September 15th through October 15th has been designated as National Hispanic Heritage month.  Join us in celebrating with these lesson plan ideas for the theatre classroom. 

RESEARCH AND PERFORMANCE RESOURCES

National Hispanic Heritage Month
This site curated by the Library of Congress celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month to recognize the achievements and contributions of Hispanic American champions who have inspired others to achieve success.  The site includes documents, exhibits, films, blog posts and more from the National Archives and Presidential Libraries that highlight Hispanic culture.

Lesson plan nugget: Characterization
Explore documents and first person interviews at this Library of Congress site to inspire monologue creation and character study.

Smithsonian Latino Center
Beautifully curated site includes online exhibits and videos as well as bi-lingual resources.

Lesson plan nugget: Devising
Explore a mural from the DC Latino Street Murals exhibit, then recreate it as a frozen picture.  Bring the image to life as a living tableaux by devising given circumstances and dialogue inspired by the image. 

Latinx Playwrights and Scripts
10 Contemporary Latinx playwrights are featured on this Arts Boston site. 

Lesson plan nugget:  Script Analysis
Stage a reading of a scene from one of the featured plays and ask the students to analyze the scene for characters, objective, motivation, actions and scene structure.

Latinx Stories for Playmaking
List of Latinx books perfect for playmaking. 
Lesson plan nugget:  Storydrama - Choose a story from the list and adapt the creative dramatics techniques from this Storydrama lesson plan to the environment of the story. 

Short Films Detailing the Latino Experience
This PBS site features several high quality short films- perfect for the film study student

Lesson plan nugget:  Critical Response
Conduct a class watch party for one of these short films, then ask the students to write a critique. 

“Bringing Human Rights and Social Justice Into the Classroom” is an on demand webinar you won't want to miss, that celebrates real world heroes by bringing their words to life as dramatic performances. Learn simple proven techniques to inspire your students by using famous speeches to create inspiring monologue performance.  

In honor of National Hispanic Heritage month, try Sonia Sotomayor’s 2002 speech at Berkley School of Law or ANNA MARIA CHÁVEZ's speech as the incoming CEO of the Girl Scouts.