The Hocus Pocus of Focus and Spatial Awareness
by Content Maxwell
Description:
Objective: Participants/students will learn how to have more stage awareness by becoming more aware of space and focus through various activities, discovery learning, and reflection. Students will demonstrate what they have learned about space, focus, and awareness by utilizing the techniques in an improvisational miming scene at the end of class. Students will also written in Learning Reflection Log.
Workshop Directions:
Materials:
Red dots (stickers)
Various and assorted items that may already be in the room. (ie: desks, mats, piano,
bench, table, chairs, theatre blocks, etc.)
Hook:
As each person comes into the classroom, hand them a bright, red dot to hold until it is used at a later time.
*Please Note: Time allotment listed before each activity/discussion is only an approximation.
INSTRUCTION:
[Time: 5-10 minutes]
Directions: When the bell rings, gather participants together into a semi-circle. Tell them to look about the room.
Discussion: Ask: What do you see? (Possible answers: people, walls, mats, piano, light fixtures, table, chairs, etc.)
Directions: Instruct the participants to look across the circle and focus on a particular person.
Discussion: Ask: Now, what do you see? (Possible answers: blonde hair, necklace, cute shirt, scar, blue eyes, etc.)
Directions: Ask the participants to walk about the room; mill around the entire room, using all the space. Take mental note of what you see. STOP.
Discussion:
- What did you see as you walked about the room? What did you focus on? (Possible answers: people, walls, mats, piano, light fixtures, table, chairs, etc.)
- How are these observations different than what you saw when you were sitting in the circle? (Possible answers: We are seeing things from different vantage points. OR The things look different because we are in different positions/places and/or because we are walking around the room/using the space.)
Game: The Dotted Wall [Time: 2 minutes]
Directions:
1. Instruct the students to get in a straight line parallel with the longest wall in center of the room.
2. Make sure you are at arm's length from each other.
3. Direct your attention to the wall straight in front of you.
4. Find a place at eye level where you want to put your red dot.
5. Now, lightly place the dot on that spot (directly in front of them, at eye level).
6. Return to your place in the line.
Game: The Hand Game [Time: 5-10 minutes]
OBJECTIVE: To build focusing skills, peripheral vision, and being aware of things
without direct focus.
Directions:
A. Each of you raise your arm up in front of you so it is perpendicular to your body (covering the dot on the wall). Bend your hand at the wrist so it points toward the ceiling. As you follow my next instructions, always take mental note of what you see.
1. Focus on the hand.
2. Watch your hand as it moves from side to side/up and down.
a. Slowly move your hand as far to the right as you can.
b. Now, slowly move your hand as far to the left as you can.
c. Now move it up as high as you can.
d. Now move it up as high as you can.
Discussion: What do you see?
VARIATION: With a Partner - repeat steps 1, 2 & 4-6, using the partner's hand as the
focal point. --optional-
B. Repeat A, steps 1-6: FIRST, drop your hand down slightly so you can see the red dot on the wall in front of you.
1. Look past the hand--look at the dot on the wall.
2. Looking straight ahead, focus on everything around the dot. What do you see?
3. Follow my instructions exactly. Focus on the dot at all times. Don't turn your head. Do not even move your eyes.
4. In a moment, I will instruct you to move your hand. You are not to focus on your hand. Only use your peripheral vision. (DEFINITION: peripheral vision is vision at the edges of the visual field using only the periphery of the retina or side vision. It is the capacity to see side or fringe areas when one is looking ahead and/or all that is visible to the eye outside the central area of focus.)
Use your peripheral vision as your hand moves from side to side/up and down.
a. Slowly move your hand as far to the right as you can.
b. Now, slowly move your hand as far to the left as you can.
c. Now move it up as high as you can.
d. Now move it up as high as you can.
Discussion: What do you see? (Do NOT forget to do step 5.)
5. Repeat step 4, using both hands in the perpendicular position.
Discussion: [Time: 3 minutes]
- What do you see?
- Have participants share their observations, perceptions, feelings, reactions, etc. (Possible Comments: I can see my hand without looking at it. This is weird. I feel that I am more aware. Etc.)
- Ask people to explain their comments.
Game: Follow the Leader [Time: 5-10 minutes]
Directions:
A. Get into a single-file line, do what the person in front of you does. Using the entire available space, the Leader will alter the walk and/or arm movements. Give the participants a little time to do what he/she is doing. After implementing a couple of actions, go to the back to the end of the line when I call out, "Change." The new Leader will repeat the above.
B. Repeat A, but this time focus only on the person's head in front of you. Use only your peripheral vision to determine what the person in front of you is doing, then follow the actions as closely as possible.
