Collaborating to Build Machines

The Machines activity is great for teaching collaboration and focus, not to mention patterns and repetition.  It also helps actors overcome the fear of looking or sounding silly in front of others.  First, actors experiment with repetitive sounds and movements on their own.  Then they join others to build a machine with connected moving parts and sounds.  The key is to focus on your own sound and movement while hearing and seeing other rhythms around you.  At first it looks like total madness, but you know you've got it when the group can speed up and slow down at the same pace.  Actors from first to eight grade are successful in this activity.  The hard part is getting them back to the classrooms quietly.  

Improvise..... Make It Up!

First through fourth grade drama students started the year playing drama games to work on collaboration and improvisation skills.  This week we defined the word "improvise".  Before defining the word, I asked students to write what they think it means to improvise when you forget your lines.

Richard is right!  You should make something up that is as similar to your lines as you can remember.  Alexis suggested that it means to close your eyes and visualize your script in your mind.  Whatever you do, you definitely shouldn't panic and run backstage.  

Relax and improvise.  Make something up and keep going.  

Fake it till you make it!

Tableau! Playing Martha's Game

A tableau is a picture created by a grouping of silent, motionless actors.  In Martha's Game one player at a time jumps in to add to the picture.  No one really knows why it's called Martha's Game, but students have a great time with this game.

Machines

Each player repeats a sound and movement to make a machine.

K-2 Musical Literacy Night

Kinder students from Ms. Sanchez and Mrs. Martinez's class collaborated with first and second graders from Mrs. Diaz, Mr. Ortega and Mr. James' class to present musicals based on the books The Story of Ferdinand and Caps for Sale.  Jr. High students in the Tech Theatre class were responsible for constructing and preparing set pieces and props.  Even our parent volunteers helped out by making papel picado for the bullfight scene in Madrid.  

Faith, from Mrs. Martinez's kinder class, used her time in writer's workshop to write a book about her experience performing as the bee in The Story of Ferdinand.  

The Cheetah and the Sloth

Mrs. Hobden's 3rd graders and Ms. L'Italiens class performed The Cheetah and the Sloth.  This video is a shortened version of their performance.  DVD's of the complete performance are available from 

Miss Angulo and the Herrera DramaLlamas Drama Club.

The Three Stages According to Ms. Gonzalez's 4th Graders

............Proscenium Stage............

       The proscenium stage is a common stage for schools.  It is used for plays and dance performances and other things.  The proscenium stage has one house for the audience to sit in.   It has in arch at the front of the stage called the proscenium arch and it has a wall in the back and on two sides. It has a backstage area.  The actors must face the audience.  This is the kind of stage we have at Herrera School. 

............Arena Stage............

        The arena stage has the audience on four sides and it does not have any curtains or a backstage area. The arena stage has several stage features that the other stages don’t have. The arena stage is square or round.  The actors are in the middle of the stage. Each actor that is on the stage faces every direction so the audience can see the actor that is facing them. The arena stage could be used for a concert or a basketball stadium, circus or Wrestle Mania.

............Thrust Stage............

     

        The thrust stage is used for modeling and it is also used for performing.   Actors and models perform on the thrust stage.  The thrust stage looks like a “T”.  The audience sits on three sides of the stage.  The thrust stage is also known as a cat walk for modeling.