Unit(s) : Introduction to the Theatre/ Acting
Purpose:
To demonstrate how thorough preparation and formal delivery techniques can improve a performance
Objective:
Students will observe the distractions created by insufficient rehearsal and poor performance techniques.
Materials:
- Any brief, dramatic monologue such as the scene from "Joan of Lorraine" (see attachment)
- The script or book containing the monologue
- Gum
- Two or three chairs
Procedure:
On the first day of class or the first day of the unit, perform a semi-memorized, semi-prepared monologue from a very serious play displaying as many bad habits as possible:
- Begin by apologizing for not being prepared.
- Chew gum throughout.
- Present a lengthy introduction that reveals what will happen in the scene without mentioning the title and author of the play. Be sure to say "like" and "you know" as many times as possible.
- Two or three lines into the piece ask someone to hold your script and prompt you. Call for your lines every sentence from then on.
- Two or three lines further into the piece set up the chairs you forgot to set up at the beginning.
- Say "uh", look at the ceiling, and use a totally monotone voice. Mispronounce a few words.
- Either stand in one place or pace. Play with you hair and clothing. Include no motivated movement.
- At the end of the scene, sit down by one of the students and ask questions like "Did I do okay?" "What do you think I made?"
Begin this "performance" with no preliminary discussion so that the students will not know what to think at first. When the "performance" is completed, ask them to list all mistakes made. Discuss their responses.
Joan of Arc, the simple country girl who led the French army against the English, has self-doubts about her visions. Having yielded to the pressures of the trial and the educated religious leaders, she "confessed" that she could not prove the voices she heard were from heaven. In this scene, she prays to God, thinking she will live, but finds little happiness in this thought.
(In her cell, JOAN is kneeling in prayer.)
JOAN:
King of Heaven, the night is over. My jailors have worn themselves out with tormenting me, and have gone to sleep. And I should sleep - I could sleep safely now - but the bishop's questions come back to me over and over. What if I were wrong? How do I know my visions were good? I stare wide awake at the dawn in the window and I cannot find an answer.
So many things they said were true. It is true the king we crowned at Rheims is not wise nor just nor honest. It is true that his realm is not well governed. It is true that I am alone, that my friends have forgotten me, both the king and the nobles who fought beside me. There is no word from them, no offer of ransom.
And I am doubly alone, for I have denied my visions, and they will come to me no more. I believe my visions to be good, but I do not know how to defend them. When I am brought into a court, and must prove what I believe, how can I prove that they are good and not evil?
Yes, and I ask myself whether I have been honest always, for when I went among men, I acted my part. It was not only that I wore boy's clothes - I stood as my brother stood and spoke heartily as he spoke, and put challenges in the words he would have spoken. When I spoke with my own voice, nobody listened, nobody heard me, yet was it honest to assume ways that were not my own? I know there's to be no answer.
I can expect no answer now, after I have betrayed and denied my saints. They will not burn me now because I admitted that I could not prove my Voices good - and I submitted to the church. And now, when I am to live, when I have done what they say is right, I am more unhappy than when they said I was wrong and must die.