How did you feel at first? How did they look? What happened when they were given something to do? How did they look? How did you feel? Try to elicit—when you concentrate on doing something, you do not appear restless and indeed you are not.
DAYS 2-10
Continue doing sensory awareness exercises as outlined previously in this unit or obtained from sources listed in the bibliography. It is important that some type of exercise be utilized each day.
DAY 11
Materials
Play Structure Sheets, Script of THE SWISS CHALET (or any play the teacher chooses)
Introduction
Explain to students that for the past few weeks we have been working on exercises which will help us improve our concentration. Many of these same exercises are used by actors and actresses to help them learn how to create a believable character and to react to others. Since we are doing some of the same things as drama students, this will be a good time for us to talk about plays and drama.
How many of you have enjoyed reading plays aloud in reading class? Can someone tell us what a play is? How can we compare a story and a play? How many of you have ever seen a theatrical performance? (Try to elicit from them the definition given on the worksheet titled “Play Structure”). (DO NOT pass out sheets until you have discussed all terms with the students).
Before a play or a television show becomes a reality, before you see it, it is the same as what I am going to pass out to you now. (pass out scripts of the mystery play, “
The Swiss Chalet
”, which have been prepared before). It is a lot of words on a page. It is the responsibility of many people to bring these words (the script) to life for you, the audience, to laugh, cry and respond to.
A key person in achieving this goal is the director (put the word on board). What is the root word of this word? Direct is correct.
Now, what does direct mean? What part of speech is it? When you direct someone you point them in a way to go. That is one role of the director; he helps guide the actors on the stage. He is also the individual who has the overall say on all artistic matters regarding the production. All others involved must consult with the director and he most often has the final decision.
The first thing a director must do when he gets the script is to read it. So tonight, I would like you to read your script. As you are reading, try to visualize the play in your mind. How would the characters react? How would they look and move? Think about seeing the various colors of the clothes and in the room. What is the scenery like? What is the placement of the furniture?
Most important—do not forget to bring your scripts to class tomorrow.
DAY 12
Preparation: terms from play structure sheet listed on board
Review quickly some of the material covered the day before.
Ask students to take out scripts. Explain that the first time a director reads the play, he reads it for interest—to see if he likes it? How many of you enjoyed this play? Why or why not?
The second time he reads it, he will be looking for different things. One of those things is structure. Can someone tell us what structure is? (Try to get close enough answer). It is the foundation on which one builds. A building must have a structure and plays have a structure. That structure is not always the same for each play. However, each may have all or some of the terms we are going to discuss.
Refer to terms on board. Have students decode the words and try using prefixes, suffixes and root to get the meaning of words. Then explain each term. After the explanation of terms, pass out the play structure sheets and read through together the definitions as given on the sheet.
We are now going to read the play again. Thinking about the structure.
We will read it together.
