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  • 1.  Silly Maybe, but Real

    Posted 11-01-2017 19:50
    This may sound like a silly question, but it is one I have never really found a satisfactory answer to. As a Junior at the University of Evansville, I am spending an increasing amount of time in a classroom and it has dawned on me. I don't know how to teach acting. So that is the question I'd like to pose this evening. How do you teach acting to high school students?

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    Ian Phipps
    Evansville IN
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  • 2.  RE: Silly Maybe, but Real

    Posted 11-02-2017 10:06
    Great Question!

    After 15 years of teaching high school I'm still not sure I have the answer.  I have tried a number of approaches over the years but what has been working for me as of late is focusing on a two pronged approach:

    1) Get them physically engaged at the beginning of class with a solid, professional warm up of the body and voice.

    2) Focus on script analysis, intention driven choice making and self discovery.

    They're teens - their not fully formed humans yet and most of them have very limited life experience to work with.  I think of my job as a high school acting teacher as setting table for college and beyond.  Laying a strong foundation (yes, I'm spinning the big metaphor wheel here) for tomorrow.

    I hope that helps.

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    [George] [Brock]
    [Theatre Program Coordinator]
    [Episcopal High School]
    [Bellaire] [TX]
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Silly Maybe, but Real

    Posted 11-02-2017 10:55
    I think that you teach acting the same way that you teach anything else in the classroom. You break acting down into small bite-size objectives and come up with a tangible way to measure each one. For example:

    Objective: Students will be able to throw focus onstage
    Assessment: Student will be assessed on the following rubric during one musical number at the end of class
    • 3: Student made clear physical movements to indicate that their focus was on a specific character
    • 2: Student made vague physical movements to indicate that their focus was on a specific character
    • 1: Student was not paying attention to the specific character
    • 0: Student did not participate in assessment
    You track mastery of objectives on a daily basis, returning to ones that caused the most trouble for students in your class.

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    Victoria Chatfield
    Executive Director
    National Theatre for Student Artists
    www.nationalstudenttheatre.org
    vchatfield@nationalstudenttheatre.org
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Silly Maybe, but Real

    Posted 11-02-2017 12:01
    I use a lot-- A LOT of Creative Dramatics activities in the first two years and then we tend to move on to a more script based analysis and skills approach, while deepening the experience in movement and expressive activities as students grow.  Hope that makes sense.

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    Michael Johnson
    Trinity NC
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Silly Maybe, but Real

    Posted 11-02-2017 13:16
    For me, it begins with the text. Read the play. Analyze the text. What does the character want? What are the strongest actions (tactics/intentions) you will play to get what you want? How can the staging (physicalizing) enhance the actions?
    Are you playing the most active intentions? To think, to explain, to be (anything) is too passive. Be specific.
    Are you listening and responding honestly in this moment?
    Are you indicating emotions and faking it?
    Are you "in your head" and watching/judging yourself?
    Are you going with honest impulses of movement?

    And the basics:
    Be seen.
    Be heard.
    Be clear.

    I use some Meisner exercises and some improv - whatever I think will help students with their individual habits. I've often said, "Stop "acting," look at your partner, and just say the line like you mean it."



    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Silly Maybe, but Real

    Posted 11-03-2017 13:58
    ​I start from the basics in my Acting I class: working as an ensemble, focus/concentration, entering the creative state, imagination, body, voice. Then we move to text analysis, objectives & character creation. In Acting II we work through lots of various scene studies (using Michael Shurtleff's Audition) and also explore different acting styles and practitioners.

    My go-to sources for activities (and they all have a good framework for instruction if you just want to build your curriculum from the book) are Acting is Believing (McGaw, Stilson & Clark), Acting One (Robert Cohen), and Acting Onstage and Off (Robert Barton). All Stanislavski based.

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    Cassy Maxton-Whitacre
    Theatre Department Coordinator
    Fishersville VA
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    Original Message


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