Calendar
Sunday Anthem Schedule
THEATER-MUSIC CLASS NOTES
September 26 (Meeting 1):
Getting Acquainted, Warm-ups
Games played: 10 fingers, alliterative name game, blind line-up, relay hand-off, tongue-twisters, "space" ball, mirror, copycat (accepting circle)
Introduction to Improv:
Offers, accepting, blocking
Establishing a platform
Establishing conflicting "I wants"
For an brief overview of basic Improv terms, click here.What we discovered:
The mirror game was in some ways the most fascinating. At first there was a noticeable lag between the leader and the reflector, but as people got the hang of it, it got a lot better. It requires very great attention to the other person (a basic skill in acting).
In the Improv section, we began by experimenting with simple one-line offers with one-line blocks or acceptances. We discovered that it's not quite as easy to recognize "blocking" as we expected it to be. Saying "no thanks" to an offered cup of tea is not the same as saying "what cup of tea?" We ended up defining it as refusing to accept the platform your partner has tried to set up with the initial offer.
We had a hard time thinking up new offers and new platforms, and even more trouble imagining interesting ways to develop them. Sometimes our imaginations just froze in a kind of panicked blankness, even though everyone was having fun and had a true "willing-to-try" attitude. I am looking for exercises to help us get over this.
After we understood offers, accepting and blocking (at least in a basic way), we tried adding conflicting "I wants" for the two actors. This was interesting, but likely to end up in a "yes you will, no I won't" kind of scene. If the character tried to escape, the escape was likely to lead off-stage, ending the scene entirely. So we'll need to discover better ways to develop scenes.
Assignment:
Watch social groups in your school hallway, classroom or cafeteria, and notice how body language changes when someone joins the group and when someone leaves it. This is to prepare for next week's exercises in body and status.
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October 3 (Meeting 2):
Warm-ups
Swat tag, Explosion tag, slow-motion freeze tag.
Reviewing:
Offers, accepting, blocking.
Building on old concepts:
It's Tuesday: Player A makes a dull offer. Player B "over-accepts," which means that she responds with the maximum possible dramatic effect. When Player B runs out of steam, she ends her tirade with another dull remark, which Player A responds to with the maximum possible dramatic effect.
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October 10 (Meeting 3):
Warm-ups:
- Hand-off relay
- Tongue-twisters (Big bad bug; lips/teeth/tip of the tongue)
- Mirror
- Alien, Cow, Tiger
Reviewing:
Offers, accepting, blocking: It's Tuesday (over-accepting a dull offer)
Accepting the first idea: Listing words
Gibberish: Selling things in gibberish
Space and body: How the body flows into space, what happens if you switch body relationships
New concepts: how we convey status through our bodies
High status (acting as if you are superior to your partner)
- Hold the head still and upright
- Use open body positions – occupy space
- Move smoothly
- Keep your hands away from your face
- Maintain eye contact OR
- Look away first but don't glance back
- Start sentences with a long "er" or "um" to hold the time while you think but not letting other people interrupt
- Speak in complete sentences
Low status (acting as if you are inferior to your partner)
- Move and tilt the head
- Use protective body positions that avoid using space (cross arms, hands in pockets)
- Use jerky movements
- Touch your face or hair
- Look away and then glance back for a moment
- Add a short "er" in front of your sentences - this should act as an invitation to interrupt (an "er" in the middle of a sentence should have a less strong effect)
- Speak in incomplete sentence
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October 17 (Meeting 4):
Warm-ups:
- Hand-off relay, Explosion Tag or Swat Tag
- Tongue-twisters (Big bad bug; lips/teeth/tip of the tongue; red leather, yellow leather; mixed biscuits; Peggy Babcock (last two said four times in a row)
- Mirror
- Alien, Cow, Tiger
Reviewing and building on old concepts:
- Status: "Hello. Hello. Been Here Long? Ages"
- Status: Library Card
Introduction to the Voice
Where is your voice?
