Movement and Visual Theatre
by Caitlin Cotten
Unit Objective
Students will demonstrate their ability to use movement to communicate an idea by participating in a Visual Theatre performance.
Grade Level
Middle school/junior high students; 75-minute class periods
Main Concept
Performing for both hearing and non-hearing (deaf) audiences
Lesson 1: Introduction to Visual Theatre
Objective: Students will be introduced to the idea of communicating an idea theatrically while being silent by participating in activities and ideas charades.
Lesson 2: Introduction of the Quest Visual Theatre Project
Objective: Students will demonstrate their understanding of the visual theatre group project by completing a Visual Theatre proposal sheet.
Lesson 3: Basics of Creating a Visual Language
Objective: Students will begin to build a visual vocabulary by participating in an introductory Viewpoints workshop focused on duration and shape.
Lesson 4: More Introductory Viewpoints
Objective: Students will begin to build a visual vocabulary by participating in an introductory Viewpoints workshop focused on tempo, repetition and gesture.
Lesson 5: Adding more to visual language: Place
Objective: Students will review introductory Viewpoints by beginning to craft their visual theatre piece.
Lesson 6: Composition Day
Objective: Students will put their visual theatre piece together by creating the beginning, middle and end of their story.
Lesson 7: Visual Theatre Rehearsal
Objective: Students will prepare for their visual theatre project presentation by
Rehearsing their pieces.
Lesson 8: Performance Day
Objective: Students will demonstrate their ability to use movement to communicate an idea by participating in a visual theatre performance.
Lesson 1: Introduction to Visual Theatre
Lesson Objective: Students will be introduced to the idea of communicating an idea theatrically while being silent by participating in activities and ideas charades.
Materials:
· Paper (about a half sheet for each student, to write down their charades ideas)
· Pencils
· A container for the charades pieces of paper
Step 1: Activities/Ideas Charades prep
Have students write four things down for a charades game (you can either tell them that’s what these are for, or leave it as a surprise for when you introduce the game). One is an activity (like reading, biking or playing soccer) one is an emotion and one abstract concept (like fairness, honesty, evil etc.) and one thing they might normally put into a bowl for a game of Charades (a movie or book title, a person’s name etc).
Step 2: Playing Activities/Ideas Charades
Split the students into two teams. Tell them that this is just like normal Charades except there are different kinds of words in the pot. They want to silently act out the words on the pieces of paper in a way that will get their team to guess as many slips of paper as possible in 45 seconds. Each item on a slip of paper is worth one point. The team with the most points wins.
Step 4: Discussion
What was the difference between acting the three types of words?
What was difficult?
What was easy?
How did you best communicate?
Step 5: Introduce Visual Theatre
Ask: What do you think Visual Theatre is?
Our bodies are a powerful storytelling tool in theatre. There is a whole genre of theatre called Visual Theatre and we are going to continue to learn different ways to use our bodies in order to compose a Visual Theatre piece that tells a story or has a specific message.
Step 6: Closure
Tell them they’ll get more information on this next class.
Lesson 2: Introduction of the Quest Visual Theatre Project
Lesson Objective: Students will demonstrate their understanding of the visual theatre group project by completing a visual theatre proposal sheet.
Sources: questvisualtheatre.org
Materials:
· Visual Theatre proposal sheet
· Visual Theatre assignment sheet
· Clip of Quest Visual Theatre’s Alice in Wonderland
Step 1: Warm-Up—Pass the energy ball
Tell the students you have a ball made out of energy and it can take on different forms for each person. Just like they play that pass the snap game, they will pass the energy ball. What it is, anything from a marble to a bouncy ball to a beach ball, will determine how they catch and throw the ball. They need to show us the size and weight in both matters. This is a silent game.
Step 2: Discussion of energy ball
How did the ball of energy change?
What did you do to show weight/size? When was it most effective?
Step 3: Introduce the Quest Visual Theatre Project—Alice in Wonderland Clip
Tell the students they are doing a project for the Quest Visual Theatre company. They will be creating visual story to add to their current repertoire. Show them the website and the clips of Alice in Wonderland.
What do you notice about this particular production?
How do you think they communicate and appeal to deaf, hard of hearing and hearing audiences?
Step 4: Visual Theatre Assignment Sheet
Hand out the Visual Theatre assignment sheet. Go over the requirements. Part of the end project is self-evaluation and group evaluation. You will have a performance grade but also a collaboration grade. The grades other people in your group give you will affect what this collaborationsngrade ends up being.
Step 5: Groups and Proposals
Tell students that you’ve put them in collaboration groups because Quest Visual Theatre is a collaborative theatre company. Each person will have to contribute a part to the Quest Visual Theatre proposal. Part of the end project is self-evaluation and group evaluation.
The Quest Visual Theater would like to add new short stories/pieces to their current repertoire (give them the list of suggestions the company “gave” to you). Each group will need to choose one and begin working on it. The proposal sheet is due at the end of class.
Step 5: Closure
Have the students turn in their proposal sheet, tell them you’ll keep the sheets for them for future reference. Remind them to wear something they can move in next class.
Lesson 3: Basics of Creating a Visual Language
Lesson Objective: Students will begin to build a visual vocabulary by participating in an introductory viewpoints workshop focused on duration and shape.
