High School Drama Sub Plans, Emergency Sub Binder, Grades 9-12, 9 No Prep Activities

Your sub has never been backstage? This drama day runs from the page. These high school drama sub plans are emergency sub plans for grades 9-12: one full no prep day of theater review, all written work with little or no acting. Your students get both individual work and team tasks: 3 activities they do on their own (a quiet reading with a stage lighting history article and a short props story, a drama notes detective sheet and a practice menu) and 6 with others (a partner check, a rehearsal calendar project in pairs or threes, a puzzle tournament and a stage directions logic mystery in teams, a which works better stand-off and an optional quiz game for the whole class). Every activity starts with a Say this to the class box, every student sheet has a star challenge for early finishers, and every answer is in the key, so the sub needs no drama background. No prep and no tech for you: print it once and keep it ready.

Perfect For

• A sudden sick day: emergency sub plans that are ready before you need them
• A sub who has never taught drama: the script, the steps and every answer are on the page
• Any high school drama or theater class with a 40 to 55 minute period: run one activity per period, or the same one all day
• Your sub tub or emergency sub folder, printed once for the whole year
• Your own no prep day, a review day before a test, or a planned absence like a conference or a show night

How It Works

1. Print the binder and leave it on your desk. The lesson plan on page 4 is already filled in: every activity with its page, its minutes and three short steps.
2. Each activity starts with a sub script: a Say this to the class box of two or three sentences the sub reads aloud, how to set it up, the timing, and the answer key.
3. Every activity fits one class period (35 to 45 minutes), so the sub can run a different one each period or the same one all day. They all stand alone and review drama the class has met before.
4. It is all written work at the desks. Reading aloud is optional and seated, so there is little or no acting and nobody has to perform.
5. Every student sheet has a core task for everyone and a star challenge for early finishers. The games are optional, a fun way to end a class or to fill extra time.
6. Every answer is in the key, and the open rehearsal calendar comes with a checklist and a worked sample calendar, so the sub can check work or simply collect it for you.

What’s Inside: 36 Pages

• 7 front pages: a binder cover, important information, a note to the substitute, the lesson plan already filled in, a schedule of the day, a class list and dismissal sheet, and a "how it went" sheet for the sub
• Quiet Reading (individual, 45 min): Two short drama readings: how stages got their light, and a props story. Questions and keys. It practices reading about theater: the history of stage lighting, tech week, props, conflict and theme.
• Drama Notes Detective (individual, 40 min): Ten study note cards, each with one false line to find, explain and fix. It practices stage areas, scripts, Greek and Shakespearean theater, acting terms, lighting, calling cues.
• Practice Menu (individual, 45 min): Three sheets to choose from: a secret message from drama terms, a match-up of scene moments and terms, and backstage problems. It practices drama vocabulary, scene moments and the terms they show, and the planning math a stage manager does.
• Partner Check (pairs, 40 min): Partner A and Partner B get different items with the same answers and check each other. It practices stage areas from the actor’s and the audience’s side, and drama terms from a definition or a moment.
• The Rehearsal Calendar (pairs or threes, 40 min): A stage manager’s script breakdown: count French scenes, read a breakdown chart, then build a rehearsal calendar. It practices script breakdown: French scenes, a breakdown chart, and planning rehearsals around the cast’s schedule.
• Drama Puzzle Tournament (teams, 41 min): 24 drama puzzles in three rounds: scrambled stage words, theater jobs and words with two meanings. It practices drama vocabulary, the jobs of a theater company, and the theater meanings of everyday words.
• The Smudged Spike Marks (teams, 40 min): A logic mystery written in stage directions: rebuild the spike-mark chart from the stage manager’s notes. It practices stage areas, stage left and house left, upstage and downstage, reasoning from clues.
• Which Works Better? Stand-Off (whole class, 40 min): Twelve pairs of stage choices: guess which one works, then find the stage reason. It practices stage choices: cheating out, show not tell, playable objectives, focus, costume, light and voice.
• Whiteboard Quiz Game (whole class in teams, optional, 35 min): An optional board quiz game on lights, props, stage areas, scene terms and the crew, all from this binder. It practices a review of this binder’s drama: lighting, props, stage areas, scene terms and the crew’s jobs.
• A sub script for every activity, with the answer keys printed on it or right after it (10 pages), and 19 student pages

Here is a quick look at the binder: