Drama Connections

Drama/Theatre is total arts and academics integration.  It happens so naturally that we often don't realize just how much is being learned in so many differnt subject areas when we do theatre.  Following are lists of integration points in various academic and oher arts areas.  I'm sure you could add more to the lists.

Language Arts:

1.  Who/What/Where = Characters/Plot/Setting

2.  Beginning/Middle/End = plot or story construction

3.  Monologue = first person narrative

4.  Dialogue = narrative shared between (or among) two or more characters.

5.  Standard American English = dialect-free use of language based upon American English standards.

6.  Dialects = speech shaped by regional or cultural influences.

Science

1.  Effective ensemble acting is based upon "chemical" reactions among the characters.  An effective theatre company is one in which the chemistry of the personalities produces positive results.  Bad chemistry is indicated by repeated blow-ups among cast, crew and production staff.

2.  Acting classes and rehearsals are "laboratories" in which we can experiment with voice and body to find the truth of each character.

3.  Physical acting is based upon the idea that body and mind are not separate entities.  The body's tensions reflect each individual's particular tensions, drives and emotional states of being.  Physiology and brain chemistry are areas an actor needs to know and keep up on the latest research.

4.  Correct voice production is achieved through an understanding of anatomy and the production of sound via breath playing over the vocal cords and shaped by the articulating speech organs (tongue, teeth, lips, cheeks, nose and throat).

Social Studies

1.  Period Play = a play written to portray any time period other than the present.

2.  Status = a character's position in relation to other characters.  It is based upon economic, social and personality conditions.

3.  Historical drama = plays written to examine a particular historical era.

4. Non-traditional casting = casting actors without regard to race, gender or culture.

5.  Living Newspaper = dramatization of current events

Mathematics

1.  Staging or "blocking" is often delivered in terms of geometric patterns:  Form a semicircle around an object or person; "turn-out" or "cheat" = a 45 degree angle in relationship to the audience; nose-to-nose or face-to-face = 95 degree angle to audience; back to audience = 180 degrees away from audience.

2.  A pause is a timed moment of silence. Often timed by an actual soundless count in the actor's mind.

3.  Counting lines.  All actors count up their lines upon receiving a script. The more lines, the happier they are!

4.  Running time = the length of time a performance takes.  A director times each rehearsal, with an optimum running time in mind.

5.  Budgeting a production.  The estimated costs for putting on a show, broken down by production areas (salaries, sets, royalties, promotion, costumes and props, etc.)  A show "breaks even" when revenues equal expenses.  A box office failure is a show that fails to achieve its revenue goals from ticket sales.  Boffo box office indicates a heavy demand for tickets.

6.  Don't give up your day job = the sad fact of supply and demand in the acting profession.

Visual Art

1.  Proscenium Arch = the picture frame architectural feature that serves as a frame or focusing device around the stage picture.

2.  Stage picture =  a major responsibility of the director and the scene designer.  The stage picture is both kinetic and 3-Dimensional.  Directors and designers must pay attention to focus, balance, perspective, foreground and background, planes, angles, relationships between objects and people (over-lapping and distance), color and texture.

3.  Upstage = stage area farthest away from the audience (background).

4.  Downstage = stage area closest to audience (foreground).

5.  Stage Right = left side of stage picture from the viewer's perspective.

6.  Stage Left = right side of stage picture from the viewer's perspective.

7.  Box set = an interior set that uses flats to create walls.  The fourth wall of the box is invisible to the audience and allows them to peer in to the action.

8.  Expressionistic set = a set that uses fragments of objects to indicate a particular place.

9.  Wing and drop set = use of painted side panels and back-drops to indicate setting.

10.  Flexible setting = usually a one unit set that can become any particular setting needed through simple additions of lighting changes or set pieces (a bench, a lamppost, etc.)

11.  Environmental staging = using the environment as a theatrical setting.  A play performed in a beauty shop, a living room, a forest, etc.

12.  Simultaneous staging = a setting that can encompass a variety of scenes played at the same time.

Music/Dance

1.  Pace = Tempo.  Pace is not measured in terms of actual time, but rather in psychological time.  Picking up cues faster can increase a sense of urgency.

2.  Musicality = in speech, the opposite of monotone.  Using a variety of pitches.

3.  Orchestra pit = the area, usually in front of the stage, in which the musicians play during a musical.  From the Greek theatre term that originally meant "dancing place." 

4.  Warming up/Tuning Up = Just as musicians and dancers prepare their instruments before performance, actors use body and voice exercises prior to going on stage.

5.  Rhythm = the tempo of the scene or of the individual actor during an action or series of actions.

6.  Choreograph a Scene = the director charts or "blocks" exacts movements for each actor, useful for crowd scenes and in musical theatre.