Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mr. Burt and welcome to our third and final drama lesson.

In a unit of learning called, Approaching text: Bringing it to life.

Now in our first two lessons we look to the process of characterization, which is an important process where we go from absolutely nothing to a final performance of a character.

And in our first lesson we looked at the beginning of that process and how we find out about that character so that we can create a set of instructions for ourselves to be able to perform them.

We use those keywords of given circumstances, interpretation and motivation to develop those.

In our second lesson, we then looked at the key words of pace, pause and tone.

Key words to do with the use of voice, about how we then we can use our voice to communicate our characters, interpretation and motivation to the audience.

And in this lesson, we're going to look at three new keywords: proxemics, movement and eye contact.

And they're all about how we use movement to be able to communicate a character to an audience.

So this is the equipment that we're going to need for our lesson today, we're going to need a worksheet or a piece of paper to work with.

We're going to need a pen and you might want to have a highlighter if you want to highlight your lines.

So go and get those objects now and let's get on with the learning once you've got them.

So this is the rundown of our lesson today, we're going to start by looking at some keywords which we're going to need to succeed in our lesson.

Then we're going to use those keywords in a warm up after which we're going to do some characterization activities which uses some of the learning, we used in our last lesson.

And then we're going to perform a monologue.

Once we've done that we're going to finish off with a quiz.

So let's have a look at some of the keywords we need in our lesson today.

The first key word is eye contact.

Now eye contact is how we use where we look and who we look at to communicate to the audience.

Proxemics is our next word.

Proxemics is how we used the space between two characters to communicate to an audience.

And finally, the next key word is movement.

Movement is how we move around the stage to communicate to an audience.

To help us explain the definitions those key words: proxemics, movement and eye contact.

We've got two volunteers here to help us.

Now we shall start with proxemics.

Proxemics it's quite simply the distance between two characters and what that distance communicates to an audience.

So we might have a situation where two characters are quite close, standing quite close to each other and that will then communicate something completely different, to having one of the other characters then having a larger distance between them.

Now eye contact, is about how two characters then make eye contact or deliberately avoid eye contact.

So here character B is looking down and away from character A.

That communicates something to you completely different than having the two characters stood opposite each other looking into each other's eyes.

So as actors we can start to manipulate, how this communicates to the audience.

So as a scenario we might have one character here and we're going to add some movement and remember movement is the way in which we move around the stage.

So here, we've got these two characters that are quite close to each other making eye contact and one's got two hands up and the other's got one.

If we then had a bit of movement and this character here turns away from this other character and looks away and puts his arms down.

The next moment in the story tells a very different part of it, that perhaps character B is now walking away from character A, or they were having an argument.

The character A is not very happy with what character B is done.

The character B is walking away from the situation.

Having demonstrated what those key words mean using the Lego figures.

I'm now going to demonstrate to you what those words mean in a performance sense when we're acting.

And I'm going to use a line, no, no, no.

It wasn't my fault.

It was an accident.

Now I'm not going to talk about what that line means or where that line comes from.

I'm just going to leave it there for you to think about but I'm going to perform it in different ways.

And I want us to think about how the way I've changed my proxemics, eye contact and movement changes the meaning of the line.

So I'm going to start off with this one here to begin with.

I'm just go like this.

No, no, no, no.

It wasn't my fault.

It was an accident.

Okay, so there throughout the whole line, I made eye contact with you as my audience or as the other character.

And I closed in the space between us, I moved and I closed in the proximity between us.

Which perhaps communicates something different about the line.

That perhaps communicates something that I'm really earnest and I'm really begging you to accept my version.

Let's try a different way.

Let me try this.

No.

No.

No.

It wasn't my fault.

It was an accident.

So there I started my contacts completely away from you looking at a completely different direction.

And then I slowly turned, and then I made eye contact on a really key part of the line which was it was an accident.

Perhaps suggesting that actually when I looked away from you, that actually something about what I was saying wasn't quite true.

But then I wanted to make eye contact with you to convince you that it was an accident.

I'm going to try one more time.

No.

No.

No.

It wasn't my fault.

It as an accident.

So in that piece I did make eye contact with the other character at all, I just stayed looking at the floor.

What does that communicate to an audience, if a character says something but it looks at the floor? And I turned away from you, as I got to the end of the line.

How does that change the meaning of it to the previous time? So lots of rehearsal in the drama is all about experimenting.

Experimenting with different performance techniques.

And in this case, proxemics, movement and eye contact.

And each time you say aligned, you said slightly differently and the meaning of it changes.

And so it's a case of trying to home in and find exactly the right kind of movement, the right proxemics and the right eye contact, to be able to communicate exactly what we want to the audience.

So now it's your turn, I like you to experiment with this line.

No, no, no.

It wasn't my fault.

It wasn't accident.

