Monday March 26th 2012

Quote:
“Looking for a mask? Make an emotional noise, freeze the facial expression that made it; there’s your mask” -Keith Johnstone.
Houskeeping:
-Thrusday
-Mask Lesson practicum favourites
-Monday
-Story Drama 4 corner presentations
-In class refelection paper last session
Copying money: $9 to Kayla W.
Story Drama’s due date back April 1st, same as Journal
-4 Corner Story Drama Presentations
-Partners drawn, 4 for each iteration
Each pair briefly explain why the class should come and watch their presentation
Give a story synopsis (reading the full text may take too much time; be prepared to skip some text)
Presentation should last 15 minutes.  Treat it as a marketing opportunity, explaining why the drama is worth doing and how you’d tie it together with games and structures.
Brief written peer assessment after each one.

Mirror and Mask (see Keith Johnstone’s chapter on “Mask and Trance” in his book ‘Improv’)
FACES
-lets talk about faces
-Children realize the face is the person
-we are influenced by faces more than we might think (parent feelings)
-Rational responses to faces can be hard; we feel we ‘know’ people by their looks eg. Dorothy and the Wicked Witch of the West.
-We hold characteristic expression as a way of maintaining our personalities (He’s always so happy/Why are you always so serious?) It’s a social expectation.  Why is Jim Carey so memorable?
-Faces get ‘fixed’ with age as muscles shorten; children make decisions to be defiant or stupid (so teachers expect less?)
term: gravitas (teachers need this)
Mirror and Mask  
Paired finger lead
—–Best way to start mirrored work is through ‘contact’
—–Partners touch index fingers and guide each other around the room
—–Great game for TRUST work
—–We will need to spend time on Trust work.  This will go a long way in creating confidence
-Follow the finger
—–In pairs
—–No touching
—–Person A uses their index finger
—–Person B is to follow the index finger by keeping their nose attached to A’s index finger (imaginary)
—–Person A then guides Person B around
-Chopsticks of drama
—–Can pick up a bunch of chopsticks from dollar store relatively inexpensive
—–In partners:  Fingertip to fingertip with chopsticks in between
—–Lateral Movement
—–Reciprocating movements
—–It’s about speed and contact
—–
-Line of reflection
—–In partners
—–Standing face to face with a chopstick on the floor representing a mirror
—–Kids will need discussion around: when person A moves their right leg, what leg does person B move to represent mirror? (opposites)
—–Teacher:  Person A:  you have something in your eye,  you may need to take a closer look in the mirror to try and get it out!
—–When students don’t understand something, a lot of teachers will push forward with vigor.  This is a tendency as the curriculum is way too big for the time frame that is given.
—–If you’re not very good at something, don’t do it until you are comfortable.
-Face and emotional sound
—–When doing mask work make sure you have mirrors.  It’s very important that students see what mask they are putting on.  We want the students to be effected by the mask they are working with.  They change who they are.  When a mask is born it knows nothing, it cannot speak.
—–If you feel uncomfortable:  take the mask off ( like the imax:  if you think you’re going to throw up, leave)
—–Given a laminated Emotions card (Picture ->)
—–Pick Three emotions and practice morphing, holding each emotion for 2 seconds each.
—–Use mirror to see what your face looks like
—–Going around the class someone picks an emotion that the entire class is to do.  We then take a look to see the different interpretations.
—–One volunteer is chosen to sit in a chair in front of the class demonstrating 3 emotions morphing between each.
-Mirrors of drama
-Emotional cue card
-Expression morphing (3)

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