Educational Objective:
Students will be able to create room conflict by navigating through a maze with a room conflict around them.
Enduring Understanding 1:
Actors must be willing to follow their impulses and instincts to create compelling theatre work.
Essential Question 1:
How do our desires and goals influence others?
Materials Needed:
Flashlight, chairs arranged in a circle
Hook –
Lights off! (Hold up a flashlight) Chairs arranged in a circle. Create a creepy/scary mood in the classroom. Greet students at the door. “Welcome! Please take a seat and silently wait for further instructions.” Once everyone is there walk around the circle in the dark: “After the Power outage, the lights didn’t turn back on in this room! We’ll have to have class in the dark. And…there’s a monster in the room. The monster will call on certain individuals. When you are called on you will know who you are. When you are called on you must go to the center of the circle and find another seat before the monster takes you. If you are taken by the monster you will work for him until you can escape.” As you do this move all of the extra chairs out of the circle.
Begin the game, “The monster calls all who…(are wearing jeans).” During the first round, take out a chair, leaving one student in the middle. Instruct him/her “You now work for the monster. You must call on others for the monster. Say “The monster calls on all who….” and try to escape.
Students can play this, and pick it up easily on their own. As it’s winding down, leave the room and make an excuse to turn on the lights to complete the illusion like: “Ms. abney just said the lights are working again!” (sources: adapted from Britni Bills “acting in duo scenes” unit on BYU TED, and from http://www.stagemilk.com/acting-games/).
Step 1 – Discussion:
What was it like? How did the darkness affect you? How did it affect others?
Step 2- Instruction:
Lead into room conflict. What is it?–any external thing that affects a scene. What are different types of room conflict?/examples? How does room conflict affect a scene/individuals in a scene? Explain/discuss how room conflict in a scene can really enhance it and give it detail and dimension.
Step 3- Practice:
Give students 5 minutes to work together to build a maze with the chairs (and desks) in the room. Once the maze is set establish a starting and ending point. Tell them to get into partners. One will be blindfolded, one will be the guider. The guider must lead the blindfolded one through the maze. They cannot touch each other. Big point: They must do so with room conflict. Each partnership will have a different one.
Step 4- Practice:
Possible room conflicts: Darkness, baby sleeping in next room, Loud noise: chatter, monkeys, concert, etc; crowded room, smelly room (good smell or bad), Cold, Hot, sneaking into a movie and guards are stationed around maze, decorating for a surprise party and person is in the next room (have someone walk in on them)
Step 5 - Instruction:
Build after each partnership. Point out those who do a really good job. Give more challenging room conflicts as they go. For earlier ones like loud noise, have other students create the room conflict. As they go, have later students be involved in that room conflict without it actually being there. Same room conflict can be used more than once.
Step 6 - Discussion: Wrap up discussion about room conflict. Ask them how they think it can be a helpful tool in scenes?
Final Assessment for Lesson 4:
Informally assess students as they go through the maze.
Homework:
N/A