Week 6 - Active Analysis Notes
Agree with actors on the task for each unit – it needs to work with the actors although you should also come prepared with alternatives and your own opinions
Make sure to assure actors, test out what they want, let them know the verbs are flexible
Naming the unit – “what’s the game that we’re playing right now?”
Longer units, suggest to the actors that you can break it up into smaller units and revisit that
Let actors know when you struggled to define units
When getting actors to decide on tasks – “what lights a fire under you?”
Exploration of relationship and sense of the scene, once establishing units, get it up on its feet with silence and movement
Feeders and whisperers – external people feeding the line to the actors and stage the scene that way, the actors never have to break relationship and also helps actors to learn why they are saying something, get the lines to come from within, prevents script analysis, unlock characters and relationships
After getting actors to test out the movement and silence of the scene (through the eye contact, walk forward, walk back) asking them if there was an inner monologue, what it was, how it felt, what they learnt about the characters, what they discovered?
In doing the above task, is there anything the actors want to change in the units or the tasks?
Re-read the scene then do the actor stare-out (whilst adding in improv dialogues) then ask what they discovered… focus on feeling and inner monologue for the actors!
When doing the atude (actor stare out) you can play around with things to unlock the actors or relationships – getting them to do it back to back, adding in chairs etc.
Block nothing. Hurt nobody. Force nothing.