The Theatre Classroom—Second Semester: Part Five

Day Eight: The next activity was a being activity. I again went around the room and quietly assigned each student a specific person or type of person listed below. I did not want the others in the class to hear me. First, I explained that the person would not generally fit their character but that their job was to make being the person the primary goal and the lines secondary. Obviously, not everyone can sing/dance but I told them to do the very best they could.  They would be graded on how well they portrayed that person saying the lines from Spoon River. (I had another call from a parent not wanting her child to have anything satanic, like a vampire or ghost, so be aware that there are those folks out there.) We as the audience should be able to guess correctly whom the student was portraying when the performance was done. I told them they could bring any props and costumes that would help. I collected their analysis sheets and gave them ten minutes to get ready.

People:

-Bag lady

-Drill sergeant

-Western singer

-Opera star

-Hard rock star

-Lawyer

-Ghost

-An Insane person

-Nerd

-Airhead

-Coach

-Farmer

-A person with an IQ 185

-A person with an IQ -5

-Beauty queen

-Dracula

-Viking

-Person from outer space

-Sherriff

-Super man

-A 4-year-old

-A 90-year-old

-Pirate

-Ninja Turtle

-Rapper

-Gangster

-Professional wrestler

-Mad scientist

-Hippie

-Any storybook character

-Robin Hood

-Guru

-Exercise trainer

-Ballerina

-Indiana Jones

Day Nine: This again was a being activity. They were to divide their piece in half and pick two of the following based on their analysis — color, food, inanimate object, car, shoe, animal — and do their piece as what they thought the objects/animal would sound like. They could tell us what two things they were going to portray, such as a color or food, but couldn’t tell us the specifics.  After each performance was done the audience was asked what the student was portraying and most of the time we got it right.  They then had to justify why they chose their specific items. This was a difficult assignment, but so worthwhile.  The students had to really think about their characters and what they represented.  After their performances, a discussion ensued about why we had done the last three assignments. The students had been forced to use their voices and their bodies — as acting is not a static medium — and they began to see all the possibilities for developing a character.  I passed back their analysis sheets.    

Day Ten: This day was the final presentation. They were to be their characters. They could bring in props and costumes if they chose. I gave them about ten minutes to prepare — changing clothes, going over the piece, etc. They were to start their character from the time they got out of their seats until they sat back down so how that character walked became important as well. The change from their first performance until now was amazing.