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Issue 18 - Dealing with Rehearsal Rut: A Workshop

Welcome!

It's easy to get caught in a rhythm during the rehearsal process. Lines must be memorized, blocking must be learned, the first scene gets over rehearsed, the last scene under rehearsed, and before you know it, it's opening night. Pretty soon you're asking yourself, "Where did the time go?"

This newsletter outlines a Mid to Late Rehearsal workshop, focusing on character development, out-of-context line exercises, and questions for the actors to answer. I would suggest the workshop be done roughly two weeks before opening night. It takes approximately an hour and a half.

The workshop allows a break in the rhythm, and shows the actors (and you) what they know. It also reveals what needs to be worked on!

Take your production to the next level and avoid Rehearsal Rut.

In this issue:

WHAT'S NEW
What's new at Theatrefolk!
WORKSHOP WARM-UPS
General and Play-Specific warm-ups.
LINE EXERCISES PART ONE
Do your actors know their lines out of context?
LINE EXERCISES PART TWO
What line defines you?
CHARACTER PROFILES
A great exercise to learn about your character.
CHARACTER QUESTION
Asking play-specific questions.
SCENE STUDY
Analyze a scene.
DOWNLOAD OF THE MONTH
Read the example play used in this workshop.
CONFERENCE ALERT
Meet us in person.
IN THE NEXT ISSUE
What you can expect next.
STAY IN TOUCH
Contact Info/Read Our Blog.

What's New?

New Scripts

Check out our newest scripts.

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Visit: www.theatrefolk.com

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Workshop Warm-ups - General and Specific

Start with a General Physical Warm-up.

A warm-up is essential: It's important for actors to break away from whatever problems (social, school or otherwise) they've encountered in their day. If you have a set number of exercises you do at the beginning of each rehearsals do that. My warm-up series is as follows:
- Have everyone spread out so that they are not going to bump into anyone.
- Stretch up. Reach the fingertips to the ceiling.
- From this stretched position, slowly move the hands, arms, shoulders, head and so on into a hang over. Curl the spine over vertebrae by vertebrae. Keep the legs straight as long as possible and then curl the body into a small ball.
- From this ball position, unfold the body slowly to end up in the stretched position with the fingertips reaching to the ceiling.
- Repeat the hangover process, ending up in the small ball position.
- Unfold the body slowly, ending up in a neutral standing position.
- Shake each body part individually - head, shoulders, left arm, right,arm, torso, and so on.
- Shake the body all over. Have everyone shake in different directions: shake tall, shake small, shake wide, shake thin.
- As they shake call out FREEZE. Call out cues that everyone must freeze in whatever shape they find themselves in. Release everyone from the freeze. Call out FREEZE two more times.
Character Specific Warm-up.

This involves actors warming up in character. It's a way to get actors actively pursuing how their character thinks and moves without the surrounding text.

Again, make sure everyone is spread out around the room. I would suggest having actors position themselves so that they are not looking at each other.

I've included a mini script for calling out the cues for this character-specific warm-up. I've kept in play-specific references in the warm-up, which was developed for The Bright Blue Mailbox Suicide Note, which is included as a download at the end of the newsletter. Change the specific details to match your play.

You are now your character in the play. Call out the name of your character for me? Good. Think about the problems your character faces in the play. Whether you're Jake finding the note and then finding out about Ken. Or Karen, who can't get Jake to talk to her. Or Mrs. Westlake, who has to listen to people's problems all day long.

Think about the issues you face and allow it to make you really tense. Where do you, I'm speaking to you the characters now, where do you hold tension? Where does Moe hold tension? Where does Lisa hold tension? In the shoulders? Do you get stomach aches? Headaches? Exaggerate the tension you feel. Hold on to the area of the body that contains that tension.

I want you to walk around the room. The tension you feel, thinking about what you have to face, should be so crippling that it's almost impossible to walk. It's so bad, you have to come up with a way to get rid of that tension. How do you get rid of tension? Jake? Karen? Bee Bee? Ken? Dennis? What do you do to get that tension out? Do you sing? Jump up and down? Run around the room? Do you scream? Come up with an action and a sound that you, the character, does to get rid of tension. Make it big and make it loud - that's the only way to get rid of the tension.

On the count of three, you're going to do it all at once. One, two three, go.

Now you're tension-free. Walk around the room, in character. You're Dennis, you're Marissa, you're Beeb, and you're feeling good about yourself. How do you walk? How do your shoulders move? Do you bounce? Are you grounded?

Pretend you're walking down the street. When I say, "Go," greet the first person you come in eye contact with, in character. Make sure you're reacting to them based on your relationship in the play. Are you close? Friends? Teacher / student? Talk to this person. Tell them where you're going and why you're walking down the street. Go.

Say goodbye to them. You have to be on your way. When I say, "Go," greet another person. Repeat the process, tell them where you're going and why. Go.

Say goodbye to them. You have to be on your way. One last time, when I say, "Go," greet another person. Repeat the process. Go.

Come to a neutral standing position. Shake that character out of you. Well done.

Line Exercises Part One - Lines out of Context

Learning lines comes easy to some, and not so easy to others. One of the biggest problems actors can have is that they learn lines solely within the context of the play: they know their lines because of a move they do, or another actor does. They know the line before and the line after. They get into a very specific rhythm.

But what if another actor blanks? Or changes the blocking? Or says the wrong line from three pages ahead? If actors are so dependent on a certain rhythm or everything going perfectly, it's a recipe for disaster.

Here are a couple of exercises to get actors out of the habit of learning lines by rote.

