top of page

ACTING IN MUSICALS

Writer's picture: Laurie SwigartLaurie Swigart

by James Venhaus, The Theatre Lesson Plan Exchange


Materials needed: lyrics or libretto from an obscure or less popular musical.


Objective: To teach the importance of acting in the musical theater, and to provide a method of interpreting song lyrics.


Method: This lesson plan evolved as a result of a student who said to me, "I'm going to be in musicals, and I don't have to learn how to act!" In order to emphasize that acting is an essential part of performing in a musical. (as essential as singing or dancing.)


Type out the lyrics from a song from an obscure or lesser known musical. ("Argument" from Chess works well) Preferably a duet with lyrics that don't rhyme, or lyrics that can be "acted" as a scene. Type them in "dialogue style". Assign the scene to the students and DON'T tell the students that they are performing a song. Treat this scene just as you would any acting scene. After the students have rehearsed and performed the scene, then play the song that they unknowingly performed.


This emphasizes that "real" acting must be done even when performing a song. Songs with strong emotional lyrics work well, and I have had students tell me that this "trick" changed their approach to performing musical theatre.

3 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Stage Fright

Objective Students will demonstrate an ability to stand comfortably in front of an audience by participating in group warm-up activities,...

Reality vs. Illusion

How do people create illusion out of harsh reality? You have chosen a tragic event. You have a list of details and individuals. You are...

FACEBOOK CHARACTER PROFILES

Students build Facebook profiles for their characters using information from the text to round out the basic profile, and then update and...

Comments


Laurie Swigart ~ Director, Designer, & Webmaster ~ laurieswigart01@gmail.com

Copyright (c) 1997-2024 Theatre on a Shoestring. All rights reserved.

DISCLAIMER: THEATRE ON A SHOESTRING is not responsible for information, images, or links on related sites. All pages that contain links to other sites do so to assist visitors in finding useful and related material. We are not responsible for other sites' content or links.

 

DISCLAIMER: THEATRE ON A SHOESTRING did not willfully use any copyrighted material for the publication of this website. We apologize for any oversight in the acknowledgement of the copyright of the respective object. The copyright for any material created by THEATRE ON A SHOESTRING is reserved.

bottom of page