Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to Drama.

This is using Drama conventions to explore contemporary issues.

It's lesson five of six, and the lesson title is 'A Person and a Choice' part one.

My name is Mr. Wood, and I'm your teacher for this lesson.

If you're ready, let's get started.

For this lesson you're going to need plenty of space.

So move anything out of the way that might become a hindrance and let's get going.

Well done for completing your intro quiz.

We're going to start today's lesson with a quick recap of our last, and then we'll move on to setting the scene for today's work.

Then we'll continue with making decisions in the town, all will become clear.

Before we finish with our exit quiz today.

Your key words for today's lesson are choice, and that is an act of deciding between two or more possibilities.

Eye witness, and that is a drama strategy where a character tells their version of events.

And litter, that is rubbish left lying around in a public space.

So what did we get up to last lesson? Well, we explored a range of drama conventions through Taylor's story.

We used Conscience Alley, Magic If, Visualisation and Internal Monologue to develop the character of Taylor and adapt them to new scenarios.

So let's begin setting the scene for today's lesson.

This is the village of Bowborne.

Now, I think you will appreciate how beautiful Bowborne is from the image.

It is a very calm place.

It is a very happy place.

And what's crazy is it's absolutely litter free.

It is the only village on earth that can hands down say they have no litter.

I would like you at this point to close your eyes and visualise the surroundings of Bowborne.

Take inspiration from the image.

Look at the beautiful scenery and setting, and think about what could be around the corners in the village of Bowborne.

Ah! What is this? You have come across a single piece of litter.

In Bowborne? The place where there is no litter.

You've literally just arrived, and you found a piece of litter.

How on earth did it get there? Now we're going to start creating some backstories.

Think about creating three different ways in which this piece of rubbish could have gotten here.

Poor Bowborne, of all places.

They should not relate to one another.

So try and come up with three creative different ideas.

And you can be as creative and imaginative as you like.

Pause the video to be able to complete this task and click resume when you're ready to move on.

So, who found it? It was you.

Some villagers have noticed and now this litter is attracting quite a large crowd.

As you found it, some are now suggesting it was you who littered in the first place.

I don't think you understand what you've done.

Do you? Coming in here.

Welcome to Bowborne.

You've come in here and you've littered all over the floor, throwing your Coke can down on the floor.

I know I can suss you out like you wouldn't believe.

whoever's responsible for you should be ashamed.

You should be ashamed coming around here in Bowborne, and you're throwing around your rubbish on the floor.

Don't you dare look at me like that.

I could take you down in an instant mate.

It's clear to see that the people of Bowborne are very protective of their village.

So now it's time to create an alibi to avoid being punished for a crime you didn't commit.

This is your claim to what happened.

Okay? So you've got to try and come up with reasoning as to how you came across the litter.

How can you prove it was there before you, that sort of thing.

It will involve what you've done during the day, specifically leading up to the time when you discovered it.

All right, be clear, be honest, and consider how someone accused might act.

Think about the gestures that they would use.

Think about the pitch of their voice.

It might go higher.

Think about their facial expressions being quite defensive or open.

Okay? Pause the video to be able to complete this task.

You may want to rehearse this a couple of times, and then click resume when you're ready to move on.

Now it's time to make some decisions in the town.

Your imagination here is key.

So let's imagine we can go back in time to just before the litter was dropped.

I would like you to give a person a name and an age.

Okay? This is the person who is littered, they are walking along the path, be that conscience in this moment in time.

What should they do? And why should they do it? Is it a case of they are reaching for their phone but they've like crumpled up the Coke can, which is also in their pocket.

They're trying to get the phone out without dislodging the can.

But unfortunately it just falls out.

For example, the conscience could be saying get your phone out, get your phone out.

You've got a notification.

You can get your phone out and not realise the Coke can has fallen out.

Okay? So it could be accidental litter.

Don't forget that.

Okay? There are choices to be made here.

And you'll do this through Conscience Allie.

So you need to give reason to this crime in the form of advice, whether it is an accidental crime or malicious.

Allow your audience to see how you are swaying the characters decision.

Consider your vocal skills to do this like tone, pace, emphasis, and pitch.

Okay? Pause the video to be able to complete this task, and then click resume when you're ready to move on.

So, who picks this up? Because I think we should find out what reasons the litterer had for committing this crime! Regardless if it was malicious or not.

If you were given the chance, what questions would you ask the litterer? I think we gave them a name and we gave them an age.

So they're starting to become a real person.

What would you ask? Part one of Hot-Seating.

You're going to write down between 10 and 15 questions that are open as we've discussed before.

They need to be elaborate.

So, think of the question and then think of the potential answer you might get.

If it's a yes or no answer, then you want to rephrase the question.

Okay? The aim is to get key information about their actions and the choices that they've made.

You may want to find out a bit about their background, their values, their family, and so on.

Okay? So pause the video to be able to complete this task and click resume when you're ready to move on.

Part two.

In your interpretation of this character, answer these questions as you think they would.

Okay? You need to stay in role.

So you may choose an item of costume or a prop to help you do this.

