Day #7: Finishing Up The Talent Contests and Introducing Scripted Scenes with Partners

On Tuesday 1/26, we started off right with two warm-ups. We repeated the "Shake Down" exercise, mainly because the 5th grade class had not had chance to do it yet, since they were at an assembly on the day I introduced it, and we had to shorten their lesson. Again, the "Shake Down" is counting 1-8, shaking the right arm (shaking once for each number counted) and repeating this with the left arm, then the right leg and then finally the left leg. Then we repeat these steps but only count from 1-7, getting smaller for each round.

Then I introduced the warm-up exercise called "Zip, Zap, Zop". This is a very popular activity in theatre because it helps the students focus, get energized, make eye contact, and synergize with one another. Everyone stands up in a circle and faces inward, just like at the start of "Pass the Clap". Then the person who is chosen to start puts their hands together and sharply points one hand in the direction of another person in the circle (as shown here) and says, "Zip!" That person then does the same thing by pointing to someone else and saying,"Zap!" Then that person does the same thing by pointing to someone else and saying, "Zop!" Then it starts all over, one person at a time, Zip, Zap, Zop, Zip, Zap, Zop, etc. You are out if you say the wrong word or get off the rhythm. (We did not play with the students getting out since they were just learning how to play.) Also, since each class I teach at South Jordan Elementary is 28 students, I taught them how to do the exercise in one big group and we had about 6 people demonstrate, and then I split the circle in half to make two circles and had them start over. Making the groups smaller gives more people a chance and makes it easier to make eye contact and identify if you are being pointed at.

Theatre Vocabulary of the Day: Director, Stage Manager, Actor

Since we have mostly been acting and writing scenes in class, I felt it was a good time to start talking about the other types of jobs people can have in theatre. This is especially important to introduce because some students like theatre but do not like to act; it is good for them to know they can all have very important roles in the theater without being the center stage star every time.

The 3 most obvious roles at this point (minus playwright, which they have all done in some fashion at this point) are the director, stage manager and actor. Theatre simply dos not come together without someone to lead it, someone to organize it, and someone to be IN it. :) These were also very familiar terms to the students. 

 The director is in charge of casting the show, blocking the show (deciding where the actors move) and finalizing all the design elements (hair, make-up, lights, sound, set, etc.) They don't necessarily DO all of those design elements, but they get to decide what stays and what goes. The assistant director assists in this process and can stand in for the director if needed.

The stage manager is the organizational one. They write down all of the blocking, collect contact information, contact the cast, send out rehearsal reports to the production team after each rehearsal, take notes and give cues for all the production elements when the show opens. They make sure everything is ready to go at the top of the show because once a show opens, the director's job is technically done, and the stage manager is now completely in charge of everyone and everything. They instruct the stage hands as to what to do next (what set pieces to bring on or off), and the assistant stage manager (ASM) helps the stage manager out, since together they manage a lot of people.

 The actor performs in the play in various characters. A lead actor plays a main character. A supporting actor acts in a character that supports the lead actor. They are not quite a main character, but a side-kick kind of character that are crucial to the story. The ensemble (which means "together" in French) are the extras, the background characters, such as the chorus in a musical. The understudy fills in for another actor when he or she is sick. A swing actor understudies many roles, ready to swing into action in whatever part is needed on that night.

ACTIVITY: TALENT CONTEST (PT. 2)

Today we finished our talent contest scenes from last time. The 4th graders performed all 7 of their scenes and the 5th graders performed 3 last time, so we watched the final 4 scenes. Here are some images of the exciting scenes, sitting in the theatre in the round formation!

Doing a running contest while the host observes from behind the music stand.

Trying to lift a hippopotamus over her head! The kids noticed how red her face got.
That's called good acting!

Doing host and contestant introductions, using the marker as a microphone.
Her character was a sassy baby!

This group had 5 members so they had two co-hosts! Smart idea!
And it worked out really nicely.

This was one of my favorites: having a scaring contest, seeing how badly they
can scare a random audience member! I love audience participation!

This accompanies the last picture, where the host would pick an audience member
to be scared by a contestant. I loved their enthusiasm and willingness to participate.
Even though on this day, we went 30 minutes over our allowed lesson time,
Mrs. Bailey allowed them to continue to perform until all the scenes were finished
because of how engaged the students were. This made me smile!

This as another baby character, sitting in front of the host.
She had just juggled and is looking up to see the pieces fall down on her!
That was super clever. I think she was juggling pizzas.

