Dramatic Performance

So. . .here’s what’s on tap for the semester.

August

8              Course introduction

9              Improv strategy; play research

11           Ceremony of Lights

13           Improv strategy; play research

15           Improv strategy; play research

17           Parents’ Day

20           Improv strategy; play research

22           Improv strategy; play selection

27           Improv strategy; casting for play 1

28           Performance 1: A Night at the Improv

29           Work on play 1

September

3              Work on play 1

5              Work on play 1

10           Work on play 1

12           Work on play 1

17           Work on play 1

19           Work on play 1

24           Work on play 1

26           Work on play 1

October

1              Work on play 1

3              Work on play 1

8              Work on play 1

9              Performance 2: Play 1

10           Work on play 2

15           Work on play 2

17           Work on play 2

22           Work on play 2

24           Work on play 2

29           Work on play 2

31           Work on play 2

November

5              Work on play 2

7              Work on play 2

12           Work on play 2

14           Work on play 2

19           Work on play 2

21           Work on play 2

December

3              Work on play 2

5              Work on play 2

10           Work on play 2

11           Performance 3: Play 2

12           Strike set

Uta Hagen’s Six Steps for Character Study

Before responding to the questions below, highlight all the lines you speak in one color; highlight all the lines where other characters (or stage directions) refer to your character in another. Then, answer ALL the questions below, even if you must go slightly off-script to do so. The goal is to provide fully developed notions of character as soon as possible.

1. WHO AM I?
   1. What is my present state of being?
   2. How do I perceive myself?
   3. What am I wearing?

1. WHAT ARE THE CIRCUMSTANCES?
   1. What time is it? (The year, the season, the day? At what time does my selected life begin?)
   2. Where am I? (In what city, neighborhood, building, and room do I find myself?  Or in what landscape?)
   3. What surrounds me? (The immediate landscape?  The weather?  The condition of the place and nature of the objects in it?)
   4. What are the immediate circumstances? (What has just happened, is happening?  What do I expect or plan to happen next and later on?)

• WHAT ARE MY RELATIONSHIPS?
  1. How do I stand in relationship to the circumstances, the place, the objects, and the other people related to my circumstances?

1. WHAT DO I WANT?
   1. What is my main objective? My immediate need or objective?

1. WHAT ARE MY OBSTACLES?
   1. What is in the way of what I want? How do I overcome it?

1. WHAT DO I DO TO GET WHAT I WANT?
   1. How can I achieve my objective? What’s my behavior?  What are my actions?