CR10.1
Respond critically, using appropriate theatrical language, to student and/or professional work and genres.
Indicators for this outcome
(a) View a live or recorded performance and discuss the role of the audience in various types of performances (e.g., conventional Western theatre, children’s theatre, forum theatre, site-specific theatre).
(b) Research the context of the place and time in which a selected play or piece of dramatic work was written, including, for example:
  • an overview of the social, political and cultural climate of the times in which a selected play was written and performed;
  • biographical information about the playwright and/or reviews of other plays by the playwright;
  • a reading of other plays written during the same time period;
  • a description of the expectations and moods of audiences during the years of the play's creation and productions.
(c) Describe, analyze and interpret, using the language of theatre, a selected piece of dramatic work, withholding judgement while formulating an informed opinion.
(d) Analyze directorial decisions made in a contemporary production including the casting, staging and design choices.
(e) Compare the social and political climate of the time in which a play was created and first produced with later productions, and evaluate the play using the language of theatre.
(f) Identify the purpose of various conventions (e.g., dimming of lights, actor’s entrance, blackouts, curtain calls) and how they impact the audience experience.
(g) Identify various stage and audience seating arrangements (e.g., thrust, proscenium, in the round, pen-air, promenade, site-specific) and consider how each affects both the actors’ performances and the audience’s response.
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R011332
How Annie Made It to the Stage
This resource explores the long running musical, Annie. The book explains why the show was so successful and why it continues to remain relevant. This resource also includes references to websites and videos, a glossary and an index.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : $44.21 USD
Record posted/updated: June 1, 2021
R011366
How The Lion King Made It to the Stage
This resource explores how The Lion King became a long running musical. The book explains why the show was so successful and why it continues to remain relevant. This resource also includes references to websites and videos, a glossary and an index.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : $44.21 USD
Record posted/updated: June 1, 2021
R014628
Theatre Brief (12th ed.)
This is a comprehensive text with chapters that include: What Is Theatre?; Why Study Theatre?; The Actor; The Playwright; Designers and Technicians; The Director; Theatre Traditions; Modern Theatre; Musical Theatre; Theatre Today; and The Audience. This textbook facilitates the investigation of drama and the theatre arts by providing brief overviews with pictures, diagrams, charts, and interviews with professionals.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : $99.95
Record posted/updated: June 9, 2021
R007491
Stage Lighting: Design Applications and More
This book is a technical resource on lighting design for stage, film and video, museums, spectacle events, trade shows, night clubs, retail areas, landscape lighting, virtual lighting, themed lighting and architectural lighting. It would be best suited for individuals who seek to develop a higher level of understanding of stage lighting. The resource has illustrations and photographs to compliment the text. Included within the book are profiles of significant lighting designers and a description of their craft.
(More information)
Media and Formats : Book
Price : $68.95 USD
Record posted/updated: June 11, 2021
R052042
Theatre. Collaborative Acts (4th ed.)
This professional resource provides an extensive overview of almost all aspects of the Theatre. It explores topics such as the history of theatre, notable names, scene work, gender equality, basic lighting techniques and offers a connection to real-world theatre practices. It also provides ideas for students that extend beyond performance-based activities.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : $111.60
Record posted/updated: May 31, 2021
R006379
Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film (6th ed.)
This resource discusses the fundamentals of film including: film genres, film history, cinematography, acting, editing and the relationships between film and culture. To illustrate the concepts, the book uses films students are likely to be familiar with as examples, such as the Star Wars series and Jaws.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : $111.95
Record posted/updated: February 4, 2020
R030453
How to Teach a Play: Essential Exercises for Popular Plays
This book contains activities to develop students’ performative imagination using commonly taught plays from countries such as the United States of America, Great Britain, Germany, Norway, Japan, South Africa and Mexico. The activities are applicable to all levels of high school drama classrooms or rehearsals.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : See publisher.
Record posted/updated: June 27, 2022
R007483
Stage Lighting Design (2nd ed.)
This resource provides a thorough introduction to how to design lighting for a performance, including the history of lighting design, safety tips and how to choose equipment, apply colour, light a variety of stage layouts and create different moods with lighting.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : $53.95
Record posted/updated: June 15, 2020
R014569
Getting to Broadway Series
This series explores the path by which a number of famous Broadway musicals made it to the stage. Information is included on the source material for the shows, innovations that were introduced to stage performance by the shows and the impacts of these dramatic works on our culture at large and on theatrical history.
•  How Hamilton Made It to the Stage
•  How Wicked Made It to the Stage
Media and Formats : Book
Price : $30.95 US ea.
Record posted/updated: June 15, 2020
R015331
22 Comedy Ten-minute Plays: Royalty-free Plays for Teens and Young Adults
This is a book of royalty-free short plays for a cast of two to eight actors with many gender-flexible roles. Each play has a cast of characters, a set description and a list of properties.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : See publisher.
Record posted/updated: June 27, 2022
R015519
The Best Men's Monologues from New Plays, 2019
This is a collection of approximately 100 monologues, written as male characters, that come from both well-known playwrights and future stars.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : See publisher.
Record posted/updated: June 27, 2022
R015520
The Best Women's Monologues from New Plays, 2019
This is a collection of monologues for women that are direct and raw in their examination of human behaviour. The language and content of this book present characters experiencing the complexities of life.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : See publisher.
Record posted/updated: June 27, 2022
R007966
Digital Theatre+
This subscription-based website gives access to professional stage productions from around the globe. It offers hours of theatre, behind the scenes material and interviews with actors and directors. Designed for educators of drama and technical theatre, teachers will find guides and many other tools for instruction from theory and criticism, to innovative lectures and performances.
