I’ve got you. You’ve got me.
Look out for each other!
I’ve got you. You’ve got me.
Look out for each other!
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I’ve got you. You’ve got me.
Look out for each other!
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Instructions:
Use of time:
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I’ve got you. You’ve got me.
Look out for each other!
CLASS
Warm-Up:
Seen: Erik, Andrew, Sydney F.
Covered: beats, thought endings, doing something, props.
Don’t say the line because the line is next. Say the line because there’s a motivated reason to say it.
Cover:
Metaphor!!!!
Wednesday, January 22
Sydney C. – Helena
Emma – Joan
Keisha – Luciana
Yanming – Henry V
Brooklyn
Sydney K.
Friday, January 24
Ryan
Juliane
Trevor
Matthew
Trystan
Announcements
Grounding: rubbing hand down the legs OR Group Grounding
Go!
Impulse Circle –> Freeze?
Space Substance: (5 min)
A EXPLORATION
Large group (no audience necessary).
Move around the stage, giving substance to space as they go.
SUPPORT AND EFFORT
After the players are in motion and responding to the problem, give a new understanding to the space substance they are contacting.
SIDE COACHING: You are holding yourself up. You would fly into a thousand pieces if you quit holding yourself up. You are hanging on to your arms. Your mouth. Your forehead. (Call out the various parts of the body that the students hold rigid.) Now have the students go back to having the space substance “support” them. Change back and forth until the student actors obviously feel the difference. While calling out parts of the body, help the students to release the muscle holds. (One student who customarily had a tight expression on his face that gave him what might be called a “mean” look first became aware of his rigidity through this exercise.
EVALUATION:
To players: how did you feel when space was supporting you? When you were your own support?
To audience: did you notice a difference between support and no support in the way the players walked and looked.
POINTS OF OBSERVATION:
When players hold themselves together, are their own gravity line, so to speak, some shrink up, some seem to be afraid of falling, while others appear anxious, lonely, and still others look aggressive. In fact, many “character qualities” appear. When, on the other hand, the players lean on space, an expansion and fullness can be noted as they move through the environment. Smiling faces, peacefulness, and an air of gentleness appear. It is as if they know the environment will support them if they allow it to.
“Put your signature in space” is a good side-coaching remark to place the player in the environment. The object is for the player to leave a mark in space – a footprint, the outline of his head, etc. – and then see that mark.
TOUCH AND BE TOUCHED/SEE AND BE SEEN
SIDE COACHING:
POINTS OF OBSERVATION:
Remember to keep players moving and to allow time between each side coaching. Was it difficult to allow yourself to be touched… to be seen? Avoid analysis.
Rhythm Workout
Apart from exploring any rhythms which are alien to you and working with the emotions, as suggested above, it is a good idea to play with all the rhythms regularly so that it becomes easy to access them and to switch from one to another.
When you are playing with rhythms it is important to go back to the chart and check the weight, flow and focus so that you know the rhythms are precise.
Here is my suggestion for a regular rhythm workout.
Working in this way will give you a great deal of flexibility – physically, mentally and vocally – and it will help you access those characters whose rhythms are radically different from yours.
SIDE COACHING
PRESS:
PUNCH:
WRING:
SLASH:
GLIDE:
DAB:
FLOAT:
FLICK:
SIDE Coaching:
EXPLORING YOUR CHARACTER’S RHYTHMS PHYSICALLY
This stage allows you to take the rhythm work further by physically exploring the rhythms you have chosen for your character and what clues they give you about the character’s external and internal movement.
Start by taking each of the character rhythms individually and exploring it physically, ensuring that you are committing fully to the specific combination of weight, flow, and focus of that rhythm.
Then, move between the different character rhythms exploring how they work together.
Working with rhythms is particularly useful when you have to play more than one character.
CHARACTER VS YOU
Note: I usually find three rhythms are a good, workable number, but if you feel you need more, fair enough. I choose them one at a time because I find this the simplest and most effective way. As with the motivation there is no one right answer. Choosing the rhythm is a device for helping you to identify the differences between you and the character.
Now that you have the two lists of possible rhythms you can analyze and then compare them. Start with your character’s list and refer to the chart as necessary.
For example, if for Petal we chose Glide, Float, and Dab, that would make her completely light, predominantly direct, and predominantly sustained.
If for Claudio we chose Punch, Wring, and Glide, that would make him predominantly heavy, direct, and sustained.
For example, if the actor playing Petal identified her own rhythms as Glide, Wring and Slash, she would be predominantly heavy, indirect and sustained.
If the actor playing Claudio identified his own rhythms as being Punch, Float and Dab, that would make him predominantly light, direct, and staccato.
For example, the actor playing Petal would notice that Petal is lighter than her and more direct.
The actor playing Claudio would notice that Claudio is heavier and more sustained than he is.
Simply identifying the differences can be very helpful and is often enough for the actor concerned to make the necessary rhythm changes.
We’ll do a little more on that on Friday, or later in the class, depending.
SPEECH WORK
Beginning of the thought journey:
Dividing your speech up into sections. Think of action.
What happens to the person to make them able to move from one thought to the next?
How have you broken your speech down….?
Experience it physically, because that’s where it lives. But we want to
Objectives: Speech vs. Soliloquy
Soliloquys Speeches Both
Kaylee (Julia) Matthew C. (Jaques) Matthew H. (Macbeth)
Maria (Hamlet) Isabella (Rosalind) Miranda T. (Juliet)
Alyssa (Juliet) Caroline (Antipholus of S.)
Amy (Viola) Jordan (Emilia)
Shayla (Petruchio) Zoe (Helena)
April (Juliet) Mackenzie (Hermione)
Anika (Ariel)
Kalie (Richard II)
EXERCISES
Speaking to an object (Houseman)
Sound exploration
Note: For this exercise the lines may be temporarily broken up so that you can connect with each phrase. In later exercises, however, we will look at flowing each line through.
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