THEATRE PROJECT BASED LEARNING 1

TEL 311 Signature Assignment

Jason White

Arizona State University

THEATRE PROJECT-BASED LEARNING 2

Abstract

I created a project for my theatre students that will allow them to explore multiple

devised theatre techniques as well as theatrical movement techniques. They will apply these

techniques by creating a devised theatre piece that focuses on why the students feel art is

important in modern society. I will bring in multiple guest speakers, who are experts in specific

theatrical forms, to teach the class for the day. The guest speakers will focus on teaching the

students on how to explore the specific method safely on their own. The final project will be a

presentation of their created work to local community members. We chose to present this to the

community so that they can see what is important to the youth of their community and, why the

arts are important to the students.

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Theatre Project-Based Learning

Biography

My name is Jason White. I graduated from ASU in Spring 2020 with a BA in Theatre a

Minor in Communications and a certificate in teaching. While in attendance at ASU I worked as

the Assistant Production Manager, directed 3 shows and Stage Managed 2. My background

focuses in classical and devised work. I have worked with regional theaters such as Southwest

Shakespeare Company and The Bridge Initiative. My philosophy as a theatre teacher is to treat

students as artists. The most important thing an artist can have is an identity. Being able to go

into the professional or the collegiate world with an identity of their own. They will also be able

to know their voice and what they want to say to the world with their voices. I have been using

this philosophy as the head of the program at Mesquite High School for 4 years now. I am also

proud to say that in my time as the head of the program we have made a unique balance of

utilizing technology to the best of our ability, while not being dependent upon it.

Demographics

Mesquite Highschool is located in Gilbert AZ which is a dominantly white city in Arizona. The

graph below was taken greatschools.org.

According to

proximityone.com the diversity

at Mesquite Highschool is

abnormally high. In Gilbert

83% of the entire population is

white. Also statistics of note

are that the average family size is about 4, also about 46% of homes in Gilbert have 2 people
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under the age of 18. The most common occupation for parents is in the Educational services,

health care & social assistance fields. The mean Income of a house hold in Gilbert is $87,344

Which is about $30,00 more than the mean in the phoenix metro area according to datausa.io.

Summary

This project is needed at Mesquite High School because my classroom is full of students

with things to say, but no one respects them enough to either listen to them or give them a

platform to say it. Theatre provides a unique opportunity to give my students a platform to tell

their stories and the room will be full of people that are there to listen to them. Through creating

their own piece, they will get to realize the value of their voice in both an artistic and societal

standing.

Some of the exercises that I would do with my class will utilize for the project will be more

in line as a facilitator. This is their story to tell. I want to introduce them to techniques that they

can use to portray a detail their story and their struggle. I’ll set up exercises that will introduce

them to method or aesthetic. Some of these could extend into having small groups pick specific

styles and presenting them to the class. Then they’d have to incorporate each one into the

performance.

This will impact students learning because they’ll start to develop their own sense of style

and analyze what famous methods were striving to do at their time of conception and how

they’re applicable now. The project will be engaging to the students because they’ll start to work

on what is important to them as an artist. What’s their story and what do they want to say with

their voice. Students in theatre frequently have to preform stories told by someone else. This is a

rare opportunity for the story’s they get to tell to be theirs. This project is immensely important

to students that have been stuck in the same routine for years.
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Project Impact

Student Impact

I have 25 students in my classroom. When we’re discussing who this will affect in a

literal way. The average attendance of a show is about 80-100 people in the audience. I like to

think that things like this work like a rock in a pond. There’s no measurable for the arts. The kids

will carry it for the rest of their lives, and every person they interact with will be touched by it

simply because someone else will. In a very literal way about roughly 280-300 people will be

touched in total. But theatre isn’t literal so measuring it in a literal way is innately absurd.

Teacher Impact

I think this will impact me because I’ll be able to truly understand who the students are

and how they want to use their voice. Being able to connect with my students on a deeper level

like this is an incredible opportunity. It will be challenge to let them take a lead on it but at the

end of the day I understand that this is them finding their voices and there’s no timetable for that.

This project is the first step on a very long road.

Community Impact

I want this to impact the community by showing it what their young people want to say in

this world. We dismiss young kids a lot, and this is why our students are experiencing mental

illnesses more than ever. These kids have it rough, and the arts have always been a good way to

express frustrations with their community, their family and sometimes themselves. The

community needs to understand that it’s harder than ever to be a kid and the only way to do that

is be actually listening to them and their struggles.

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Learning Goals and Outcomes

Guiding questions:

o How did artist before us fight for the arts?

o Has society always looked down on the arts?

o Do other cultures treat the arts the way we do?

o How can the arts alter society?

o How does society affect the arts?

o What can we do that previous generations haven’t done?

 This project will fulfill the standards for the creating, performing and connecting strands.

