Mini musical

Musicals are a unique form of communication. How often do people in real life resolve conflicts through song and dance? When was the last time someone in the staffroom burst into an intricately choreographed musical number? Musicals offer an upbeat and wholesome way to forget your troubles and disappear into the fantastical world of song and dance. There’s something infectious about listening to people sing and dance and act their hearts out. The tunes get stuck in your head and you can sing along.

But musicals can be hard hitting and poignant as well as fun and light, and can address a myriad of issues and themes. Music can be a purer expression of emotion than speech: when the emotion becomes too strong for speech, you sing; when it becomes too strong for song, you dance. Students have the opportunity in this scheme of work to create their own mini-musical, exploring skills in acting, music and dance with a focus on developing character though these three disciplines. They will use the genre to produce an entertaining and explorative piece of theatre.

This scheme is written for the delivery of the unit Musical Theatre Performance (B8), for the course Edexcel BTEC Level 2 Extended Certificate in Performing Arts (Acting) (QCF). The unit may not be suitable for all classes or individual learners and it is up to the tutor to gauge the enthusiasm of every student.

Learning objectives
By the end of this scheme learners will be able to:

• Work as part of a mock professional theatre company
• Plan and organise their devising and rehearsal process
• Use acting skills in performance
• Use dance skills in performance
• Use musical performance skills in performance
• Combine and use all three skills (acting, dance and music) in the performance
• Perform a musical theatre work

Number of lessons: 23