This was some sort of race, with contestants ending up in all kinds of positions.
These students LOVE to make themselves crash or lay on the ground to indicate
that they lost that round. They have SO much energy!

Lexi loves pretending to be a baby in her scene and making
her character seem confused and constantly distracted by
the reactions of the audience! It's hilarious.

These contestants excitedly wait their turn to do their racing talent.
This photo demonstrates how they used the entire room to perform:
from the whiteboard to the sink and cabinets on the other side
(shown here), with the students sitting on the outside of this playing space.
They all really LOVE this staging formation a lot!

Activity: Scripted Scenes with Partners 

For the 3 groups in Mrs. Ormsby's 5th grade class that performed their talent contest skits during the last class (featured on blog entry #6), I gave them scripted scenes from this book: Acting Scenes & Monologues For Kids by Bo Kane. I already owned a lot of acting books but the scenes are for middle schoolers to adult age, and I really struggled to find short scenes for this age group.

Thus I highly recommend this book because the scenes are only 2 pages long and they are for only 2 actors, and the material specifically relates to their interests and experience. We only had time at the end for 2 partnerships to perform their scenes, but we will have everyone act out a scene next time. These books are helpful introductions into how to read a script and following stage directions.

Garrett and Wesley act out the scene "It's Gonna Explode!",
doing a school science experiment all wrong!

Again, they love throwing themselves on the ground.
As you can tell, their chemistry experiment did
indeed lead to a dramatic explosion.

This scene was super clever. These two girls put their scripts in their chairs
to make a classroom setting and pretended that the music stand
was the teacher. They even put a note on it that said "Mrs. Cupcake."
This scene is called "Pants on Fire" and it is about learning to tell the
truth when you break something, and not lying about it.

Next time, the students will all get scripts and we will act out their short 2-person scenes. Then we will begin to put together their final project, which will be performed for other classes in the school. We are still brainstorming as to what it will be, but most likely it will be small scenes under a similar theme such as Fractured Fairytales. I predict I will give them a lecture on the elements of fairy tales, which I just gave at another school where I teach 4th and 5th grade theatre. So look forward to that! See ya!

Day #6: Talent Contest Using our Characters!

Thursday 1/21: Since the students entered my class excited and ready to finish their drawings and character descriptions of their "create a character" worksheet, I skipped doing a warm-up and allowed them to finish coloring and writing. I think it is important to go with what the students are passionate about and to not rush or hinder their creative process. So I gave them time to complete and show me their drawings. I took a picture of many of their characters, which make up the majority of this blog post! 

THEATRE VOCABULARY OF THE DAY: PANTOMIME

Pantomime is a type of acting where the actor does not use any actual props. Instead, he/she acts like a mime and uses their body (especially their hands) to indicate the props and sometimes even set pieces. This was a familiar concept because many of the students had seen or heard of mimes before (like this picture). There are many Do's and Don't's to telling a story through pantomime, and I focused on 3 of the Do's as part of the vocabulary/training today. This was because the students were not given any props to use for their upcoming scene, and I asked them to pantomime everything instead.

1) Express creative details about each pantomimed object: size, weight, smell, texture, temperature, function, and your character's likes/dislikes of the object.

2) Remember where things are and refer to them in the exact same place as where you left/found it. Things cannot just disappear. (I demonstrated this with juggling. You must pick things up and put them back.)

3) Have fun with it and be creative! Use clever devices such as slow motion, making and handling  unusually large or small objects, slow motion, ladders, ropes, equipment, and magic tricks. Help us see your world and make it entertaining!

Activity: Talent Contest

Tool: "Create a Character" Sheets and Contestant/Host Sheets

Technique: Pantomime with varying characteristics

Using their "Create a Character" sheets, groups of 4 got together and planned to act as these original characters in the template of a talent contest. First they picked a host and the remaining students in the group (3) were the contestants. Then they picked 3 talents that they would all perform (this is where the pantomime comes in). All of the group members were to perform the exact same talents, with the host demonstrating it at the beginning of each round. The talents are the same to emphasize the difference between characters; different people respond differently to the same things, and have varying levels of skill in the same things. This reiterated that their characters HAD to be different from one another, even though they were performing the same three talents. In their groups, they filled out details on these papers (one for host, 3 for contestants):

The roles are on separate sheets of paper so the students can map out their part of the performance. Putting all this information on one sheet and having them share it often makes one student dictate what happens in each part of the scene. Giving everyone their own paper makes them feel more prepared and responsible for their individual part since they each take the time to write it down and can refer to it during the performance. Separate sheets also keeps them more engaged, not waiting for their chance to fill out one thing on a shared piece of paper. YET they still have to all agree upon the talents and the order that they perform, plus the places that they win. (Some groups are going to poll the audience to see who comes in what place.)


