Pantomime Scenes
By Dana Fleming
Unit Objective: Students will be able to demonstrate their ability to craft a storyline and convey physicality and emotion by performing an original duo-pantomime scene.
Lesson One—Intro to Movement
Objective: Students will understand the basics of communication through movement and implement them through a game of Charades.
Materials Needed:
High-energy aerobics music and means by which to play it.
Many little strips of paper, bowls or cups to put them in, and pens for Charades.
HOOK:
Excitedly invite all students to the stage and get them PUMPED UP FOR AEROBICS. Have the students form dance lines and turn on the music. Lead students through an aerobic routine and stretching.
INSTRUCTION:
Step One—DISCUSSION: Ask students what tools they have to use as actors. Their bodies should be one of the answers given. Ask students why and how their bodies are useful in performance and in acting. What can be conveyed?
Step Two—DIRECTIONS/GUIDED PRACTICE: Ask students if they have ever played Telephone Charades. This game is played in the following manner. Select five to six participants and ask them to leave the room. The audience chooses an action that is specific, silly, and obscure to act out (ie: “a nerd’s romantic first date”, “washing an elephant”, “going skydiving naked”, etc.) Once the clue has been decided, bring in all the participants and instruct them to face the right side. The moderator reveals the clue to the first person, who taps the second person on the shoulder and acts out the topic using charades rules (no talking allowed, no noises). The second person then taps the third person and acts out his or her understanding of what was acted out. This continues until it reaches the last person in line, who must guess what the action is. This is a fun game because the action mutates and changes based upon each person’s interpretation of what is going on, often leading to confusion and silly motions.
Step Three—DISCUSSION: Between each round of Telephone Charades, ask the audience members what the participants did well to convey the message. Where did the message get lost? Why did it get lost? What are effective methods of communicating clear meaning through movement?
Step Four—DIRECTIONS/GUIDED PRACTICE: Divide students into two teams—place the slips of paper, pens, and two bowls on the ground and allow students to write down whatever move, song, play, book, or television show they like for a game of Charades. Explain the basic rules of Charades and play the game! May the best movers win.
CLOSURE/ASSESSMENT:
Ask students what movement can convey aside from just story? Tell them that in the coming days, these areas will be covered. Students are assessed by participation.
Lesson Two—Pantomime
Objective: Students will demonstrate their understanding of pantomime by performing simple actions.
Materials Needed: Two copies of the improvisation duo scenes (attached), cut and ready to be handed out.
HOOK:
As students enter the classroom, stand by the door. Randomly hand students an improv scene (there should be eight pieces of paper total, equaling four random partnerships). After role has been taken, ask everyone to come to the stage with a half-sheet of paper and a writing implement—and for these eight students to find their partners and discuss who will be who in the improved scenes. Have them perform their scenes and after each performance have the class guess what the scene was about, down to the smallest detail. Who was on stage? What was going on? What is the relationship between the two? What was the conflict?
INSTRUCTION:
Step One—DISCUSSION: ask students if the performances were fun or engaging to watch? Why? Simple action CAN be engaging to watch. This is helped as action is clear and precise—it is important for action to be understandable to the audience.
Step Two—GUIDED PRACTICE: Have students leave their paper on the ground and circle up. Have them rub their hands together. Slowly as they continue to move their hands, a sphere forms between their palms. Some kind of ball. It can be very small, it can grow and become very large. It can be small as a marble or a pearl—it can be as large and heavy as an exercise ball or a watermelon. What size is it? Feel its weight. Feel its heaviness or its lightness. Try throwing it up into the air—be sure to catch it again! What is its color, its texture? Can you balance it in one hand? On one finger? What does it smell like? Give it a good lick—Does a basketball taste different from an orange? Now, using all of your strength, you will throw your ball as high as you can into the air, watch it go up and then fall back down—as it hits the ground it immediately becomes liquid and soaks into the floor.
Step Three—DISCUSSION: Having students reflect on the exercise just performed, teach them the basic qualities of pantomime. There are three! 1. Consistency—keeping objects the same size, in the same place, etc. 2. Exaggerated Resistance—define and make movements sharp and crisp, make every movement bigger than life. 3. Exaggerated Facial Expression and Gestures—keeping expressions and gestures specific, but bigger than life! Discuss each one in detail.
