summer circle theatre playwright’s workbook...once upon a time in a kingdom, not so ... different...

Summer Circle Theatre Playwright’s Workbook

Summer Circle Theatre 2020

Playwright’s Workbook

Type of Play: Comedy Drama Adventure Characters, pick at least two: (word bank) Friend Superhero Monster Animal Parent Wizard Athlete Dancer Vampire Cowgirl/Cowboy Fairy Evil Genius Witch Pirate Astronaut Princess Police Officer Mermaid Prince Firefighter Title of Play: _________________________________________________________ Draw a picture and write a sentence to describe the setting, place, and time of day! ___________________________________________________________________


Costume Design

Costume Design -INSERT LINK WHERE VIDEOS ARE UPLOADED

Costume Desig


Costume Design


Playwriting Graphic Organizer Example: Disney’s Frozen

Exposition (Introduce the characters and where they are.) EX: Young Elsa accidentally freezes Young Anna. Else is ashamed and hides her powers and Anna is confused because Elsa won’t play with her anymore. Characters: Sisters.

Inciting Incident (Introduce the problem.) EX: On Coronation Day, Elsa gets crowned Queen and the gates are open. She cannot control her powers and frees the kingdom, so she runs away. Problem: Sisters argue and one runs away.

Rising Action (Tries to solve problem but something else goes wrong, or gets more complicated.) EX: After Elsa flees, Anna goes on a journey to find her, making new friends, Kristoff, Sven and Olaf, along the way. Complication: In a scary and treacherous journey, Anna tries to convince Elsa to come home.

Climax (What is the turning point? What happens unexpectedly?) EX: Elsa accidentally strikes Anna in the heart with her powers and Hans locks Anna in the castle. Hans pursues Elsa in the storm in order to become the new king. How will it turn out? Will Elsa save Anna in time?

Falling Action (Tie up loose ends.) EX: Elsa unfreezes Anna with her love, which also melts and restores the kingdom.

Resolution (Problem solved, wrap up the story.) EX: Elsa takes her place as queen and embraces her powers with Annas love and support. What’s my happily ever after?: Sisters are reunited.


Playwriting Graphic Organizer

Exposition (FIRST: Introduce the characters and where they are.)

Inciting Incident (SECOND: Introduce the problem.) .

Rising Action (THIRD: Tries to solve problem but something else goes wrong, or gets more complicated.)

Climax (FOURTH: What is the turning point? What happens unexpectedly?)

Falling Action (FIFTH: Tie up loose ends.)

Resolution (SIXTH: Problem solved, wrap up the story.)


Phrase Bank

Once upon a time in a kingdom, not so far away…

It wasn’t long before…

I did it… I created a…. a… One very early

morning…

A mermaid is not a magical creature, it is REAL!

Why do I have to wake up early on the weekend?

This has to be the smallest town I’ve ever been to…

I just can’t stop dancing! Help!

Something smells fishy…

My powers are…gone!!

I can’t find my lasso! Have you seen it?

I want my money back!!

Let’s run away! We’ll go on an adventure! Right now!

Fairies keep stealing my socks!

The princess demands your attendance at her birthday party.


Problem Prompts a. Imagine you and your best friend get trapped in your closet. What do you do? b. Imagine you discover that you can fly. Who do you tell? c. Imagine you are in a mad science lab. What do you create? d. Imagine your parents disappear. What do you do? e. Imagine you are trapped in a dungeon. How do you get out? f. Imagine you become a superhero! What is your power? g. Imagine you are in the wild, wild west. What showdown are you thrown into?

a. Are you a cowboy or farmer? Do you have a horse? h. Imagine you live underwater. What kind of creature are you? i. Imagine you are grown up! What is your dream job?

a. Where do you live? j. Imagine you discover a method to time travel.

a. How do you do it? What time era do you go to? Do you go back in time or forward?

k. Imagine you and your family are the last humans in existence. What do you do? a. What happened to other humans?

