Now that you've spent some time developing your sensory abilities on stage, I'd like you to discuss how each of the following exercises will help you when you improvise a scene (Yes - discuss all six exercises!):
1. Mirror exercise;
2. Taste and smell;
3. Three changes;
4. Tug of war;
5. Ball; and
6. Conversation with involvement.
Be sure to describe and explore what you did in each exercise that really helped you develop helpful skills, as well as anything you discovered that maybe surprised you or confused you. If you had trouble with any of these exercises, discuss that as well. You can also explore how these exercises might relate to the rules of improv that you were given.
REMEMBER: The depth of your reflection is more important than thinking about what answer I'm looking for - there is no "right" answer!
ANSWERS DUE BY SATURDAY, 10/22, 9 A.M.
1. Mirror Exercise: I think the mirror exercise really helped you pay attention to what your partner is doing and playing on that. I think it's a really good exercise to practice when you want to really focus on making your partner look good.
ReplyDelete2. Taste and Smell: I think this exercise helps you to make any scene seem more realistic. I think it's easier to taste/smell/feel the food when you don't pay attention to anything else, too, so it also helps to stop worrying so much about the audience.
3. Three Changes: This one really keeps you on your feet about noticing everything your partner does. It helps in improv to make your partner look good by focusing on every little thing they do, and this exercise really helps you do that.
4. Tug of War: This one was kind of hard for me because it was hard to maintain the reality of an object when two people are trying to use it at the same time. It really helps you to work together with your partners. It teaches you to notice the little things they do and how to respond to them.
5. Ball: This is a good exercise to do if you want to get used to working with a large group of people and responding to their movements. It's really similar to tug of war, but with a larger group of people, which makes it more challenging.
6. Conversation with Involvement: I think this exercise was a really good combination of a lot of them. It really lets you practice keeping the reality of the scene, and also working with a partner and responding to them.
1.Mirror Excercise: I think the mirror excercise really helped us connect with our partners. We had to concentrate on trying to mimick exactly what our partners were doing. We could't move to fast because we had to focus on not making our partners look horrible.
ReplyDelete2.Taste and Smell: The tasteand smell helped us focus on something that wasn't relly there. It really helped me focus on what was happening and helped make it seem real.
3.Three Changes:The three changes excercise helped us concentrate on every detail of our partner. We had to observe every detail which made it hard because if you didn't, you obviously couldn't figure it out. That led to long, awkward pauses and strange faces.
4.Tug of War:Tug of war was interesting because it was really hard to maintain the integrity of the "rope". Sometimes our rope would be different sizes. Other times it would be a completely different length and it was kind of hard to tell when to move backward and forward.
5.Ball: The ball was a hard excercise because depending on the size of the group, it was difficult to keep track of the ball. Then when the second ball came into the picture, that got worse because they would change sizes and at one point, Bridget had both.
6.Conversation with Involvement:I liked this excercise because even though it was a challenge to keep the table the same height and not talk with with my hands, that also made it fun. Keeping the conversation going without long stretches of silence was quite difficult and like I said, not throwing my sandwich proved equally difficult.
Christian M
1. I think that the mirror exercise will really help me to see what other people are doing as far as movement, and react in an appropriate way. For example, if the group is swimming and i'm walking on water, chances are i'm doing something wrong. This exercise helped me understand what is going on without talking
ReplyDelete2. The taste and smell exercise would help me get into character and become involved in whats going on. Just from watching other people, I could see how at first they were just moving their mouth, but then they were getting more into it and actually eating food.
3. The three changes exercise helps with getting you to really pay attention to what every one is doing. For example you would need to pay attention to things like where the remote was put down, or where the fake computer is so you don't walk through it. This keeps you thinking and watching.
4. I was not in class for the tug of war, but from what I heard in class today, it seems like it would be a challenge not to have both sides move away from each other or together at the same time. It would help me to keep note of where all of the fake stuff is such as a desk or a door.
5.The ball exercise would help with working with one item in a large group. If you are passing a ball back in forth in succession, you want to allow time for the ball to move before passing it back.
6. Having conversation with involvement was hard. You had to remember to beat your heart and breathe at the same time. This would help because in a good act you are most likely doing more than one thing at a time. The hardest part for me was that i would forget to eat for a long period of time.
Mrs. P says:
ReplyDeleteChristian, really great specific details about your experiences - I'd love to see people including that kind of information that details their experiences.
Alec, great job on jumping in regarding the three exercises you weren't here for. "Three Changes" actually was a different exercise than the "Emerging Where" that we did today, but it does help with keeping track of things in the "Emerging Where" because it trains you to pay attention to detail!
1. Mirror Exercise: I really enjoyed this exercise because it helped me to follow and watch people's specific movements. That is something I don't always do when acting. also, it helps me when we are doing skits or such with blocking and reacting to my partners movements.
