Improvisation: Characters

Transcription

1 Improvisation: Characters Objective To identify and practice one of the elements of improvisation. Description Characters have a lot of value in empowering your students improv. In this lesson, students will start to explore character in improv with the warm up game Character Walkabout and the improv game Hitchhiker. Materials Character Walkabout Instruction Sheet (for the teacher) Hitchhiker Instruction Sheet (for the teacher) Reflection Instruction 1. Journal Prompt: What do you find frustrating about improvisation? If you don t find anything frustrating, why do you think that is? 2. Discuss the journal prompt with students. What frustrates you about doing improv? What makes a successful improv? Guide students away from the a successful improv is funny line of thought. Improv can be funny but that should never be the intent. 3. Emphasize that strong characters are one of the most important elements to a successful improv. Ask your students why that might be. See what their answers are and then introduce the idea that characters are all about POV (Point Of View). A character s point of view gives the student a perspective to work from. There s always something to talk about. 4. Exercise: Character Walkabout. This is a warm up exercise. Get everyone up and moving around the space. Have students walk with purpose, without talking, and check in with themselves: How are you feeling today? Are you tired? Is anything sore? Are you super excited and jazzed? 5. Instruct students to keep moving. On your go, have students say hello to one another. Have students say only hello, so they don t start thinking about what they have to say or do as the exercise progresses. Instruct students to say hello from wherever they are, whatever they re feeling. Remind them to make eye contact with whomever they re saying hello to. 6. After a few minutes, have students say hello like they re happy to see everyone they encounter. Hello! Nothing else. Have students keep moving, making eye contact, and saying hello like they re happy to see the person. 7. Next, instruct students to say hello like they re not too sure about everyone they meet. Have students keep moving, making eye contact, and saying hello like they re not sure about them. 8. Side coach students during these: keep moving, make eye contact, say hello and nothing else. Give students the opportunity to say hello to at least 3-4 people before changing to the next one. After the not sure round go through the following. Feel free to add to the list. The idea is to say hello, but also play with different moods, emotions, and motivations. a. Say hello like you ve just won the lottery. b. Say hello like you ve just checked your back pocket and you ve realized you ve lost the winning ticket. c. Say hello like you suspect that everyone you see has de-friended you on Facebook. d. Say hellolike you have de-friended everyone on Facebook, but you re trying not to let anyone know. e. Say hello like everyone you see is your favorite celebrity. Drama Teacher Academy 2015 Jennine Profeta 1

2 9. Do a quick check-in. How are you feeling? Were some emotions and moods easier to play than others? Did you maybe overhear someone that was doing something cool and funky that you were digging? 10. Have students move around the space. This time they re going to start playing with character and ages. They can also say more than hello, if they want. 11. Start with students greeting each other like they are all toddlers at a daycare. Let them explore this character and this age for a minute. Side coach them to think about being a 2-3 year old toddler at a daycare. Coach them to use their voices and bodies to sound and to move like toddlers. 12. Next, increase the age. Now students are 6 year olds at a birthday party. How does their character change? Coach them that they ve all just had cake and they are loaded with sugar. 13. Side coach students during these exercises: keep moving, make eye contact, say hello and encourage them to say more if they want. Remind them to focus on the character and their age. Remind them to think about the physicality of this character. Side coach them to think about body language: How do you walk? How do you communicate? How do you express? Give students the opportunity to say hello to at least 3-4 people before changing to the next character/age/ situation. Keep moving up in age. Even if they don t have a lot of experience with the ages, remind them to think about people they know in these categories. How do these people present themselves? Feel free to play with the ages and the situations. The goal is to get them playing with different energy levels and physicality, ranging from hyper, energized youth to grave, weighted old age. For example: a. Tweens at their first school dance. b. Teens at a prom. c. College students living away from home for the first time. d. Graduates at their first day on the job. e. New parents who haven t slept but have to go to work. f. Retirees who don t have to work anymore. g. Elderly people on their first day at a nursing home. 14. Bring students back to neutral, but keep them moving around the room. Tell them to focus on professions and stereotypes. Think about these types of characters. Have the students go back to saying only hello. Remind them of the pattern. Keep moving, make eye contact, say hello. Remind them that when they move, they should be moving as their character. How does this character move? 15. Go through the following greetings. Feel free to add to the list as long as they re playing between different types, physicalities, and energies. Give students time with each character. Let them say hello to 3-4 different people before moving on to the next exercise. a. Greet each other as cowboys, prima ballerinas, lawyers, campaigning politicians, kindergarten teachers, plumbers, used car salesmen, supermodels, and drama teachers. 16. Do a quick check-in. How was that for you? Were some roles harder to take on than others? What did you do when you didn t know how to walk like a lawyer or like a prima ballerina? Did you look at somebody else? How was it to interact with one another using these different personas? How was it to interact with one another being someone other than yourself? 17. Have students identify which characters came most easily for them and keep a mental list. These characters are going to come in handy with the next game, Hitchhiker. 18. Hitchhiker. Line up three chairs in front of your group. Explain that the chairs represent the front seat of a car. The chair furthest to the left is the driver s seat, while the other two chairs are for passengers (one who will be the hitchhiker). This improv will start off with a driver and one passenger. Get two volunteers to sit in those chairs. 19. Everyone is going to participate, so have the rest of the class line up off to the side. The people who are waiting to come on stage will be the hitchhikers. Drama Teacher Academy 2015 Jennine Profeta 2

