quiz or on-stage quiz would be a great precursor to teaching lighting for the theater.
This video explores a few terms that tend to puzzle students early. Stage directions, Aside, Monologue and Soliloquy are all presented in a short body of instruction. The educator uses an animated cartoon to make her points at the end. This video would be excellent for first-year Introduction to Theater students at the high school level.
Tips on writing a Radio Drama are included in the following video. Using students as the performers/teachers creates interest in high school viewers. Use of tension and humor are addressed in the video. Certainly, this would prove useful when script writing radio dramas with high school students.
This video depicts what someone quite skilled with Google Sketchup Stage Design can do in a relatively short amount of time. This video would be inspirational for students when leading to a stage design unit. I would gladly use this a a component of a technical theater unit. Since these designs could be saved on a hard disk, it would be a great addition to their portfolios to keep early designs charting their growth through the program.
This tutorial helps an educator take Sketchup to the next level with students for their stage designs. This tutorial is self-contained and would allow individualized pursuit of 3D design work for the stage.
Tutorials of the different roles of designers and crew make wonderful ways for students to learn about the various roles. Every theater needs a MacGyver-type who can creatively solve problems and create solutions to those issues in a technical theater environment. This video, specifically, would help find that student who would enjoy this daily challenge. I would certainly use a variety of these videos to help students learn what the different roles in the crew are so they could manage to explore a variety of jobs during their high school theatrical career.
The following video was created by two eighth grade teachers. I have included in this resource because there are many Holocaust, slave, Native American, Japanese-American, persecution, and genocide-related plays in production. This video represents a way that educators could connect the dots with their students prior to the first reading of a play. A video is a powerful answer to "Why this play?"These educators administered a pretest to their students and incorporated it into the texture of this body of instruction. Were I to engage in a Holocaust production, I would either utilize this footage or recreate the lesson and make one from scratch. I would want to collaborate with the History teacher and possibly others as well, depending upon the subject matter of the production.