Pamela M. Price
Explanation:
Here is a series of independent activities follow the complete six-step sequence of the unit. Each exercise has been designed to lead up to the various conflicts expressed in or actions necessary to a particular cutting. (If we really know a play, we can reverse the steps in order to devise a logical order for the material.),
Step One: Warm Ups
Reach Up-Reach In
Objective:
To get every muscle flexing and moving.
Preparation:
Move all furniture to the far corners of the room.
Procedure:
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1. Form a line with at least a foot between each student.
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2. Direct students to reach to the sky (e.g. “You are a TALL OAK, reaching for the sunlight.”)
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3. After a moment, have them shrink down and fold into themselves (e.g. “You are a frightened turtle.”)
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4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 several times.
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5. Stop and allow students to write about analogous emotional situations.
Results:
Conditioned bodies; awareness of space; a link
between feelings and physicalization.
Step Two: Theatre Games
Magnets
Objectives:
To establish a group process where strengths, weaknesses and differences are identified and incorporated into an “ensemble” structure.
To develop concentration skills in order to make students conscious of a need for “believability.”
Preparation:
Clear the room. Remind yourself and your students that you are working on concentration skills:
Procedure:
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1. Two students face each other from a distance of four feet. They are magnets, their outstretched arms are the poles
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2. The leader (at) first, the teacher-director) vocally directs them to move inward, reminding them that, with each step, their forces of attraction and repulsion begin to work. The leader keeps them from getting too close.
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3. After several attraction/repulsion near-misses, the magnets lock, symbolized by entwined fingers.
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4.
Variations:
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a. Make one magnet stronger, pulling on its partner who can only partially resist.
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b. Introduce 1 or 2 people to pull on equal-strength magnets.
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c. Introduce 1 or more students to act as metallic enticements that lure the magnets from their main forces.
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d. Designate 1 student as a non-metallic object (but do not tell the magnets) and have them try to attract it.
Results:
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1. Students will use similar movements to both attract and repel. Have them discuss how they felt about things they could or could not control.
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2. Learn from what they do. Give them time to recall and write about an experience where they felt pulled toward or repelled by someone or something at one in the same time.
