{"id":5035,"date":"2017-05-12T16:01:05","date_gmt":"2017-05-12T16:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/?page_id=5035"},"modified":"2017-05-12T16:01:05","modified_gmt":"2017-05-12T16:01:05","slug":"beats-action-units-justification","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/?page_id=5035","title":{"rendered":"Beats \u2013 Action Units & Justification"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lesson 5: <\/strong><\/p>\n

Beats \u2013 Action Units & Justification<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Objective:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Students will demonstrate their understanding of units of action by justifying the beats they create in their performance piece.<\/p>\n

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Materials Needed:<\/strong><\/p>\n

None<\/p>\n

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HOOK<\/p>\n

Justify Pose Exercise SA<\/em> p.106: <\/strong>Move around the room freely.\u00a0 When I shout \u201cstop!\u201d you must freeze into a position.\u00a0 Justify your pose \u2013 say why you are in the pose you are.\u00a0 Can repeat the exercise with a partner and justify their pose as well.<\/p>\n

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Justify Verbally Exercise SA<\/em> p.163:<\/strong> In smaller groups of 4-5: go around the circle and give as many reasons as possible:<\/p>\n

You leave your job<\/p>\n

You help someone on the street<\/p>\n

A mother leaves a package in the layaway department<\/p>\n

You take another job<\/p>\n

A man crosses the street too fast<\/p>\n

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How did you justify your choices?\u00a0 What does justification have to do with acting and the work you\u2019ve done so far?\u00a0 Perhaps write the students\u2019 answers on the board.<\/p>\n

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INSTRUCTION<\/p>\n

Stanislavsky based his system on the idea that everything an actor does as the character has to be justified<\/em><\/strong> by the character\u2019s internal need: the character\u2019s needs and desires cause him to do something (action) in an effort to achieve a desired goal (objective).\u00a0 Need causes action directed toward an objective. (write that on the board)<\/p>\n

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GROUP PRACTICE & EXERCISE<\/p>\n

Everyone is assigned the same objective: to leave the room (inspired by SA<\/em> p.112). \u00a0But they can\u2019t just leave the room.\u00a0 They have to have a reason to do so.\u00a0 Each actor has to invent the justification for doing so (i.e. he cannot be late for work).\u00a0 <\/em>Each actor has to perform three different activities before walking through the doorway out to the hall (with previous example of trying not to be late to work this could be checking his watch, gathering his book bag and finding his work schedule, after seeing his start time cramming everything into his bag and dashing out the door<\/em>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Do this in the previous groups: have one group at a time go to the front and take turns trying to reach their objective while the other groups watch as audience members.\u00a0 Just give students 1-2 minutes to come up with a reason to leave and the actions to justify that action.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let them think too long; get them up in a row and have them just do it.<\/p>\n

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INSTRUCTION<\/p>\n

A dramatic character usually pursues an action (tactic) until it either succeeds or has been deemed a failure.\u00a0 If it fails, the character shifts to a new action (could either keep the same objective or drop it and go for a new one).\u00a0 If it succeeds then the character moves on to a new objective.<\/p>\n

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Each change of action can be felt as a change in the rhythm of the scene: unit of action or beat.\u00a0 Immediate actions and objectives have a logical flow aimed at larger objectives.\u00a0 You should go through the scene beat by beat with a forward sense of momentum (Stan called this the score of the scene).<\/p>\n

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Process of identifying a unit of action:<\/p>\n