January 26, 2015 - January 30, 2015 Weekly Agenda

Monday, January 26th:

Theatre exercises and theatre games

Period 5:

“Flocking”:

Group  of four form a diamond. Music plays. The person at the downstage side of the point begins a repetitive movement which the other people in the diamond follow.  As the diamond rotates stage right or left, the person who is now at the tip of the diamond subtlely changes the movement which the other people in the diamond follow.  The trick is to make the change fluid and subtle so the transition to a new movement is not jarring.

Everyone finished the audition technique assignment: Poetry.

A Capella singing. The class is divided into two groups – female and male – and each group sings a harmonizing round with movement.

Everyone participated!

Tuesday, January 27th:

Theatre exercises and theatre games
 

Alex ran class

Kids create a song: the song must have a subject; for example: pirates or birds, etc.

Five kids in a group

One kid lays down the beat; another lays down the rhythm, another lays down a melody, another lays some harmony, another lays down some lyrics.

The Machine:  One kid makes a motion with a noise, another runs up and adds something to the machine with an accompanying noise; another kid runs up and adds another movement with  a noise, thus building the machine.

Work on scenes and monologues for the Twelfth Night auditions

Wednesday, January 28th:

Theatre exercises and theatre games

“What are You Doing?”

Stanislavski’s Objectless Acting

Discussion

Importance of imagination

“I Believe”

1.     Draw a circle with “I believe in” and lines radiating from the circle where you write your  core beliefs.

2.     Choose three of the most important  core beliefs. Write each core belief on a blank sheet of paper and do a quick write about that core belief.

3.      Choose the freewrite that is the MOST important to you right now. 

Read it a few times.

Rewrite it to make it better.

You can change its form.

You can turn it into whatever you wish.

It can be a poem.

It can be a rap.

It can be a song, or a political speech, or a short story.

It can be whatever you want.

Use your own style and write from the heart.

Be honest.

Tell the truth about what you think, how you feel, and what you BELIEVE

 

Thursday, January 29th:

Theatre exercises and theatre games

Alex showed excerpt from “Jaws”: Dreyfuss at beginning of movie when he is describing a dismembered body of a swimmer and the other scene when he is pulling items from a dead shark’s belly.

Questions:

What acting tools did Dryfuss use to create a believable scene of looking at and describing a dismembered body?

Discussion

Stand up and share what you wrote with someone you have not spoken to today.

Get in circle and share.

Reread what you wrote in “I Believe”.  Sit back to back with another student and whisper what you wrote in “I Believe”. Then mill and seethe, filling in the negative space.  Stop and share what you wrote with another student. 

At the end of class, to get in a positive space, get in circle and share with someone standing next to you something that you like; for example, I like chocolate. 

Friday, January 30th:

Theatre exercises and theatre games

Passed out sides for the auditions for Twelfth Night.

Theatre Games:

Triangle

New Game:

“A Gift For You!”

To teach openness, acceptance and imagination

Everyone stands in a circle. One actor turns to another and says, “I know you like_____________, so I gave you this”, and hand to the other actor an imaginary box. The other actor says, “Thank you! Oh, I love this! It’s a _______________” and the student makes up something, which kicks off a short improv. After a few moments, the actors move to other actors to repeat the improv.

Passed out sides for Twelfth Night.

January 19, 2015 - January 23, 2015 Weekly Agenda for Acting Class

Monday, January 19th:

No school today to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King

Tuesday, January 20th:

Prep for auditions for Twelfth Night

“I am, I feel, I want!”

Students stand in a circle. Someone steps into the circle and says, “I am_______”, accompanied with a gesture, which everyone mimics while saying the last word of the phrase, “I am ­­­­­­ ________!” The student then says, “I feel_______!” accompanied by a gesture, which everyone mimics while saying the last word of the phrase, “I feel________!” The student then says, “I want________!” accompanied by a gesture, which everyone mimics while saying the last word of the phrase, “I want_________!”

Second part of this exercise:

The actor walks onto the stage and says, “I am_______! I feel_________! I want_________! “ The audience writes down two adjectives describing you and two adverbs describing how you walked on to the stage, how you spoke or how you acted: for example, “She walked on to the stage quickly.”

The audience then shares their impression of you.

Redo: For those who are not satisfied with the audience’s impression of them, they may incorporate the adjustments and redo their “I am, I want, I need.”

Wednesday, January 21st:

Theatre Games
Prep for the Auditions
Very short poems are handed to actors
Actors memorize the short poems
Then walk on stage, introduce themselves and share the poem.

Thursday, January 22nd:

Theatre Games
Prep for the Auditions

Warm-up Exercise:

Five people are on stage. Three people must be standing and two may be sitting at any time, but no one can just stand or sit. They have to change their positions from standing to sitting or sitting to standing at various times.  The actors must stare straight ahead with far focus and cannot look at each other or speak. When the impulse to change position occurs, the actor should act on it, but be aware of it and get in sync with the other actors.  This develops intuitive connection with each other.