THEATRE IN THE ROUND (ARENA)

Since we have spent time talking about the 3 main theatre stages (proscenium, thrust, and arena/theatre in the round), I told the students we would experiment with theatre in the round by placing the audience on either side of the classroom and using the long stretch from the whiteboard to the sink as the stage. In this simple diagram, the dots are the students. Based on the squared shape and the extra furniture in the room, the students ended up sitting in two straight lines rather than semicircles, but this did not hinder them from gaining experience in what arena staging is like; it certainly affects how they actors move (in order to stay open so everyone can see them) and makes the viewing experience more intimate and enjoyable. It was a perfect staging choice for this activity because it made the space feel like a catwalk, which made cheering and high-fiving the performers all the more fun, especially since the performers were so close to the crowd!



SAMPLE TALENTS:
The example talents I gave students where as follows (taken from when I did this activity with another elementary school):

            -bake a pizza or a cake, or cook mac and cheese

            -sing a song

            -play an instrument

            -yoyo

            -do the Macarena

            -dance

            -rap/poetry

            -swim

            -throw (like an Olympic sport)

            -scare

            -run in place

            -jumping jacks

            -duck race

            -do a math test

            -fall asleep the fastest and/or snore the loudest

            -eat a ton of food

            -juggle pumpkins

            -drive a race car

            -keep a straight face while someone is trying to make you laugh

A COLLECTION OF THE COMPLETED "CREATE A CHARACTER" SHEETS FROM BOTH CLASSES:

Below is a close-up of her drawing. I just love to capture how proud they
are of their characters.

Wesley tried to make the blank human character face into a unicorn and he did not like the
way it turned out, so he drew his unicorn character on the back of his paper.
In the video at the bottom of this blog entry,
you will see him in the middle, spinning as his unicorn character!  

I really enjoyed seeing all of their drawings. But the fun really began when it was time to act out the talent contest. The host would start off by introducing him/herself and reading his/her answers to questions 1-5 on the worksheet (excluded Question 6, the story premise): 

CHARACTER NAME

AGE

WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

WHAT IS SOMETHING THAT YOU LIKE?

WHAT IS SOMETHING THAT YOU DO NOT LIKE? 

Then the 3 contestants would answer these same 5 questions.

Then the host would introduce and (often) demonstrate talent 1. 

Then talent 2.

Then talent 3.

Then the host would announce 3rd place.

Then 2nd place.

Then 1st place.

During the talent portion, I told the students that each contestant can perform the talent one at a time, or they can make it more of a contest where they ALL do the talent at the same time. Depending on the talent, they would work better being performed together. Singing is better one at a time. Spinning the longest, like in the video below, worked better being performed all at the same time. Enjoy!

Here is a video of a group in Mrs. Ormsby's 5th grade class performing one of their talents: seeing who can spin the longest! Keep in mind that the middle character is a unicorn!

These projects are so great to watch and to perform. The kids all really come out of their shell and it is a nice introduction into acting like a character without having to write, memorize and perform an entirely new script. It's a nice characterization exercise built around a format they are familiar with: talent shows and competitions.

We still have many talent contest scenes to finish, so we will be finishing those and posting more pictures on the next blog! (Out of 14 groups - 7 in each class - we only had time for 3 to present. Many more to come!)

Day #5: Create a Character Through Movement & Illustration

Today (1/19) was a creative and energizing day of character exploration as we discovered how to express ourselves and act as other people through moment and illustration. Out of all the lessons I teach, this particular one has the most activities, since we dedicate almost half the class period to learning many major exercises and games used when creating and embodying a character, and acting with partners in a piece of theatre. 

WARM-UP: To prepare for this very interactive unit, we started off right by performing a warm-up exercise called "Pass the Clap". In this exercise, all the students stand in a circle, facing inward. I also make up part of the circle. Then I turn to the student to my right, and we clap once toward each other at the same time. Then she turns to the right and claps with the student to HER right, who also claps facing her. Then she turns and claps with the person to her right, and the clap makes its way around the entire circle. So every student claps twice: once with the person on their left so as to "take" the clap from that person, and then once with the person on their right, so as to give the clap away. Never do the students clap alone. This represents unity and acceptance, and taking and giving it away teaches them to do the same when they are collaborating. It also teaches them to focus, make eye contact, establish a rhythm (literally and figuratively) with everyone else, and to understand the importance of working together and paying attention. When the clapping or rhythm gets off, those students are often not paying attention or following directions. The first time around the circle is usually rough, but it is amazing how quickly the students pick up the game. We also tried a round to our left. A more advanced way to play it is to allow the students to change directions of the clap by clapping twice in the same direction, wherein the student has to take the clap back and either continue going in the new direction or to send it back! It's a lot of fun!