Discussion: [Time: 3 minutes]
- What is your reaction to this exercise?
- Was it difficult?
- What did you observe?
- What did you learn from this exercise?
- How did this exercise affect your perceptions about focus?
Game: Unfocused Walk [Time: 5 minutes]
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this exercise is to use peripheral vision to be aware of what is going on in the room and to respond accordingly without direct focus and/or eye contact.
Directions:
- Walk around the room using the entire space without any direct focus-use only your peripheral vision-do not focus on anything in particular, do not look at anyone directly, and DO NOT CRASH into anyone or anything while walking around room.
1. Walk in and around your fellow players but respect their space.
2. Keep to your own space.
3. Focus on the space.
4. Walk around. Explore. Feel the space around you.
5. Allow the space to move through you and you move through the space.
6. As you continue to use your peripheral vision and utilize the all the available space, be aware of what is around you, who is near you, and where they are.
7. Stretch out your arms. Encompass the space. Investigate it. Feel its weight. Feel its texture.
VARIATION: Reach Out and Touch Someone. [Time: 3-5 minutes]
MUST DO-NOT optional
As you walk through the space without focusing on objects or people, using only your peripheral vision to reach out and touch those individuals that you pass, BUT DO NOT LOOK AT THEM.
(After letting the participants touch several people) STOP.
Discussion: [Time: 3 minutes]
- What did this exercise teach you?
- Did this exercise affect your perceptions about focus? How?
- Can indirect focus or peripheral focus apply to theatre? How?
Game: Envisioning [Time: 10 minutes] (Adaptation of Viola Spolin's sensory games: Sending Sight Out and Seeing Through Objects, pp.64-65)
OBJECTIVE: To develop the sense of sight and focus and to develop the skill of seeing something in a new way.
Directions:
1. The space that you have been exploring is now our playing space-our stage. I want you to utilize this space during our next activity.
2. Without discussion and using indirect focus (your peripheral vision), find something in the room-anything-to create an object that will represent part of a theatrical set or our environment. (Give participants ample time to create their object.)
3. Find a place by your object.
4. Send your sight out into this new environment. Let your sight be active.
5. Allow your object to be seen.
6. Let your object see you.
7. As you do this, make mental notes of what you are envisioning and the images you see. Record what your senses are telling you.
8. Now, send your sight out again.
9. Look through your object. Don't look at it.
10. What do you see? What do you feel?
11. Look past your object? Direct your focus on the space around the object. Use your peripheral vision.
12. Let that space take form. What shape is the space?
13. Focus on everything simultaneously. What is happening? What did you see?
14. With your peripheral vision, become aware of what other people are doing? Where their objects are?
15. Once again, focus on the space, not the objects.
16. Walk among the objects. Explore the space. React without direct focus.
Discussion: [Time: 5 minutes]
- What did you observe?
- How did it make you feel?
- What were you aware of?
- What did this exercise teach you?
- Did this exercise give meaning to your object? How? Why?
- Did the other objects gain meaning? How? Why? What?
- How could this exercise apply to theatre?
ASSESSMENT: Situational Improvization [Time: 10 minutes]
Directions: (If the group is large, break it into smaller groups of 5-8 people.)
1. Tell the participants: You have 1- 2 minutes to discuss a very basic narrative (a skeleton outline) of a situation in order to improvise a 5-minute scene with a problem to resolve. You CANNOT select WHO (which participant) will resolve the problem OR HOW the problem will be resolved. I will let you know when your time is up.
2. Then, without saying any lines, and utilizing your peripheral vision, acting and reacting to what is happening around you, perform the scene.
3. Let each group perform their scene.
Discussion: [Time: 5 minutes]
- What did you experience? (Get reactions from as many participants as possible.)
- How do you feel about this scene? (Get reactions from as many participants as possible.)
- Did you encounter any problems? What? Why?
- How could you resolve them?
- What did the audience observe?
- How could this exercise be applied to a theatrical production?
- Who/what would benefit from using peripheral vision?
- Would anyone here consider using any of the skills they have learned today in a theatre setting? What? When? Why? How?
REFLECTION HOMEWORK: Reflect on today's workshop, then, write what you learned in your learning log. Include ideas, reactions, comments, and questions about the workshop and/or the different exercises and discussions. Tell about things that created meaning for you as an individual and how you would or would not implement this workshop in a class or theatre setting.
IMPORTANT: HAVE STUDENTS PUT AWAY THEIR "OBJECTS" AND/OR CLEAN UP PROPS AND DISPOSE OF THE RED DOTS.