l. Imagine you discover you have magic powers. How do you use them? a. Do you need a wand or a staff? What do you do with your powers?

m. Imagine you can teleport! Where do you go? Now it’s your turn! How would you go about solving a few of these problem prompts? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________


Make a Puppet! Did you know that you have the materials to make a puppet right in your home? Using recycled items, create your own puppet! Different puppets could be:

êMarionette êSock puppet êRod Puppet

êShadow Puppet êFinger puppet êHand Puppet

Brainstorm some ideas for your materials! Examples: Empty toilet paper roll __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Use this space to sketch ideas for your puppet and how it will move! How will your puppet will come to life? Here are some tips & tricks to keep in mind:

ê Pay close attention to how many syllables are in the word you/your puppet are saying. If you are speaking a two-syllable word, your mouth and your puppet’s mouth will open twice.

ê Make your puppet as “life-like” as possible. Remember eye contact & posture. ê Practice moving! Try making your puppet:

o Walk, hop, skip, jump, slide, climb, fly, point, cough, sneeze

Try out this exercise to practice speaking with your puppet! “Hello, my name is _______. I’m _____ years old. My favorite place to go on vacation is __________ because _______________. I feel _____ today, because I remembered I get to _____! I usually act really ______. Nice talking to you! Bye!”


Choreograph a Dance! Have you ever danced around your living room for fun? Has your backyard ever been your stage to practice your leaps or cartwheels? Congratulations, you probably choreographed your moves and grooves! Choreography is the art and practice of designing movements in a specific order. Creating a dance is easy and fun! To start out, pick 4 words from the list below, and try them in different orders:

Kick Roll Snap Clap Punch

Turn Wave Stomp Leap Jump

Twirl Fall Twist Hop Flick

Glide Bend Crawl Gallop Float

Next, try putting the moves you selected to counts! Typically in music, there are 4 counts or beats per measure, and measures are musically paired. This is why you

might have heard dancer teachers count in sets of 8!

Each dance move you select will correspond with a count, or a few counts.

For example, a dance sequence might be: Counts 1,2 3,4 5,6,7 8

Dance Moves Stomp, Clap Stomp, Clap Bend Hop


Theatre Word Search

G O F N W R E H E A R S A L Q

R Y R O R C H E S T R A P Z M

S U N D E R S T U D Y I D S C

T R A M C U R T A I N S Q C P

A A L R K Q E D A N C E O E E

G D C V Z U S L U J Q B A N L

E G P T P X J B U D Z A U E D

E W P F O D P R A T L C D R I

N O C R A R S E C H D K I Y R

S K O C O V S A T E S S T I E

E Y S Y F P B K I A P T I E C

M K T Q S G S A N T E A O C T

B M U E I J F L G E N G N E O

L M M T N E M E J R T E P Z R

E Y E W G K O G C H T M F H P

WORD BOX: ACTING COSTUMES ORCHESTRA STAGE ACTORS CURTAINS PROPS THEATER AUDITION DANCE REHEARSAL UNDERSTUDY BACKSTAGE DIRECTOR SCENERY BREAKALEG ENSEMBLE SING


