The Voice of the Puppet
Created by: Megan Michaels
Learning Level:
First year theatre students (originally created for junior high students)
Prior Experience:
Pantomime, Plot structure, Staging rules
Unit Educational Objective:
Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of vocal qualities (rate, pitch, tone, diction, and projection) by designing a unique voice for a puppet and performing in an original, rehearsed puppet show.
National Core Arts Theatre Standards:
TH:Cr3.1.HSI
a. Practice and revise a devised or scripted drama/theatre work using theatrical staging conventions.
b. Explore physical, vocal and physiological choices to develop a performance that is believable, authentic, and relevant to a drama/theatre work.
c. Refine technical design choices to support the story and emotional impact of a devised or scripted drama/ theatre work.
TH:Pr6.1.HSI
a. Perform a scripted drama/theatre work for a specific audience.
Lessons:
LESSON 1- Rate, Pitch, Tone, Volume
Educational Objective: Students will demonstrate their understanding of vocal rate, pitch, and tone by using the terms to compare and contrast two different voices.
LESSON 2-Diction
Educational Objective: Students will show the importance and execution of diction in performance by creating tongue twisters to teach to and practice with the class.
LESSON 3—Designing a voice for a character
Educational Objective: Students will choose a character from a fairy tale and design a vocal pattern for them using the various qualities of voice and animal imagery.
LESSON 4-Anatomy and Script Writing
Educational Objective: Students will demonstrate their understanding of basic vocal anatomy and script writing by labeling a cartoon chart with the different parts and working together to create a short script.
LESSON 5-Designing
Educational Objective: Students will design a voice and a puppet for their character in the script they wrote previously.
LESSON 6-Making Puppets
Educational Objective: Students will execute the designs they made by crafting their puppets and practicing their vocal patterns.
LESSON 7-Preparation and Rehearsal
Educational Objective: Students will rehearse their puppet shows with their puppets and voices that they have designed.
LESSON 8-Performance
Educational Objective: Students will use vocal variations to create interesting performances for specific characters.
LESSON 1- Rate, Pitch, Tone, Volume
Educational Objective: Students will demonstrate their understanding of vocal rate, pitch, and tone by using the terms to compare and contrast two different voices.
Supplies:
- Clip from Alvin and the Chipmunks (opening scenes from “Warewolf” episode)
- Clip of Eeyore (scene from Winnie the Pooh episode where Eeyore loses his tail)
- Clip from Singing in the Rain (“I can’t make love to a bush!” scene)
- Clip of Professor Trelawny from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (the prophecy)
- Packages of 3 different colors of stickers
- 5 posters labelled individually: “Rate” “Pitch” “Diction” “Tone” “Projection”
- Footloose rap divided up on slips of paper
Pre-Assessment: Have 5 different posters around the room. Each one is labeled with one of the following words: Rate, Pitch, Diction, Tone, Projection. At each poster have a set of stickers (red, yellow, green).
Divide the class into five groups. Each group needs to be assigned to begin at one of the posters. Tell the students that if they understand the word on the poster and could explain it to someone else, they get to put a green sticker on the board. If they’ve heard of it, but are not sure what it means, then they put a yellow. If they have never heard of the word before, then they put a red.
Each group starts at one poster, but as soon as a student is done then they do not need to wait for their group to move on to the next one. They need to go to all 5 posters.
After the students are done, have them stand at the poster that they thought they knew the most about. Have each of these new groups present and explain the word to the class. This allows you to see where they will need the most help and explanation. Discuss the words and tell them that today we will be focusing on pitch, rate, and tone.
Hook: Ask “who do you think has the deepest voice in the class?” (this will be fun because in middle school many of them are still having their voices change). “Who has the highest voice?” “do you have a friend or relative who has a unique way of speaking? Someone whom you can identify just by hearing their voice? Who is it? What makes their voice unique? Can you mimic it for us?”
Step: The way we use our voices can tell others a lot about us and can make us stand out against the crowd. Today we will talk about rate, pitch, tone, and volume.
