High School Programs

Acting 1: The Actor’s Toolkit

9th – 12th Grade | 60 Minutes per Session | Workshop & Residency

In this introductory class, students learn the fundamentals of acting through energetic theatre games and exercises. We’ll tackle the most important question behind every character: “What’s my objective?” Once we understand what our characters want, we’ll explore the tactics they might use to achieve their goals, and what happens when they run into obstacles along the way. Each workshop or residency experience will be tailored to the grade and experience level of the class.

Devising: Collaborative Storytelling and New Play Development

9th – 12th Grade | 60 Minutes per Session | Residency Only

Devising, or collective creation, is one way that theatre-makers create new stories for our stages. In this residency, SCT Teaching Artists will guide your classroom through ensemble building activities and group improvisation to write a new one-act play. This class can only be taught in a residency of 5+ weeks.

Improvisation

9th – 12th Grade | 60 Minutes per Session | Workshop & Residency

In this fast-paced, creative environment, we’ll learn the fundamentals of improv, beginning with the all-important adage “Yes, and…” From there, we’ll learn how to create stories without scripts or rehearsal using a wide variety of improv techniques, formats, and games.

Sketch Comedy

9th – 12th Grade | 60 Minutes per Session | Workshop & Residency

Bring your best punchlines and hone your humor in this class filled with improvisation, creative exploration, and collaboration. Students work as an ensemble to write, workshop, and present their own original sketch comedy scenes. Live from Seattle, It’s SCT!

Stage Combat

9th – 12th Grade | 60 Minutes per Session | Workshop & Residency

Ever wonder how actors perform a combat scene? In this active, dynamic class, students will explore the ways actors stay safe on stage during fights that make an audience think “That looked so real – I hope they’re okay!” Learn the essential moves and skills for on-stage combat, including convincing falls, slaps, and other fight moves in a safe environment.

Theatre Education

9th – 12th Grade | 60 Minutes per Session | Workshop & Residency

Challenge your students to become the next generation of theatre educators by learning how to develop and instruct their own Story Drama lesson plan for kindergartens. Mentored by one of our Story Drama experts, high school students will focus on a popular children’s book, while learning the ins-and-outs of classroom management, inspiring imaginative play, and creating kinesthetic learning opportunities for their lesson. This residency will culminate with groups instructing their lesson in a kindergarten classroom, followed by a reflective evaluation with our mentoring Teaching Artist.

Conflict Resolution

9th – 12th Grade | 60 Minutes per Session | Workshop Series

Weave theatre and social emotional learning together to practice Conflict Resolution. Your ensemble will rehearse scenarios that require collaboration and Conflict Resolution. Students are empowered to identify the problem and their feelings, stay safe and calm, and communicate effectively as they move towards a solution. This curriculum can be tailored to meet the needs of your classroom, incorporating scenarios on cyber-bullying, exclusion, peer-to-peer disagreements, etc. This is a 3-session workshop series but can be expanded to a 6+ class residency.

Creative Drama for Mental Wellness

9th – 12th Grade | 60 Minutes per Session | Workshop & Residency | Workshop Series

This program is designed to bring students and their teachers together in an immersive learning environment that is brave, active, and community focused. Guided by SCT Teaching Artists, participants engage in creative play to strengthen trust and collaboration, and then focus their energies inward using structured activities that encourage self-reflection. CD4MW bridges theatre education with evidence-based strategies in SEL to help students develop self-awareness and make positive choices in addressing their mental health needs. This is a 2+ workshop series but can be expanded to a 6+ class residency.

Ensemble Building

9th – 12th Grade| 60 Minutes per Session | Workshop & Residency

Theatre is a gateway to a stronger community. Turn your classroom into an ensemble through a myriad of theatre-based exercises that actors use to become a collaborative team. Each activity will focus on important 21st Century Skills: critical thinking, social/emotional learning, empathy, creative problem solving, positive communication, collaboration, and imaginative play. We recommend a residency experience of 5 sessions for optimal student success.

Playwriting: Journey of the Hero

9th – 12th Grade | 60 Minutes per Session | Residency Only

Let’s ignite the power and magic of creativity through the journey of the hero! Students will learn the fundamentals of playwriting: structure, plot, character development, and dialogue through creative exercises that ignite the imagination and explore how these ingredients created everlasting heroes like Frodo, Luke, Katniss, and Indiana Jones. We recommend a residency of 5 sessions for optimal student success.

Poetry for the People

9th – 12th Grade | 60 Minutes per Session | Workshop & Residency

If telling your truth and expressing yourself fills your soul with music, then get ready to explore the art of Spoken Word, a form at the intersection of poetry and hip-hop.
Poets are first and foremost storytellers, who add sleek rhymes and clever intonations to bring their words alive. Students will learn how to craft their own poems and practice performing them for a group of their peers.

Shakespeare Shake Up

9th – 12th Grade | 120 Minutes per Session | Workshop & Residency

Bring Shakespeare to life for your students! ‘All the world’s a stage’ with this immersive workshop experience that combines fun and games with trivia, acting, and collaborative storytelling to deepen knowledge about the Bard. Students explore the play of your choice while combining knowledge about Elizabethan theatre with an opportunity to try fundamental acting skills. Get ready for a highly hilarious time!

The Holocaust and The Diary of Anne Frank

9th – 12th Grade | 60 Minutes per Session | Workshop & Residency

The Diary of Anne Frank is studied world-wide as it documents the sobering true story of eight people living and hiding during Nazi-occupied Holland in World War II, as seen through the eyes of 13-year-old Anne. Her words reach out to us over the generations, inspiring us to never forget, to never give up on the power and goodness of the human spirit, and to always “fill life with living.” This workshop explores these historical events while teaching the importance of empathy, advocacy, and disruption of othering in society. If selecting a residency, we recommend 5 classes for optimal student success. Inspired by the production, The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett.

I Am & We Are

9th – 12th Grade | 90 Minute Session | Workshop Only

Explore interactive arts activities that empower students to reflect on their own identities while celebrating themselves and each other. This workshop is best as a preparatory introduction to engaging in anti-racism and anti-oppression work on an individual and collective level.

My Vote, My Voice

9th – 12th Grade | 90 Minute Session | Workshop Only

Do you know your voter’s rights or about the restrictions in the United States? Come together as a class to discuss voter myths, empower political voice through theatre games, and reflect on how to remain a civically engaged individual. Students will use what they have learned, discussed, and experienced to create short responses in order to debunk common voting myths, and express the importance of voting to their peers.

WWII and the Impact on Japanese Americans

9th – 12th Grade | 60 Minutes per Session | Residency Only

When the U.S. government forced Japanese-American citizens into incarceration camps, many Japanese-Americans faced difficult truths about the idea of home. One young person’s struggle to understand a society allowing mass discrimination against its citizens poses questions as urgent today as they were in the past. This workshop explores these historical events while teaching the importance of empathy, advocacy, and disruption of othering in society. We recommend 3-5 classes for optimal student success. Inspired by Naomi Iizuka’s adaptation of The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559.

Commission a Topic

9th – 12th Grade | 60 Minutes per Session | Workshop & Residency

Don’t see a topic we offer yet? You can commission new workshops that integrate theatre with a subject or unit of your choice. You’ll be paired with our teaching faculty to co-design a kinesthetic and interdisciplinary learning experience tailored to your curriculum needs.