Looking for musical theatre lesson plans? Check out the new follow-up book Teaching Musical Theatre: The Essential Handbook by the same best-selling author!
✰ Over 50,000 copies sold worldwide! ✰
Teaching Drama: The Essential Handbook
Original price was: $50.00.$35.00Current price is: $35.00.
“How do I build drama games into effective lesson plans?”
We’ve got you covered. Introducing Teaching Drama: The Essential Handbook, a 45-page eBook (PDF Download) packed with sixteen ready-to-go lessons plans that will transform the way you teach acting to kids!
Whether you’re a new drama teacher planning out your first year or an experienced teacher looking for refreshing new ideas, this resource will give you the tools you need to build your kids into incredible actors…guaranteed!
Go beyond drama games.
With this handbook you get:
- A semester’s worth of cumulative drama lesson plans that will turn your kids into real-deal actors.
- Notes on how to introduce basic acting concepts in a way kids will instantly understand.
- Customized activities for both “younger” and “older” kids.
- Tips and tools on easy ways to transition between activities and lessons.
- Games relevant to kids today like the “Facebook Character Profile”.
- Useful reflection and journaling exercises after every lesson.
How is this different from other drama teaching books?
When I first started teaching theatre, I knew there were tons of resources out there, but none of them seemed to give me the practical advice I needed on a lesson by lesson basis. What were the specific “tricks” and “tools” I could use to go beyond “having fun” to actually building better actors?
Eventually I realized the thing that was most helpful to me was to watch other amazing teachers in action. Nothing could replace the experience of being in the classroom and seeing what worked and what didn’t.
This book is designed to recreate that experience. I’ve condensed 10 years of experience (with over 20,000 students in the NYC public school system) into 16 lessons of drama teaching gold. After you’ve read through all the drama lessons, you should feel like you’ve sat in on an entire semester of observing an expert drama teacher introduce the basics of drama to a classroom of students.
A resource you can trust.
For over a decade author Denver Casado has worked as an arts educator with New York City’s leading theatre organizations including Disney Theatricals, New York City Center and Young Audiences New York. Denver’s innovative approach to teaching theater to kids has resulted in invitations to speak at national conferences including the American Association of Community Theatre and the American Alliance for Theatre Education. He is a recipient of the All Stars Project’s Phyllis Hyman award for his work inspiring New York City youth through theatre.
Since launching in April 2011, Beat by Beat Press has helped thousands of directors and teachers in over 75 countries bring exciting new theatre to their communities.
Over 55,000 teachers a month visit Beat by Beat’s website for high-quality drama resources. You can feel confident that the materials you receive are top notch.
What skills will my students learn?
Below are just a few of the topics covered in the lesson plans:
- What is theatre? Students explore how theatre is the art of telling stories through live acting.
- Creating an Ensemble. Students learn to work together, build trust, and involved every member in a performance.
- Movement and Space. Students explore how pantomime and behavior help tell a story.
- Character Development. Students explore what makes characters unique and how to create compelling characters onstage.
- Objectives and Tactics. Students will think about the “why” behind every action.
- Voice. Students will understand the importance of articulation, projection and voice variation.
- Listening and Reacting. Students will understand how being present, listening and reacting are an important part of being an actor.
- Stage Directions and Blocking. Students will understand the “principles of blocking” and how to stage a scene without instruction.
And much more!
Click here to download a free preview of the first lesson!
Get even more.
Our gift to you. When you purchase Teaching Drama: The Essential Handbook, as an added bonus you’ll receive our popular Drama Games for Kids eBook for FREE ($20 value)! The Drama Games for Kids eBook contains every drama game and article on our popular drama games blog (over 111 games) in a printable PDF document (118-pages). You’ll never run out of things to do in the classroom.
30-Day Money Back Guarantee. We’re confident this eBook will lead you to drama teaching success. If for any reason you’re not satisfied with the book, call or email us within 30 days and we’ll refund every penny immediately.
It shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg to get the tools you need to become a drama teaching machine. Professional development workshops with Beat by Beat educators can cost up to $1,000 a day. Other drama teaching resources on the internet charge $37/month subscription fees that total $444 a year.
Teaching Drama: The Essential Handbook (a practical guide you can start using tomorrow) can be downloaded instantly for only $30.
Click the link below to download your copy of Teaching Drama: The Essential Handbook plus a FREE copy of the Drama Games for Kids eBook ($50 total value)
At Beat by Beat, we’re passionate about raising the bar on the quality of resources that are available for young actors…and you’ll find this book to be no exception. Over 30,000 people a month visit the Beat by Beat website, discovering tools and resources which have brought joy to teachers and creativity to young actors around the world.
You have our personal guarantee that if you aren’t completely satisfied, if you don’t love this monologue book and use it all the time, call or email us within 30 days and we’ll refund every penny immediately.
