Unit: Storybook Scenes —Acting Unit
Objective: Students will demonstrate their understanding of the principles of acting in a scene by writing, rehearsing, and performing a 4-5 minute storybook scene.
Subject: Scene Acting
Level: Drama Foundations
Main Concepts: Objectives, Tactics, Characterization, Theatre Stage Basics, Blocking
National Standards:
TH:Cr2.1.7
a. Examine and justify original ideas and artistic choices in a drama/theatre work based on critical analysis, background knowledge, and historical and cultural context.
b. Demonstrate mutual respect for self and others and their roles in preparing or devising drama/theatre work.
TH:Cr3.1.7
a. Demonstrate focus and concentration in the rehearsal process to analyze and refine choices in a devised or scripted drama/theatre work.
b. Develop effective physical and vocal traits of characters in an improvised or scripted drama/theatre work
TH:Pr4.1.7
a. Consider various staging choices to enhance the story in a drama/theatre work.
b. Use various character objectives in a drama/theatre work.
TH:Pr5.1.7
a. Participate in a variety of acting exercises and techniques that can be applied in a rehearsal or drama/theatre performance.
TH:Pr6.1.7
a. Participate in rehearsals for a drama/theatre work that will be shared with an audience.
Storybook Scenes - Acting Unit
Lesson 1: Trusting your Instincts/“Listening”/Reacting
Daily Objective: Students will demonstrate their understanding of listening and trusting their instincts by playing different improv games.
Materials Needed: None.
Hook:
Invite everyone to come sit on the floor in a circle.
Play Fortune Cookie. Ask if anyone has played the game where together, as a group, they create a story by saying one word at a time, going around the circle. (Most have) Explain that this is like that, but instead of telling a story, they will be telling someone’s fortune. The first person to go will announce whose fortune is being told (ex: This is Mrs. King’s fortune) and then the next person will begin the prediction using only one word and then the next and so on and so on until the entire class has decided that the fortune is complete. At that point, when it feels done, everyone will clasp their hands together, bow, and whisper “yes yesyesyesyesyesyes,”because it is such a wise fortune.
As soon as they are getting the hang of it, tell the students that they can now ask questions, like it is a magic eight ball (ex: What will my wedding day be like?”etc.)
Tell the students that the goal isn’t to try to be funny, but to go with their impulses, to listen to the sentence and try to fit it, and to do it is as fast as they can. Make ground rules of anything that can’t be said (potty humor, in particular —“poop”is a funny word to 7th graders).
Discussion:
Ask the students to go back to their chairs. Begin a discussion about the exercise by asking the following questions: What did you have to do in order for the fortune to progress? Did you have to listen to those around you? Go with your impulses?
Activity:
Stand in front of the students with hands open and say “I need things.”Ask for five different objects. Students will bring you things like shoes, pencils, books, notebooks, etc. None should be the same.
Instruct them to stand in a circle. Tell them that they all need to learn the script —
A: This is a ______!
B: A what?
A: A ______!
B: OH! A (new)______!
The person in the middle will present their item (pencil) to someone in the circle, insisting that it is something else (a designer handbag) and treating it as such. (This is a designer handbag! A what? A designer handbag!) Then, the person in the circle will accept the item, announcing it as a new item (OH! A hotdog!)and will treat the item like the new thing until they give it to someone else. Allow this to go on for a little while, and then slowly starting adding items so that there are eventually five different things being presented.
Discussion:
Ask the students to sit on the floor, and conduct a discussion asking the following questions. Ask the students if it was it easy to come up with names for the gifts? Did it get easier or harder for them as you went along? Why?
Transition:
Have all of the students go and sit back in their chairs.
Activity:
Ask for two volunteers. Explain to the students that one of these students is a visiting foreign diplomat. They have come to tell you all about their homeland and customs, all in gibberish. The other is his/her translator, and they will tell you everything that is being said. Let the students demonstrate this.
Ask the students to get with a partner, and then ask each partner to find another partnership. One person in each partner is the gibberish speaker and the other is the translator. They have two minutes to converse this way. Ring the bell and tell them to switch partners
Discussion:
Have a discussion with the students about what worked and what didn’t? Was your partner “listening”to you when you were speaking gibberish? How were you able to know what to say, as the translator?
Activity:
Tell the students that they are going to combine the two games, and we are now going to play gibberish gift-giving.
