In Drama, You Will Learn About

YOUR SPECIAL

DRAMA BOOK

NAME:……………………..YEAR LEVEL……….

IN DRAMA, YOU WILL LEARN ABOUT:

Journal writing
Mime and Improvisation
Radio play research and play writing
Puppetry research, designing and play writing

WELCOME TO DRAMA!!

Drama is the best way to let loose and have fun however, you will be required to produce improvisations, performances, and written work in a Drama Journal, which will be assessed.

AIMS: Drama aims to explore, create and expand on theatre knowledge (or lack thereof) and broaden your skills both in and out of the Drama classroom. You will build self-confidence and imagination, observation and listening skills and become better at working in a group.

To every class, you will be required to bring

Your drama journal
Writing equipment i.e: pens and pencils.
Glue (to stick sheets I give you, into your journal).
A positive attitude and a willingness to give everything a go!

What is drama about?

Drama is a unique and ancient art form. You can find a tradition of drama in every culture in the world. Drama has been used to entertain, educate, challenge and understand events for thousands of years. Learning in drama helps us to learn about the world we live in by allowing us to step into someone else’s shoes, creating imaginary worlds and situations where we can behave as if things were different. Drama offers opportunities to have our voices heard. Learning in drama can play a large part in increasing your vocabulary and understanding the way language operates.

KEEPING A JOURNAL

As part of your Drama studies, it is important that you keep a record of your progress in the subject. This is called your journal.

This will be housed in an A4, 48 page exercise book.

The first page of your book should be decorated by you, in the most colourful manner possible, with the word DRAMA featuring prominently.

On the inside cover you should attach a sheet for future reference. Similarly, if you are given any handouts in class, these should be immediately pasted into your journal, and any notes taken down in class should be written in the same book.

The most important aspect of your journal is the diary that you keep. After each Drama class, you are to record in no less than 6 lines what you did, what you achieved and the degree to which you participated and enjoyed a particular activity. You should also write down any extra Drama-related activity you do outside of class- rehearsals for school productions or maybe reviews for visiting performers?

Below is an example of a journal entry:

Wednesday Jan 31, 2013

“I had an absolute ball in Drama today. Everyone was fired up and the teacher was in a great mood (for a change). We did an improvisation based on the theme of ‘ignorance’. I played a grumpy pensionerwho complained about the new technology. Michelle played a girl using the internet, and Shirley played the mother who refereed an argument between Michelle and I. it was great fun being such a nasty piece of work, and the audience seemed to really enjoy it.’

This booklet may be used as you Drama Journal

The first page of your book should be decorated by you, in the most colourful manner possible, with the word DRAMA featuring prominently.

This is your first page.

Journal Exercise- Activity 1

What is Drama?

How is Drama different from Theatre?

Why do people do Drama?

Where have you seen the word Drama being used? In what way is it used?

Unit 1 Mime:

A mime is a performer who expresses them-self using body movements and no words.

In real life no one does anything without reason. We act everyday of our lives to get what we want or to satisfy a feeling for example, go for a walk to improve fitness, to get out of homework, to turn on the charm when wanting to impress a ‘friend’, thus the stage is a distilled version of life.

Motivations are rooted in emotions, they rule our behaviour, lead us to do things we do, hence they are the root of character. Emotions motivate us- motivation leads to action, action generates plot and so it could be said that emotion is also the root of all plays, stories, books and films.

Mime Artists:

Researcheither Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin or Marcel Marceau.

How did mime performances begin?

Insert a picture

Where and when were they born?

What character was he most famous for?

Why did he create mime?

What do you think of his performance?

