Students will investigate how short plays can capture the messy, joyful reality of holiday traditions by transforming conflict scenarios and a teacher-led tableau into original Winterfest skits. Collaborative teams will use character objectives, tactics, cause-and-effect plotting, dramatic structure, varied pacing, and comparisons of different productions to solve staging problems and communicate multiple perspectives. Through table reads, perceptual feedback, revision, rehearsal, daily reflections, and midpoint and final journals, students will strengthen playwriting, listening, teamwork, and performance confidence with support from Pure Theatre, the Charleston Museum, and the College of Charleston Theatre Department. Final plays and before-and-after drafts will be assessed for character, conflict, structure, pacing, revision, and ensemble collaboration, then performed for peer voting by younger grades, with contest winners presenting at Winterfest.

Students will identify conflict types, character wants, obstacles, and cause-and-effect plot changes, then structure a short holiday play through exposition, inciting incident, crisis, climax, and denouement. They will explore multiple staging choices, character objectives and tactics, and varied pacing to communicate the messy and joyful realities of holiday traditions. Students will compare story elements across productions, use perceptual feedback about what peers saw, heard, and felt to revise dialogue and stage directions, and explain changes between drafts through daily and recorded reflections. They will collaborate with peers and draw on insights from local theatre partners to rehearse and perform an ensemble skit for younger students, with selected plays presented at Winterfest.

Students will create a conflict-sorted holiday scenario, a tableau-and-voice mini scene, and a story map showing character wants, obstacles, cause-and-effect events, and dramatic structure. Teams will research and compare two productions of the same work, then use insights about staging, pacing, objectives, and tactics to draft their own holiday skit. They will produce table-read notes, revised scripts with highlighted feedback-based changes, rehearsal plans, and midpoint and final reflection journals. Each ensemble will perform its polished short play for sixth- and seventh-grade audiences, with contest winners presenting at Winterfest and receiving rubric-based feedback from teachers, peers, and available community theater partners.

Students rotate through a Holiday Conflict Kickoff, sorting festive moments into six conflict types—argument, avoidance, internal conflict, circumstance, confusion, and dilemma—then choosing one to stage as a mini-scene. The teacher presents a brief Winterfest tableau-and-voice demonstration of a holiday mix-up, modeling how character wants, obstacles, pacing, and staging choices shape the action. In small ensembles, students identify what each character wants, map possible cause-and-effect plot changes, and perform two contrasting solutions to the same staging problem. The class closes by considering, “How can a short play capture the honest, messy, and joyful truth of the holiday season?”

Each ensemble will perform its revised holiday skit for sixth- and seventh-grade audiences, who will vote using shared criteria for character, conflict, dramatic structure, pacing, and collaboration. Contest winners will perform at Winterfest, while every ensemble’s script, first-to-final draft highlights, and reflection will be displayed in a playwriting showcase. Invite representatives from Pure Theatre, the Charleston Museum, and the College of Charleston Department of Theatre and Dance to attend as audience members or guest respondents. After each performance, hold a brief talkback where viewers share what they saw, heard, and felt and celebrate the ensembles’ creative staging choices.