UNIT III. Concentration
Focus, listening and responding
MAIN OBJECTIVES:
1) Review concepts of stage pictures
2) Practice concentration
3) Practice listening to other actors and responding appropriately
1. WARM-UPS
Lead two or three physical and vocal warm-up activities.
2. SKILL BUILDING
Review the basic concepts of stage pictures as found in Tableaux (Connection and Levels)
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Zoom Car (Concentration) This game helps students practice concentration as they pass an imaginary car around a circle. Stress that students must maintain focus on the entire group at all times in order to keep the imaginary car moving without hesitations.
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Yes/And (Listening, Concentration) In this exercise, one actor starts a scene with a single line. A second actor responds by adding a line that continues the scene–adding new information about the setting or relationship between the characters. Stress that students should listen carefully to their partner and tailor their lines to be an appropriate response to what they hear. They should always support the scene established by the first actor and not contradict what the first actor said.
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Freeze Tag (Listening, Concentration) Two students start a physically active scene. At any point, a third student can stop the scene by shouting “Freeze,” and then assume the exact body position of one of the first two. The third student must then start a completely new scene that still makes sense of the frozen pose. Stress that students should listen carefully to the scene initiator and respond instantly to fit into each new scene.
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3. CLOSING ACTIVITY
Play any game from a previous lesson you think would help reinforce skills learned so far.
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Curtains Up Curriculum by Friends of the Groom Theater Co. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Curtains Up is a training program designed for young actors, sponsored by Friends of the Groom Theater Company.
It is available to the general public for free under the terms of the Creative Commons License above.