Step Four—DIRECTIONS: Get your papers and pencils. Sit in a circle. Think of an object, larger than a marble, but smaller than a microwave. Write it down on your paper. Pass your paper to the left. Using the object you on this new paper, write a simple, complete task or action based on the object. For example—if the object you receive is “balloon” a task can be “you begin to blow up the balloon. It gets bigger and bigger. Suddenly, it pops!”. Pass this paper to the left once more. You will have two minutes to create a short pantomime based on your object and action.
Step Five—INDEPENDENT PRACTICE: Give students two minutes to work.
Step Six—PERFORMANCE/DISCUSSION: Have students perform their pantomimes in front of the classroom. At the close of each pantomime, students will discuss what they saw—what was the object? What was the action? How did you know?
CLOSURE/ASSESSMENT:
Participation is the assessment in this lesson.
- You are waiting in line at a grocery store carrying a heavy basket and a screaming baby. The person in front of you is writing a check very slowly and having a lovely little chat with the cashier. You grow impatient and ask the person ahead of you to hurry along. The person sees the state you’re in,
apologizes, and retrieves a $20.00 bill from her wallet to give to you.
- You are children playing in the sand box. One of you is finishing the final touches on a very delicate and magnificent sand castle. You call your friend over to see it, but in his excitement he she trips and falls onto your castle. You are distraught. Suddenly it begins to pour rain. You both run under the nearest tree and collapse, laughing.
- You are at a Doctor’s office. She comes in and greets you. She asks you to sit on the examination bed. She checks your temperature, your heart-rate, and your reflexes. She informs you that she’ll need to draw some blood and goes to get a needle. You are deathly afraid of needles and try to warn her. She assures you you’ll be fine as she prepares the needle. You take deep breaths, but as she puts the needle into your elbow, you faint.
- You are playing a video game with your brother. He is winning. He puts it on pause and says he needs to go to get a drink of water and he’ll be right back. He leaves and you un-pause his controller and begin to play for him, making him lose. He walks in with the water to see what you’re doing. He is furious. He drops the water and chases you off stage.
Lesson Three—Storylines
Objective:Students will demonstrate knowledge as to how to create a fun an interesting storyline by turning it an outline with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
Materials Needed:
One big bag filled with “props”. I basically just filled it with any fun or interesting items I could find at home—weights, a map, a stuffed animal, Russian stacking dolls, a can-opener, a bible, high-heels, a scarf, incense, a pepper grinder, etc. I make sure to bring enough for each partnership and a few extra to offer variety.
White board and marker.
HOOK:
30-second-story. Ask the students who knows the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Ask if anyone feels like they could tell the complete story in one minute. Choose a volunteer. Time her and stop her at a minute. If she couldn’t do it, ask her if she’d like to try again or let someone else try. If she was able to do it, ask her if she can tell it in 50 seconds. 40 seconds. 30 seconds. And so on. Continue until she’s gone as far as she can. Ask the class what three basic components does a story boil down to. Answer: A beginning, a middle, and an end.
INSTRUCTION:
Step One—DISCUSSION: Write on a the white board leaving space after each word to define, “BEGINNING, MIDDLE, and END” Ask the class “What does a beginning entail? What makes a beginning different from the other two? Why is it important? What does a middle entail? How does it move along the action? What about an ending? What makes it an ending?” Continue like this until you have sufficient definitions for the beginning, middle, and end. The beginning is where characters, location, relationship, etc. are established. The middle presents a conflict that needs to be solve. The end is the resolution to the conflict.
Step Two—MODELING: Ask for three volunteers to stand in front of the story. They are to tell a story as a group. Person one tells the beginning or establishment of character, location, and relationships, person two tells the middle, or conflict, and person three tells the resolution. The audience will decide whether or not each person did their task correctly. Two or three groups can model this if time permits.
Step Three—DISCUSSION: Back to the white board, you will introduce the two other important elements of storyline creation. 1. KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)—make sure it is easy to understand and not cluttered with excess movement and gestures; audiences need all the clues they can get to understand what you’re doing. 2. Be Fantastic—both in the “good performance” aspect and the “not reality” aspect; pantomimes do not have to follow regular rules and should be larger than life at all times.
Step Four—DIRECTIONS: Ask students to get into pairs and come to the stage. This partner will be their partner for the final assessment in this class. Pull out bag of props and begin to place props on the floor. Tell the students that when you let them, they are to come and choose a prop as partnership to create a pantomime story surrounding that prop. The scene can be practiced WITH the prop but must be performed WITHOUT it. It should be about one-two minutes long. The story should have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Remind them what those entail.
