Although I have yet to be in charge of a classroom, I imagine that I will not be administering many quizzes or exams to my students. Theatre is all about creation. How can a multiple-choice question gauge that? "100 Things Students Can Create to Demonstrate What They Know" by Ryan Schaaf is an excellent resource for alternatives to determining competence. Although many of these can already be found in a theatre arts class, such as monologues, dance, and role-playing, there are other options that can push students' communication, creativity, and critical thinking skills even further. For example, I could ask students to devise a comic strip summarizing the events of a play instead of administering an exam. My mentor teacher and I have implemented this idea in our unit on Hamlet through the use of Pixton.com. We've allowed students to create their own unique productions of Hamlet in comic book form. As long as they accurately feature significant plot points, they can set the story in whatever time and place they desire (which is done frequently to Shakespeare's plays). The results have been incredible. Other options, specifically for in-depth character study, could range from curating a fake social media account (specifically Instagram or Twitter) as a character in the play to writing diary (or blog) entries detailing events in the play from their point of view.