Practice the following emotions in a mirror

WORD FIND-EMOTIONS

ANGER
APPRECIATIVE
ARROGANT
BITTER
CALM
CHEERFUL
CONFIDENT
CURIOUS
DISGUST
DUBIOUS / EDGY
ENVIOUS
EXUBERANT
FEAR
FRANTIC
FRETFUL
GLAD
GLEEFUL
GRATEFUL
GRIEF / GRUMPY
HAPPY
HOPE
INDIFFERENT
JEALOUS
JOLLY
JOYFUL
MOROSE
MOURNFUL
NERVOUS / OUTRAGE
PUZZLED
REGRET
SADNESS
SCARED
SCORNFUL
SORRY
SURPRISE
TRANQUIL
WORRY

Copy the words from column 1 into column 2. Then in column three write the explanation. You can find the words in a dictionary.

COLUMN 1 / COLUMN 2 / COLUMN 3
SCRIPT
THEATRE
PROSCENIUM ARCH
BLOCKING
PERFORMANCE
AUDIENCE
AMPHITHEATRE
APRON
BACKSTAGE
WINGS
CAST
CATWALK
CHARCATER
CURTAIN
DIALOGUE
DOWNSTAGE
UPSTAGE
DROP
SOUND FX
ORCHESTRA
MELODRAMA
MUSICAL THEATRE

UNIT 2: IMPROVISATION

To improvise means to make something up on the spot, or figure it out as you go. Improvise comes from the Latin word improvisus, meaning "unforeseen, unexpected." Think about when something unexpected happens to you — you have no choice but to react in the moment, or improvise. Another meaning for improvise refers to acting onstage without a script. When actors improvise scenes for an audience, they create funny situations as they go, without having anything pre-planned.

Journal Reflection Activity: Improvisation

What do you now know about improvisation you did not know before?

Can you name some improvisation performers of the 21st century?

What is the TV show ‘Who’s Line is it anyway?’ about?

What is short-form improvisation?

What is long-form improvisation?

FANTASY WORLD

Find and circle all of the words that are hidden in the grid. The remaining 29 letters spell the name of a popular fantasy book

ARCHERS
ARMOR
ARROWS
AXE
BARD
BLACKSMITH
BOW
COURT
CRYSTAL BALL
DRAGON / / DWARF
ELF
EVIL
FAERIES
GOBLET
GOLD COINS
GOOD
HEADSMAN
KING
KNIGHT / / LORDS
MAGIC
MARKET
MINOTAUR
MOUNTAINS
PALACE
POTION
PRINCESS
SHIELD
SILVER / / SPELL
SWORD
THRONE
TROLL
UNICORN
VILLAGE
WAGON
WAND
WIZARD
WRAITH

UNIT 3: RADIO PLAYS

Radio was first created as a way to send telegraph messages between two people without wires, but soon two-way radio brought voice communication, including Walkie-talkies and eventually mobile phones.

Now an important use is to broadcast music, news and Entertainers including "talk radio." Radio shows were used before there were TV programs.

Radio drama (orradio play,radio theater) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visuals, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story.

Listen to the following you tube excerpt

Radio Research

What is radio?

What is another word for radio?

Who invented the radio?

What was radio first used for?

When was the first public broadcast in Australia?

List some of the first radio shows on Australian airwaves?

Sound FX

For homework, experiment with sounds that household objects can make.

Journal Reflection Activity:Name materials that you tried to use to create your sound fx but were not successful. Why didn’t they work? (Be specific).

Story telling through sound FX

Many times in telling a story it is helpful to have some live effects to make the story come to life. In this project, you will be using a group of sound effects to tell the story to the audience. Write your story and anytime you use one of the words below, circle it. When you read your story, you will hear a noise for all of your circled words.

Words to use:

Chicken / Cricket / Tractor
Cow / Tree Falling / Wind Chimes
Birds / Dinner Bell / Wind
Bees / Laugh / Stream
Horse / Splash
Goat / Rooster
Sheep / Baby
Pig

WRITE YOUR STORY HERE

Script writing

Explain:a script is how we write when we want our story to be performed for others to enjoy. It looks different to make it easier to be performed.

Below is a sample of a script and how to set one out can you

Identifythe features found in the script. Read through the script.

