Sample lesson plan: “Ulysses”
Improvisations to establish the life of the character
Objectives:
Attention is directed toward the character’s life. The actor prepares for the first entrance on stage. The entrance should come from a past, into the present, with a future in view. The actor needs to focus concentration on specific imaginary circumstances before making the first entrance, keeping in mind three steps of preparation:
1. What did I just do?
2. What am I doing right now?
3. What is the first thing I want?
Materials:
Any objects, costume pieces, or sensory behavior that will help the actor to believe more fully in his or her character.
Description:
When making an entrance the actor needs to come in with the expectancy of the character’s life, encountering what actually moves in on the actor. The problems the character meets with should compel the actor to fulfill the character’s need through the character’s action. For example:
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1. (Offstage) The actor gives attention to an item of character clothing. Perhaps Ulysses examines his footwear after having stubbed his toe on a jagged rock.
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2. Standing alone, the actor rubs his toe, remembering how it feels to have stubbed his toe. After concentrating on this specific sensory task, the actor picks up the character’s primitive walking stick and makes the first entrance.
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3. The actor/character comes on stage with particular focus on how he walks with a painful toe and the walking stick. He moves through the place paying close attention to the rocks and crags of his specific imaginary seacoast. Ulysses beckons to the men who have been working to set sail for the voyage Ulysses speaks of in the monologue poem.
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4.Actors will set up a very specific place for an offstage character improvisation. In this place will be Ulysses, Penelope, and Telemachus having their Sunday dinner. Their servants will be there with food. It is very valuable to add food to improvisations, because it gives the actors something particularly enjoyable to do. Discovering how a character eats can unlock many doors for the actors.
Final Rehearsal:
Actor performs the monologue poem having chosen what costumes and objects are needed. The final rehearsals for each of the sample lesson plans may be somewhat alike, the difference being the individual character portrayals.