3 20. Start the improv. The driver and the passenger are just driving around, perhaps going to the mall. They start a conversation in a neutral state and talk about whatever they want. The first hitchhiker is going to step forward, the driver will see them, and pull over to pick them up, 21. The hitchhiker s job is to bring a strong character into the car. A strong offer. Remind students to think about the characters in the Walkabout Game. A strong offer is when you were like the cowboy and you talked with that accent, with that drawl. Another strong offer is when you stood very tall and very stiff and posed like the prima ballerina. 22. You may want to be the first hitchhiker, to model this for students. If you enter the car as a cowboy, say Howdy, ma am! Howdy, miss! I was sure glad you could pick me up today. I m on my way to the rodeo. 23. Once the hitchhiker enters the car with the strong offer, the other two people in the car will duplicate it. Oh, yeah, sure! Great to have you in the car! Oh, I love to pull over for a fellow cow person like myself! They continue the conversation and all three are the same character type. 24. If students have trouble with the vocal traits of the character, side coach students to get into the physicality. Look at how the other people are seated. Are they sitting back? Are they sitting forward? Are they sitting upright? Start with that. Then, look at what are their hands doing? Do they have any facial tics? Copy that and then trust that the voice is going to come with it. 25. After the scene goes on for a minute, the driver has to find an excuse to leave. Once the driver exits the car, the first passenger moves over to become the driver, the hitchhiker moves over to become the passenger, and they drop the persona and return to a neutral state. Now they are ready to pick up a new hitchhiker. 26. Repeat the process (see step #25). The driver and the passenger are in neutral. The hitchhiker steps forward with a strong character, a strong offer and enters the car. The driver and the passenger adopt the physicality and vocal characteristics of the hitchhiker s character. At some point the driver has a reason to leave, everyone moves over and the process begins again. 27. Note: The point of this exercise is not accuracy. It s to challenge and push students to explore the boundaries of a character. To identify the physical and vocal qualities of a character and to have fun with it. Another goal for this exercise is for students to present a strong offer (i.e. a strong character) and work with it. 28. Check in with students after the exercise. How was that for you? If it was fun, why was it fun? If you were an audience member enjoying the play, what were the performers doing that made you enjoy it so much? Talk about how having a strong character can make a successful improv. 29. Reflection: Have students reflect on the exercise. What was it like to present a strong offer and accept a strong offer? Were some of these characters easier to do than others? If some of these characters were more challenging, how did you try and find your way into these roles? What strategies/things did you use to make it work for you? 30. Exit Slip Question. If you use the Reflection for homework, consider asking these exit slip questions at the end of class: a. Why is a strong character important to a successful improv scene? b. Describe the Hitchhiker game in your own words. c. Describe your participation in today s exercises. What would you change if you had the chance? Assessment A Reflection Rubric and a Participation Rubric are included. Drama Teacher Academy 2015 Jennine Profeta 3

4 Character Walkabout Hello Get the group to move around the space. Instruct students to interact using the suggestions you call out, but the only word they can say is hello. They must demonstrate the following qualities via body language, gait (the way they walk) and voice (tone, intention). One-at-a-time, call out the following: Say hello as yourself and however you re feeling at the moment. Say hello like you re happy to see everyone you meet. Say hello like you re not so sure about everyone you meet. Say hello like you just won the lottery. Say hello like you just checked your pocket and the winning ticket is gone. Say hello like you suspect that everyone you see has de-friended you on Facebook. Say hello like you ve just de-friended everyone on Facebook but don t want them to know. Say hello like everyone you see is your favourite celebrity. Keep them moving around the space but ask the students: How was the exercise? We re some roles/situations easier to play than others? Did you encounter or overhear someone doing something that you liked? And if so, did you try to mimic that quality or borrow something from them? Encourage students, especially the shy ones, to borrow from their friends. Their character will still be unique, but mimicking a quality they like might help them discover and bring out something different in themselves. Character, Age, Occupation Everyone continues moving around the room. Call out the following scenarios (take away the ello only restriction at this point and let them say whatever they want). Drama Teacher Academy 2015 Jennine Profeta 4

