Play Discussion - Interviews and Scene Work

Monday, February 22

  • We’ll spend about 45 – 60 minutes discussing the plays we’ve seen over the holidays.
  • Then student interviews start one at a time
  • In class scene work the rest of the time
  • Check in at the end to ask what problems people have been having with their scenes, and also to make sure they’ve been working.

Handouts

  • TBD

Interviews and Scene Work

Wednesday, February 24

We get to know each other a little better, dive into the foundation of the work – breath – and explore acting Shakespeare with the opening scene from Macbeth.

The goals are to:

  • establish breath as a foundation for inspiration – literal and creative – bringing us into the moment, into presence, into an ability to connect with our partners.
  • begin to explore sound, rhythm, and pace with Shakespeare
  • begin to revisit and re-apply principles from 257 and Stanislavski

Handouts

  • Notebook Assigment

Interviews and Scenework

Friday, February 26

We get to know each other a little better, dive into the foundation of the work – breath – and explore acting Shakespeare with the opening scene from Macbeth.

The goals are to:

  • establish breath as a foundation for inspiration – literal and creative – bringing us into the moment, into presence, into an ability to connect with our partners.
  • begin to explore sound, rhythm, and pace with Shakespeare
  • begin to revisit and re-apply principles from 257 and Stanislavski

Due: Translations

Handouts: Research Presentations Assignment, 50 Questions for Scene Preparation, 101 Questions for Characterization

Handouts

  • Research Presentation Assignment

TBD Scenework

Monday, March 1

We continue to explore breath.

We create mini-scenes with a clear before and after.

We start in on our speeches, gently, or on a speech we can all work on together, like Henry V, Act 4, Prologue

The goal is to remind students of the importance of preparations, of before and after, and to give them some acting practice, and to begin to get them comfortable with the way Shakespeare’s verse works.

Teaching Goals:

  • Getting used to speaking in iambic pentameter
  • Introducing the line
  • Introducing the thought
    • thought length
    • where thoughts end
  • Introducing caesura
  • Learning about punctuation
    • periods
    • exclamation point
    • question mark
    • dash
    • colons
    • semi colons

By the end of the class, the students should be able to complete section C1 and C5 of the written assignment.

Handouts

  • Speech Written Assignment
  • Henry V, Act 4, Prologue

DUE: Printed Speeches

TBD Scene Work

Wednesday, March 3

We continue to explore breath.

We share mini-scenes with a clear before and after.

We start to explore the clues Shakespeare gives us using iambic pentameter.

Teaching goals:

  • Introducing iambic pentameter
  • Understanding light and heavy syllables
  • Counting syllables to determine regular, irregular lines, and weak endings
  • Contractions and elongations
  • Missing words

By the end of this class, the students should be able to complete Sections C2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 & 9 of the written assignment.

TBD Scene Work

Friday, March 5

We continue to explore breath.

We start to learn about physical action and how it affects a line.

We explore the way Shakespeare uses sounds to hold our attention, and convince us, which we will soon discover is also an aspect of rhetoric.

Teaching Goals:

  • Feeling your body impulse deliver a line
  • Hearing, and sensing how Shakespeare uses sound
  • Introducing alliterationassonance, and consonance
  • Exploring rhyme and the reasons for it
  • Exploring onomatopoeia

By the end of the class, the students should be able to complete Section D1 of the written assignment.

Handouts

  • Help with Objectives

DUE: Translations and Word Definitions v.1

TBD Scene Work

Monday, March 8

We start to explore our resonators.

We start to play with verbs more explicitly.

We dive into rhetoric (even though, Surprise: We technically started into it last Friday!).

Specifically, we look at how Shakespeare used rhetorical techniques to describe things.

Learning Goals:

  • Discovering our chest, throat, and mouth resonators
  • Learning to apply verbs
  • Reviewing adverbs and adjectives
  • Discovering metaphor and simile in Shakespeare
  • Reviewing comparison in general
  • Revealing imagery in Shakespeare
  • Discovering contradiction and paradox
  • Discovering this and that and juxtaposition
  • Finding out about Personification

By the end of class the student should be able to complete the first column of Section D2 of the written assignment.

DEADLINE: Research Groups & Topics

TBD Scene Work

Wednesday, March 10

We continue to explore breath.

We create mini-scenes with a clear before and after.

We start in on our speeches, gently.

The goal is to remind students of the importance of preparations, of before and after, and to give them some acting practice, and to begin to get them comfortable with the way Shakespeare’s verse works.

DUE: Speech Written Assignment

TBD Scene Work

Friday, March 12

We continue to explore breath.

We create mini-scenes with a clear before and after.

We start in on our speeches, gently.

The goal is to remind students of the importance of preparations, of before and after, and to give them some acting practice, and to begin to get them comfortable with the way Shakespeare’s verse works.

DEADLINE: Speeches Perfectly Memorized

TBD Scene Work

Monday, March 15

We continue to explore breath.

We create mini-scenes with a clear before and after.

We start in on our speeches, gently.

The goal is to remind students of the importance of preparations, of before and after, and to give them some acting practice, and to begin to get them comfortable with the way Shakespeare’s verse works.

TBD Scene Work

Wednesday, March 17

(St. Patrick's Day)

We continue to explore breath.

We create mini-scenes with a clear before and after.

We start in on our speeches, gently.

The goal is to remind students of the importance of preparations, of before and after, and to give them some acting practice, and to begin to get them comfortable with the way Shakespeare’s verse works.

TBD Scene Work

Friday, March 19

We continue to explore breath.

We create mini-scenes with a clear before and after.

We start in on our speeches, gently.

The goal is to remind students of the importance of preparations, of before and after, and to give them some acting practice, and to begin to get them comfortable with the way Shakespeare’s verse works.

TBD Scene Work

Monday, March 22

We continue to explore breath.

We create mini-scenes with a clear before and after.

We start in on our speeches, gently.

The goal is to remind students of the importance of preparations, of before and after, and to give them some acting practice, and to begin to get them comfortable with the way Shakespeare’s verse works.

DEADLINE: Scene Partners and Scenes Chosen

TBD Scene Work

Wednesday, March 24

We continue to explore breath.

We create mini-scenes with a clear before and after.

We start in on our speeches, gently.

The goal is to remind students of the importance of preparations, of before and after, and to give them some acting practice, and to begin to get them comfortable with the way Shakespeare’s verse works.

TBD Scene Work

Friday, March 26

Students get a chance to rehearse their speeches for feedback one last time.

As in a rehearsal, they can stop and start again if they like.

Teaching goals:

  • Applying all their work as best they can to a practice performance.

TBD Scene Work

Monday, March 29

The students get a first crack at performing their speeches for real.

Teaching goals:

  • Experience at performance
  • Learning to be in the moment

Final Presentations 1

Wednesday, April 7

CAMERA REQUIRED

Bring a camera and tripod to class!

After some feedback, the students get a second chance to present their work.

Teaching goals:

  • More experience at performance
  • A chance to change and improve

DUE: Notebooks

Final Presentations 2

Friday, April 9

CAMERA REQUIRED

Bring a camera and tripod to class!

After some feedback, the students get a second chance to present their work.

Teaching goals:

  • More experience at performance
  • A chance to change and improve

DUE: Notebooks

N/A

N/A

CAMERA REQUIRED

Bring a camera and tripod to class!

After some feedback, the students get a second chance to present their work.

Teaching goals:

  • More experience at performance
  • A chance to change and improve

DUE: Notebooks

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