Step: (Have them write these definitions in their journals) Define Rate for them. Ask the guys, “Boys, which of you have sisters? Who can do an impersonation of their sister? (if someone can, let them demonstrate) What happens when two girls start telling a really exciting story?” (they talk really fast)
Step: Have the class all turn to their neighbor and mimic excited girls in the hallway. Explain that often the rate at which we speak can indicate our excitement level or our energy. (You may also have them practice by pretending that they are girls at a One Direction concert.)
Step: Define Pitch(high and low)and tone (the emotion in the voice). Tell a partner just one sentence about your morning. See if you can decide whose voice is deeper. Ask them which in each partnership is deeper. Tell the same sentence again to the same partner, but this time use an emotion in your voice too. (In other words have them think about how they feel about their morning. What is their opinion on how it went and use that opinion to color their tone.)
Step: We are going to practice by comparing and contrasting a few people we are familiar with. Hand out a sheet that has a kind of rating system on it so that they can rate each example on the various things you’ve defined for them.
- Alvin and the Chipmunks (opening scenes from “Warewolf” episode)
- Eeyore (scene from Winnie the Pooh episode where Eeyore loses his tail)
- Singing in the Rain or Guys and Dolls (“I can’t make love to a bush!” scene)
- Professor Trelawny from Harry Potter 3(the prophecy)
Step: “What did you notice about the way these characters spoke? What if Prof Trelawny had Alvin’s voice pitch and rate? How would that change her character or the feeling of her line? How would having a voice like Alvin make it even harder to take her seriously?”
Step: We are going to practice. Cut the following rap into several beats or lines-one on each strip of paper. At the beginning of each line they should see listed the number for the order that lines go in and at the end of each line include the vocal quality that they should change as they say the line. (example a strip might read like this: (2) “Ever since the dawn of time” [pitch]) The students should come up with creative ways to say the line using variations of pitch, rate, volume, etc.
Footloose rap: Dancing is not a crime./ Ever since the dawn of time, /if anything, everybody had the right to howl at the moon and move all night. / When folks were tribal, back before the Bible,/ they were liable to dance when the crops came in /or they’d pull out all the stops when the earth would spin, /or maybe they had a battle to win, /so they’d go thumping on a tree trunk/, grooving to the free funk, /and just like that in nothing flat /they’d be hands clappin’, toes tappin’, feet flappin’, dogs yappin’, HEY! /I could-a told ya that would happen./They would dance every time they had a chance./ Whatever the reason or circumstance./ So if you’ve heard about Adam and Abraham, /you will remember this guy from the book of Samuel./ David, hey, ya know King David? Dave!/ He made a science outtaknockin’ down giants./ The bigger they come, the harder they fall. / He didn’t like math or geography,/ but check this out, he loved choreography. / It might sound odd, but David thought it brought him closer to God,/ so he would dance. /Every time he got the chance…
Step: After 3 or 4 minutes of practice, have them line up in the correct order of the phrases. Explain that you will be hearing all the lines that they have been working on. Ask them to pay attention to the changes that they hear in the others’ voices and lines. Have everyone say their lines using the various pitches and rates they discovered. Go down the line until you come to the end. NOTE: In an ideal setting, no one would have the same line as someone else, because we don’t want them to be influenced by what someone else does. Don’t let them hear the original performance from the soundtrack until after this experience.
Step: Ask them, “Which lines stood out to you? Did you have a favorite? What kind of pitch or rate did they use? What kind of person did they sound like? Did their rate or tone change the feeling of the line?”
Step If you choose, have the students see or listen to a performance of the actual rap from Footloose. Have them compare some of the lines they said to how it was performed. How was the feeling different?
Step: Remind them that the rate and pitch of our voice are very important not only to the feeling of the line, but to the presentation of our characters.
Step: Give them the homework assignment to go home and take notes on the next thing they watch (TV show, news, movie, etc). Have them find two different people or characters and compare and contrast their vocal qualities. Have them copy down the requirements of the assignment from the board. They will need to turn in a paper that says what they watched, when, and the names of the two people/characters. They should answer questions like “what did they have in common? How did they differ? What did their voices tell you about the person or the person’s emotion?”
NOTE: If a student is worried about having time to watch something on TV or if their parents do not allow them to watch during the week, suggest that they listen to any conversation between two people. This could be their parents, siblings, teachers in the hall, peers at lunch, church, etc. They just need to be able to tell us where, when, who, and compare the two voices.