Theatre Vocabulary of the Day: CURTAINS!!

1) Legs: the tall, skinny curtains on the sides (wings) of the theatre that hide actors and set pieces. 
FYI: Even if you are behind the legs, if you can see the audience...they can see you!

2) Cyclorama (or scrim): the white background sheet covering the back of the stage and used to project lighting and other projections. It's like a whiteboard of projector screen. 

3) Valance: the long, skinny curtain that runs across the top of the proscenium and hides the lighting fixtures.                                                 

4) Grand Drape: the large curtain at the very front of the proscenium that is normally closed at the beginning and end of a show. It usually opens from the middle and goes up or to the sides. Because it moves, these curtains are also called travelers.

After learning this vocabulary, we played the following movement games and focused on how to create characters using our bodies. 

1) Mirror Me: 2 people. Partner A and B face each other. Partner A moves and B must copy their motions as if they are the mirror image of them. Then they switch and Partner B leads partner A. This teaches them to call and respond, copy and follow and lead.



2) Human Clay: 2 people. Partner A is the sculptor and Partner B is the clay. A molds B to fit a character in the category the I gave them. Then they switch and Partner B molds Partner A. This teaches them that actors often have to follow commands and allow themselves to be molded by their director in order to resemble other people and things. (Actors have less power than people realize!)

Human Clay: The Category was "animals".
She molded her into an elephant!

Human Clay: The Category was "sports".
He molded him into a tennis net!

3) Fill in the Empty Space: 4 people. I say a number and that person strikes a pose. For example, when I say "1, 2, 3, 4", Partner 1 first strikes a pose. Then Partner 2 fills in the empty space somewhere around him/her, adding to this silent, frozen story. Then Partner 3 goes. And lastly, person 4 adds the final touch. I always changed who got to go first. This teaches them to call and respond, and to tell stories and make characters through strong, bold choices...and then to stick to them!

4) Facial Expressions: In theatre, showing is better than telling. It is easy to come onstage and say, "Mom, I feel sad." But it is more effective and believable to just look sad in the face and to perhaps start crying. So much of acting is in the face. So we sat down as a class, looked at this book, and practiced making the faces and showing these various emotions.

SLEEPY!

SURPRISED!

LOVING! Awe...

We also looked at these pictures to get some ideas of how to draw and demonstrate various characters in various emotions, in preparation for their character drawing assignment. 

Yet before that, we did the very last exercise...

5) Walk like a Character: This was an independent exercise (no groups or partners), where the students walked around the room and I gave them instructions to affect the way they walk. We first focused on SPACE: I told them to walk as if their character takes up a lot of space and try to explain why through the actions: frantically chasing or being chased, being fat, dancing like a ballerina, etc. Then they tried to take up as little space as possible, such as trying to walk through a crowded room, being shy, being cold, etc. Then they led with different parts of their body, such as elbows, knees, neck, etc. This instantly created characters and changed their entire persona and behavior! It's so fun!

Leading with their neck.

Leading with their elbows.

Leading with their knees.

More elbow-leading action! I like how Wes animated his legs too!

Taking up as little space as possible.

ACTIVITY: CREATE A CHARACTER

Tool: Character Template

Technique: Illustration and Character Q & A

I then handed each of the students a "Create a Character" template and they got into their groups of 4. They received the assignment to make up their own character, perhaps connecting the characters with the others in the group. They had to answer the questions and draw the character's face and head. Here is the worksheet:

I gave the students sample character drawings featured below and asked them to think about how they would move, and perhaps how they would answer the questions on their worksheet.

For the next class period, the groups will develop a talent contest scene in the round, acting as their their individual characters as hosts and contestants. Some students are still working on this worksheet, and some have finished! I can't wait for these scenes on Thursday!

Working as a group and figuring out how these original characters all connect!

Answering the questions and starting to draw the character!

Finished product!

Ta da! Way to go, Dominic!

Look how proud Nate is of his work!