Students will demonstrate an ability to make an entrance as a character with a given circumstance.
Materials Needed
List of entrance suggestions (included). Stage area with a door or a facsimile of a door. Entrance Scenarios
Lesson Directions
After all students have arrived, announce that you are going to leave the room and come back in three times. Each time you enter, do so in a different manner (hurried, tired, stealthily, etc.).
Step One
Ask students why they think you did that. Discuss the importance of creating a back-story for a character before setting foot onstage. Let students know that to give the illusion of reality, an actor must always know exactly where he/she had been the moment before. Tell them that acting begins before they set foot onstage.
Step Two
Tell students that they will each be given a scene or a location and three different scenarios they will use to make three distinct entrances, such as this:
Scene: College student coming home to his apartment.
Entrance One-You are late for work and have come home to change.
Entrance Two-You just finished a test that kept you up studying all night before.
Entrance Three-It’s snowing outside and you had to walk a mile from campus to home.
Ask actors to take a moment to imagine their circumstances each time prior to entering the stage. Ask for a volunteer to go first.
Step Three
After the student performs, hold a brief discussion with the class. Ask: Did the way the actor entered feel different each time? Was his mood/agenda clear each time? Which entrance stood out the most for you? Why?
Step Four
Repeat the game until every student has had a chance to perform.
Step Five
Hold a brief class discussion. Ask: Why is something as simple as an entrance an important part of acting? How can we use what we learned by doing this activity as actors?
Assessment
As homework, ask each actor to create a one-minute scene that starts with a character coming home. Tell students that the one-minute scene should include the entrance itself and stage business that the student must invent. Ask students to write a one-page description of what had happened to that character that day—prior to coming home that effectively explains his attitude when he arrived onstage.
