1. Warm-up Living an emotion . . .
Notes from video:
* 7 Universal emotions: joy, grief, fear, anger, surprise, love, laughter (people display these emotions in a similar way)
* Emotions scale,
* An emotion brings you on to a scene,
* Live the emotion as you - that's the authentic bit of you that you bring into the story . . .
2. Two-Person, Two-Minute Improv presentations
July 4
1. Warm-up: Pass the Emotion
Sit in a Drama circle.
We're going to pass a smile around the circle. Start this off by passing a big smile to the person sat to your left, and then encourage it all the way around.
Using the same principle, pass further emotions or feelings.
- Sad
- Excited
- Angry
- Hungry
- Scared
- etc
Seven-sentence story structure
Most stories can be boiled down to seven basic sentences. These sentences begin like this:
Once upon a time....
And every day...
Until one day...
And because of that...
And because of that...
Until finally...
And from that day...
It's good to use examples when explaining this, I will use 'Hannah Montana: The Movie' here:
Once upon a time there was a girl who was secretly a pop-star. And every
day she was careful not to let anyone know her secret. Until one day
she met a boy, and he discovered her double life. And because of that he
was angry and felt betrayed. And because of that Hannah felt awful.
Until finally she owned up to her double life. And from that day the
people from her home have known and accepted her secret, and she and the
boy are very happy.
1. Have the students sit in a circle and ask them to come up with one
sentence from the story structure each. If you have more than 7 students
you can just begin from the first sentence again once you reach the
eight student.
2. Once you've done this you can broaden the exercise and take away the
7-sentence restriction, allowing students to tell the story in as many
sentences as they like.
3. Warm-up: Bus Stop
A classic improvisation game based around the characters you might meet at a bus stop.
- Develop improvisation skills
- Develop characterisation
When working on specific acting skills (e.g. making an
entrance, creating a fully developed character, knowing how to sit),
environments such a bus stop become convenient settings for the
chance meeting of characters.
You will choose one of the occupations for your character. Imagine that you are waiting at a bus stop for a bus that will take you into New York City when it starts to rain. In character (according to your occupation) you will interact with other people who come into the scene as they try to stay dry while waiting for the bus.
We will start the scene with one person, adding the others at suitable intervals.
Try to let the scene run a little, before jumping in with their own characters.
July 5
1) Drama Word Puzzle: Conventions
2) You can watch (in pairs or 3s) videos associated with our unit on Commedia dell'Arte (Modern Family, Middle, Simpsons, Fawlty Towers, etc.)
HAVE. A GREAT SUMMER! SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER!
You will choose one of the occupations for your character. Imagine that you are waiting at a bus stop for a bus that will take you into New York City when it starts to rain. In character (according to your occupation) you will interact with other people who come into the scene as they try to stay dry while waiting for the bus.
We will start the scene with one person, adding the others at suitable intervals.
Try to let the scene run a little, before jumping in with their own characters.
July 5
1) Drama Word Puzzle: Conventions
2) You can watch (in pairs or 3s) videos associated with our unit on Commedia dell'Arte (Modern Family, Middle, Simpsons, Fawlty Towers, etc.)
HAVE. A GREAT SUMMER! SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER!
