Contrary to the previous post, this was the first of what will be full 100-minute sessions!
Start Of Session
We began this session by playing two introductory games, in order for the class to get to know each other. These were:
-Look Up, Look Down
-On The Bus
Look Up, Look Down
For this game, all players must stand in a circle, and they begin looking at the floor. When the leader tells everyone to 'Look Up', they must focus on another person in the circle immediately. If two people end up looking at each other, then they are out of the game. This continues until only one person remains and is crowned the winner. (By a stroke of luck, this was me in our rendition of the game!) It is a useful activity to develop quick thinking, as well as assessing the risks of what other people are planning at the time; it is also effective in a team building context to establish silent communication and a more friendly atmosphere.
On The Bus
This game begins with two lines of chairs set out for the number of players, making sure there is an aisle in the middle to simulate a small bus. One player (or the leader in our case), will act as the driver, who welcomes each passenger onto the bus. However, each passenger who arrives will secretly decide a character, archetype or emotion that they will portray - as each new person arrives, those already on the bus (including the driver), will have to present the same emotion, whilst still maintaining their own character. Therefore, this exercise is very beneficial for reading characters and thinking on your feet, as well as interpreting emotions and how they manifest depending on the character you are playing.
We played this game twice, first as a random personality, and then as our characters we had already been cast as for our upcoming show, Legally Blonde (in my case, Vivienne Kensington).
Main Tasks
Character Development
To make a start on our journey into developing our characters, we split the class in half and created a series of freeze frames for one of the characters from the show at key moments of their childhood. From the first birthday, to discovering their parent's clothes and trying them on, to their 18th birthday, we considered all of the tumultuous moments in a character's life. Although we focussed on a different characters to my own in our group, it was very useful in encouraging our focus on our own persona's life as a whole, and how their backstory has shaped them.
Vocal Skills
Following these games, we used a video resource to remind ourselves of how to use what was referred to as the 'generic American accent', as it is commonly used for characters in our upcoming musical, Legally Blonde. As a group, we studied each individual facet of the accent from the source, and then attempted each of the practise sentences that incorporated certain features more heavily. Not only this, but our teacher gave further insight on where each sound was positioned in the mouth and how the shape of the mouth aided this, in order for the sound output to seem more genuine.
Physical Skills
The main body of the session was centred around this work. We began by walking around the space in random directions, while being instructed to pay attention to each detail of how we usually walk as displayed (more on this in a moment).
We then stood in a space and began to unpick each facet of the posture, by creating the presentation of our characters from Legally Blonde. I chose a wider stance with no evident rest on either hip, straight but not locked knees, tense and upright shoulders, and a head position slightly tilted down and forwards. These traits - alongside my idiosyncratic gesture of the arms folded over the chest and one hand twirling a lock of hair - aptly showcase my presentation of the character at the start of the show: intimidating, untouchable and cold in her manner.
Progressing directly on from this, we began to walk around the space again, but paying attention to each of these characteristics that we had given ourselves. Moreover, we began to focus in on our gait - the way n which our characters walk. I myself chose a moderate-slow, calculated pace, but with ample stride length and the slightest sway in the hips and shoulders. Additionally, my turns were sharp and measured, always looking in the direction I wished to go before my body faced that way. Again, these attributes installed a sense of pride and composure within the character and those who observe her, as well as that unease and intimidation.
Application
To conclude the session, we used our acquired skills to focus of two last things:
-Character Entrance
-Improvisation
Character Entrance
A very important aspect of any actor's performance is how they make their way onto stage, particularly in the first instance, without saying anything. Especially if you are the only person on stage at a given time, the audience will be assessing you intensely, and forming impressions based on how you wordlessly introduce yourself to them.
Therefore, one of our final activities of the day was to take it in turns to each make our entrance from an upstage point, travel to centre stage, and promptly exit. We used our previous analysis of our posture and gait to channel this into an individual and compelling performance, even if it were only for a few seconds.
Improvisation
Last but not least, we were given a short list of scenarios to experiment with in our characters. Not only does this kind of technique improve an actor's understanding of their own character and strengthen their portrayal, but it also provides a degree of connection between actors and how they and their characters interact with one another.
Next Steps
Our assigned independent task to further the work we completed in this lesson was to conduct our own research behind contextual elements of the show, in order to add depth and detail to our own performances.
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