Everything you need to put on a full-scale production in middle or high school.
This is the place for you to obtain complete information about directing high school plays/theatre through her book The Drama Teacher’s Survival Guide: A complete toolkit for the theatre arts that deals with an extracurricular drama program suitable for junior and senior high school theatre programs.
This book also includes several warm up exercises as well as character analyses, drawings, collages, and improvisational games such as animals, objects, food, and wants helping students understand their characters.
The focus of her book stresses the fact that plays are about people [characters] telling their stories at a given time in their lives, not fancy sets, lighting or costumes. The 2nd Edition of this book includes a new chapter–Chapter 20–entitled Drama Class which has 10 large group activities.
Everything you need for the drama classroom.
The Drama Teacher’s Survival Guide #2: Activities, exercises and techniques for the theatre classroom is her sequel which includes 8 units she used in her drama classes. From the first week to the end of the semester/year, she draws from her 37 years of teaching experience to provide detailed information, examples and suggestions for first time and experienced drama teachers.
Drama teachers everywhere enjoyed Ms. Johnson’s first toolkit for the theatre arts so much that she wrote another one! This book covers every aspect of classroom theatre arts. Students will learn group activities, improvisation, technical theatre, choral reading, mime, stage fighting and more. The book includes a step-by-step 10-day assignment using monologues for character development and a unit that teaches students how to write their own show. Examples are provided with illustrations, photos, and proven ideas. Reproducible forms, tests, and handouts are also provided together with a list of additional resources. Both beginners and seasoned drama directors will find this book to be an invaluable aid. As with the original book, it will banish your stress and guarantee your success.
She has included her blog with Comtemporary Drama where she writes about some of her theatre experiences not covered in her book, curriculum ideas for the drama classroom and her work in community theatre. The blog is updated at least once a month. Be sure to check her archives listed under the Blog section of this web site. It includes links to handouts , great games and suggestions for class assignments. She loves to hear from her readers.