Note that the script makes it easy to know when it is your character’s turn to talk, actors can change the words and add pauses to their parts, the actors bring in emotions that aren’t written into the script, and hearing it performed changes the visualization from what we had when we just read it.

Explain:important features of a script:

Characters listed at the beginning

Setting explains when, where, and other environmental details. Dialogue is not in quotations

Actions/Stage directions are written in italics in parentheses

Narrator describes what is going on.

SETTING

1902. The wild, untamed west. A stormy evening. Ma and Jesse are moving their wagon across the prairie as thunder and lightening crack across the sky.

CAST

Narrator(an omniscient presence)

Ma (a work-weary older woman)

Jesse (a young adult, brought up on the land)

NARRATOR:As we came to the Platte, the troubled sky turned dark as night and a terrible storm broke upon us.

the narrator intones over the sudden crash of thunder and the sound of falling rain.

JESSE:Hand me the whip, ma, I think we’re starting. “

MA:Keep her going, son, or the current will carry us down river for sure.

JESSE:Come on you ornery long-ears, giddy-up!

The sharp crack of a whip is followed by the lumbering of wagon wheels, the rasp of hooves on wet gravel, and the clanking of pots as claps of thunder continue to fill the air and the roar of a rain-swollen river is heard in the distance.

NARRATOR:Is that not enough to quicken the pulse and kindle the imagination? Will the Morrison family make it safely across the river, or will the next set of sounds be the foundering and breaking apart of their wagon as the raging river sweeps away their hopes for a better life?

The thunder is a suspended square of sheet metal and pouring BBs slowly into a paper cone makes the sound of rain. The crack of the whip is slapstick, the wagon wheels, the turning of an old ice cream maker, and the hooves are nothing more than coconut shells in a tray of gravel

Journal Reflection Task: What did you learn today and how did it assist your understanding of different ways of writing.

RADIO PLAYS

LEARNING INTENTION: Looking at the use of sound in drama

AIM: to look at the use of sound in the theatre/acting to enhance a piece of work.

TASK: You are to create a 10 – 15 min radio play. Remember that as this is a radio play you may have as many characters as you wish.

You are to incorporate

Music – this determines the mood of the scene (ie happy, sad, scary, romantic)
Sound Effects/SFX – so we know what is happening
Dialogue between characters

PLAN:

Devise a plot (i.e. a 2 – 3 sentence description of your play outline)

Create a synopsis of your play (i.e. write out your idea in greater detail)

Create a flow chart showing how the action will progress

Start to put together the script. Remember to include the music (where and what to be used. For how long is each piece.)

ASSESSMENT: Script – to be handed in at the end of recording

Use of SFX in the final recording

Final performance/ radio play

Group cooperation/cohesion

MOVIE ACTORS

Find and circle all of the Movie Actors that are hidden in the grid. The remaining letters spell the name of the movie for which William Hurt won an Oscar.

ASTIN, Sean
BLOOM, Orlando
BROSNAN, Pierce
BUSCEMI, Steve
CAGE, Nicolas
CONNERY, Sean
CROWE, Russell
CRUISE, Tom
DAFOE, Willem
DE NIRO, Robert
DIESEL, Vin
DOWNEY JR, Robert
DREYFUSS, Richard
DUVALL, Robert
EVERETT, Rupert
FERRELL, Will / / FIENNES, Ralph
FREEMAN, Morgan
GERE, Richard
GOSLING, Ryan
HANKS, Tom
HARRELSON, Woody
HOFFMAN, Philip Seymour
HOWARD, Terrence
HURT, William
JACKSON, Samuel L.
JONES, Tommy Lee
KEATON, Michael
KILMER, Val
LABEOUF, Shia
MAGUIRE, Tobey / / MARTIN, Steve
MORTENSEN, Viggo
MYERS, Mike
PATTINSON, Robert
PENN, Sean
REYNOLDS, Ryan
ROGEN, Seth
RUDD, Paul
SMITH, Will
STALLONE, Sylvester
STEWART, Patrick
VAUGHN, Vince
WILKINSON, Tom
WILLIAMS, Robin
WILSON, Owen

Unit 4: PUPPETRY

I this unit of work you will design and make a puppet according to design brief.