ReplyDelete2. Taste and Smell Exercise: This really helped with imaging something that wasn't really there and making it seem real. It was a challenge for me because I can't recall the taste or smell of something I haven"t eaten in a while.
3. Three Changes Exercise: I enjoyed this exercise. I thought it was nice to play a little game. It really helped with the whole idea of being watched very intently and focusing on our partner and only our partner.
4. Tug of War Exercise: My partner and I did fairly well trying to keep the size and length of our rope intact. But it was really hard trying to study our partner and see if they were pulling or giving. Also, trying to engage our muscles was difficult too.
5. Ball Exercise: This was my favorite activity because I was able to easily watch and react the way I needed to. Also, it was easier for me to actually imagine the ball because I have other people to help establish that for me.
6. Conversation with Involvement Exercise: I thought this was very challenging because it was hard to talk and pretend to eat at the same time. Also, I had a hard time smelling the food I was eating because I was trying to engage in conversation.
I enjoyed the mirror exercise because it helps work on body control. We had to pay extremely close attention to our partner while telling ourself how to do the last movement.
ReplyDeleteThe taste and smell exercise was difficult for me. It was hard not to over-act and just eat normally. I felt i wanted to make it look more interesting. For example it was hard not chew my food like it was a pice of cake.
The three changes exercise was one of my favorites because it incorporated so many elements of improv. You had to closely focus on your partner to get the size correctly. For example if you make the T.V. remote the size of a phone it will not be very believable.
The tug-of-war sounded difficult because everyone would have to create the same size rope. It sounds hard to try and act out how hard the other person is pulling when you cant feel it.
The ball game sounds hard because everyone has to remember where the ball is while maintaining size and shape. I think i would like this game became improv games with partners make it less intimidating.
Conversation with involvement was a fun exercise because you got to experience eating something you do everyday in a new light.It was hard not to pre-plan what I was going to do.
Annie J
1) The mirror exercise was amazing! It helped me to foucus on my partners movement rather than be completely spaced off in my own world. I think it really helps with reacting to someone else's blocking, even though it taught us how to imitate someone else.
ReplyDelete2) The taste and smell exercise is a swell exercise. It teaches us how to imagine something when it's not really there. It was difficult though, for me, because I had a hard time really focusing on the taste or smell of something.
3) The three changes exercise really helped with foucusing your attention on your partner, very intently. Although it was a good exercise I thought it was a very simple one.
4) The tug-of-war exercise was very tiring. My partner and I really got into it, we got into it so much we had to take breaks. This exercise was great because it taught us how to work with our partners to accomplish something; something being the goal of looking like we were actually playing tug-or-war, with an invisible rope.
5) The ball game exercise was easy in the begining with only one ball but after another ball was added our group fell apart. This exercise did help though because as a group of many, we had to decide on things without talking.
6) The Conversation with involvement was a fun exercise because we got to carry on a complete random conversation while concentrating on eating our imaginary food. It was fun but we learned how to be "in the moment" when it came to improv.
-Patricia M.
ELIZABETH. C.
ReplyDelete1. Mirror exercise; With the mirror you were forced to pay attention to what your partner was doing. It would also help you with future exercises because after doing this you would know how to pay closer attention and react to the things happening around you.
2. Taste and smell; The taste and smell but really took imagination! When your trying to recreate something like that you really need to focus on what it is your recreating. I think this little bit also can help student with their memory (even though that's tad off topic)
3. Three changes; Three changes! This one HAD the one i loved the most! For the partner looking for the changes they had to be able to scan their partner and remember them EXACTLY the way they look before the changes. In short for the first partner, you would work on paying close attention and remembering. For the second partner you had to use your imagination to find a vary small way to change the way you look without anything sticking out. in short the second partner had to be creative.
4. Tug of war; Tug of war! never mind this one was the best! In this one you had to once again pay close attention to your partner. You had to be able to read there body and know what they were about to do. You also had to know when to give and when to take.
5. Ball; With the ball bit you once again PAY VARY CLOSE ATTENTION to your partners. You had to REMEMBER the shape and weight of the ball. You also had to be able to READ YOU PARTNERS BODIES to know who they would throw the ball to.
6. Conversation with involvement. With this one you had to pay close attention to yourself. You had to remember to be involved with project while talking to your partner.You also had to remember where you table was and how big your food was. You had to slow down and keep talking.
The mirror exercise was fun and hard because you had to copy everything that your partner does. The hard part was stopping and paying attention to what your partner does.
ReplyDeleteThe taste and smell was the hardest. I couldn't feel/picture the texture of the food and I had a hard time remembering the smell of certain foods.
The three changes exercise was really fun because we had to be sneaky with the changes we made and we really had to focus on everything that person was wearing.