These three strands are the core of the project along the process we’ll touch on standards in

the responding objectives. With the core of this project being student led we’ll have to touch

on many connecting standards to make sure that the project is actually applicable to their

own lives and lets them utilize their own voices. We cover the creating strand because the

base of the project is creating a piece, whether that be in the writing, or acting of it. Lastly,

they’ll have to give multiple performances in the lead up to their final performance to do

check ups and making sure the piece is going the way the would like. The three of this

combined make the crux of what we want to do with this project for the kids.

21st century application

The kids are growing up with minimal person to person skills. The collaboration that a

project like this requires is primarily in person. The structure of how it organizes a project such

as this is similar to projects in conventional work forces. You organize digitally, using google
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docs, Google drive, team drive etc... Then when you get in person, it’s application time. Use

those digital discussions in the moment right now. Person to person is where the magic happens.

Using technology is an assistant to that human interaction. They’ll also have to use a multitude

of sites to determine what the classes availability is, as a means of organizing rehearsals and

production meetings.

Description of Project-Based Learning Unit Activities

 The dominant learning activities will be intro to art forms/artists and exploring those forms

 Additionally, we will be practicing those forms before they actually utilize it as a means of

exploring for their piece

 The primary means of differentiation will be Think/Pair/Share model

o This will allow people to explore these art forms in groups they feel comfortable

with before they implement things on a class wide scale.

Assessment

The formative assessment that will be utilized in this project will be the frequent use of

exit tickets in class. Additionally, the students will have to keep a journal of the during the

creation process. The final summative assessment will be a reflection paper on how well they

preformed the piece they created.

Technology Support

The primary technology that will be used will be Google Docs, Google Drive and Team

Drive. They will use these various technologies to maintain script info, as well as documenting
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inspiration. The students will also have documentation of their design concepts that the students

would like to use over the course of the project.

No additional support will be needed from the district. Technology in the class room that

will be used, will be free apps that will easily accessed on either phones or on computers. The

school is also a one to one school so access to computers will not be an issue.

Sustaining the Project after the Proposal Period

This project will include the community by having the students have to acquire resources

just like they’d have to do when working in any arts industry. Fundraising is integral to the

funding of any and all arts, particularly non-profit business which is most of arts businesses.

They’ll have to go to local stores like Home Depot, Lowes and Goodwill to get the resources

they need to make the show happen. They also will gain skills of using crowd sourcing websites,

being able to acquire resources is massive help in the modern world. Whether it be in the arts or

otherwise.

Innovation

The lesson will be innovative because it will put the story their telling for the school play

squarely on them. Devised theatre is not frequently taught at the high school level let alone

having a fully funded performance. It even removes the teacher as the director/vision keeper. The

performance is completely their own. If it struggles it’s completely on them. Fully student

designed, created and performed

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Budget Chart & Narrative

Company/
Individual Number
Item Name Company Narrative
Cost Needed
URL

I’ve selected this color a type of

shirt so that we can have a blank

Tan long-sleeve
$9.97 10 Old Navy slate of character. The costume
shirt
isn’t too specific to alter the

meaning of the play they make.

I’ve selected this color a type of

shirt so that we can have a blank

slate of character. The costume

isn’t too specific to alter the

Tan Short-
meaning of the play they make.
$17.00 11 J. Crew
sleeve shirt
I’ve also gotten it sperate from

others to give all people a chance

to feel comfortable in their

costume.
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21 I chose this pant to keep the

(Students likely costume design a blank slate. It’s

Black pants $25.00 Old Navy
already have plain and can be applicable to

pants that work) anything.

Plain Generic shoes that all

Character Boots $18.99 21 Amazon
students will be able to fit into.

Rachel will come in as a guest

Rachel speaker to demo and teach the

Bowditch $50 1 N/A “Moment work” That was

Honorarium developed by the Tectonic

Theatre Project.
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Tracy will come in as a guest

Tracy Liz
speaker to demo and teach the
Miller $75.00 1 N/A
movement theatre methods
Honorarium
developed by Frantic Assembly.

We will need binders to hold the

Binders $2.49 21 Walmart
student’s scripts

500 Sheet Extra printer paper to print the

$3.72 2 Walmart
Printer paper student’s scripts out.
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Budget Narrative

Most of the Expenses listed above are pretty typical for a theatrical production. This

actually comes in cheaper because usually you have to pay for the performance rights to a play,

which can range from anywhere from $80-$120 per performance of the play. Since the students

are creating their own work there won’t be any rights payment which immediately alleviates that

specific financial strain. Since we are saving money in that specific area, I chose to reallocate

those funds into bringing in two guest speakers that will be able to give the students a much

deeper understanding of these other performance methods.

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References

https://www.greatschools.org/arizona/gilbert/981-Mesquite-High-School/#Students

James, C., Cameron, P. D., Smith, Y. N., Hawthorne, H., & Cushing, S., M. (2005). The

sociological theory of people and places. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.