Experiment with the character through your vocal and physical skills.

Okay? So the ones that we've listed previously, we now need to think about how we can combine them to show an effective character.

Pause the video to do this and click resume when you're ready to move on.

Rubbish belongs on the floor? True or false.

Three, two, one.

What do you think? False, rubbish does not belong on the floor, it should be disposed of correctly and recycled where possible.

What? You're joking? You're serious? I don't believe you.

Fine.

Send me the picture then.

Send me the picture and I will be the judge of, you're right.

In Bowborne? Well, all right then.

Let's do it.

Okay.

Yeah, I'm ready.

Yup.

Hello and welcome to news at lunchtime.

Here in Bowborne, I come with very distressing news today.

I've just been informed, hot off the press that in Bowborne we've got litter.

I know? I know, I am as shocked as you are, to be honest I'm still digesting it, but it's happened.

If you want to know exactly where to go to see proof for yourself, because I had to ask, go down to the waterfront, turn left, go back round chippies, up to the left, on your right.

And then there it is.

Okay? You heard it here first.

Have a good day folks, keep our streets clean.

Yeah.

Good day.

The news have chosen to broadcast this issue.

In the role of a news reporter, choose to deliver a message to the people of Bowborne, informing everyone in the village who doesn't already know.

Think carefully about how a news reporter might do this.

Obviously you saw an example which leads up to the report.

Now, feel free to do that as well.

That could be the offscreen moment and the onscreen moment as well.

Okay? So the moment of realising might be quite important to the delivery of this character.

In the role of the news reporter, informed people of what's happened only moments ago in Bowborne.

Consider your use of exaggeration, eye contact, volume, and your facial expressions.

Okay? If it's comedic, brilliant.

If it's not, brilliant, it doesn't matter.

Okay? Do what you can to bring this scene to life and push yourself as far as you possibly can.

Okay? Click pause to do this task and then click resume when you're ready to move on.

So, how do we stop this from happening again? We need someone with significant power and status to discourage people from accepting and normalising this type of behaviour.

So how do we instantly show power and status? Is there anything that we need to think about straight away? And I'm thinking specifically of physical and vocal skills.

Improvisation.

I would like you to improvise the ideas of power and status in both standing and movement.

Consider your use of the following.

Posture.

You need to have good posture or strong posture.

Pace.

You could probably bring that pace back a bit.

You could slow it down at moments.

Okay? To show that you don't have to move quickly to assume power.

Eye contact.

Are they looking frantically around the room? No.

They might glance around the room periodically.

They might directly aim their eye contact frontward.

They might directly aim their eye contact facing forwards.

Body language.

You've got to think about what you're communicating in the body.

And if you want to communicate to someone who is strong-willed, someone who can communicate in a room well, who can show power, then that needs to come from the body.

You need to be quite controlled with your movement.

Okay? And you need to be quite not confrontational but it's almost two steps down from confrontational.

Okay? You can hold your space.

Well, and then finally, gestures.

Are you going to be frantic? And you don't really know what you're doing with the gestures to try and buy time, or are you going to keep them quite minimal and quite reserved? Okay? Pause the video to experiment with this idea.

Feel free to do it as many times as you like.

And then click resume once you're finished and ready to move on.

So, now we've looked at the sense of power and status from the body.

Let's put this to a person.

Okay? Because luckily, we have found a figure with power and status.

It's the mayor and they are choosing to intervene and address the village so that this never happens again.

Hello? Fear not people of Bowborne.

We will not let this act of gross stupidity topless.

This reminds me of a time where we had a problem with Obadiah.

Yeah.

You know, biscuit beard man.

It was like Hansel and Gretel grownup, except Gretel had enough and packed her bags and left.

Poor old chap left so many crumbs, you knew where he'd been.

Anyway, We will be putting cameras up over the bridge where the can was located.

That's all I have to say on the matter.

Thank you.

As the mayor, use your understanding of power and status to say a few comments about this littering.

Assure the people that this will not happen again and explain how you plan to enforce this.

So what rules might you put in place? You're going to put cameras up You're going to have a neighbourhood watch.

You're going to have a litter patrol.

Yeah.

Consider your use of posture, pace, eye, contact, body, language, and gestures like we did before to show this.

Pause the video to be able to complete this task.

You may choose to rehearse this a couple of times before you're happy with it.

And then click resume.

When you're ready to move on.

More litter has been found.

This time there are witnesses to the crime.

Unfortunately they are all stating different versions of events.

We need to unearth the truth.

Well, I was walking down the road.

And only, I was minding my own business.

You know what it's like.

I was minding my own business, and I was going to the bakery or something.

I think I was going to the butchers.

Either way, I was out walking.

And I saw this little kid.

He was only small.

He was out there drinking this can of Coke.

I thought that is a very peculiar looking kid.

He's there with his can of Coke outside.

Either way, I was fine about it.

I thought.

Oh, pleasant little chap.

Anyway.

I'm out there, you know, as I said minding my own business.

And I see this little thing.

Maybe, I don't know, 15 years old.

Anyway.

He drops the can.

