Festival Run Ready

Overview

In this seventeenth lesson of the 18-lesson Contemporary Drama Ensemble Lab, students move from rehearsal into a safe, accessible technical run. Building on previous scene development and production planning, they complete a cue-to-cue, dress and prop check, accessibility review, and low-stakes festival run while student leaders curate the event and distribute production responsibilities.

Learning intentions

Students will:

• Create, rehearse, and refine dramatic work for an intended audience.
• Purposefully use movement, sound, space, props, transitions, and technical cues.
• Apply accessibility, health, safety, and audience-care protocols.
• Give and use constructive feedback to improve an ensemble performance.
• Demonstrate responsibility through performer, audience, production, and leadership roles.

Success criteria

• I can complete my assigned performance or production duty reliably and safely.
• I can use dramatic and technical elements intentionally to support meaning.
• I can identify and respond to accessibility, audience, and emergency needs.
• I can give specific, respectful notes and apply at least one useful adjustment.
• I can explain how our festival choices support belonging and audience access.

Curriculum links

• Explore and create dramatic works through collaborative presentation and performance.
• Purposefully select and combine dramatic elements, conventions, materials, technologies, and processes.
• Develop and refine performance skills while creating work for an intended audience.
• Reason and reflect by describing drama-specific choices, receiving feedback, and refining work.
• Demonstrate personal and social responsibility, including health and safety and the ethics of consent, cultural representation, and public sharing.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–7 min · Safety and festival briefing. Teacher opens with the festival opening question and production goals and reviews the run order, stop signal, emergency procedures, consent boundaries, and the rule that no photographs, recordings, names, or student work are shared publicly without specific permission. Students check their role, collect any required props, and identify the quiet space and available accessibility supports.

2. 7–17 min · Curate and prepare. Teacher assigns student leaders to confirm the running order, transitions, programme notes, acknowledgements, audience guidance, front-of-house, quiet space, caption or transcript/audio-description options, and emergency procedures; distribute the technical run and accessibility audit. Students complete their section of the audit and leaders make a visible running order. Grade 9 students demonstrate readiness and care; Grade 10 students take assigned production duties; Grade 11 students troubleshoot; Grade 12 students coordinate without taking over.

3. 17–29 min · Cue-to-cue and checks. Teacher calls only entrances, exits, lighting or sound cues, transitions, prop changes, and audience-facing instructions, pausing to solve safety or access concerns. Students practise cues at performance pace, check that props and costumes are secure, confirm pathways and sightlines, and test caption/transcript or audio-description arrangements where used.

4. 29–43 min · Low-stakes festival run. Teacher frames the run as a rehearsal rather than a polished public performance and invites a small consenting audience only if appropriate; otherwise, students serve as the in-class festival audience. Students perform in the curated order while production teams manage front-of-house, transitions, quiet-space guidance, accessibility supports, and the agreed stop procedure. Audience members practise respectful attention and record observations without interrupting.

5. 43–53 min · Notes and targeted reset. Teacher facilitates a brief feedback circle using “notice, impact, next step” and checks the audit for unresolved risks. Grade 11 students identify problems and give concise notes; Grade 12 students help the ensemble prioritize solutions; Grade 9 and 10 students report what worked in their assigned roles. Students make one targeted adjustment to a scene, cue, transition, programme note, or audience procedure.

6. 53–60 min · Readiness review and exit reflection. Teacher returns to the final reflection and readiness checklist and asks leaders to confirm what must be completed before the festival. Students submit the completed technical run and accessibility audit and respond orally or in writing: “What did we change today to make the work safer, clearer, or more welcoming?” The class confirms one priority for the final lesson.

Resources

• festival opening, role reminders, cue-to-cue instructions, feedback prompts, and readiness checklist
• technical run and accessibility audit
• Running-order board or projected schedule
• Performance scripts, programme notes, acknowledgements, and cue lists
• Approved props, costume pieces, sound or lighting equipment
• Caption, transcript, or audio-description materials as applicable
• First-aid information, emergency procedures, and accessible quiet-space sign
• Clearly marked performance, audience, backstage, and exit areas

Assessment

• Teacher observes role readiness, safe movement, cue accuracy, collaboration, and respectful audience practice during the cue-to-cue and run.
• The technical run and accessibility audit provides evidence of planning, problem-solving, access awareness, and production responsibility.
• Exit reflection identifies one improvement made and one priority requiring attention before the final festival.

Differentiation

• Provide the audit in digital or printed form, with role-specific sections, checkboxes, visual icons, and sentence starters such as “The audience may need…” and “Our next adjustment is…”.
• Allow students to demonstrate learning through directing, front-of-house, design, technical operation, performance, written notes, or spoken reflection; do not require public performance from students who have not consented.
• Offer rehearsal scripts, cue cards, marked pathways, extra processing time, a quiet observation role, and a buddy for students with anxiety, communication needs, mobility needs, or sensory sensitivities.
• Support EAL learners with plain-language role cards, a visual running order, paired rehearsal, and opportunities to contribute through non-verbal or annotated feedback.
• Extend Grade 12 leadership by requiring delegation, consultation, and a documented rationale for curation decisions; challenge Grade 11 students to propose solutions that preserve artistic intent, access, and safety.