And I wanted to see how many times you can change its meaning by simply changing your use of proxemics, use of movement and use of eye contact.

See how many times it can change its meaning.

So pause the video now, have a go at that and repress resume when you finished.

So that line comes from this monologue which we're going to be looking at today.

The monologue is said by a 14 year old, who's talking to a police officer and the monologue goes like this.

"No.

No.

No.

It wasn't my fault.

It wasn't accident.

I didn't know she was going to be in there.

Why would I have done it if she was? Why would I have done it on purpose? Look, I'm 14.

It's not the some master criminal.

It was an accident.

Me and a couple of other mates went there to celebrate after the match.

Just like we do at home.

It was broad daylight, and we didn't think we were doing anything wrong.

We weren't doing anything wrong.

I promise." Now we're going to act this monologue out before we do that, we need to begin to understand our character.

And we're going to start with the process of characterization.

Remember characterization is the process that we go from absolutely nothing to a full on performance of a character to an audience.

And it starts with these key terms: given circumstances and interpretation.

So tell me now, what do the key words given circumstances and interpretation mean? Excellent.

So the process of characterization starts with the given circumstances and that's all the information that is given to us about a character.

Normally it comes from the author and normally we can find it by reading out what the character says about themselves.

What other characters say about them maybe in the stage directions or anything else that has been written by the author about the play.

Then we use those given circumstances to help us interpret the character.

And so interpretation is when you use the given circumstances to create your own ideas for a character.

And so that brings us up to our first task, which is to look for the given circumstances and to based our own interpretation upon them.

So we're going to begin by writing a list of all the things you know about the character in this monologue based on what you've read so far.

And then we're going to write a list of questions or things you'd like to know about the character in the monologue.

Before we do this task we need to write out this table.

This table with two columns on the first column we've got facts about the character.

And then the second column we're going to write questions about the character.

We're not going to fill it in just yet, we're just going to write down this table.

So pause the video now, write down the table and then resume when you're ready.

Excellent.

So here's the monologue again.

So you can either read the monologue from the screen or use the one on your worksheet.

I want you to first of all, write down as many facts as you can about the character.

Then I'd like you to write down as many questions as you need to, to find out more about the character.

And remember we can phrase those questions in two ways.

The first questions can be about how the characters feeling, their emotions.

And the second can look at more details about what is happening in the performance and perhaps things that their monologue doesn't tell you.

So pause the video now and fill in the table.

Resume once you've done that.

So how did you get on with that task? Here's some ideas that I've got which you're more than welcome to take down for yourself I'm sure you've also got other thoughts and questions as well.

So here are my key facts about the character.

They're 14 years old.

They've been caught doing something wrong, possibly illegal, although I'm not sure about that yet but I know that in some people's eyes, something wrong.

And they aren't at home or where they normally live.

That might mean that they've moved, possibly to another town, to another country or it might mean that they're just temporarily away from where they normally are.

Then I've got some more emotional questions to ask.

How do they feel about getting caught? How do they feel about not being home? And I've got some factual questions.

Which I've already raised questions such as.

Where are they if they're not at home? Are they away temporarily or is this a permanent move? Now to help us develop an interpretation of the character, to understand what we want to communicate to an audience.

We need to answer those questions because that will then give us a set of instructions to be able to help us act out the character, to make decisions about how our character wants to sound or how our character wants to move.

So we need to think about that.

So I've got for example, a question here, how do they feel about getting caught? Now I think from reading the monologue that they're really worried about it, that perhaps that they don't want to get caught because they don't want the hassle of being caught.

Perhaps they have a bad reputation they've been caught before and that they would do anything to get out of this.

And it almost sounds like they're convincing or trying to convince the police officer that they weren't doing anything wrong.

And how do they feel about not being at home? And I think it's funny they should mention it.

That actually normally when they were at home they would do this activity.

And despite the fact that they're not at home they did it anyway and wherever they are now it's wrong.

So in a sense, I think they miss being back at home that they feel that if they were back at home where they live they wouldn't be in trouble and they wouldn't have gotten into trouble.

So where are they if they're not at home? Well, I think they've moved country or moved to another part of the country, or part of the country, or a new country that doesn't really understand how things were done in their own country.

These are of course are my interpretation and your interpretation can be completely different.

So what I would like you to do now is I'd like you to answer all the questions that you've written yourself.

Now you can answer them either by annotating them on to you're a piece of paper or you could just simply say them out loud.

So pause the video now, answer the questions and resume the video once you've finished.

Now, how did you get on with that task? I think it's really important that we thoroughly understand our character.

And then we've then got some key words that we can use, some adjectives that describe their personality and how they're feeling so that we can use those as set of instructions to be able to perform with.

But we also use those to help create our characters motivation, remember motivation is the reason behind a character doing something on stage or saying something.

So this brings us up onto our next task which is to complete the sentence in the monologue.