Sources: The Viewpoints Book by Anne Bogart and Tina Landau
Materials:
· Open space to do Viewpoints in
Step 1: Warm-Up—Tag Shape
Take the students down to the auditorium. Have them put their things in the audience and then get in a circle on the stage.
The game:
One person will go in the middle of the circle and make a shape. The next person in the circle (or to challenge them, have it be when someone has the impulse) to go in and complete the shape. Once the second person is frozen, the first person leaves the middle and a space is created for a new person to come in. You want the transitions to be as quick as possible. Remind the students that the shapes do not need to be literal. The idea is not perfection it’s just to go with the impulses you have and do something with your body. “Don’t think, just do”
Step 2: Reflect on warm-up
What was your experience with this game?
What is difficult about it?
How does it relate to Visual Theatre?
Step 3: Viewpoints Introduction
Tell the students that they will begin to learn about a visual theatre language called Viewpoints. Viewpoints was started by Anne Bogart and Tina Landau. It’s a way to talk about making visual theatre interesting.
How do you think these two things might contribute to a visual theatre piece?
Step 4: Duration and Shape
Remind students of tag shape. They were already starting to create shapes. Now we’re going to play more with making shapes.
· Tell the students to stay in their own space. Remind them that this is not about making something that makes sense or looks like something. They are just to try to see how their body can move.
· You’ll count 3, 2, 1 and then they’ll freeze in a shape. The first shape is going to be lines. Make lines with your body.
· Now curves. You’ll make a shape of curves.
· Now make a shape that has a combination of lines and curves.
What are the different feelings of just line shapes to curved shapes? How about a combination?
Step 4: Group time
Have the students get into their project groups. Tell them to discuss and play around with the idea of duration and shape in the story they’ve chosen to tell. What are some shapes that you might use to tell the story? Circulate around the classroom as the students experiment with shape and their story.
Step 4: Closure
Tell the students they will add even more to their Visual Theatre vocabulary next class.
Lesson 4: More Introductory Viewpoints
Lesson Objective: Students will begin to build a visual vocabulary by participating in an introductory Viewpoints workshop focused on tempo, repetition and gesture.
Step 1: Behavioral vs. Expressive Gesture
Have students find their own space on the stage. Have them think of something they did this morning. Ex. brushing your teeth, eating breakfast, shutting the alarm off, brushing your hair, putting a shirt on, washing your face etc.
Ask them to begin to silently act out the action so it becomes a fairly short action with a beginning, middle and end.
What they’re doing right now is called a behavioral gesture, something they’d do in real life.
Have the students stand still again. Tell them this time they will do another type of gesture, only this does not need to be directly related to an activity they do in their day-to-day lives. Have them think of an emotion. Tell them to then physicalize that emotion, without doing a gesture that mirrors and activity in life (i.e. making a crying face and wiping their eyes, if sad is their emotion) encourage them to abstract the emotion into movement.
Ask: How is it different creating a behavioral gesture and an expressive gesture? How could both be used in a visual theatre piece?
Step 2: Tempo and Repetition with gesture
Tell the students that we’re first going to play with tempo and repetition.
Ask: What is tempo? What is repetition?
Tell them to begin exploring a gesture. It can either be the behavioral or expressive gestures they just came up with in the previous activity or they can use a new one. Once they’ve figured out the gesture, tell them to keep repeating it over and over and that you will help them find different tempos with the gesture.
Tell them that the tempo they’re at right now is called medium.
· Speed up just a bit—fast
· Speed up a bit more than that it’s super fast.
· Go back to medium
· A little slower than that is slow
· A little slower than that is super slow
Step 3: Tempo and Repetition practice
Have the students rest for a moment. Tell the students they will begin repeating their gesture again and you’ll call out different tempi (based on the tempi they discovered in the previous activity) and they’ll go that speed.
Have them stop and reflect:
What was your experience at different tempi?
How do the different tempi affect the gesture?
How did repeating the gesture affect the gesture and affect you?
How do you think these two things might contribute to a visual theatre piece?
Step 4: Closure
Have the students answer the last question in their groups. Then tell the students they will continue to explore creating Visual Theatre and gain more tools to build their visual theatre piece.
Lesson 5: Adding more to visual language: Place
Lesson Objective: Students will review introductory Viewpoints by beginning to craft their visual theatre piece.
Materials:
· Open space for rehearsal
Step 1: Warm Up—Where Exercise
Have various places listed on a slips of paper. One person volunteers and picks out a slip of paper and doesn’t tell anyone what’s on the paper. That person begins to silently act out what you do in that place. Other members of the class, join in silently in that place. Interact with each other and the space. There is no talking from the audience or from the actors. After a little bit of the scene acting out stop it and ask the remaining class and those who joined the scene where they think the scene took place.
Repeat the exercise one more time. How can you be more specific and give the feeling of the place? How can this help us in our Quest Visual Theatre project?
Step 2: Mapping out the story
Have the students get back into their groups and talk about the different places their story takes place and decide who is what character.
Step 3: Beginning to Build a Where.
Have the groups think for a moment about how to portray that setting. Bring the class back together and have a few groups share where their story takes place and one unique feature of that setting. How did Quest Visual Theatre show where Alice and Wonderland took place? How can that apply to different settings?
Step 4: Project Group Where Exercise
Have the students in their groups begin a where exercise using one of the settings of their story. They all need to be silent during this particular exercise. They want to find creative ways to create the places in the story visually for their audience.