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

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

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.

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.

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 alliteration, assonance, 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.

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.

We explore the resonators in our upper head: the nasal and head sinuses, and top of the head resonance.

We continue our exploration of rhetoric, specifically in techniques to sort out and present ideas and that help to convince the listener.

Learning Goals:

• Understanding and recognizing antithesis
• How to handle antithesis using pitch
• Understanding an recognizing lists
• Understanding how repetition can be used
• Recognizing parenthesis and how to handle it
• Recognizing and using irony
• Recognizing puns and other wizardly wordplay
• Recognizing formidable phraseology

By the end of this class, the students should be able to complete the second column of Section D2 of the written assignment.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Teaching goals:

• Experience at performance
• Learning to be in the moment

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