UNIVERSAL CLOTHING

Introduction

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ABOUT THE INTRODUCTION

Please don’t skip it! It’s brimming with bright ideas and suggestions to get you into the right mood for trying your hand at acting. Whether you intend to direct, stage, or act in the plays themselves these preliminaries will help you set the scene and, most importantly, will spur you and your students to unleash theatrical talents and creativity you thought you never had.

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LANGUAGE LEVEL

The plays bring to life English vocabulary and structures based on Levels A1 and A2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, which require students to reach a survival level of English. The plots and style of dialogue are written to intrigue 11-15-year-olds. The plays deal with everyday expressions and situations, they practise exchanging information on familiar issues and depict practical scenarios such as giving and receiving directions, ordering or talking about food, the weather, household chores, etc.

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AIMS OF THE BOOK

Let’s Act! is not intended as a serious work of drama and hence has no claims to match the work of classical playwrights: in other words, it does not aim to instil an everlasting appreciation of classical theatre in your students! What it does hope to do is introduce some entertainment and fun into your classroom whilst also achieving the educational purpose of helping your students discover and develop their acting abilities using the English language in a controlled, yet creative and humorous way. Let’s Act! contains the scripts of twelve mini-play productions which can be conceived as either very short, but complete plays, or as very long and developed skits. In each case, the performance is designed to last 15-20 minutes. Several situations deal with the pursuit of the opposite sex, some deal with superficial conflict at home or in school whilst others are parodies of the news or television talk shows.

Introduction

The plays are meticulously written in the present tense, even when alluding to past and future events, but great care has been taken to ensure the conversation keeps flowing naturally, despite all dialogues being in the present. However, by avoiding perfect, continuous, future and subjunctive tenses, where these are normally standard fare in making requests, expressing hopes, explaining or remembering something, some dialogues may, occasionally, seem a little stilted. We strongly feel, though, that the act of putting together and performing these plays encourages English fluency, peer teaching and learning in context, benefits which by far outweigh the odd stilted, but correct, sentence. Let’s Act! can be staged and performed with the support of classroom teachers or, with slightly older students, can be brought to life as a group activity with minimal adult assistance. The pages of this book marked: Photocopiable • Let’s Act! • © ELI 2003 may be photocopied.

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HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

ORGANISATION

Each of the twelve plays includes an Overview page followed by the script, which is five or six pages long.

THE OVERVIEW

This page, which is written specifically for the teacher’s use, contains the sections: Synopsis, Language Objectives, Production Notes, How to Extend or Reduce the Length of the Play and Staging Suggestions. It shares information and insights that the teacher may want to consider before casting the characters and staging the play. Students do not receive a copy of this page.

• SYNOPSIS

The synopsis contains a one or two sentence summary of the play that follows. Every plot has some kind of unexpected twist at the end, designed to surprise and amuse both the actors and the audience. Sometimes the synopsis describes the plot twist and other times it keeps it under wraps. You may, or may not want to share the synopsis with your students.

Introduction

• LANGUAGE OBJECTIVES

Usually language objectives are listed for both vocabulary and structures and often examples are cited. Remember: the purpose of Let’s Act! is not to teach new concepts, but to reinforce what has already been introduced during classroom instruction. For this reason, target vocabulary and structures are not pounded into the students’ conscience through every spoken dramatic line, but appear occasionally, as they would be spoken in the context of a natural conversation. Almost every word spoken in these mini-plays is standard elementary level English.

• PRODUCTION NOTES

The Production Notes provide helpful miscellaneous tips for the teacher, or "director!" The information in the Production Notes varies, but it is always very important. Make sure you read it before developing the play. Sometimes the style of the play is explained or acting "tips" are suggested for a particular character. Sometimes insights to a character’s personality are explored. Often there are suggestions for casting, for creating props and optional backdrops.

• HOW TO EXTEND THE LENGTH OF THE PLAY

This section gives you several suggestions for each play on how to add to the performance length of the play by creating dialogue for additional sub-plots, characters and situations. There are several situations in which you might want to use the “How to Extend the Length of the Play” section: ✔ You are performing for the student body, the annual parents and teachers’ meeting, secondary school or drama class, and need a full-length play. ✔ You wish to engage all the students in your classroom in the same play and need roles for all students. ✔ You want to further reinforce certain vocabulary and structures through additional dialogue.

There are several ways to create additional dialogue: ✔ You, the teacher, may try your hand as a playwright. ✔ Students, either individually or in small groups, may be given a finite length of time to compose dialogue. Each student or group may audition this dialogue with the class, and the students may vote to decide which dialogue will be added to the play. ✔ The class may add dialogue as a large group with the teacher as facilitator and director.

Introduction

• HOW TO REDUCE THE LENGTH OF THE PLAY

At other times you may need to reduce the length of the play for several reasons. For example: ✔ Your students are presenting the play for a competition and have a seven minute performance time limit. ✔ You want your students to memorise the play and you wish to delete a certain amount of dialogue. ✔ You want smaller rehearsing and performing student groups.

In this case, suggestions are given for reducing characters’ lines without losing the flow and meaning of the plot and sometimes for deleting entire characters.

