Attention Parents!
Interim reports were sent home last Friday. Most of my students have returned their signed interim reports but a few are still MIA. If you have not seen/signed your child's interim report please do so and have them return it to me as soon as possible. I treat the signed interim report as a graded assignment(homework). This means it will lower your child's grade if it is not signed and returned.
OK, now lets get down to business! What's new in Theater One?
In Theater One we have continued to develop our sense of ensemble (team work) through Theater Games as well as expand upon our improvisational skills. This week my students learned to externalize (demonstrate on the outside (gestures/facial expressions) what their character was feeling/thinking on the inside. We did some wacky things to accomodate this.
First, we externalized using only our feet. Yes, you read correctly, we performed scenes where only our feet could be seen. We achieved this by raising the grand drape (curtain to the stage) a few feet leaving our feet visible while obscuring the rest of our body. It was loads of fun. Our feet stomped to show anger, jumped up and down to demonstrate happiness, twirled on our toes to show delicateness and kicked to accuse! We learned a lot and had a good time doing so.
Next we externalized using only our hands. To achieve this we draped a sheet over one of the Ballet Barres in the Theater/Dance class room. The students hid behind the sheet and raised thier hands above the sheet/barre to express their character's feelings. Once again we were creative with our physicality. Our hands and fingers performed break dancing and the moon walk, pointed a birds, took pictures, and flicked at one another in angry outburts. It was amazing!!!
On Friday we started a new project which will incorporate the concept of externaling in the upcoming week's lesson plan. Each student was given a paper plate and length of elastic to create a mask. I instructed them to decorate the mask any way they like. Make sure you check in next week to find out what we did with the masks.
Theater One is the Bomb.com!
What happened in Advanced Theater?
In Advanced Theater we experimented with the New School Method. With this methods the students tape recorded portions of the script/s using as much flexibilty in pitch (emotional expression) as possible. After we accomplished this the students performed their scenes using the recording. In doing this their hands were free'd from holding their scripts allowing a larger range of motion to express their characterization. This was a challenge to my students but they met the challenge and we achieved some very realistic and admirable moments of work.
Advanced Theater rocks!
What happened in Dance?
This week in dance we focused on brushing up on technique and learning, memorizing and making extended movement phrases performance ready. We accomplished this and were prepared to perform at the varsity football game against WCHS on Friday evening. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans and the field was too wet/dangerous for my students to perform on. Even though we were disappointed we realized that we have other performance opportunities to look forward to (football games, the fair, basketball games). It simply was not worth the risk of an injury.
I was very proud of my student's reaction to this disappointment. While I could tell they were let down they behaved professionally.
Advanced Dance is awesome!
~ Mrs. Amy Jones
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