MSU Spartan Coloring Page


Game Ideas -Name Game/ TODD!: Ask the group to come up with a word to describe themselves and to create a movement. For example: “Crazy Chris” as he jumps up and down, flailing his arms. Everyone introduces themselves through this word and movement. Eventually, once everyone is introduced, the game is to say your name/word/movement and say someone else’s name/word/movement to pass it along. Once everyone gets a feel for the names in the room, pick one person to be the TODD! or ‘it’ and to stand in the middle of the circle. The TODD! will close their eyes and spin in circles. They will stop, point a finger and someone and then open their eyes and say “TODD!” and slowly move toward the player. The TODD!’s objective is to touch a player’s shoulder. If touched, that player is now the TODD! To pass the TODD! to someone else, the player must say their own name/word/movement and say another player’s name/word/movement. Play until there are two players remaining. *See the Tie Breakers section for suggestions. -What Are You Doing?: Stand in a circle. Choose a player to stand in the middle of the circle and to act out a daily routine (ex: brushing your teeth) Someone from the circle says “What are you doing?” and the person in the middle says something they are NOT doing (“I’m grocery shopping!”) The person in the middle change’s spots with the person who just asked the question, and the new person in the middle acts out grocery shopping and the cycle continues. -Clumps: Start by saying ‘Move about the space!” and players will walk around the room. Call out different Clump numbers. Example: “Clump of 3!” and players must make a group with three people. Anyone not in a group is considered ‘out.’ Play until there are two players left. *See the Tie Breakers section for suggestions. -Lifeboats: Counselors call out “Get together with people who share the same ____.” and chooses a random trait. Example: favorite fruit, color hair, school, etc. The players will call out their answer and have to group together and find people with the same answers. Once all players have found their matches, go around the room and each group reveal their answer together.


-Ships and Sailors: A fun variation of ‘Simon Says.’ The person ‘it’ or the captain starts the game by saying, “Ahoy sailors!” and the other plays respond with “Ahoy captain!” The captain proceeds to say, “Captain says ________”and adds in a stage direction (stage right, stage left, upstage, downstage) and the sailors follow the directions. If the captain does not say “Captain says” the players are out. As the players become more comfortable, other rules can be added in like “Captain says”:

-Mermaids: flop on the guard, sing, and pretend to have hair, a tail, etc. -Whales: flop on the ground and make whale noises -Dolphins: run around and skip with a fin on your head

**NOTE: This type of activity can also be adapted to learn the five feet positions in ballet. -Four Corners: Assign a number to each corner, players go around the room and pick a corner to stand in, someone who is picked to be ‘it’ calls out a number of a corner, if players are standing in the corner called, they are out. Play until there is one player left, they become the next caller. -Night at the Museum: Choose someone to be the ‘it’ or the guard, everyone else runs to various spots of the room and strikes a pose (as if they are exhibits/statues of a museum). The guard walks around and attempts to see the statues move. If the guard does see the statues move, they are out. Statues must keep moving, they cannot just sit still the entire round. The last statue left becomes the next guard. -Where’s My Chicken?: Choose someone to be the ‘it’ or the guard and give them one of your shoes. The shoe acts as the guard’s chicken. The guard will go to the opposite of the side with the shoe. They will place the shoe behind them and face away from the group. The group’s objective is to get close to the guard/chicken without the guard seeing them move. As the guard says, “where’s my chicken?” the group slowly moves closer to the guard, attempting to not be seen moving. When the group is close enough, they’ll work together to grab the shoe and hide it from view from the guard, making the guard guess who has the shoe. If the guard guesses correctly, the shoe goes back to the guard, the person who stole it goes back to the start, but the group stays where they are. If the guard guesses incorrectly, the group works together to attempt to get the shoe back to the start.


-Dance Party/Freeze Dance: Play music and let the campers dance. Stop and start the music, so when the music is off, they have to freeze. If they fall out of a pose or keep dancing, they would be ‘out.’ Add in fun rules! Example: Dance like you are underwater! Tie Breakers: -Veggie off: If there are two players left in a game, you might use a veggie off to determine a winner for the next game. Count down from 3…2…1… and state a veggie for the players to manifest in their bodies. Choose the vegetable depiction you think is the most creative.

Example: “3…2…1… carrot!!!” Child 1 lays down on the ground with their hands at their sides. Child 2 stays standing and creates a stem with their arms above their head. You might choose Child 2 as the winner for remembering to create the stem.

Picture Credit: Stock Illustration Kids by Robert Kneschke Clipart Stage blank Pinecrest Players Theatre Costume Design Templates Spartan Head <a href="https://www.clipart.email/">clipart.email</a>

summer circle theatre playwright’s workbook...once upon a time in a kingdom, not so ... different...

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