Have the students make two lines facing each other. One line (A) is the gift giver and the other (B) is the gift receiver. The person from A gives the person from B a present, indicating only with gestures and their gibberish how big it is and how heavy it is. The person from B opens the present and shows us what was inside with their gestures, their expressions, and their gibberish. As soon as the giver gives and the receiver receives, they go to the end of the opposite line. Let each student go through each line at least once.
Discussion:
How would you apply what we did today to theatre? What do you think this has to do with acting? Why would following our impulses be important for actors? What was the hardest part of today?
Storybook Scenes - Acting Unit
Lesson 2: Theatre/Stage Basics Part 1
Daily Objective:Students will demonstrate their understanding of stage directions and acting positions by participating in a variety of activities, as well as completing the check for understanding in their journals.
Materials Needed: Slips of paper, labeled with the different stage directions, ready to hand out as soon as students start to walk into class.
Hook:
Hand each student a slip of paper as they walk into class (saying US, CS, DS, SR, SL, DSR, DSL, USR, USL). Do not give any instructions yet. Deflect any questions about what we are doing with the piece of paper.
Transition: Begin by asking the questions “What is theatre?”and “Where does theatre take place?”Inevitably, someone will say that theatre takes place on a stage. This is somewhat true, but anything can be a stage. Tell them you need them to use their imagination to see that the carpet in the front of the room is a stage. We will be using it as a stage today.
Introductory Activity: Ask for three brave volunteers to come up…explain that they are going to participate in an improv scene. Explain that they are the actors, and you (the teacher) are the director. Ask the class to give them a scenario. Before they can do much, stop them and give them really terrible directions. On purpose. The goal is to confuse them. After a minute of confusion, ask the students to give them a round of applause, and invite them to return to their seat.
Ask if it was confusing for anyone. Ask the actors if they knew what it was that you wanted them to do. Explain that this is why they had to come up with a way to give clearer instructions. Every stage is set up this way, and it means the same thing in every theatre. (Explain that it is from the actor’s point of view. Explain why upstage and downstage are switched from what they might normally think.)
Transition: Have everyone take a look at their papers, and based on the conversation we just had on upstage and downstage, and remembering that this carpet is a stage, invite them to come sit down where they think they should go, based on the direction on their cards.
Once everyone is seated, ask students to help you make a list of the different stage direction cards, and define the tougher ones for them.
(Based on this, does anyone need to move?)
Instruction: Have the students get their journals, label the page as today’s journal number, and draw the following diagram of a 3x3 grid (draw it on the board for them):
Label the diagram together, as if it were a stage, and the nine boxes show the nine different stage directions.
Activity: “Who has ever seen the first Harry Potter movie?”“Who remembers the part where they play Wizard Chess?”This next game is kind of like that. Ask for two volunteers. Everyone else is standing on the stage of the classroom. The volunteers will say first who it is they want to move (whether it is one person, or a group of people (girls, everyone wearing blue, certain birthdays, whatever)) and then where that group of people is moving to. The two volunteers will alternate calling out. You will also rotate the volunteers a few different times. (Depending on the class, after a few rounds of this, you can start playing it “Musical Chairs”Style, where the last person to get there (without running or shoving) is out. Some classes can’t handle this.)
Transition: Erase the diagram on the board and draw a new, blank one. Ask students to return to their journals, flip open to the very last page, and draw a new one there. This new one can’t be labeled. It must be as blank as the one on the board.
Check for Understanding: Tell them that you would like to check and make sure that everyone gets the idea of the stage directions. Have them rip a blank piece of paper out of their journals, and ask them to draw another stage diagram but ask them not to label it this time. Tell them that their finger is an actor, and the diagram is a stage for their actor. Their actor will have a starting point. Tell them that you, as the director, have some ideas as to where the actor should go when he is on stage. Give directions, have a stopping point, and have them draw a certain mark on that box. Do this a few times.
An X - Start downstage. Take a few steps toward upstage. Take a few steps toward upstage right. Move upstage.
Smiley Face - Start center stage. Move toward stage right. Move downstage center. Take a few steps toward downstage left, then move upstage left.
Their Initial - Start stage left. Move upstage left. Move toward downstage right. Cross to downstage right.
Let them pick the mark - Turn to the person next to you. Give them a starting point, three or four directions to follow, and an ending point. Switch so that you are each testing each other.