• STAGING SUGGESTIONS

The sketches at the bottom of most Overview pages exist to give you a rough idea of the staging when performing these skits with students both in classroom settings and on school hall/assembly stages. The drawings represent the placement of students when the "curtain" rises, in other words when the play begins. Staging directions for student movement after the play begins are always written in italics as it occurs in the dialogue. Occasionally, the Staging Suggestions is omitted where the setting is largely imaginary or optional.

THE SCRIPT

• CHARACTERS

The characters are always listed, with a minimum of description, in the order of appearance. The roles for the most part are quite generic. Usually girls can play boys’ roles and vice-versa. Read through the entire play before casting parts to make sure you do not assign anyone anything particularly embarrassing to him or her. Most plays have roles for 4 - 5 students, but you may always create more roles or omit them, if necessary.

• SETTING

The plays do not need any elaborate staging! The goal is not Broadway, but fluid communication. The amount of setting is really up to you and your students. When the play calls for a sofa, if you have a sofa in your classroom, then great! If not, just drape some chairs with a throw to approximate a sofa.

Introduction

A doorway may be a long piece of brown parcel paper. News anchor desks, TV cooking show countertops and restaurant tables may all be created with plain, foldup tables. A few plastic potted plants can make a great image of a park. Old linen bedsheets that are painted and parcel paper that is decorated make wonderful optional backdrops that enhance certain moods or create locations.

• PROPS

The number of props used in the plays varies tremendously. One play entitled “Lola”, only requires two pine cones as props. Other plays need a great deal of sundry, seemingly unrelated items. You should not have to purchase any props and volunteers can bring items from home. It is important to gather all props together in a box before the first rehearsal. Always read through the play to make sure you have all the necessary props, and also to determine where they must be placed for actors to grab them as they need them during the performance.

• “CURTAIN”

“CURTAIN” gives you the exact location and occupation of each actor as the play starts. It is also a very theatrical word!

• COSTUMES

You have enough to do as language teachers, without worrying about costumes! If your students want to wear something special for their role (and some undoubtedly will), that’s just great, but it’s between you and them. If costumes are really essential, browse through your local second hand and charity shops, as well as jumble sales and flea markets for great costume clothes at next-to-nothing prices.

Introduction

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REHEARSAL PROCEDURE

You may wonder how to actually rehearse and present these plays with students. Here is a sample one-week schedule.

Standard rehearsal procedure with students

Day 1 (30 minutes): distribute a copy of the chosen play to each student. Read through the play as a class. Check student comprehension and practise any new vocabulary. REMEMBER: The play is only funny, and therefore successful, if students understand the vocabulary and plot well enough to understand the humour! Day 2 (30 minutes): divide the class into small groups. Distribute scripts, each group assigns roles amongst themselves, and read through the script. They begin to “block” the action if they have time that day. Day 3 (30 minutes): small groups reconvene to block and rehearse their plays several more times, add a few simple props. The teacher monitors groups, assists, and makes suggestions. Day 4 (The entire class period): present the play to the other groups. Video-tape the performances, if possible.(The quality of performance always increases when students know that they are being video-taped!) IMPORTANT! There is no need for students to completely memorise their lines, unless they are actually performing for other people. Using their scripts is fine, or if you want a more polished performance, have them make cue cards to hide in their props. Ad-libbing is okay: after all, that’s what communication is all about!

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ACTING TIPS

As a second language teacher, you are required to act every day. You act as you teach nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions, expressions and just about everything. The following are some additional acting tips which may help to "formalise" your theatrical qualities.

Introduction

ACTING TIPS

1. Acting is believing. You are not only playing the role of the Martyred Mother, the Frantic Suitor, the Perky Waitress or the Angry Customer. You become that person. You step into their skin and feel what it’s like to be someone else.

2. Acting is a voice. Always project your voice to the back of the theatre (or auditorium, canteen or classroom). Try to make your voice flexible: experiment with intensity, pitch and rhythm. Enhance emotions with exaggerated inflections. Always make sure your words are clear and distinct, especially your beginning and ending consonants.

3. Acting is thought. Think about the meaning of your lines, no matter how many times you say them. Say your lines more slowly than you do in real life because your audience needs time to digest your information. Remember that you’ve heard your lines many times, but your audience only gets the opportunity to make sense of your words once.

4. Acting is movement. All action on the stage should be "big!" Emphasise your words and actions with gestures and movement. Do not make unnecessary movements like scratching your face or tapping your foot, because the audience will watch that instead of the story.

5. Acting is focus. Always focus on the character to whom you are talking. Always make eye contact with him or her, unless the director or script instructs you otherwise.

6. Acting is creativity. You are often given very little insight into your character. This is especially true in short works, such as mini-plays. Use your imagination to create your character. What does she do in her leisure time? What kind of temperament does he have? Create the physical aspects of your character as well. What kind of walk does she have? Does he slouch on a couch or sit up straight? Does he sigh a lot, sniff daintily, or clear his throat loudly?

7. Acting is fun! This is the final and most important advice! Acting is fun because it allows you to step out of your skin and be someone else for a little while. Acting lets you react to situations and people in unusual ways without fear of reprisal. Acting is speaking with strangers who become friends as you work and play together to perfect a scene. Acting is creating a fine art out of the everyday process of communication.