My character's motivation is what? So based on all the work you've done so far what do you think the character wants to get from saying this monologue? What is it that they want to achieve from saying this monologue? Is it always really clear to the audience? Is it as obvious as wanting to not get into trouble or is there some deeper meaning as well that they want to be able to communicate to an audience? So pause the video now, write on your piece of paper, the sentence in the monologue, my character's motivation is.

Finish the sentence off by writing down what you think your character's motivation is in this scene and resume once you've finished.

Now that we've got the characters motivation sorted and you've got an idea of your interpretation of the character.

We need to start thinking about how we're going to act it out.

Now we've got some key words from the beginning of our lesson that's going to help us with this.

They are proxemics, eye contact and movement.

So let's just have a quick recap.

You tell me now, what do the key words proxemics, eye contact and movement mean? Excellent.

Well done.

So eye contact is how we use where we look and who we look at to communicate to the audience.

Proxemics is how we use the space between two characters or a character in an object to communicate to an audience.

And movement is how we move around the stage to communicate to an audience.

Now before I ask you to act out of the monologue, I'm going to demonstrate it.

But before I do that, I want to talk a little bit about the process that I've gone through to get to this performance.

So I started off by identifying all the characters given circumstances.

The information about the character that the author has given me.

And from that I then established a list of questions, emotional questions about how the character feels about what's happening and some more details about some of the things that have happened in the monologue and before it.

And I come to the conclusion in my own interpretation, that the character is quite defensive, they want to make it clear that it wasn't a fault thing and it was an accident.

I also want the characters to come across as being quite angry, because I think that when the character is at home, wherever that home is normally this behaviour is acceptable, this activity is acceptable.

Whereas where we are now it seemed to be wrong, not illegal but wrong.

And I think then the model line moves onto being worried and the character is quite worried that actually they're going to get into trouble for this.

And then I think at the end of the character comes a little bit desperate, desperate to convince the police officer that they weren't actually doing anything wrong.

I thought a little bit more about those adjectives.

And I think there's a little bit of subtext in this as well because I think the character is used to being not listened to and used to being judged and judged unfairly.

But perhaps what they've done here is a fault thing rather than an accident.

And so that's led me to this motivation from a character, that the character just wants to convince others that actually they're innocent.

And that actually there's a bigger thing here that is not about just looking and judging and what you see.

But actually if you look at their actions, their actions are normally fine and there's nothing wrong with it.

So I've taken that motivation and those objectives to describe the character and thought about how I can use primarily proxemics, movement and contact to communicate them.

But I'm also using lots of other acting skills as well.

So I'm going to use those and hopefully communicate to you as my audience what I've just said.

So here we go.

No.

No, no, no.

It wasn't my fault.

It was an accident.

I didn't know she was going to be there.

Why would I have done it if she was.

Why would I done on purpose? Look, I'm 14.

I'm not some master criminal.

It was an accident.

Me and my mates went there to celebrate over the match.

Just like we do when we're at home.

It was broad daylight and we didn't think we were doing anything wrong.

We weren't doing anything wrong.

I promise.

This brings us up to our last task which is to perform the monologue.

So what I'd like you to do, is I'd like you to show your interpretation of the character to communicate your character's motivation to the audience by doing the following things.

I'd like you to change the pace and tone of your voice and add deliberate pauses to what you're saying.

I'd like you to add movement to change your proxemics and I'd like you to change your eye contact.

And I think it would be sensible if you haven't got anything else around you to assume that the screen is the other character in the scene that you're talking to.

So experiment with pace, tone, pauses, movement, proxemics and eye contact in performing the monologue.

So pause the video now and either use the monologue on the screen or the one on the worksheet, to experiment, rehearse and perform your monologue.

Resume once you've done that.

How did that go? How was the performance? What was your interpretation of the character and was your character's motivation? Do you think you were able to communicate that effectively to the audience? Did you experiment with the use of space between you and the screen, or whatever you're using to represent the other character? I think that is a really subtle but a very effective way of communicating and relationship the use of proxemics.

What about movement? We you able to add some movement into that? What about eye contact? Do you experiment well with that? I think these three can be really effective way of communicating your character to an audience.

Let's just finish up by checking our understanding of some of the key terminology that we've used in this lesson.

So, which one of these is correct? Is eye contact adding deliberate moments of silence into your speech? Is proxemics the use of space between two characters? Is the tone of voice how we use our eyes to communicate to the audience? And is movement the way in which we move across the stage? Identify which of these are correct now.

So let's go through some of those answers.

So the correct answers were proxemics is the use of space between two characters and movement the way in which we move across the stage.

Let's also look at the other ones.

So eye contact.

Eye contact is how we use our eyes to communicate to the audience.

Adding deliberate moments of silence into your speech of course is adding a pause.

And finally tone of voice.

Is the adding and changing and manipulating the emotional qualities of your voice.

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