A detailed overview (which you can copy/paste and use as a handout for your students) is below:
1. REQUIREMENTS
• Participation in at least one Scene or Solo Piece in our Performance
• Notes (Script Analys & BLOCKING as detailed below) in your Script
• Attendance and Participation during Rehearsal and Final Performance
2. SCRIPT ANALYSIS
Character Details
List your character’s most important details:
Full name, age, gender, racial or cultural background, current life situation
(i.e. student, looking for work, artist, mother of 2, etc.)
Goals and Obstacles
Reason for Goals
We think about our character’s goals so that we have a true purpose in the scene,
which makes it more believable and interesting to watch.
To Solidify your Goals
→ Think and write about your character’s GOAL for the scene:
What does your character WANT or NEED most overall in the scene?
What is he trying to make happen? What does he want to change?
Examples:
I want my husband to admit his affair and say he truly loves me
I want my mom to apologize for abandoning me and invite me back home
I want to my friend to realize that she is about to make a huge mistake
→ Now think about the OBSTACLES that are in his way:
What things, people, or situations are preventing your character from reaching his goal?
Intentions
Reason for Intentions
We decide on Intentions for each line in order to strengthen our Character’s goal and make his lines more convincing! Your intentions should all contribute to your overall goal.
To Clarify your Intention
→ Mark each line of your script with ONE WORD describing what you WANT, what your PURPOSE is, or what you are trying to DO or get the other person to DO when you are saying THAT LINE! For example:
I want his ATTENTION/RESPECT/SUPPORT
I want her to TURN AROUND/WALK AWAY/SAY SHE UNDERSTANDS
I want to CONVINCE him to ___________
Write the thing you want to get or do in the MARGIN next to the line.
→ Now run your scene with your GOALS and INTENTIONS in mind. Remember - use your intentions to overcome your obstacles and reach your goals!
→ Do you notice a difference?
Are your intentions and obstacles clearer?
Is it clear when you reach the climax of the conflict and you need to work extra hard to reach your goal?
Do you want to change anything about your scene based on this rehearsal?
Back-story - “Before and After”
Reason for Before and After
We think about our Character’s actions, feelings, and thoughts outside of the scene in order to get more in touch with his world, his needs and feelings, and his life situation.
To Do Before and After
→ Read through your scene once again, paying attention to your opening and closing lines.
→ Think about, decide, and write:
What was your character doing, feeling, and thinking in the moments
BEFORE your scene BEGINS?
What will your character be doing, feeling, and thinking in the moments
AFTER your scene ENDS?
→ Share your answers with your scene group. Then run your scene, but this time start with each character’s action in the moment before the scene begins, and continue after the scene to each character’s action in the moment after the scene ends.
→ Discuss with your group:
Did your lines feel different?
Did they sound different?
Did the moment before affect the scene?
Did you feel more in touch with the character(s)?
Are the relationships stronger?
How has the scene changed or developed?
3. PERFORMANCE TECHNIQUES
Memorization
Reasons to Memorize
To make our scenes look better, more professional, for an audience
To be more convincing, realistic, serious
To get more into the scene, be more committed, invested
To show more emotion, relate more to other characters
Top Ten Ways to Memorize
1. Highlight your lines
2. Chunk your script
3. Label the margins with clue words
4. Cover the lines with a paper and try to remember them
5. Have a partner test you by holding the script and giving you clue words
6. Have someone read your lines to you and repeat them
7. Put your lines on index cards and test yourself
8. Tape record yourself saying the lines
9. Write the lines from memory on another paper to test yourself
10. Say the lines to yourself in front of a mirror
Blocking
Review
We know that body language makes performance more effective, and includes:
GESTURE
STANCE/POSTURE
FACIAL EXPRESSION
& EYE CONTACT
Blocking
Another physical aspect of performance includes BLOCKING, which is
Rehearsed movement with other characters onstage.
Vocabulary for BLOCKING:
Upstage, Downstage, Stage Left, Stage Right
Backstage, House, Wings
Cross, Turn
Blocking Rehearsal:
→ First we will watch one scene, letting the movement in the scene play out naturally
→ Then let’s discuss: What movement in that scene was effective?
→Now we make adjustments by refining the blocking.
The actors write the blocking notes in their script, and then run the scene a second time
with changes incorporated. Blocking in a scene is mostly rehearsed but always
includes an element of improvisation by the actors!
→ Stage Business includes any interaction with PROPS - objects (real or imagined)
onstage. Find two or three places in your script where your character can be doing
something with props!
Expression and Projection
Review
We know that voice and tone can vary in performance to make it more effective, and can include:
VOLUME and PITCH
SPEED and PAUSES
FLOW and ENERGY
& PASSION and EMOTION
Expression and Projection
Another way of talking about emotion and energy in performance is called expression and projection.
→ Make sure to project your voice, meaning speak loudly enough that the audience can
hear you.
→ When you say your lines, express your true intention so that the other character and the audience understand your meaning.
→ Make sure that your blocking allows for both projection and expression at all times. Anything you do onstage should HELP you be heard and understood, not limit you!
Improvising Emotion
Reason for Improvising
We improvise within our scene in order to let the emotion come through more deeply and intensely.
Ways to Improvise
→ Practice a certain difficult moment within your scene without worrying about the lines. Instead, work on repeating your intention or a line that is particularly meaningful in order to really convince or change the other character. Go with the flow!
→ Do the exercise while throwing a pillow back and forth with the other character
→ Do the exercise standing back-to-back with the other character in your scene
→ Do the exercise while pushing against the hands/arms of the other character
Substitution and Subtext
Reason for Substitution
We substitute for characters in our scene in order to imagine that we are talking to someone from our own lives. We can also imagine what we might actually say to those people while we say our lines from the scene.
Ways to Substitute
You can imagine who in your scene reminds you of someone from your own life.
For example: Jose reminds me of my cousin who was always bothering me when I wanted to go explore outside or do something on my own.
Then, pretend that you are talking to that person and really expressing what you want to say to them while you are rehearsing your scene. It will help your scene be more realistic.
Warming Up
Reasons for Warming Up
We warm up in order to prepare ourselves physically and mentally for rehearsal and performance.
Ways to Warm Up
There are hundreds of ways to warm up! Here are just a few:
Voice
Yelling “Hey”
Go high and low on a vowel sound
Buzz with lips
Tongue Twisters
Body
Stretching and Isolations
Throwing a ‘ball’
“Push Hands”
Running Circle
Mind & Ensemble
Count to 20 Game
Yes Game
Pulse Game
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