More Than Just Performance

"We learn through experience and experiencing, and no one teaches anyone anything.  This is true for the infant moving from kicking to crawling to walking as it is for the scientist with equations."  Viola Spolin, Improvisation for the Theater

This semester has been action packed and ground breaking! Some of the goals accomplished have been to involve students in the creative process of bringing a play from page to stage, creating an original improv sketch for the fall Variety Show, and reading Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.  These were all accomplished with flying colors with many other activities included!  But this post is to celebrate the experiences students had in class this semester. Besides achieving the above mentioned accomplishments, they also participated in weekly exercises that included using the rules of improv, method acting techniques, and exploration into character development.

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Students were also given several activities to try on their own.  One of these was an observation exercise on "People Watching."  The lesson attempted to encourage the lesson that creating real to life characters can be developed by watching real life characters.  Two observant students made the following conclusions:

Lauren wrote a creative sketch about a middle age gentleman in his 40's.  Her analysis at the end of her sketch brought up some interesting observations:

"The reason why "people watching" is a good way to develop your character is because it exposes you to different types of people.  Like real people, characters have traits and personality that make them interesting.  If you watch a person you can apply what you learned about them to your character, making them more entertaining."

Emma did a detailed character sketch on a gentleman she saw in a doctor's office.  She surmised that he was 67 years old, with a direct and unwavering focus.  She described his clothing (western-style), type of occupation (retired truck driver), family life (a widower with three children) and personal habits (watching the daily news, yet turning it off when it gets too depressing), and things he values (value in raising children, loss of faith after loss of wife).  All of these things were used by exercising her imagination.  She concluded her character sketch with this observation:

"Watching this man was very interesting (and at times humorous).  We didn't speak a single word to each other, just a nod of the head acknowledging each other's presence, but I knew this man was incredibly unique.  The things I made up about him may or may not be true, but that is the beauty of observance.  You can deduce things about people and form an opinion - but this may be dangerous.  With this exercise we must be careful not to judge the superficial and the outward - which may or may not dictate the appearance of the inward. Surrounding yourselves with all types of people will not only help you develop a character, it may help you develop yourself.  You just need to remain conscious of the fact that while you may be forming opinions and creating a profile of a person, they may be doing the same to you."