Perfecting the Performance
FRANKLY, /// my idea for this w’shop..(but not me) Because I’d seen too many slopy performances judging... too many talented kids without direction.
A MISTAKE WE OFTEN MAKE: Thinking “Well, the really talented extroverts will do great and the others will be OK or awful.” Wrong...the OK can be made great.
Block...first thing: if possible, before they have time to memorize. they write down blocking...
Principles of Blocking:
Open up vary levels INTEREST not all direct focus if no reason to move, invent one
Improv Excercises: two: change emotions...get list ahead of time.. Stretch your kids! Take the actual scene...ex: Screaming Eagle in Eagles Scream, Too,
Biggest mistake: we don’t challenge our kids enough.
Perform for classes....not too early or they’ll think it’s a set performance
Many excellent methods given at this workshop for keeping track of rehearsals.. See Betty Grant’s in new coach booklet
some use individual critique sheets on each rehearsal with a copy given to the student...a record kept of what’s to be done.
I use a large chart...names with about twenty boxes after each name or pair of names...mark a box for each rehearsal with date.. .a big “M for memory...a star for a performance. a real contest for stars right outside my classroom...all classes walk by it every day. Older kids, now out of contest, stop and look and see how they’re doing...they get on the ones who don’t have their M yet. No performance until they have an M.
OTHER METHODS...(from the audience)
use silences...in both comedy and drama. Real life is not a series of conversations...there’s time to think, there’s waiting.
Most Common mistake I see: HALF OF ACTING IS RE-ACTING. Are they listening to each other? A very common mistake. Improv is good for this.
come up with a clever intro.... may give the title and author part way into the performance
some events you won’t be able to polish...they’ll barely be ready in time to go to contest. but you can do some things even before they’re completely ready....
Chorale Presentation Groups: Too many are obviously coached for Radio work
attitude...facial and body...they way they look is so much of the performance...bright eyed, energetic...don’t let them just stand there dead-headed.
Make CP rehearsals fun...don’t worry about the amount to accomplish but what you accomplish.. Work on spots....then let the spots infect the other spots...working on the piece as a whole is frustrating...too big a job. Show them how good they can be with one poem or one portion of a poem...polish it perfectly, just like you want it...then use that as an example of how all the performance should be. They will feel this.
The eyes say it all...good, focused eye-contact will distract from a multitude of sins.
Never rehearse with you watching the script...keep your eyes on them all the time. Give them an audience every moment.
Take them through group excercises....Group walk, mirroring, theatre games, etc. Never start a rehearsal or a performance cold.
Solos: monologues and presentations stage presence is the finishing touch..the “at ease” and “in control” look and feel. Holding for laughs...can only be rehearsed with an audience.... Use silence in solo work...a look is more valuable than a line... eye contact in monologues if appropriate
DUETS AND IN GENERAL:
A finishing touch: PACING. Don’t let it drag. A perf can drag even if the actors are speaking too quickly. Pacing does not mean speed...it’s the rate at which the lines are picked up.
IF YOU HAVE LOTS OF KIDS GOING TO CONTEST JUST BARELY PREPARED THEN YOU HAVE TOO MANY KIDS ON YOUR SPEECH TEAM!
Never quit coaching a team or an individual...every performance is a great place for coaching. Take them outside the classroom after the perf and talk to them. Give your quicker and better teams something to work on ALWAYS or they’ll get sloppy. Tell the other teachers or helpers what to look for. Get your audiences to give comments.
If playing characters, make them three dimensional. Real people are.
We always have a subtext to what we say in real life. Do the same in acting. Best method to find it: WHAT DOES THE CHARACTER WANT?
Talk with your kids about their characters and the scene. Many get to contest and still don’t know what their character or their scene’s about....and worst of all, many go to contest not even knowing it’s important to know this!
EX: OLD PEOPLE?
LEAD them with your questions “What does this character want right now?” What other things are in their mind other than what they’re saying?
STAGE BUSINESS: Give them interesting and meaninful stage business to help their character... When we speak to each other at this conference our conversation is filled with interesting and telling gestures...human mannerisms... Yet many kids at contest have none. Become mannequins. An accent.... A way of speaking.... Very seldom to two people in a real conversation speak the same speed. IN a duet, they almost always do.
Watch your students as they come in the room to rehearse. Notice their mannerisms...then point out that once the speech starts, these mannerisms are often absent. They shouldn’t be.
If you don’t give a Jr High student something to do with his hands he will find something and it will very often be wrong.
GETTING KIDS TO SLOW DOWN> Impossible unless you give them something to do instead. Usually: where to put the emphasis.
BLOCK A REAL SCENE: