ORC Lesson Plan

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/education/plan_producers_overview.html

This lesson is aimed at grades 9-12 in Theater. Students will be expected to do research into musical theater and develope an interest in the professional life of Mel Brooks. Accomplishing this lesson will require students to research Mel Brooks, varying aspects of technical theater. Grades will be figured as the students turn in one of three final projects.  The projects will consist of a written and performed skit, or a scenic design, lighting design, or a costume design.

This lesson aligns with several strands of the Ohio Common Core Standards for Theater or Drama.
These Strands include:

The us of skills from other disciplines is addressed be the reading of the show as well as the writing of the skit. Standard 2p is addressed by the fact that a group of students have to work together in order to come up with a unified script for the skit. The final standard 2pr from  tier 4 requires the collaboration among students so they may come up with a unified and cohesive design for a show they have written. I believe that this assignment would be very engaging to most students.

The implementation of this lesson in class will involve showing the students a video presentation of a Broadway musical. This requires a screen and either a computer able to play a DVD or a DVD player attached to a projector. One of the challenges would be the permission slips that would be required in order for students to see The Producers.  I would also need to check out a laptop cart or an ipad cart for the students to be able to do the research for writing the script as well as doing the scene, lighting, costume designs. Over all I believe that this lesson would be engaging and enticing to the students.