On our first day on Level 2 Performing Arts Btec, we began
with some simple Drama games. After a
while we had a few moments to underline the purposes of the games. These Drama games helped us work on certain
strategies in which a Performing Arts student needs in order to work well with
each other. For example, team building
was required in the game of muddled phrases; this helped us work together in
order to make a phrase using separate words, I thought this was helpful in
order for us to get to know each other a little bit better. Alongside this were games which had us
warming up and energizing, with observation to one another, and focus. All these strategies were hidden amongst some
simple drama games, leading to a good introduction to the students of the
course.
After the first lesson came an introduction to our singing
lessons. Again this was a simple lesson
in which the teacher quizzed us on our knowledge of singing productions and
musicals in general.
On day two, it was our first Performing Arts Production
Process, where we had a meeting with the Level 3 Performing Art’s students and
we were to have a read through of our end of term project. Our end of term project was to work with the
Level 3 students as they were to be performing a pantomime version of ‘Jack and
the Beanstalk’. Our task as Level 2
students was to assist backstage. We
spent the lesson reading through the first written act of the productions
script. The purpose of this was to
understand the basics of our end of term project and meet with the people we
would be working with.
After the read through we went to our final lesson of the
day, movement. This lesson was focusing
on our dance movement strategies. This
first lesson was a little bit different to the previous introductory lesson we
had; as we were used to games and quizzed, then to focus on our knowledge of
acting and singing. Whereas with dance,
the teacher finished registering us and
went to the front of the class room where we could all see him. Then he began with some simple dance
movements and we followed, creating a warm up technique. This was all handy, because it introduced us
to what the teacher had expected of us and it gave us an understanding of what
was to come in upcoming movement lessons.
On day three, our day began with our first Developing
Physical Theatre Performance lesson.
This lesson was interesting because the teacher indicated how an actor
should stand on stage and become still, relaxed and focus eye sight dead ahead
of us. Then the teacher introduced
certain character movements on stage, such as clown like characters moving in a
tall comedic run, and an old curved back run.
This was, in a way, helpful to us because of our upcoming assignment focus
on a clown character. After the body
movements, we then went onto taking a look at still images. Now the purpose of this task was to take a
look at all the students’ imagination, as the teacher created a scenario and we
had to give a still image of a characters reaction of the scene. This showed our use of imagination and
creativity in improvised strategy games.
At the end of our first week we learnt many new strategies
and received a better understanding of techniques and methods within the drama
industry.
Well done Frank this is a great response to your first week on the course, you have clearly understood the purpose of games for work in drama and given good examples of how these can be used.
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