ATHR-240Y ACTING I
Instructor: Brenny Rabine
Office: PAC 346
Phone: (518) 423-2823 (Cell phone)
Email:
Class time: T-TH 1:15-2:35 PC 53
OFFICE HOURS: Thursdays, by appointment
ATHR 240Y (3) Development of an actor's instrument through the use of voice, body and imagination to create realistic behavior under given circumstances. Concepts taught include creative work habits, ensemble development, use of self, acting as interacting, rehearsal skills and action analysis. Exercises include improvisation and scripted. This course does not require previous acting experience and encourages student to take artistic risks as a first step in the department's acting sequence.
Skills we will be working toward…
* Creating an ensemble
* Using and sharing the space
* Developing concentration, listening and communication skills
* Cultivating respect for fellow artists
* Mastering a basic working vocabulary of theatre and improv terms and concepts
* Living in the moment
* Making our partners look good
* Failing good-naturedly
* Recognizing, accepting, and building on "offers"
* Defining and using actions, tactics, obstacles
* Discovering rehearsal techniques
* Adhering to a work ethic for theatre
Our approach will focus on how to be ourselves on stage. Only by knowing yourself can you expect to perform "characters." We will develop an ability to play moment-to-moment and be receptive and resilient while performing.
Being an actor means you must prepare yourself to work in an ensemble. Acting is really a team sport. You must be generous in spirit and ready to give. A true ensemble player is an accomplished listener. You must learn how to think critically but express positively. These skills help to further the work of the ensemble as well as develop your ability to communicate in any other context.
We will extend our thinking to connections between our work "on stage" to our work on those stages we perform on "in real life."
Exploration of any artistic craft requires a willingness to take risks. Commitment is a risk. The amount you grow as an actor (dare I say, as a person) in this class will be directly proportional to the level of your commitment and your willingness to take risks.
COURSE ACTIVITIES
Acting I is a lab class, and as such, it will require active participation at all times. Whether you are onstage or in the audience, you must always take an active part in the process. The work of the class includes:
* Warm-Ups (Physical and vocal)
* Theatre games and improvisation
* Exercises
* Written work (Process journal, reflective essays)
* Reading
* Discussion
* Monologue rehearsal and performance
* Attending, discussing and evaluating theatrical performances
Home preparation is part of many of these activities.
WARM-UPS
We begin each class with a warm-up, which is an essential part of theatre discipline. As an athlete readies her body for performance, so must an actor. The warm-up is intended to release physical tension, deepen breathing, exercise voice and articulators, and improve posture. As well, it helps up the outside world away, enabling us to be more focused, relaxed and ready to work. Everyone participates together in this part of the class.
A word about clothing: Please realize you will move in class. You will bend, run, stretch, sit on the floor, etc.* Think about what you need to wear to move with flexibility and comfort. Clothes that are too big or too tight will impede movement. Low cut tops, low-cut jeans, and other revealing styles might get you attention, but they will make it uncomfortable for you to participate in an acting class. (Frankly, I will feel uncomfortable FOR you.)
*See me if you need accommodations made.
THEATRE GAMES AND IMPROVISATION
Many classes also include theatre games and improvisation. Besides helping us to get to know and trust one another, these activities free up our imagination, establish rapport and mutual respect, and help us to feel more comfortable moving through the space and expressing ourselves physically and vocally. We will flex "muscles" (both literal and figurative) toward developing an actor's attitudes and aptitudes.
The first half of our work this semester will focus on improv skills and techniques, developed by Keith Johnstone and Viola Spolin. We will apply these skills and techniques to scripted theatre (i.e. our Audition Monologue rehearsals and performance) and to our lives.
PROCESS JOURNAL (20% of class grade)
Throughout our work in class, we will pause from time to time to debrief the work, to examine what we did, why we did it, and how it is applicable to an actor's work in theatre and to his life outside theatre (in short, what value it adds to your life). Using our discussions and your own reflection on the work and its impact on you, you will keep a process journal. By keeping a journal, you will help to raise awareness and bring to consciousness changes, insights, struggles, habits, and learning. I will offer journal prompts throughout the semester to help you to focus your observations.
Each day of the semester (yes, even weekends), you will handwrite a minimum of two pages in your journal (please obtain a composition notebook for this purpose.) For example, from Aug. 31 to Sept. 7 (8 days), you will have written 16 pages in your journal. I will not read this journal. I will, however, flip through the pages and count them, to assess that you are reaching the two-page-a-day goal. I will count them at the beginning of class, every other week. Bring your journal with you every day of class. Whatever I ask you to jot in your journal during class will count toward your two-page-a-day goal.
You will be free to write whatever you wish on these pages, and I strongly encourage you to record what we did in and for class, why you think we did it, and how it is of value to you. From this journal, you may harvest quotes, ideas, passages, and information for your REFLECTIVE ESSAYS.
REFLECTIVE ESSAYS (20% of class grade)
Twice a semester, you will be asked to write a carefully considered, 5-7 page, double-spaced, typed reflective essay. In these essays, you will examine your own development as an actor. Consider these essays my way of checking in with each of you, to develop a private conversation about your journey in this course. Each essay must explain and answer the following questions/topics:
* What are we working on in class? That is, what are our goals?
* What are YOU working on, personally?
* Which exercises, games, or assignments did you excel in? Why do you think so? What evidence do you offer for your self-assessment?