Step Five—INDEPENDENT/PARTNER PRACTICE: Students are to create and practice their stories. They are to then pick another pair and to perform the scenes for one another.
Step Six—PERFORMANCE: For however long time permits, pairs who want to go may volunteer to perform their scenes without the props. Class will discuss the storyline—the beginning, middle, and end evident in the scene.
Step Seven—DIRECTIONS/INDEPENDENT PRACTICE: Tell students that they are now to get with their partner and create a rough draft of the story for their pantomime. Leave them at least ten minutes to create this and write it down. They need to write down the beginning, middle, and end with all information that those entail. Volunteer to help if they feel stuck.
ASSESSMENT:
Have students turn in their outlines. You will look them over and return them to the students with your assessment.
Lesson Four—Emotion and Characters in Pantomime
Objective—Students will demonstrate an understanding of how physicality portrays emotion and character by creating emotions and characters for their scenes.
Materials Needed:
List of stereotypical characters, cut and put in a jar (attached)
Adverbs, cut and put in a jar (attached)
Enough half or quarter sheets of paper and writing implements (these can be shared) for all students.
Students’ storyline outlines they turned in yesterday.
HOOK:
Have students find a partner and then to take that partner and find a place on the floor. Decide who is person A and person B. Ask them to be perfectly silent and follow the instructions you give one at a time while the other watches. For example, “Person A, stand with your weight on one leg. Cross your arms in front of your chest. Look down and over your left shoulder. Eyes narrow and lids drop. Outer brow turns downward. Mouth turns down. Facial muscles sag. Hold that position. Breathe. Person B, what do you see? What is the emotion being portrayed? How can you tell? What are your clues? Good. Person A, relax. Person B, your turn…” etc. This exercise will show students how movement portrays emotion even without assigning meaning to it.
INSTRUCTION:
Step One—GUIDED PRACTICE: Have a jar of stereotypical characters on little sheets of paper. Pass the jar around and have everyone take a character. Tell them to put the sheet of the paper in their pockets. Group A take a seat and Group B fill the space. They are to begin walking around the space as their character without interacting with any other characters. Ask the questions—“how does your character move? Fast? Slow? How is his or her posture? Do they walk with confidence? In fear? Do they carry anything special with them? Now, without words, interact with other characters on stage. How do you approach others? How do others respond to you? How do you get to know someone else? What do you think of the characters you are interacting with?” Have group A guess what characters were being portrayed. Have them defend their answers. Switch groups and repeat.
Step Two—GROUP PRACTICE: Character Relay Race! Have students form four even lines on stage right facing stage left. Tell the students that they are going to have a relay race to stage let and back, running AS their characters. If they aren’t running as their character would run, they get called out and sent back at which point they need to start over and try again. This should be a fun, funny, and energetic activity. Feel free to laugh very hard and allow others to do the same.
Step Three—GUIDED PRACTICE: Have students sit in a circle with their half-sheets of paper and pencils. At the top of the piece of paper have each student write down an action (like unpacking groceries, chopping wood, making a sandwich, brushing teeth, etc.) When everyone is done, have them pass their paper to the right. At this point, pass around the jar of adverbs and ask each student to take one. With the new paper, write the adverb below it (ie: chopping wood tenderly, making a sandwich angrily, etc.) Have them pass that paper to the right once more. Students are to take this paper and to create a short 15-30 second pantomime.
Step Four—PARTNER PRACTICE: Students will choose a partner. Partners will present their pantomime to one another.
Step Six—PERFORMANCE: Students who desire can perform their pantomime and class will discuss their performance in the same way they did with their partners.
Step Seven—DIRECTIONS: Ask students to get with their partners. Hand students back their storyline outlines. Ask them to describe their character in-detail and character’s emotions in the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
CLOSURE/ASSESSMENT:
Have students turn in their storyline outlines now with detailed character and emotion descriptions.
Ditzy Blonde
Football Player
Elderly Person
Rock Star
Super Hero
50’s Housewife
Caveman
Bum
Ghost
Important Business Man
Hippie
Body Builder
Gangster
Aerobics Instructor
Country Hick
Ballerina
Toddler
Brave Knight
Pregnant Woman
Fairy Godmother