Pamela M. Price
Objective:
To delineate invisible barriers that represent emotional limits that are difficult to define.
Preparation:
An open space.
Draw two 3’ squares on the floor. The squares share one side.
Procedure:
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1. Two students, standing in separate squares, are informed that walls of glass rise from the floor to the ceiling along the perimeter of each square.
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2. Silently they investigate the three outer walls as if they did in fact exist.
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3. Arriving at the shared wall, they must silently find ways to “reach” each other without crossing (and therefore breaking) the glass barrier.
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4. Variations:.
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a. One student becomes a tease.
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b. One student becomes ill, perhaps signalling for help.
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c. One student becomes belligerent.
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d. Dialogue begins (screamed or whispered) that revolves around “touching” or “joining.”
Results:
Through their experimentation, students can learn to express feelings of confinement and security. Again, what they bring to a particular setting or situation determines the interpretation.
Step Three: Role-Playing
Solo: All Who Enter Here
Objective:
To physicalize various emotions while performing a repeated action.
Note: This leads directly to Amanda’s entrance in the cutting.
Preparation:
A classroom door with a clear sightline for the entire group.
Procedure:
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1. One person must prepare to open the door and enter the class. His state of mind must be physicalized in his movements.
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2. The person closes the door, sustaining the mood as he approaches the group.
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3. A simple line (e.g. “I have arrived at last.”) is incorporated and must, through its delivery, fit into the emotional climate.
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4. Discussion: What did the student have to decide about his mood? What specific techniques did he/she use to express that mood in movement? How did the size or weight or sound of the door become a tool?
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5.
Variation
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a. This can become a 2 character exercise by making a group member the focus of the mood. He/she must sense the feeling and answer the initial comment with a suitable response.
Results:
Here, the student begins to realize that his body movements and whatever his body touched send out messages to observers. He will learn to concentrate on what he is feeling in order to determine is that is indeed, what his actions reveal.
Pairs:
Oh Yes You Will!
Objectives:
To develop observation and concentration skills that lead to consistent characterizations. To explore motivations behind 2 characters in conflict by assuming both roles.
Preparation:
An open work space.
A list of suggested conflicts (e.g. dropping out of school; having a baby (parent or child), getting a parttime job (parent or child), smoking pot). Brief written descriptions of characters.
Procedure:
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1. Each pair receives descriptions of a pair of characters (parent vs. child) that are “discussing “their conflict.
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2. Students choose roles, knowing they will do the reverse later.
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3. The pair decides on an action that will continue during the discussion; they also choose to resolve the question or to leave it open.
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4. The scene begins. Students move from an opening with planned dialogue into a spontaneous one (the beginning of an improvisation). They must remain
in character
, both physically and verbally.
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5. Students exchange roles and begin a new dialogue.
Results:
Students actors practice “types” that will aid in preparation for cold readings of plays. They will develop an ease in role-switching. Also, students can explore personal conflicts by tailoring roles they must play to parallel people they know well in their personal lives.
Note: Learn about what they feel. Allow time for a short narrative about why they felt the parents they created were or were not like their real parents. They can also explore what it felt like to defend their parents’ positions once they were forced into their roles.
Step Four: Improvisation
Broken Treasures / Broken Dreams
Objective:
To allow students to experience pleasure over and love for a treasured object and then experience the pain over the loss of that object.
Preparation:
Have an unbreakable dish or cup in the room.
Clear some space.
Procedure:
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1. One student remembers a lost “special” object.
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2. Handling the unbreakable piece provided by the director, the student must talk through a description while “feeling’ the possession.
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3. At some point, the command, “Drop It:” is announced.
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4. The object drops (as a book is slammed down behind the student).
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5. Finally, the student must try to show his loss.
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6. Variation
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a. Include others in the process by allowing them to “share” the joy/or sorrow.
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7. Writing assignment: Each student must compare an emotional (intangible) loss to the loss of a possession.
Result:
Rapid mood shifts help point up the need for quick reactions.
Step Five: Group Improvisation
Mother, Get Off My Back!
Explanation:
This is a highly demanding improv. Base a variation of Jack Preston Held’s “Shadow Conscience”
1
the exercise involves an excellent sense of timing coupled with careful listening skills. Physically, it is demanding as well; the proximity of the students involves control and trust.
Objective:
To understand how our actions are affected by the hidden voices of “conscience” or “super-ego” (the voice of the parent).
Preparation:
Clear a space. Rehearse whispering that is clear but
very quiet
. Allow students to lean into each other until “flinching” stops.
Procedure:
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1. Place students in groups of four.
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2. Direct 2 students to start a dialogue over breaking some rule (e.g. cutting class together, shoplifting as a team, making excuses so both can go out and stay out).
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3. Place these students, seated and facing one another, in the middle of the space.
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4. Direct the remaining two to stand behind each seated figure. They are invisible mothers (or fathers) whose presences are still strong. These parents lean into the seated figures in order to whisper freely without being seen or heard by the opposite pair.
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5. As the dialogue begins, the voices whisper arguments in support of or against the comments of their “children”. The voices endeavor to change the behavior of their seated partners. Remember the voices are
only
heard by the partners. Not even the audience participates.
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6. Meanwhile, the seated figures must be listening to both sources of commentary. He/she may react to both. It gets frustrating.
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7. The dialogue continues until one of the seated members gives in to a voice or makes a decision for the pair.
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8. The parents and children switch roles.
Results:
Clearly, the two in the middle are torn between what they want to do and what they are being told to do. The voice will become more adamant (or possibly surrender) if it senses a loss of or increase in control. The students through writing or discussion, can analyze whether or not the actor voices were more or less capable of altering their lives than the real parental voices that stalk our subconscious minds at all times.
Step Six: Cutting
Welcome to the Menagerie
Objectives
To introduce the conflicts in the characters of Amanda and Laura in Scene II of
The Glass Menagerie2
To learn to quickly respond to changing moods. To develop basic blocking techniques
Preparation:
A cleared work space
A path from the door to the acting space
A table and chair at the center
A handkerchief for Amanda and a cardboard poster are necessary props.
Copies of the cutting (from the beginning of Scene II to the end of Amanda’s long “Crust of humility” speech: “Of course some girls do marry.”)
Procedure:
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1. As teacher-director you must explain to the “ensemble” what this scene is all about. Explain the time frame (perhaps by reading Tom’s opening monologue), Amanda’s career and DAR meeting, Laura’s glass collection, Rubicam’s Business College.
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2. Read with the chosen Amanda and Laura at the beginning, suggesting possible ways to approach the part.
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3. Have Laura practice her limp; Amanda must practice “gentility” and gesticulation.
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4. Let the pair work on (improvise) movement patterns for the scene.
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5. Find lines that trigger major changes. Your students must physicalize these changes for their audience.
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6. During these steps, discuss exactly what emotions are at work-and why your knowledge of the play can help your actors link their characters to their own feelings.
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7. Rehearse the scene in front of the group. The teacher-director determines how often Then do it without stopping. Your students are “on.”
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8. Afterwards, the actors write about why they feel they did or did not become the characters of Amanda and Laura. Also, the group can discuss, in writing, whether or not this particular mother/daughter conflict has any parallels in their lives.
Results:
Hopefully, your selection of students/actors was a compatible meshing of types as well as abilities. With or without obvious similarities between actors and characters, students will find it necessary to explore their own emotional flexibility, They will also grow to understand why all the preliminary exercises have made the last step in the process not only easier, but more meaningful and enjoyable as well.