OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of effective rehearsal practices by completing a rehearsal station worksheet while working their group’s performance.
“Take Action” #1: What character(s) are you playing in your group’s performance?
“Take Action” #2: What was one thing you developed with your play yesterday?
Lesson Plan:
There will be five different rehearsal stations. (I did one per group, depending on class size there may be a need for more stations) Put the station numbers, along with a page listing the instructions around the room in a circle so they are easy to see and rotate through.
Students will have 12 minutes at each station to complete the tasks and to complete the portion of the worksheet for that station. Everyone in the group should be involved at each station.
Give each group a station worksheet (see end of lesson) and give them a minute or so to put the names of their group members and the title of their performance on the page.
Assign each group on a station to start and let them know how much time they will have at each station. Give them something so they know when time is up at each spot, like a bell ringing or some kind of alarm. Once time is up at their station they will need to rotate to the next station in order, whichever one comes next.
Rehearsal Stations (with instructions to be displayed):
Station #1: Characters
Make sure every person in your group knows the character(s) they are playing.
List on your paper who is playing which parts.
Walk through the outline you created yesterday and confirm that the actor/character assignments work out within the story.
If needed, make adjustments.
Station #2: Theme and Concept
What is your Theme?
What is your concept?
Why did you choose the concept you did?
Talk through your outline and make sure every plot point works within your chosen concept.
Discuss what might need to be changed in the plotline of your story in order to help the story fit better within the concept.
If there is still time, start running through your story on your feet and make sure the concept works in practice.
Station #3: Story Structure
Exposition: Also known as the introduction, this introduces the characters, their relationships, the setting, and any previous information needed for the story.
Point of Conflict: The point at which the main problem of the story begins or is introduced.
Rising Action: The exciting bits that build up to the climax. (For this choose one main part of the rising action)
Emotional Climax: The highest or most intense part of the story.
Falling Action: The less exciting bits that lead to the end. (For this choose one main part of the falling action)
Denouement: The part where everything is wrapping up. (again, choose one main point)
Resolution: How the story ends and all the complex bits get resolved.
Using the definitions above, fill in each part of your groups story on your worksheet that correlates with each spot on the diagram.
Confirm that the story makes sense according to the plot structure diagram given. Make any changes if the story doesn’t flow.
Once completed, run through each of those seven points in your story on your feet.
Station #4: Outline and Length
Run through your outline on your feet and time it. (You may use a phone to do so.) Write down your time on the worksheet.
If your performance is less than 7 minutes you need to add time. If it’s more than 9 minutes (at this point in the rehearsal process) you may need to cut some time. (Make sure you circle which you need to do on the worksheet.
In a group create a plan for what you will change in order to fix the time. List at least three parts of the story you will work on or edit out.
If you are more than 7 minutes but less than 9, congratulations! Write down three parts of the story you are going to focus on that you think need more work at this point in order to keep the time the same for each run.
Station #5: Body and Voice
Discuss the following as a group:
Are we going to use different voices than our own to portray the characters?
Are we going to move differently depending on the character we are playing?
Start running through your story and play around with how you are going to move your body and how you are going to use your voice. (If you don’t get through the entire thing that’s okay, this is just so you can start to experiment.)
Closure:
Day 1: Students should finish their last rotation a minute or two before class ends. Have them turn in their worksheet so that no-one can lose it before tomorrow.
Day 2: Students should have about ten or fifteen minutes left in class. Have them take everything they have worked on over the past two days and put it all together. They should rehearse their full story together with voice, body, the additions they discussed, etc. Once they are done they need to turn in their completed worksheet.
