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Bring Broadway Into Your Classroom!
Designed for immediate use in middle and high school classrooms, these lessons -- which adhere to national learning standards -- contain comprehensive instructions for classroom implementation, downloadable student handouts, links to relevant and dynamic online resources, and suggestions for cross-curricular extensions. Feel free to adapt the lesson plans to meet your students' needs and your own curricular goals.
From Page to Stage
Grade Level: 8-10
Subject Area: English/Language Arts, Theater
Overview: Musical theater book writers, lyricists, and composers have long looked to literature for their inspiration and subject material. In this lesson, students will compare and contrast literary works and the musicals they inspired. Utilizing video clips and Web sites, students will compare specific passages from original texts to moments in Broadway musicals on which they were based, and analyze similarities and differences between the two. As a culminating activity, students will try their hand at adapting and performing a nondramatic narrative, either as a straight play or as a musical number.
"We'd Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover"
Grade Level: 9-11
Subject Area: Social Studies/History, Theater
Overview: Since the advent of book musicals such as "Show Boat" and "Oklahoma!", many Broadway shows have touched upon relevant social and historical issues. In this lesson, students will investigate how Broadway musicals can reflect the times in which they were created. Students will examine video clips and Web sites related to relevant productions, study song lyrics, and compare and contrast actual history with Broadway history. By becoming "historical detectives," they will determine how accurately Broadway portrays different historical figures, time periods, or incidents. As a culminating activity, students will compose and perform a sample song based on a contemporary or historical person or incident, utilizing their research and understanding from the lesson.
"Hey, Mr. Producer!"
Grade Level: 9-12
Subject Area: Economics, Theater
Overview: It's not that uncommon for secondary school students to study the ups and downs of the stock market, but in this lesson, students will examine the economic roller coaster involved in the production of a Broadway musical. As an introduction to the lesson, students will read a series of online articles to investigate the similarities and differences between nonprofit theater production and Broadway, or commercial, theater production. They will view excerpts from the PBS series BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL to determine how the costs of producing on Broadway have changed over time, and to understand the economic gamble involved in the production of a contemporary musical. As a culmination of the lesson, students will write a persuasive letter describing the benefits and pitfalls of investing in either nonprofit or commercial theater.
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photo credits: Martha Swope
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