Tweak on yesterday’s assignment. When one is speaking or sharing one of the following poems, one must have a perspective. Who are you talking to and why. What do you want to do? Comfort? Instruct? Command?

Milling and Seething: The actors mill around on stage, trying to fill the negative (empty) space on stage. The director tells them to mill at speed #1 (the slowest) then varies it with different speeds (#10 is the fastest or “seething” like a cauldron). Then the director tells the milling actors to stop, look into the eyes of the closest person and say her poem to that person. Start again, milling and seething, then the director tells them to freeze, and now say the poem with a different perspective to a new person, with a different relationship (speaking to one’s mother, etc.) or objective.  Upon the director’s instructions, the actors begin “milling and seething” again, and when told to halt, the actors now sit back to back with a new person and whisper the poem– as if it were a secret – and try to communicate with her back. Then the actors are to mill and seethe again, and then, break,  stand apart and at a distance, try to communicate the poem with a loud voice.

Now, each actor enters the stage separately, introduces themselves and shares the poem with the audience:

Hope

Hope is the thing with feather  That perches in the soul  And sings the tune without the words. And never stops at all.  Emily Dickinson

Life

I celebrate myself , and sing myself. And I assume you shall assume.  For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.  Walt Whitman

Poet

Poet

Write no more about the moon.

Better to be silent

In your yard

And watch it rise.  Rich Accetta-Evans

Because I could not stop for Death,

He kindly stopped for me;

The carriage held but just ourselves

And Immortality.  Emily Dickinson

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.  Robert Frost

Kona – “Poet”

Berlin – “Poet”

Anton – “Hope”

Friday, January 23rd:

Theatre Games
Prep for the Auditions

January 12, 2015 - January 16, 2015 Weekly Agenda for Intermediate

Monday, January 12th: 

Enroll students

Pass out class syllabus

Improv games!

Tuesday,  January 13th: 

Theatre games and improvs!

Wednesday, January 14th:

Theatre games and improvs!

The Entrance Game

Thursday, January 15th: 

Theatre games: 

"Pass the Clap"

Rumor Has It: 

The game begins with one actor saying  to another "rumor has it" and  makes up a rumor. The other actor takes the rumor and adds to it. The rumor continues around the circle.

Oil Spill: 

The actors clap as they say zoom, until someone says "brake" or makes a braking sound, then the clap goes in a different direction. When someone says 'oil spill" everyone runs and changes places in the circle.

Translations: 

A situation is given and actors are assigned roles and narrators are assigned to the actors who act out the things the narrators are saying.

Gibberish: 

Non-English speaking alien speaks and narrator translates. 

The Entrance Game: 

A woman goes to a restaurant and sees her boyfriend with another woman. 

Friday, January 16th: 

Theatre games: 

"This is a Duck" 

This teaches timing, concentration and listening. 

A student In a circle passes an object to the person to her left,  and says, "This is a duck." The second student asks, "A what?" The first student replies, "A duck!" The second student asks again, "A what?" First student, "A duck!" The second student replies with,  "Oh, a duck!"  And then the second student turns to the next student to her left and repeats it until it goes around the circle.

Then another one syllable object is added and goes around the circle along with the original object. More objects are added and go around with the other objects.

"Yes, May I?"

This teaches concentration, focus, and cooperation. 

Students stand in a circle. A student makes eye contact with another student on the opposite side of the circle and asks, "May I?" The second student replies, "Yes!" And then immediately turns to another student and asks, "May I?" The second student does not move until the third student says, "Yes!" When she receives permission she moves to the third person's position. The second student must leave before the first person arrives to take her place. 

To make it more difficult, the students do not say, "May I?' but make the request nonverbally, with eye contact and pointing only. If the student moves without getting permission first, or is still standing in her position when another student arrives to take her place, then the student must go into the "moshpit of shame"! 

Living Statues

"Telling a Story by Tableaux" 

This teaches concentration, creativity, cooperation, 

Black out - audience's eyes closed

Lights up - audience's eyes open

Telling a story by tableaux

The students break into groups of three to create a story by using three connected tableaux. Each tableau, or frozen scene, should tell a story or a situation. All three actors do not have to be in every "scene" or tableau.  Each tableau or scene should be connected to the previous tableau/scene and the third and final tableau/scene should be the climax or brings the story to a close. The final tableau/scene can be funny, ironic or sad. 

Actors create a story with 3 tableaux:

One actor says, "Blackout!" and the audience closes eyes

The actors assume the first tableau

The actor says,"Lights up!"

Audience sees the first tableau

The actor says, "Blackout!" and the audience closes eyes

The actors assume the second tableau

The Actor says, "Lights up!" and the audience opens eyes.

Repeat