Thursday, July 8

School Observation: Day 2

Year Ten GCSE Drama Class

The teacher had "What is the objective?" on the board for the duration of the lesson. It was not referred to until the end.

Warm Up:

1. The students entered the room and stood in a circle. They held hands in and took a few steps back until they were evenly spaced out. The teacher instructed the students to put their heads up, shoulders back, and release their arms so they might begin from a neutral position. She told them to take a few moments to concentrate on their breathing and to focus, and then slowly counted backwards from 10 to 1.

2. The students were directed to make eye contact with someone across the circle and exchange places with her. This went on at random for a bit before the teacher instructed them to clasp hands again and make the circle much smaller. Again, they made eye contact with a partner and then exchanged places. They all were then directed to turn the left and make the circle much tighter. This time, they had to cross the circle on tip toes in order to avoid stomping on a class mate. They clasped hands a final time and made the circle as large as possible. In this last round, they ran when they exchanged places. After, the teacher led a short reflection session, asking the girls what skills were needed in order to complete the activity. They mentioned awareness of space, eye contact, focus - all skills that are integral to Drama and their successful achievement on the GCSE exam next spring.

3. Energy Pass - the teacher explained that a box was on the floor in front of her containing an enormous ball of energy. The energy could change shape and color as each girl imagined it, but when she opened the box, she would pick up the energy and the objective was to get rid of the energy as enthusiastically as you could, passing it around the circle. In round one, many of the girls used the same physical response to pass the energy, which was not good enough. For the second round, they were encouraged to individualize their reaction and add a sound. The energy was passed fully around the circle from the left and then back again to the right.

4. Energy Pass #2 - Take the Energy In and Push It Out - the students stood in position where one foot was in and the other was out, as if they were ready to pounce. This allowed them to freely shift their energy towards the center of the circle and away from the circle. They more or less pulsed in and out throughout the activity, as "The Enrgy" could be thrown to them at any time and they had to be ready to receive it and send it back to someone else without breaking the rhythm. You clapped when you received the energy (always when you were leaning back), and you clapped in front on the pulse to push the energy to someone else, whom you connected with eye contact. About three balls of energy were going around at any given time, so you have to be aware of who was sending something to you, so as not to break the rhythm (and it never did).

**These activities were based on a professional development workshop for all Drama teachers in Hackney led by teaching artists from Frantic Assembly, a physical theatre company in London

Story Drama Work

The students had been working on the story of Derek Bentley and Christopher Craig (brother of the last man executed by hanging in the UK in the 1950's--made into a film called "Let Him Have It"), but this was disrupted for three weeks because a field trip to the Globe to see Macbeth leading to some writing. Today was the first day the girls would return to the Derek Bentley story, and much of the lesson was to re-introduce the story.

The teacher narrated all the story that had come before and when she got to a particularly visual or evocative moment, she would snap her fingers and ask the girls to do different tasks. Among them were a physical image of a feeling, of a character, improvised conversations between two characters, one sentence responses to a question another character posed, thought tracking, and creating a character walk. These walks were then encouraged to be made bigger and sounds were added. They were put in slow motion as well, until the most effective speed and level of intensity could be found.

Henry IV, Pt. 1 at Shakespeare's Globe

I've been to the Globe at least half a dozen times, and in spite of it being the most uncomfortable theatre space in the world, I have never seen a bad production there. Tonight was no exception. The actor playing Falstaff was incredibly funny and the guy playing Prince Hal was charming and mischievous. At the curtain call, the audience burst into wild applause, and it was well deserved.

The production reminded me (particularly after the disastrous Lear the other night) that Shakespeare is best done when the concept does not interfere with the words. Sure the period costumes are a concept in and of themselves, but the actors are not overshadowed by them--if anything, they help to demarcate one character from another (as they should) and are really not the focal point. The words take center stage, with humor, trickery, dramatic tension, and whimsy all taking their appropriate place in the piece.

A Leisurely Walk Back to London