Teaching Drama: The Essential Handbook
- Instant download
- Print and photocopy as much as you need for personal or single-classroom use
- FREE Drama Games for Kids eBook ($20 value, 118-pages)
- A 30-day no-risk guarantee!
List Price: $50
Joan H. –
My most useful drama book for teaching young children. As a new Drama Teacher, this was an excellent resource. I stopped stressing over what to teach each lesson. Many of these activities my kids have asked to do again and again. It’s laid out the objectives clearly for me, provided reflection questions throughout and the activities are immediately engaging but teach all of the essentials. I love that it is stepped gradually up building from simple activities and gradually getting more complex. I have been following this book lesson by lesson only leaving out things when I run out of time. I have used it with 6 year olds to 11 year olds so far in the classroom and for drama club. For my drama club I pick and choose which activities suit what I want to work on but for my year 1’s and 2’s I’ve been following it pretty much lesson by lesson. It has been a godsend and saved me hours of research and planning every week!
J. Bell –
This book has saved me SO much time planning my drama classes. The best part was how the activities were organized into acting “concepts”…I used this as the basis for my classes then added my own spin on things. It would’ve taken me weeks to plan out the same thing. Thank you!!
Ricarda Chin –
Amazingly helpful! A huge gift for someone trying to get a drama club going in a middle school setting. Full of great suggestions and easy to digest format.
Alan M. –
So thankful for this book! I am a first year elementary theatre teacher, and although I’ve been a part of theatre world most of my life I have been having difficulty taking my knowledge and synthesizing it into something for a K-5 classroom. This book is a lifesaver! At first I was disappointed by what showed up — what looked like a very short workbook. But in hindsight, I’m not sure how long I expected a book of 16 lesson plans to be (it’s 43 pages). I also bought a couple of longer books of games, and other info for first year teachers, but this is the one I keep returning to over the past week or so. If needed, I could pick it up and get through the first 3 weeks of school with ease. The 60-minute lessons are largely game based (ex: mirror exercise, pantomime detective, blind cars, etc.) which is great for young kids. There are also reflections and little asides throughout the lessons that explain how each game relates back to theatre and how to incorporate them into your classroom. I’m finding it easy to replicate these lessons for additional follow-up classes by interchanging the games with other ones I know (or ones found in my other book or online). If you are just starting out teaching Theatre/Drama classes (especially K-8), I highly recommend this short book!
Antonio M. –
I absolutely am so grateful for the direct instructions style of lesson plans. It’s all about reading off the “script” and watching the kids have fun learning the fundamentals of acting. My favorite part is the reflection sections, which encourages young actors to be mindful of what they are learning and promotes researching in their own lives to integrate these lessons into their art. My young students request repeat many of the activities and warm ups, because they enjoy them so much. I appreciate the well thought out layout and template of the lesson plans, so once you get the knack you can you use the format to create your lessons later down the road.
Mary L. –
This looks like it will be perfect for my new high school drama club. The lessons are not too childish so that the high school students will be turned off. No lessons where you pretend to be a melting ice cream cone, lol. Instead, the lessons are designed to open students’ eyes to the acting they see all around them. It teaches them to be more observant of how people communicate, using gesture, facial expressions, tone of voice, etc. Very nice handbook for a beginning drama teacher.
Kyle J. –
I’m an opera singer by trade, and I picked up a theater class for ages 9-12. Having done a lot of stagework, I’ve never really studied much of the basics, and this book is a lifesaver. The games are great – I can tailor the lesson to whatever I feel the class needs or can understand, and I can add my own games into the topics presented. It works the very basics – something I never got, and my class has never had so much fun learning theater. It also has helped me to become a better actor by putting me on the spot as a teacher (ya gotta come up with those examples ya know?). Would definitely recommend.
Ryan –
A must have resource! This has been my main guide for curriculum activities in my performing arts classes. The kids love the activities and they are easy to do and don’t require anything special.
Kathryn –
Because of your Beat by Beat Press 16 ready to go lesson plans, and drama games handbook..I have been asked back for a second year after successfully winning over staff and students at a prestigious Montessori School on their 20th year anniversary!! THANK YOU.
Kate B. – The Manor Preparatory School –
Thank you for your wonderful programme of drama lessons that I purchased recently.
I have been looking for a comprehensive, inclusive programme of lessons to teach theatre skills to my pupils for a long time, and yours totally hits the spot.
I will be starting to implement the lessons in September and can only thank you for making my teaching life easier and better. Great ideas, very inclusive of all children, and a fabulous base of skills that will feed into the children’s school productions.
Sally C. –
I started teaching 2 years ago after being an actress here in the UK for 20 years and I have to say that you guys have been invaluable to me. I was able to purchase your Teaching Drama to Little Ones book and the Teaching Drama Handbook and they were like a safety net that gave me the confidence to begin.
I am now 2 weeks into teaching Musical Theatre and I will give you one guess which publication is seeing me through my first term.
I want to say thank you so very much and bloody well done!