Transition: Ask them to turn in their papers. Put your journals under your chairs, we will come back to them later.
Activity: Explain the Machine Game. This time it isn’t a still picture, but a moving machine made out of people. One person starts the machine, doing a repetitive movement and a repetitive sound. Other people add on when they feel inspired. Ask for a volunteer to start. Watch for when the machine is “done.”Play this until you see a good example machine with people facing all sorts of directions.
Discussion: Freeze the machine. Ask the audience questions. Who is the focal point? Who is your eye drawn to? Which way are people facing? Did you notice that not everyone is facing the audience? What does that do to the picture?
Instruction: Talk about how in acting, just like there are stage directions, there are also directions for the actor to face - actor positions. Talk about it like it is a clock. The trick to knowing what they are called is looking at how much of the actor’s face you can see. (Full front, full back, half - profile, 1/4 right, left, etc.)
Draw a person, bird’s eye view, on the board. Have students help to label the different actor positions. Ask them to copy this into their journals. Talk about what might be the strongest, and what might be the weakest.
Activity: Have everyone stand up in their places. Play a quick game of Simon Says with the acting positions. Tell them that they are the actor, so this time the stage is the chairs and their left is stage left, etc. Tell them not to look at the papers on the walls because they will confuse them.
If there is time at the end: Have students play freeze, but between every two or three scenes, make a new rule about acting positions or stage directions (ex: you are only allowed to move upstage and downstage, one of you needs to be facing full back at all times, you may only face 1/2 right or left, etc.)
Storybook Scenes - Acting Unit
Lesson 3: Theatre/Stage Basics Part 2
Daily Objective:Students will demonstrate their understanding of stage directions and acting positions by participating in a variety of activities, as well as completing the check for understanding in their journals.
Materials Needed: Stage Term Relay Race Papers.
Hook:
Have students grab their journals on the way out the door as they follow you to the auditorium.
Activity:
Lead students on a tour of the stage. Have them take notes on the different stage terms.
-House
-Pit
-Apron
-Grand Drapes
-Teaser
-Proscenium Arch
-Leg
-Cyclorama
-Backstage/Offstage
-Onstage
-Baton
-Electric
-Traveler
-Wing
Transition:
Move students back to the classroom.
Instruction:
Draw the different types of stages on the board and talk with students about the differences as you label them. Ask students if they have seen any plays on these different kinds of stages. Have students draw and label these in their notebooks.
-Proscenium Stage
-Thrust Stage
-Theatre in the Round/Arena Stage
Review Activity:
Set up two podiums. Divide the class into two different teams. Play a family feud style review game with the students (first one to buzz in gets to answer).
Activity:
Move back to the auditorium and divide the class into eight different groups. The first person in each line has to do all of the items 1-10 before passing it on to the next person. As soon as everyone in your group has gone, you have to sit down. The first group that is finished, with everyone seated, wins!
Stage TermRelay Race
1. Crawl along the center line from upstage to downstage.
2. Do five jumping jacks facing 1⁄4 right while standing downstageleft.
3. Cross from stage left to stage right using the crossover or grapevine move.
4. Hop over to touch one of the stage left legs then skip over to touch one of the stage right legs.
5. Recite the entire alphabet while standing in the house.
6. Crab walk along the proscenium line from stage right to stage left.
7. Hop on one foot to upstage right and point to (BUT DO NOT TOUCH) the cyc.
8. Turn around three times while hopping on one foot in down stage center.
9. Sing Row RowRow Your Boat three times in the stage right wing.
10. Say the Pledge of Allegiance while standing on the apron and facing full back.
Storybook Scenes - Acting Unit
Lesson 4: Introduction: Stories into Scripts
Daily Objective: Students will choose storybooks to turn into mini-plays, and they will write an outline of their mini-plays.
Materials Needed: A favorite picture book from your own childhood.
Hook:
Invite students to join you on the rug for story time. Introduce the story. Tell them why you chose it (what it means to you, why you remember it from your childhood, who read it to you, etc.) Begin reading the picture book to the students. Go all out, like it is story time at Barnes and Nobles.
Stop the story halfway through (at an important and pivotal point) and have students get in groups with people around them. They need to create a short skit for how they think the story will end. Give them three minutes to discuss and one minute to perform. Have everyone perform their one minute guesses for the ending.
After students have performed, read them the rest of the story.
Transition:
Have students move to their seats, picking up their journals on the way.