- Power (breath from lungs)
- Sound source (tone from larynx)
- Filter/Amplifier (resonance from vocal tract)
Awareness Exercise I: Lip Trills
- First blow breath gently through nearly-closed lips
- Second, blow harder to create a lip trill
- Third, add voice
Awareness Exercise II: Glottal Stops
- Closing the vocal folds: say uh-oh (crisp, not forced)
- Notice the "glottal stop" before each the uh and oh
- Now go to make the sound, but stop before you do it - you'll be holding your breath and vocal folds are closed
Awareness Exercise III: Locating the soft palate
- Say the consonant "K," as hard as you can. Your breath is first held then released as the back of your tongue presses against the soft palate
- Say the word "sing," holding the "ng" part
- Hold your nose - the sound should stop
- Say "sing-ing-ing-ing," keeping the main part of your tongue in one position while flicking the soft palate away from the tongue
Awareness Exercise IV: Sirening
- Put your tongue and palate together in "NG" position
- Make very small whining or mewing sounds
- Go up and down in pitch, gradually going higher and lower
- Notice what parts are working hard as you get higher
- If the sound breaks, try making your neck long and pulling up with the back of your head
Onset of tone:
- Aspirate
- Gradual onset
- Glottal onset
- Glide onset
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October 24 (Meeting 5):
Warm-ups:
- No running warm-up - we had to use a smaller room because of the Far
- Tongue-twisters (Big bad bug; lips/teeth/tip of the tongue; red leather, yellow leather; rubber baby buggy bumpers; mixed biscuits; Peggy Babcock (last two said four times in a row)
- Alien, Cow, Tiger
- Stretching the back, releasing the neck
Reviewing and building on old concepts:
- Review introduction to voice: feeling throat vibration, ng-ah (to locate soft palate), sirening
- Accepting the first idea: giving and receiving presents
- Offers, over-accepting: It's Tuesday
- Offers, accepting the world, but blocking the specific: Yes, but
New Material
- MIMING
- Basic miming skills
- Solid surface - hands on a wall or table
- Fixed point - leaning on a high counter
- Walking in place - one of several techniques - very difficult
- Short skits working with invisible objects - we found it very difficult to be precise enough with our movements to convey what we were doing with our invisible objects
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November 7 (Meeting 6):
Warm-ups:
- Hand-off relay, Explosion Tag or Swat Tag
- Tongue-twisters (Big bad bug; lips/teeth/tip of the tongue; red leather, yellow leather; rubber baby buggy bumpers; mixed biscuits; Peggy Babcock (last two said four times in a row)
- Alien, Cow, Tiger
- Stretching the back, releasing the neck
Reviewing old concepts:
- Review voice:
- lip trills
- uh-oh (glottal stop)
- ng-ah (to locate soft palate)
- sirening
- elastic recoil (breathe out sharply on pshhh; abdomen should recoil outward when you stop the sound)
- vowels and consonants
- Accepting the first idea: giving and receiving presents
- Offers, over-accepting: It's Tuesday
- Offers, accepting the world, but blocking the specific: Yes, but
- Status: "Hello. Hello. Been Here Long? Ages"
- Objects work: Miming a solid surface and fixed point; space ball
Introducing text, context, subtext, motivation
- Text - the dialogue and stage directions printed on the page
- Context - the situation in which the dialogue is spoken (is it funeral? an amusement park? at work talking with your boss? at school talking with your best friend?)
- Subtext - what the speaker is thinking but is unwilling to say directly AND/OR what the listener thinks is the intention behind the words
- Motivation - is what you hope to accomplish through your speech or action (you want your Dad to lend you $100 so you butter him up first by offering to mow the lawn)
Building on and combining old concepts
- Offers and accepting, PLUS status relationships, subtext and working with invisible objects
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November 14 (Meeting 7):
Warm-ups:
- Stretching the back, releasing the neck
- Tongue-twisters (Big bad bug; lips/teeth/tip of the tongue; red leather, yellow leather)
Reviewing old concepts:
- Review voice:
- onset of tone (aspirate, glottal stop, glide)
- sirening, lip trills
- elastic recoil (breathe out sharply on pshhh; abdomen recoils outward on breath intake)
- feeling the larynx; how the larynx moves
- vowels and consonants
- Review subtext
- Read and analyze scene from Wicked with Glinda, Boq and Fiyero
Building on and combining old concepts
- Extended improvs exploring subtext
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November 21 (Meeting 8):
Warm-ups:
- Tongue-twisters
- Stretching the back, releasing the neck
Reviewing old concepts:
- Review voice:
- elastic recoil (breathe out sharply on pshhh; abdomen recoils outward on intake of breath)
- onset of tone: aspirate, glottal, glide
- sirening, lip trills
- vowels and consonants
- Text, subtext, context (review meanings)
Building on and combining old concepts
- Improv exercises in which group decides on the context, character relationships, business, motivation, subtext
- try 3-person improv
November 28: Thanksgiving holiday
December 5: attended Romeo and Juliet
