Acting 1- Diversity with specification

Following up on my last post, I wanted to talk a bit more about how different intentions could make such a huge difference in the story line. This last class period, we did a really interesting activity. First, she had two volunteers come up and she gave them a simple script. She didn't give them any instructions, just told them to act out the scene. Without discussion between the two, they just began reading the script how they felt it should be read. They each had their own intentions and although you could tell they were trying to play off of each other, it was unclear who was who, what their relationship was, why they were talking at all, or what each of them needed. Afterwards we discussed it a bit and then our instructor whispered in each of their ears individually, a scenario. All of the sudden we could see a relationship and a few intentions. It looked as if this was a conversation between people who knew each other and had a purpose of talking to each other. After that she added a little more story to each of them. With this increased specificity, it was amazing to see how all of the sudden it was between a parent and a child and the child was terrified of the parent. Life came to the story that wasn't there before.

We did this activity a few more times, changing up the actors and scripts. I had the opportunity to do one of the scripts as well. The first time I did it with my classmate, I quickly tried to make up a bit of a scenario in my mind. I didn't really have a chance to read through the script at first so my intentions were kind of made up on the spot. It made it difficult because my intentions in my head were not the same as my classmate's intentions and she played out the story a bit different than I had tried to. An interesting comment from a fellow classmate really made me stop and think. She said that even though we were trying to play off of each other, it was like we were reading two different scripts. It really got me thinking about how, even though we may be given the same script, it is so important to share those specific choices with the people you are playing with or else they might come up with a completely different story and you will be saying the right words in a completely different show.

This has been made manifest again and again as we did the Dr. Seuss activity, the dry script reading activity and now as we work on a scene with partners and prepare to perform them. It is so very important to have specific intentions, movements and back story and to make sure everyone is on the same page with them.