Media and Formats : Website
Price : Subscription
Record posted/updated: May 21, 2021
R019101
Performance Lighting Design: How to Light for the Stage, Concerts and Live Events (2nd ed.)
This book provides insight into theatrical lighting and gives practical ideas to achieve the desired aesthetic through planning and use of lighting techniques. Photographs and illustrations provide visual support of the concepts described in the text.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : $34.53
Record posted/updated: February 22, 2022
R011367
How Rent Made It to the Stage
This resource explores the inspiration, creative process, and legacy of Jonathan Larson's musical, Rent. The book explains why the show was so successful and why it continues to remain relevant. This resource also includes references to websites and videos, a glossary and an index.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : $44.21 USD
Record posted/updated: June 1, 2021
R011333
How Cats Made It to the Stage
This resource explores the long running musical, Cats. The book explains why the show was so successful and why it continues to remain relevant. This resource also includes references to websites and videos, a glossary and an index.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : $44.21
Record posted/updated: June 1, 2021
R022023
Treasure Island
This book features the play Treasure Island. The book begins with the play’s script and is followed by activities that explore the skills required to perform it, interviews with the director and playwright and a glossary of theatrical terms. This resource provides students with an informative presentation of a contemporary dramatic production. The performers’ lines are printed in black and stage directions are in blue.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : See publisher.
Record posted/updated: June 27, 2022
R015790
Teaching Improv. The Essential Handbook: Your Step-by-step Guide to Teaching Short-form Improv
This book provides 16 sequential lessons plans that teach the basics of short-form improv including warm-ups, exercises, games and structuring a show.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : See publisher.
Record posted/updated: June 27, 2022
R015518
Contemporary Monologues for Twentysomethings
This is a book of monologues with characters facing real world issues. The story lines are direct and honest, and will challenge actors in their interpretation of the monologues.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : See publisher.
Record posted/updated: June 27, 2022
R001308
Two Plays About Residential School (20th anniversary ed.)
This book contains two plays written about the experiences of the authors in residential schools, portraying first-hand experiences as well as the far-reaching effects on those who attended.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : See publisher.
Record posted/updated: June 27, 2022
R015333
Devising Critically Engaged Theatre with Youth: The Performing Justice Project
This resource provides educators with a framework for creating original youth theatre while learning about social justice in the context of supporting students performing for a more equitable world. Using recognizable methods and exercises, educators can collaborate with their students to create some powerful dramatic arts experiences.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : See publisher.
Record posted/updated: June 27, 2022
R001891
The Craft and Art of Scenic Design: Strategies, Concepts, and Resources
Media and Formats : Book
Price : See publisher.
Record posted/updated: June 27, 2022
R027868
Mime the Gap: Techniques in Mime and Movement
This book offers exercises for solo and group mime expression. It provides step-by-step instructions for simple to more complex mime illusions and outlines the principles of physical articulation used in this performance art.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : See publisher.
Record posted/updated: June 27, 2022
R015334
Short Plays with Great Roles for Women
This is a collection of short plays that contain roles for women of all ages and ethnicities. The plays are appropriate in length for classroom use and address contemporary topics.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : See publisher.
Record posted/updated: June 27, 2022
R013567
FREE
This DVD highlights the innovative expression of youth power and the ability to motivate positive social change through dance and theatre. Set in Oakland, California, this video is the story of five inner city teens whose lives are transformed through the power of collaborative art.
Media and Formats : CD/DVD
Price : See publisher.
Record posted/updated: February 29, 2024
R021886
The Wardrobe
This book features the play The Wardrobe, which explores the shaping of British history and how the past is connected to the present. The book begins with the play’s script and is followed by activities that explore the skills required to perform it, interviews with the director, playwright and designer and a glossary of theatrical terms. This resource provides students with an informative presentation of a contemporary dramatic production. The performers’ lines are printed in black and stage directions are in blue.
(More information)
Media and Formats : Book
Price : See publisher.
Record posted/updated: June 27, 2022
R015897
Rock in the Musical Theatre: A Guide for Singers
This book provides the history and the techniques of the rock musical genre in theatre. It is both theoretical and practical offering theatre singers and drama teachers a source of information on rock styles, their origins and their performance practices.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : See publisher.
Record posted/updated: June 27, 2022
R015933
War Horse
Set in World War I, this play is about a young man who searches to bring home his horse that was sold to the cavalry. The book begins with the play’s script and is followed by activities that explore the skills required to perform it, interviews with the co-director, puppetry director and the author of the original novel and a glossary of theatrical terms. This resource provides students with an informative presentation of a contemporary dramatic production. The performers’ lines are printed in black and stage directions are in blue.
(More information)
Media and Formats : Book
Price : See publisher.
Record posted/updated: June 27, 2022
R015325
Migration Plays: Four Large Cast Ensemble Stories for Teenagers
This resource is a collection of four, large cast, ensemble plays on the topic of migration as viewed by young people. Created in collaboration with groups of secondary students, the stories are interesting and diverse.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : See publisher.
Record posted/updated: June 27, 2022
R014630
Popcorn Elder
This play is about a father and son, filled with anger, guilt and pain, seeking connection and reconciliation. As a condition of release from prison, Darren must live with his father on the rez and the two must begin to deal with their fraught history. Through flashbacks, a combination of Cree and English, and a cast of characters, this play tells the story of one family’s journey toward hope.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : See publisher.
Record posted/updated: June 27, 2022
R024861
Theatrical Design and Production: An Introduction to Scenic Design and Construction, Lighting, Sound, Costume, and Makeup (8th ed.)
This book is a comprehensive survey of current standards and practices in scenic design. It includes updated illustrations and an explanation of recent technological advances in scenic design.
Media and Formats : Book
Price : See publisher.
Record posted/updated: June 27, 2022