Grade 2 Theatre, Lesson 2

Lesson 2: Tableau (with Improvisation): Objective and Alternate Endings

Who Are You?

Click here to download Grade 2 Theatre Lesson 2 (PDF)

Objectives: Students will use their bodies, faces, and imagination to create group tableaux for a five-element scenario, showing objective and alternative endings.

2A. Warm up:

Students exercise by performing a gesture in response to the teacher’s prompt, making a tableau of the character they are to enact, such as an elephant or a wizard. They have to freeze in that form and frame it.

Grade 2 Theatre Lesson #2: Warm up [06:18 minute Video]

2B. Story Map Homework:

Students go over their story map homework using “Little Red Riding Hood.” They report what the class had prepared and review character, setting, and plot.

Grade 2 Theatre Lesson #2: Story Map Homework [3:28 minute Video]

2C. Vocabulary and Modeling:

The teaching artist leads the students through a discussion and review of the terms audience, improvisation, action, and freeze (tableau). They begin an exercise of listing a character and creating gestures (improvisation) for the character’s occupation, making a tableau that turns into action. After working with some examples, the teaching artists helps the students practice using 4 “stages” of man:  baby, teen, adult, and elderly.

Grade 2 Theatre Lesson #2: Vocabulary and Modeling [12:53 minute Video]

2D. Guided Practice:

The activities in this clip also allude to the rubric used for improvisation in lesson 1.

Some student volunteers show how to improvise a tableau and action for a karate demonstration and a guitar player. The class receives their instructions for their homework.

Grade 2 Theatre Lesson #2: Guided Practice [3:12 minute Video]

2E. Debriefing and Evaluation:

The teaching artist comments on their progress for the lesson.

Grade 2 Theatre Lesson #2: Debriefing and Evaluation [0:43 minute Video]

Easy Access to All Video Lesson Segments:

See playlist for this lesson.