Instructor: Rachel Joseph
March 29: Introduction to syllabus (dual aspect of acquiring tools of actor and tools of informed spectator or critic); Brief introductions by participants (name, field, experience, interests in drama); Collecting impressions of what is important or noticeable in good dramatic performance (e.g. receptivity, control of body and voice, spontaneity, bold choices, etc.); move into theater for body and voice exercises on stage; the walking game (stop at clap, then begin walking again without a leader)--break into two groups so everyone can see it in process; murder game (also break into two groups). Assignment: 1) write a story of something that happened to you and memorize it the way you wrote it; 2) watch a character in a television or movie scene and evaluate.
March 31: Begin in theater: Exercises for becoming aware of body; begin in savasana; move to back stretches; voice and breath exercises; the name and sound invisible ball game; the mirror game--in partner pairs; peforming story assignment one at a time on stage in front of peers. Assignments: 1) Read selection from Mamet's Practical Guide to the Actor; 2) prepare the same story a) to a particular audience, and b) with specific actions
April 5: Discussion of the Practical Guide to the Actor; body and voice prep in theater; Game of status: actors walk on stage assuming a number of status (between 1 and 10) and act off one another; audience determines number of status after performance; time for a performance of one story
April 7: Game of walking like...; Performances of stories; Assignment: Memorize monologue from A Doll's House
April 12: Recitation of monologues
April 14: Warm-up on stage; The ball game, but instead of sounds, lines from monologue, and then summary of motivations; Partnering up for Meeting a Former Acquaintance on a Park Bench: Frist person says, "Don't I know you from..." and Second person says, "Yes, you know me from... and you were the one who..." "Yes, I was the one who... and you said..."; This game expanded to Improv Exercise in which scene is frozen, and others jump in; Performing improvized version of the monologue to a partner on stage; Assignment: Read A Doll's House and note what characters believe about one another, about themselves
April 19: N/A
April 21: Working in classroom now as stage is in use; voice and body warm-up; ideas provided for scenework; monologue presentations: each actor enters room as for an audition, and then performs; suggestions are made by instructor which raise the stakes, provide different motivations, or make use of physical, emotional, and vocal range
April 26: voice and body warm-up in classroom; exercise of walking around room while keeping someone else in your field of sight; walking while keeping two people in field of sight; moving while keeping two people arranged from you in an isosceles triangle; receptivity exercise: actors walk around the room and can follow, stop, or sit in response to one another; then actors can also turn, or respond to objects in or architecture of the room; half of actors watch while the other performs (exercise based in Suzuki techniques); performance of rest of monologues; scenework assignments ( for me, Creon in Anouilh's Antigone with Silvia Samanez as Antigone)
April 28: Discussion of plays selected for team scenework; cold reading of selected scenes and discussion of dynamics of plays