The tug of war game was hard to do because I couldn't show that my arms were tense like they were actually pulling something. We also had to give and take with each other which was challenging.
The ball game was pretty easy because all you had to do was make eye contact and catch the ball as if someone really threw something at you. The only hard part was maintaining the ball size. It kept getting smaller and smaller.
With the conversation and involvement it was really difficult because you are thinking about making your eating look real but you are also trying to come up with topics to talk about and it was hard to think about everything all at once.
1. the mirror exercise i thought was a bit tough because we couldnt mimic the persons exact movements. but then again it was really fun because we got to laugh and just have fun with it.
ReplyDelete2. for the taste and smell exercise it was really hard to get the actual taste and smell of the food because of what was going on around me. i would get distracted by my friends and i dont necessarily like people looking at me when im eating so it was very hard for me.
3. i thought the three changes were fun because being discreet is one of my best skills so it was pretty easy for me. but for my partner she didnt necessarily have the easiest time because all she was wearing was a cheer uniform.
4. i thought the tug of war was very hard cause it made us use a lot of our upper body strength and i already hurt from my conditioning class so it hurt a lot to do this exercise but i got through it.
5. the ball exercise i thought was pretty easy at first with one ball but once u added another ball it got very difficult to pay attention to who is throwing the ball at who.
6. the conversation thing were we had to pretend that we were eating while talking and maintain a eating routine was very difficult because we both had to maintain a table that was the same level and make sure that we kept eating and that we didnt just stop and then stat eating. another difficulty was that we had to keep our conversation going which was hard at time but in the end was pretty good.
1. For the mirror exercise i have a hard time trying to capture every detail about the person, for example, how they stand and how they look trying to think about what to do next. Other than that following the gestures of my partners is easy enough. this exercise helps me keep focus on broad movements.
ReplyDelete2.For eating food i found it hard to stay in the moment and tying to keep up with what i was doing and only me. For when i was eating i tried putting myself in a park or a scene that i was alone.
3.For some reason I always has had an interest in studying people. Not in a creepy way but how the dress their habbits and and what they act like i find that amusing. This activity was fun for me because i like to test my brother with these kid of things all the time.
4.I thought the tug of war was tireing exercise that you had to be in sync with your partner. I had trouble with tug of rope because i kept getting board and thinking that i had to change it up but in real life thats how you really play, by pulling as hard as you can till you give up.
5.The ball exercise i thought was easy with the amount of people i was with, but with the second ball i found myself looking out of the corners of my eyes a lot. Not that it was hard but you had to keep in mind that you couldn't change the size of the ball no matter how you received it.
6. the conversation with involvement i think was easy to keep the conversation going. When you added food into the whole mix i sometimes was a bit to handle because you didn't have and endless amount of chips so you had to remember that too. When you didn't have to act out in front of the class i think it was easy to have a real talk with just you and the person your with.
Sorry for this being late!
ReplyDelete1. When I did the mirror exercise I found that the outcomes were drastically different depending on the partner. I found that it was easier if the movement was natural and slowly delivered. This contributed to making me feel more comfortable when in a scene with no lines.
2. The taste and smell exercise was far easier to carry out when I blocked out my audiance and really focused on my imagination. It was a challenge to keep a consitant height for the table, and to avoid laughing. This exercise seems like it would benifit largely in scenes that require a strong sense of imagining a noun so vividly that the audiance can almost see it!
3. For me the 3 things breezed past me, when givin so much time to study my partner it really was too easy to guess. I thought the activity was a good supporter of paying attention, and really required us to not only observe but memorize certain patterns.
4. tug of war was interesting, I found myself actually straining my muscles and feeling energy drain slowly. This exercise is wonderful for partner work because it forces each partner to be in sink and not pull at the same time.
5. The ball exercise was fun! It allowed people to be creative and also made them think and analise the position of the ball, the size, and were it is headed. These had to be done in order to make the exercise realistic! It was great because everyone was having fun, and paying attention to eachother!
6.The conversation was a blast! It was difficult to have a table that stayed were it was placed, and to speak while "eating" was both amusing and challenging! This was good partner work, and would come in handy in any play or scene!
(sorry for the spelling errors)!
megan f.
ReplyDelete1. The mirror exercise helped us focus on our partner and trying to make him/her look good. Also, when I am acting I don’t usually focus a whole lot on the tiny things the other actor is doing and focus more on their talking, movements, etc., so this helped me “zone in.”
2. I thought that this exercise was the most difficult and challenging for me. I had trouble with mainly the smell. It seemed like I would have “little glimpses” at times, but I could never hold onto the smell or taste for an extended period of time.
3. I really liked this exercise because I thought it was fun to figure out the problem. It also helped me be more attentive to small details.
