Television shows like "Glee" and films like "Mamma Mia" have captured the imagination of young audiences, and drama students enjoy putting together their own musical creation. Divide the class evenly into groups,and instruct them to choose four songs from different music genres. Give the groups one week to write their own 10-minute musical centered around the songs they have chosen, and allow them to spend their class time rehearsing music and choreographing routines. Have each group submit a copy of their songs on a CD prior to their performance to ensure that all of the music is appropriate for a school setting. Have the groups perform their musicals for each other at the end of the week.
Timeless tales get tweaked when students rewrite and re-stage famous stories in their own words. Split the class into small groups of students and assign a classic fairy tale, nursery rhyme or Shakespearean play. Task students with presenting a new version of their story. Assignments to be completed can be a full synopsis of the original plot that has been rewritten to reflect the student's spin on the tale; a scene from the story to be performed for the class; and a poster advertising their new production. The project can be expanded into a community service activity as well. Take the updated fairy tales and nursery rhymes to a local elementary school and have students perform them for younger kids.
Students learn the basics of building a character when they embody a figure from film, literature or theater. Have each student choose a famous character from a book, film or stage play, then ask them to create a character biography for their figure. Many books on acting and theater basics contain sample character biography templates, but you can make your own by devising a comprehensive list of questions for each student to answer as their character. Include a range of questions stemming from the basics (name, age, place of birth) to personal quirks (favorite food, song, color) to the psychological (influential figures in the character's life, biggest heartbreak, greatest triumph). Students then assemble costumes for their character and attend an in-class "party" where they mingle with other in-character students. Make time to chat individually with each student to ascertain how well they stay in character.
There is no one way to tell a story, and everyone approaches a narrative with a different version of events. Augusto Monterroso, Ernest Hemingway and many other authors wrote evocative narratives that took less than 10 words, leaving the reader to interpret the before and after. Give students a one-sentence narrative prompt, then ask them each to write a one-minute monologue about the minute before or after the events of the narrative. Address the who, what, where, why and when of the scene to create a fully rounded monologue. If the narrative prompt was Monterroso's famous one-sentence narrative, "When he awoke, the dinosaur was still there," the student could write a monologue as the awakened or as the dinosaur and address when the monologue takes place, why the man fell asleep in the first place, what caused the man to discover a dinosaur and who the dinosaur and the man are in relation to each other. After students present their monologues, discuss all the different variations.