5 AGE Greet each other like: Toddlers at a daycare. 6-year-olds at a birthday party. Tweens at their first school dance. Teens at a prom. College students living away from home for the first time. Graduates on their first day on the job. New parents that haven t slept but still have to go to work. Retirees. Elderly people on their first day at a nursing home. Have students return to neutral as they continue to walk around the room. Have them take a deep breath and let it out, to physically shake things off. OCCUPATION Greet each other like: Cowboys Primaballerinas Lawyers Campaigning Politicians Kindergarten Teachers Plumbers Used Car Salespeople Supermodels Improv or Drama Teachers Ask the students: How was that for you? Were some roles harder to take on than others? When you didn t know what to do, what did you do to get through it? How was it to interact with one another using the various personas or character POV s (points of view)? Drama Teacher Academy 2015 Jennine Profeta 5

6 Hitchhiker Set up three chairs. The three chairs represent the inside of a car. One person always sits in the chair stage left (Driver) and one in the middle chair (Passenger). When there are only two people in the chairs, they can talk about anything as long as they stay neutral (i.e. no crazy accents, exaggerated personalities, etc.). The Hitchhiker enters the scene by standing stage right of the car with their thumb out. The Hitchhiker makes a strong character choice (or offer ) that they re going to bring into the scene (i.e. a crazy accent, exaggerated personality - maybe talking like a cowboy, a rapper, or an old person who can barely hear and only wants to talk about the good old days ). Once the hitchhiker enters the car, everyone mirrors whatever the Hitchhiker is doing and carries on with the scene. Encourage them to indulge in the characters as long as they re not blocking or negating one another. If anyone is struggling with their character, instruct them to look at the Hitchhiker s physicality and copy that first. Are they sitting forward? Are their legs crossed? Are they gesturing a lot with their hands? This is especially helpful when a student is struggling with an accent; mirror the physicality first and trust that the voice will follow. After a minute or two, the driver needs to find an excuse to leave the car that agrees with their character (e.g. a cowboy might see a steer he/she needs to rope, a rapper goes off to buy a rhyming dictionary, an old person wants to join a Bring Back the Hindenburg rally). Once the driver leaves, the two people in the chairs slide over so that they become the driver and middle passenger. They go back to neutral (during which they can talk about anything they want) to prepare for the next Hitchhiker. Keep Hitchhikers-in-waiting standing in line, ready to go next. Keep rotating through the students until everyone has played all three roles. Ask students questions: How was that for you? If it was fun, why was it fun? Were some characters easier to take on than others? Drama Teacher Academy 2015 Jennine Profeta 6

7 Reflection: Improv Characters Reflect on participating in the Hitchhiker Improv Game. Consider the following questions in your answer: What was it like to present a strong character and accept a strong character? Were some of these characters easier to do than others? If some of these characters were more challenging, how did you find your way into those roles? What strategies/things did you use to make that work for you? How can you use what you have learned in future improv work? Length: 1 page. Drama Teacher Academy 2015 Jennine Profeta 7

8 Reflection Rubric Name: Comprehension Demonstrates thorough understanding of the task. Demonstrates solid understanding of the task. Demonstrates some understanding of the task. Demonstrates little understanding of the task. Effort Reflection is detailed, focused and thought provoking. Goes beyond requirements of the assignment. Reflection is detailed and thoughtful. Reflection has some detail and some commitment has been made to completing a thoughtful reflection. Reflection is not detailed and contains superficial content. Unfocused with minimal work. Personal Connection Demonstrates thorough connections between their personal views and the assignment. Demonstrates solid connections between their personal views and the assignment. Demonstrates some connection between their personal views and the assignment. Demonstrates limited connection between their personal views and the assignment. Commitment to Presentation Excellent attention to form and presentation. Reflection is easy to read. No spelling or grammatical errors that interfere with understanding. Solid attention to presentation. Reflection is easy to read. One or two errors in spelling and/or grammar but do not interfere with understanding. Some attention to form and presentation. Reflection is mostly easy to read. Several errors in spelling and/or grammar that sometimes interfere with understanding. Little attention to form and presentation. Reflection is difficult to read. Many errors in spelling and/or grammar that interfere with understanding. Overall Excellent reflection. Solid reflection. Satisfactory reflection. Reflection needs work. Drama Teacher Academy 2015 Jennine Profeta 8

9 Participation Rubric Participation in the improv game Hitchhiker Name: Commitment as Hitchhiker Actively committed to the improv with a strong character offer beyond the call of the exercise. Committed to the improv with a strong character offer. An attempt at a strong character. Not fully committed for entire improv. Commitment needs work. Little to no attempt at a strong character offer. Commitment as the driver/ passenger Actively committed to accepting the character offer beyond the call of the exercise. Committed to accepting the character offer. An attempt at accepting the character offer. Not fully committed for entire improv. Commitment needs work. Little to no attempt at accepting character offer. Energy Excellent active energy throughout the entire scene. Solid energy throughout the scene. An attempt is made but energy is inconsistent. Little to no energy throughout the scene. Focus Actively focused for the entire improv beyond the call of the exercise. Focused for the entire improv. An attempt made to focus during the improv. Focus needs work. Easily distracted during the improv. Drama Teacher Academy 2015 Jennine Profeta 9