4. This exercise was also fun. At first, it was a bit difficult, but the longer we did the tug of war, the better we became at it. We both started recognizing the “signals” of when the other person is going to pull or going to give, which helped us connect.
5. I can see how having a small group with ball would be more efficient than with a large group. When we started adding in two balls instead of one, at times we didn’t know who had the ball and who didn’t.
6. I thought this exercise was challenging. The hardest part about it was remembering to eat, swallow, and the length of, for example, a spoon. The “talking part” was not as difficult. We kind of just rambled on about our daily lives, etc.
1. The mirror exercise helped me learn the importance of being aware of my partners actions, even if we wont need to specifically mirror each others actions in a play, we still need to be aware of their movements, and be ready to follow.
ReplyDelete2. In the taste, and smell activity, I found that I became so focused on the movements, that I didn't even think to stimulate the smell, and taste, and I didn't even realize that until the activity was over.
3. I enjoyed the 3 changes exercise, because it made me pay close attention to my partner, and their features.
4. I didn't like the tug of war exercise, but I felt that it was important, because it made me pay attention to my partner, their movements, my movements, and the rope, wall strained.
5. The ball exercise was more fun than important, because we had to make it interesting, but also realistic, which was surprisingly difficult.
6. The conversation with involvement was interesting, and more difficult than i thought it would be, because I got so involved with the hand motions, and the conversation, that I forgot about everything else.
1. The mirror exercises helps us learn are skills to copy what are parter is doing! it helps us to focus on each other and you should do it slow because you dont want to make your partner look bad its all about making them look good.
ReplyDelete2. It helps us to really concentrate and to see if you can actually taste and smell the food that you are thinking of. If you can put a lot of effort in to trying it then you can actually taste it so its basically helping us to concentrate.
3. This helps us with are memory to see if you have good memory. It also helps us to get to know are partners.
4. This helps us communicate without talking it helps us to make are partners look good to. This is because you are trying to figure all these things like which way the rope is going and what length it is and to keep it that way.
5. The ball exercise also helps us to work with your partners. like if its going to you or is it going to the person next to you. It also helps us to have concentration because you need to try to keep the ball the same size that it was in the beginning.
6. This helps us also to concentrate because you have to try to keep the table the same hight and try to also keep the conversation going!
Sierra
The mirror exercise; helped us learn how to go with the flow, and to be able to copy and of the movement if we ever need to up on stage.
ReplyDeletetaste and smell; helped us become the character rather than act it, so then you can actually picture it and truly play your parts.
Three changes; this exercise made you open your eyes and pay attention to what was going on around you. So then you understand what actually is happening.
Tug of War; the tug of war was to teach us to work together and either go with the flow or take control in a situation
Ball; The ball exercise taught us to pay attention, to work together and get size and shape down.
Conversation and involvement; helped us work on two things at one so we can practice on balancing the two subjects and multitasking.
jojo bond
1) Mirror Excersise: It helped me be aware of others actions more than myself, which is important in improv because you play as you go and movements are like clues.
ReplyDelete2) Taste and Smell: This helps us concentrate to see if you can actually taste and smell the food you are thinking of.
3) Three changes:This is important for us to actually pay attention to what is going on. Then, it is easier to understand.
4)Tug of War: I didnt really like it, but i think its very helpful to pay attention to your partners every move.
5) Ball Excersise: Was to help us work togther and get to know our partners and their actions.
6)The Coversation: It was pretty difficult because we had to keep the "table" at the same height and we really had to listen to our partners.
1. Mirror Exercise- I thought the mirror exercise really helped you pay attention to what your partner is doing and acting out. I think that it is a good exercise to practice when we are trying to make the other person or our partner look good. It was also a good exercise for when you are on stage and you have to go off of your partners body movements like in Improv
ReplyDelete2. Taste and Smell- I think this exercise helps you create a more realistic scene when you are eating. I think it is important for it to look real because when even the smallest things onstage look real it makes the whole play seem like a better quality.
3. Three Changes- I think that this exercise really helped us be aware of our surroundings and helped us notice and memorize the little things that changed. It made it important for us to notice the things around us which will help us later.
4. Tug of War- I at first had a difficult time with this one because it was hard to tell what your partner was trying to do and if they suddenly pulled and you didn't realize that that is what they were doing then it made it look unrealistic. But once you started to get a better feel for it and worked better with your partner I thought it looked really realistic.
5. Ball- It was helpful for us to be aware of what the people around us are doing, it got kinda confusing when they were two balls in the group. It also started to get confusing when people changed the ball size and weight.
6. Conversation with Involvement- I thought this exercise was difficult because I would try to focus on the conversation but then I would throw my 'food' behind me or just drop it. And then I would try to focus on the conversation and I would stop eating.