Drama, from the Greek word meaning "action," is the art of acting, whether live onstage in theaters or for the camera. There are many factors that go into the making of a good actor and almost as many methods of teaching acting. A good actor must have the capacity to lie convincingly, for a living, and it is a drama teacher's job is to help them achieve this goal. Learn the methods you can use to teach drama to adult students that will help them achieve their acting goals.
Instructions
1. Inform the class about your background. Embellish. Tell them how you began acting because you lost your parents at a young age and grew up in the foster care system. Tell them that acting was the means by which you escaped from the reality of your life. It was your way of hiding from the pain. You might even make a few of your students cry. Give your students the opportunity to tell the class why they got into acting. At the end of the class, let your students in on a secret. Tell them the story you told was a lie. You were acting. Live demonstration is one of the best drama teaching methods available.
2. Ask your students to create a character. Have them right a one or two page profile on their character that includes a back story, personality quirks, and physical characteristics. Have your students swap their character profiles with other students, give them one night to learn the character, and have the students portray their characters in class for one day.
3. Teach method acting. This is a style of acting in which your students use external situations to create the emotion needed to convey similar emotion in the characters they portray. This should come early in your drama classes. Reinforce the discussion with examples. Have students act out scenes in which they need to apply the method acting approach.
4. Consider taking students on an outing to see a live stage play. Follow the play up with a discussion of the acting seen during the play. Have students choose one of the characters in the play and write a critique of the actor's work. Ask them to give their opinions on the effectiveness of the actor's performance and to be specific about any flaws.
5. Engage your drama students. Instruct them to write, direct, and act in a short play as a final project. The students should work together and each have a role in the play.