What kind of puppets have you seen?

What do they look like?

What are they made from?

How do they move?

What are puppets used for?

Where do puppets come from?

Journal Reflection Task: Name two things you now know about puppet that you did not know before?

ACADEMIC VOCABULARLY IN THIS UNIT:

Play: the stage representation of an action or story.

Script: the written text of a play or broadcast.

Act: one of the main divisions of an act.

Scene: where, when, and the surrounding environmental details where the current action in theplay takes place.

Characters: the people in the play.

Narrator: a character who tells part of the story line, but does not act in the play

Dialogue: when characters are speaking.

Stage Directions: a description of what needs to be acted or directions for the crew

Puppetry exercise 1

Right now you're made completely of wood.

Your arms and legs are carved from a single piece of wood.

You can't move any part of yourself at all.

Now the magic spell has begun.

It begins at the top of your head.

The spell moves down slowly until your head down to your eyebrows is flesh and blood.

Try and move your eyebrows.

The spell keeps moving down.

Now you can move your eyes!

All your life you've been staring straight ahead, and now you can look to the sides.

The spell gets to your ears and your nose. See if you can wiggle them.

The spell gets to your mouth. You can smile. It feels strange at first, and probably looks pretty strange too, but you grow more comfortable with it.

Try some other facial expressions as well.

Slowly you discover that you can turn your head. Careful! You can look up and down carefully as well.

Look! You have feet! This is the first time you were ever sure.

The spell reaches your shoulders. But remember, your arms and hands are still attached to your torso, since you are carved from a single piece of wood, so you can move ONLY your shoulders.

Try some circles. Do you feel a tingle up and down your spine? That's the magic working.

The spell reaches your chest. You can puff it out like a soldier.

Your elbows can move now, but still not your hands.

As the spell goes lower, see if you can pull your left hand away from your body. Ooofff! You did it.

Bring your hand up to your face and study it. See if you can move the fingers. Wow! You've never seen anything so beautiful!

See if you can get your right hand free as well. Does it move too?

The spell has reached your waist. Carefully bend forward, to the side. See if you bend backwards. See if you can make a circle.

The spell reaches your hips, but your knees are still locked together and your feet are still attached to your pedestal.

The spell gets to your knees. See if they bend!

Reach down and see if you can pull your left foot free. Ooofff! Point the toe. Flex the foot. Make little circles.

Now see if you can get your right foot free.

You're all real now! See how you can move. Careful at first--these are your first steps! Let's find all the ways our new bodies move!

Word find:Puppets

A / V / T / W / R / T / S / P / I / C / P / M / G / D / C
W / U / O / R / C / E / A / T / Y / M / A / Y / E / X / A
T / O / D / E / A / I / T / L / I / R / A / M / O / E / R
D / O / J / I / N / N / I / C / I / D / R / G / R / R / N
C / B / R / T / E / N / S / O / A / O / N / T / E / E / I
O / K / E / C / D / N / N / F / F / R / A / A / M / E / V
M / D / C / E / H / E / C / R / O / E / A / S / B / T / A
P / Z / R / O / T / E / E / E / H / R / K / H / Q / E / L
E / G / A / T / S / P / S / T / D / P / M / A / C / P / T
T / N / E / C / O / N / T / R / O / L / A / E / E / P / N
I / O / I / H / C / C / O / N / I / P / M / R / D / U / E
T / L / I / M / B / S / E / I / S / P / Y / G / T / P / I
I / E / M / U / T / S / O / C / W / O / D / A / H / S / C
O / H / U / M / A / N / A / N / I / M / A / T / E / D / N
N / D / R / E / S / S / E / D / A / C / T / O / R / S / A

ACTORSANCIENTANIMATED