Right? And so I'm thinking to myself, if I had done that in my day, I would have got throttled, they would have strung me for that? So I try getting this kid.

Right? I'm like, hey, mate, come back here.

And off he runs like that.

I thought none of my grandsons would be doing that.

I tell you that right now, pleasant little chaps they are decent people.

Now we're going to have a look at eye witness.

You are Deidre.

Deidre is an 84 year old grandmother who claims to have seen the truth.

In your interpretation of this character, report what you saw as if being interviewed by the news.

Consider your physical and vocal skills to show an 84 year old Deidre.

Pause the video to be able to complete this task, ready get creative with the character and click resume when you're ready to move on.

Contradictions.

Oh, oh.

Deidre is a loved member of the community, however somebody else has said that she may have lied in her version of events.

David, who is a 40 year old teacher claims something entirely different.

Anyway.

You obviously want to know my story, I imagine.

So I was out walking my dog Pip.

And Pip and I love to walk.

We were going down to the water side, but on the way you've got to go past the butchers.

And I was on my way to the butchers, and I see Deidre in there again.

She's in there buying all the sausages.

So, I say to her Deidre, don't you think you've got enough sausages there? Like, come on my love.

Anyway.

She says.

No! No! Back off Dave, back off.

And she actually got quite violent, again.

Right? That's not the first time that's happened, I tell you that.

Anyway, different story.

I'll save that for another interview.

I'm sure you want to hear all about it.

But Deidre is in there buying the sausages, again.

She goes in there like six times a day, the woman is 84.

She doesn't need any more sausages.

She's not leaving any for anybody else.

The kids, the wives, the man, you know, there's nothing, absolutely nothing left.

And Deidre has got them all stacked up in the freezer.

Sorry.

I get really passionate about that because it's not right.

Sonita sort of that.

But anyway.

She said she went and she was on her way to the butcher's.

She forgot to say again.

And she was going the opposite way.

She didn't see that.

Okay? I saw her in the butchers when I was walking down and I get to the bridge and I see it plain as day.

Right? It was a middle-aged woman.

She was blonde.

And she was giving me the eye.

She says, you.

I say, you what? She was talking to Pip.

Anyway.

Pleasant young lass.

She was saying how mean the dog was.

And it was all fine.

And it was all good.

And as she's walking away, I see her with a bag, and she's got so much stuff in there.

Long story short, I saw the Coke can fall out of her bag.

It wasn't her fault.

The person in question here, the person that needs to be dealt with and sanctioned accordingly is Deidre.

Okay? For her offensive shopping.

She's got a problem.

All right? Someone honestly needs to talk to that woman about her shopping.

An I witness again.

You are all going to have a go at being the role of David, who again was a 40 year old teacher.

Report what you saw as if being interviewed by the news.

But the only differences is, it must contradict Deidre's story.

Okay? Contradict her version of events.

By contradict, I mean, show something that proves she's a liar.

Okay? So, opposite kind of details.

If Deidre says that she was walking there on the bridge at 12 o'clock, you could say, well, no I was in the bakery at 12 o'clock and you were in there buying eight chocolates a glass.

Okay? So you see what I'm saying? You've got to show contradictory details.

Consider your physical and vocal skills to show the difference between Deidre and David.

Pause the video to be able to have a go at this task.

Again, you can rehearse this a couple of times then click resume when you're ready to move on.

Now we come to the Blame Game.

Some residents in Bowborne have suggested they know exactly who it is that is behind the littering.

There have been many theories.

However, some are just simply ridiculous.

And it brings us to choices.

These characters have chosen to stir up the story in order to become involved.

Almost as if they have nothing better to do.

It doesn't solve the problem, however, it does make for an interesting story.

So, in the role of Deidre, I'd like you to make a bold accusation about someone who lives in the village.

You think they've been littering.

In fact, no, you know they've been littering.

Use exaggeration to both make and deliver your story.

Consider your physical and vocal skills to show the character of Deidre again.

It should feel natural to make this comical.

So just go for it.

Okay? Don't hold back.

Pause the video, rehearse this couple of times and click resume when you're ready to move on.

Now, choices can be very dangerous.

Sometimes characters can choose to lie.

This can have a negative effect on many people not just those they're referring to but those that are directly affected and yourself.

Choices are something that are presented to us as individuals every single day.

We have to make choices and they can be simple choices.

They can be complex, they could be high risk, They could be high importance, low risk, low importance et cetera.

Okay, we've reached the end of the lesson.

So, well done for all of your hard work today.

Let's summarise what we've done.

So we've looked at choices through many different characters today.

We've explored them in different ways through Visualisation, Conscience Alley, Hot Seating, Improvisation, and Eye Witness.

I hope you've found some fun in the activities today and I hope you've been able to be creative with what I've given you.

I look forward to seeing you in our next lesson and if you've made any work today, which you are particularly proud of here's what you can do to share it.

Don't forget to ask your parent or carer for permission first, but they can tag us sharing your work on Twitter with @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

Until our next lesson, which is a 'Person and a Choice' part two, the final lesson in this unit.

Take care and goodbye.