Students will review introductory Viewpoints by beginning to craft their visual theatre piece.
Materials:
Open space for rehearsal
Step 1: Warm Up—Where Exercise
Have various places listed on a slips of paper. One person volunteers and picks out a slip of paper and doesn’t tell anyone what’s on the paper. That person begins to silently act out what you do in that place. Other members of the class, join in silently in that place. Interact with each other and the space. There is no talking from the audience or from the actors. After a little bit of the scene acting out stop it and ask the remaining class and those who joined the scene where they think the scene took place.
Repeat the exercise one more time. How can you be more specific and give the feeling of the place? How can this help us in our Quest Visual Theatre project?
Step 2: Mapping out the story
Have the students get back into their groups and talk about the different places their story takes place and decide who is what character.
Step 3: Beginning to Build a Where.
Have the groups think for a moment about how to portray that setting. Bring the class back together and have a few groups share where their story takes place and one unique feature of that setting. How did Quest Visual Theatre show where Alice and Wonderland took place? How can that apply to different settings?
Step 4: Project Group Where Exercise
Have the students in their groups begin a where exercise using one of the settings of their story. They all need to be silent during this particular exercise. They want to find creative ways to create the places in the story visually for their audience.
What did they discover about the place? What can you use in your performance?
Step 5: Closure
Tell them we’ll begin building the beginning/middle/end of the story next time as a layer to their place.