LESSON 2-Diction
Educational Objective: Students will show the importance and execution of diction in performance by creating tongue twisters to teach to and practice with the class.
Supplies:
- MAD GAB cards/handouts (game)
- Clip of Taylor Swift Caption Fail
- The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll
Pre-hook/ Assessment: Have them turn in their assignment from last time. Ask them what interesting voices they heard. Can they mimic them? What made them stand out or interesting to listen to? What did the type of voices teach them about the characters or the scene?
Hook: Tell the class that they are going to close their eyes and focus on your voice. You will be saying phrases that sound like gibberish and they need to do their best to figure out what it is you are actually trying to say. When they think they know have them raise their hand. Take a card from the MAD GAB game and say it the way it is written. (example: Easel Aid Ease Man –He’s a Lady’s Man; Know Sayer-Nose Hair; Eye Pillow Fizz Sigh-Apple of his eye) Just do one or two. You will have to say each several times using a few different rates or diction changes in order for the students to recognize them. Consider projecting the gibberish phrase on the board so they have a visual as well.
After you do one or two together, divide the class into groups of 5-6 and give each group several MAD GAB cards. Tell them to play the game in their groups and notice how they have to change the way they say the phrase in order for their teammates to understand them.
Step: After they have played a few cards discuss their experience trying to guess what the phrases were. What made it harder? Easier? Define ‘Diction’ for them. Have them add this definition to their journals with the definitions from last time. (Diction definition: Articulation in speaking or singing. The care we take in making our words clear.)
Step:Ask them “Why would having clear diction be important when you are speaking or signing on stage?” We are going to show a video that shows what happens to a Taylor Swift song because she is not clear enough in her diction.
Step: Tell us about a time when you struggled to understand what someone was saying or singing in a performance? Show a clip of Taylor Swift Caption Fail. This is where they took one of her songs and had Google Caption translate it into what it thought she said. Use this clip to demonstrate the importance of diction in performance. Ask them: How did these misinterpretations change the meaning or the feeling of the song?
Step: Explain that in order to be good performers and make sure that our audience understands what is happening in the story we must practice our diction. “Have you ever been to a performance where you could see the spit flying from a performer’s mouth? We don’t need to spit to have proper diction, but we need to savor every move we make with our mouth.” Briefly introduce them to their articulators (teeth, lips, tongue), you will go further in depth with this in another lesson, but you want them to pay attention to these parts of their mouth and what they feel like as they use diction. Have them say the phrase “Percussive Diction”. Have them slow every syllable down so they can feel every consonant and vowel. Explain that it probably feels unnatural to them, but it sounds clear and normal to an audience member. Explain the use of the articulators.
Step: We are going to practice with a poem by Lewis Carroll. The Jabberwocky. Project the poem on the overhead or screen and warn them that many of the words are gibberish and will feel strange in their mouths, but their goal should be to make it sound as normal as possible while using percussive diction. Tell them how to say the difficult words that are in the beginning. Consider reading the whole poem to them first so that they can hear what it is supposed to sound like. Allow them to practice with a neighbor and then have them say the poem 2 times as a class.
Tell them it’s a competition between the boys and girls. The girls will say the first half using the best diction they can and then the boys will say the last half all together using the best diction they can. Give them a few minutes to practice. Then hold the competition
Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll
`Twasbrilling, and the slithytoves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the momerathsoutgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware theJubjub bird, and shun
Thefurmious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
Thevorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And, hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.
`Twasbrilling, and the slithytoves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the momerathsoutgrabe
Step:After the competition ask them questions like: which words or sounds were harder to make clear? What could you do to practice diction? Point out some parts of the poem that you thought had great diction and parts that did not.
Step:One of the ways we practice or warm up our mouths is by saying tongue twisters over and over again. In groups of 3 create a tongue twister that you can teach to the class. Give each group a consonant to focus their tongue twister on. No swear words or brown-bag content. Give them about 7 minutes to create it (if, after 7 minutes they need more time, give them a couple more). Consider giving them a list of simple words that start with their consonant they were assigned to help them think of words.