Craft 4 min read
Off book without the dread
The off-book date is where many rehearsal processes stall. Taking the script away in stages, and learning cues as well as lines, makes it a step instead of a cliff.
Writing
Notes on teaching acting, drama and improvisation — rehearsal, the craft, the assessment, and the practicalities.
Classroom 3 min read
Prompting without shaming
How a line is asked for and given shapes how a cast feels about drying. A short protocol, agreed in advance, takes the embarrassment out of it.
Classroom 4 min read
Running a class show night
A class show is a small production with a running order, time calls and a host. The practical parts — the order, the calls, the jam and the end time — decide whether the evening feels like theatre.
Craft 3 min read
Why "yes, and" fails as a rule and works as a habit
The most-quoted principle in improvisation is also the most misapplied. What it is actually describing, and how to build it without ever saying it.
Spontar 4 min read
Why students never see their own scores in Spontar
A feature we will not build, and the reasoning — which is about what improvisation trains, not about data protection.
Classroom 4 min read
Running a session when the internet is not there
Rehearsal rooms have bad wifi. What that actually breaks, what it does not, and how to plan a lesson that does not depend on it.
Craft 3 min read
Warm-ups that are not warm-ups
Most drama warm-ups train something specific and are taught as though they train enthusiasm. What each of the common ones is actually for.
Classroom 3 min read
Mixed-age groups: what changes
A thirteen-year-old and a seventeen-year-old in the same scene are not doing the same exercise. What actually differs, and how to cast around it.
Craft 4 min read
Endings: stopping a scene that will not stop
Most improvised scenes die rather than end. Where the ending actually lives, and four ways to give a class one without taking the scene away from them.
Standards 3 min read
The four artistic processes, and where improvisation sits
Creating, Performing, Responding, Connecting. What each one means for a teacher planning an improvisation unit, and the one that usually gets skipped.
Standards 4 min read
What AO1 and AO4 actually reward in devising
The assessment objectives are short, and the mark schemes built on them are not. What examiners are looking for in the devising component, in plain terms.
Standards 4 min read
Reading the Anforderungsbereiche as a drama teacher
The KMK's three achievement levels were written for every subject, which makes them abstract in ours. What each one looks like in a practical drama lesson.
Assessment 3 min read
Recording without ranking
Notes that help you next Tuesday look nothing like notes that produce a grade. What to write down during a session, and what to leave out.
Assessment 4 min read
The devising log: what it is for
Most devising logs are written the night before and read like it. What the document is actually assessing, and what makes one worth reading.
Assessment 4 min read
What you can honestly assess in an improvisation
Some things in an improvised scene are observable and defensible. Others are guesses wearing a mark scheme. Knowing which is which makes moderation survivable.
Classroom 4 min read
Phones in the drama room
The argument for keeping them out is a good one. What changes when a phone stops being a distraction and becomes an instrument, and how to tell which you have.
Classroom 4 min read
The student who will not go on
Refusal in a drama room is usually about being watched, not about the exercise. Four things that help, and two that make it permanent.
Classroom 4 min read
The first three lessons with a group that has never improvised
What to do before you ask anyone to make something up in front of their classmates, and why the order matters more than the exercises.
Craft 4 min read
The Joker position: intervening without entering
Boal invented a role that is neither performer nor audience. It is also the most accurate description of what a drama teacher does during an exercise.
Craft 3 min read
One thing to hold: the point of concentration
Spolin's central idea is that a student focused on a game acts naturally. The hard part is choosing the one thing, and resisting the urge to add a second.
Craft 3 min read
Blocking is information
A student who refuses an offer is telling you something about the exercise, not about themselves. What the refusal usually means, and what to change.
Craft 3 min read
Status: teach the flip, not the level
Students asked to 'play high status' produce a caricature. Students asked to change status halfway through produce a scene. The difference is where you put the instruction.
Craft 5 min read
Side-coaching without stopping the scene
Spolin's most useful technique is also the hardest to deliver: a note to one player, mid-scene, that nobody else hears. What works in a room, and what does not.