* Which exercises, games, or assignments did you struggle with? Why do you think so? What evidence do you offer for your self-assessment?
* If you were to assign yourself a grade for the work you reflect on in this essay, what grade would you assign and WHY?
Please consider these essays informal. I want them to sound like you are writing a well-considered and thoughtful letter to me. That said, please use conventional spelling, grammar, sentence and paragraph structure.
I will assess the essay by the following criteria:
Did the essay answer fully all the questions posed above?
Did the actor use evidence from his/her work in and out of class to support statements made in the essay?
Did the actor use enough detail to make statements seem credible and/or understandable to the reader?
Was the essay carefully proofread and well-organized?
Was it handed in on time?
Reflective Essay #1 is due on Thursday, Sept. 30th.
Reflective Essay #2 is due on Thursday, Nov. 18th.
All written work is due at the beginning of class.
I do not accept emailed work.
You are responsible to print your essays and hand them to me.
I will not accept late work without prior approval.
(Approval for late work granted only in case of verifiable medical or family emergency. "Late" is one class after the due date only. The grade for the reflective essay drops 10 points for being late.)
READING
The work of this class is based upon experience and the information found in a variety of acting texts. Although there is no assigned text, you will receive excerpts from a variety of texts, which either articulate concepts clearly or explain exercises succinctly. You are responsible for carefully reading these handouts. Some have exercises or journal prompts that you will be required to complete. As well, the concepts in these handouts are considered part of your vocabulary.
You will also be required to read the complete play from which your AUDITION MONOLOGUE is taken.
AUDITION MONOLOGUE (25% of class grade)
Actors are required to prepare and present monologues to auditors at open calls for professional productions. While sometimes actors are given "sides" (parts of scripts) to prepare and present at audition, very often actors perform a solo piece (1-3 minutes in length) that allows an auditor to see who the actors are and what they have to offer. The performance of the monologue demands the actor to imagine (and to create for the auditor) a specific location, given circumstances, and characters appropriate for the text. Of course, the lines are memorized, and the performance is polished. Ideally, the auditors sees something true about the actors themselves.
Professional actors have several monologues rehearsed and ready to perform at any time. By having several monologues, of varying style and with different emotional tone and content, actors can better match an audition to specific roles. Usually an actor will have a minimum of two contemporary monologues (one comic, one dramatic), and two classical monologues (one comic, one dramatic).
For this class, actors will need to choose only one monologue to rehearse and perform. I ask you to find a contemporary monologue, either comic or dramatic--the choice is yours. You are required to obtain and read a copy of the play in its entirety. This is at your own expense.
I will assess your monologue rehearsal and performance based on the following criteria:
* Was the actor prepared to rehearse on each rehearsal day?
* Did the actor's work demonstrate effort and rehearsal outside of class?
* Was the monologue memorized?
* Did the actor create a believable location for the monologue?
* Did the actor create a believable listener?
* Did the actor create believable given circumstances?
* Did the actor contribute positively to the work of other actors in class?
The final "exam" in this class will be a simulated open call, during which actors will warm-up and present their Audition Monolgue for an invited audience. Date: Evening of Monday, December 13th. (Location and time to be announced)
PARTICIPATION (35% of class grade)
You will bring your best selves to all classes. You will enter with a spirit of willingness and respect. You will participate to the best of your ability in all class exercises, rehearsals, games, and discussions. You will be an attentive, supportive audience member to all other actors in class. This means you are actively listening, watching, and offering constructive feedback. This also means you are NOT EATING (ever) in class. Water bottles are acceptable. (Hey, let's think about our impact on the environment when we choose a drinking vessel, eh?) You will clean up any trash at the end of class.
You will NOT use any cell phones. No texting, checking email, looking up information, taking photographs, or any other use of phones is acceptable. If you use a cell phone, if it buzzes, rings, beeps or in any way disrupts class, you will be counted absent for that class period.
You must be in attendance to participate. Only one excused absence per semester is permitted. After that, any absence will result in your final average lowered by 2 points per day. You must obtain an excused absence BEFORE class meets.
Because you are being graded on reflective essays (which necessitates your being in class) and on Audition Monologue rehearsals and performance (which necessitates your being in class), you cannot succeed in Acting I if you are absent. Headaches, heartbreaks, hangovers, car trouble and computer malfunctions, notwithstanding--come to class.
(If you're really having a hard time of it, please consider seeking help on campus with the Dean of Academic Affairs. They're there to help!)
Come to class.
Have fun.
Work hard.
Open your heart and mind to learning--about theatre, about acting, and about yourself.
This could be the easiest, more important A you ever earn. It's ultimately up to you.
To participate in this class, you will also need to attend two University at Albany Theatre Department productions, and one professional production. You are required to purchase tickets to these productions. Don't dawdle in making reservations!! Tickets go fast and you are REQUIRED to attend theses productions. I will require you a) to respond to specific journal prompts in response to each of these productions, and b) to staple your ticket stub to the page on which you are responding to these prompts.
PLAYS IN PROGRESS--Studio Theatre, $4
Dates: Oct. 8, 9 at 8:00PM
Oct. 9, 10 at 2:00PM
This play development laboratory provides student playwrights the opportunity to develop their writing with actors and directors, culminating in a staged reading. In an ongoing commitment to showcase emerging student voices, several exciting and diverse plays are chosen to be part of the festival each term.