Have the actors spread out around the space. Ask them to close their eyes and think about their lines. At the count of three, have the actors start at the top of the play and say their lines, all at the same time, as fast as they can. After a couple of minutes, call out stop. Question the actors about the exercise: Did anyone have trouble saying the lines without acting? Did anyone get stuck? Where did they get stuck? Have those actors pull out their scripts and circle the lines - this is where they need to do some more memorization work.
Shout Out Game: Go through the script and pull out ten individual lines. Pull them from the middle of monologues, from the beginning, from the end, make sure the list does not go in chronological order.

Next, call out the lines. See who knows what the next line in the play is. Give the actor who's line it is first guess, but then see if anyone else knows. This will give you a clear indication who really knows the play!

Line Exercises Part Two - What Line Defines You?

This exercise allows the actors to think about the lines outside the world of the play. Each actor should know his or her lines well enough that they can choose one line which defines their character. They should know their character well enough to be able to experiment and explore their lines outside their context.

NOTE: Make sure actors don't choose a full monologue or a long chunk of dialogue. It should be a single sentence.

I have included below a mini script that outlines the cues for the exercise:

What is the most important line to you as a character in the play? What is the line that defines you? Some of you have less lines to work with, that's true. But work with what you have.

Close your eyes and think about what line you will choose.

Raise your hand when you have a line. Great. Lower your hand. Say that line out loud. Say it again. Yell it. Whisper it. Laugh it. Be angry with it. Be depressed with it. Choose the emotion you use in the play.

Walk around the room, when you come into eye contact with someone, each of you say your line. Do this with three others.

Stop. Get in your own space. Say your line aloud again. Think about an action that goes with this line. If you couldn't speak, what physical action would define this line? Be creative - do you roll into a ball? Do you skip? Do you spaz out? Do you reach up to the sky? Do yoga? Kick? Again, this is not just some random action, this is an action that represents the most important line, which represents you. Is the emotion of your line coming out in the action?
When I say, "Go," everyone do your action at the same time. No sound. Do it again.

Now I want you to do the action and say your line at the same time. Do it again. And again.

Now, instead of saying the line, instead of saying words, come up with a sound. Again, it's a sound that represents the line, which represents you. Is it a yell? A note? A hum? A grunt? A groan? Don't use any words. Just sound. What's the emotional quality of the line? Of the action? What sound matches that emotional quality? Say the line, again. Now do just the sound. No action. Do it again.

Do the sound and the action. Put your heart into it. Commit to it.

Let's see how you did. Everyone gather together. We're going to see a couple of the sound/action combinations and see if we can guess what line they represent.

Character Profiles

The more an actor knows about their character, the more depth they can play. It's important for actors to think about their characters outside of the confines of the story. That is how you create three-dimensional human beings and that's what an audience connects to. It's so easy to get caught up in lines and blocking that character development goes by the wayside. This exercise is a great way to get actors to bring character development to the forefront.

A character profile can be made up of any number of questions and any type of question. It's simply important to make actors come up with answers that don't necessarily pre-exist in the play.

Here is a sample Character Profile Questionnaire. Give actors a maximum of 15 minutes to answer the questions, so that their answers are instinctual.

Full Name

Family

What makes you laugh? What makes you mad?

Favourite Food? Least Favourite Food?

Describe a childhood memory

Describe Your Bedroom

Full Name
If the character's full name isn't given, the actor should come up with it. What's their middle name?

Family
What is the family situation? Does the character come from a large or small family? Does the character live with both parents? Alone? Is the family situation happy? Tense?

What makes you laugh? What makes you mad?
Pretty self-explanatory. Once actors define this, see if these elements are in the script and how the character reacts.

Favourite Food? Least Favourite Food?
Self-Explanatory. Every person has likes and dislikes and so should your character.

Describe a childhood memory
We are all defined by what happens to us as children. What does your character remember from childhood?

Describe Your Bedroom
We can learn a lot about a character from how they live. What's going on in their bedroom? Is it neat? Messy? Designed? Plain? What does the room say about the character?

Click here for a blank Character Profile Worksheet.

Character Questions

As an additional exercise to the Character profile, provide a character-specific question. Each character gets their own question, which only they can answer. It takes some work but can really allow the actor to think about their characters in a way they might not have previously. Add this question to the bottom of their Character Profile Sheet.

For example, here are a number of questions I came up for the actors rehearsing The Bright Blue Mailbox Suicide Note.

JAKE
Why are you and Ken still friends? Why has your friendship lasted? How long have you and Karen been dating?

KAREN
You say, "I believe in marriage." Do you believe you have a future with Jake? Is this a secret, or something you've talked about with Jake?

JOAN
You don't treat Ken 'funny' after his revelation. Why? What is your relationship with Ken?

BEE BEE
Why is it so important to you to present the persona of "flaky Beebee" to your friends? Does it bother you that Karen, Lisa and Joan don't know where you work? Why? How long have you known them?

DENNIS
You talk about what your dad is like. What is your mom like? Describe your relationship with her.

As you can see, the questions are VERY specific! It's small, specific moments like this that take a character to the next level.

The actress playing Karen was really excited by her question. She decided that Karen was definitely the type of character who thought about being married. She went so far as to say that Karen was one of those girls who had planned their wedding from the time she was a little girl. In the play, Karen finds her boyfriend pushing her away. The actress came up with a moment where she holds her hands as if holding flowers in the traditional wedding pose. As her boyfriend turns away from her, she drops her hands, as if dropping the flowers.

Scene Study

End the workshop by looking at one scene in detail. Run through the scene once and then go through it line by line. Ask actors questions about the scene, about their character. Make sure they know any background information that comes up in the scene, that they're clear on the relationships, and that are not just spouting lines.

Here are a sampling of the questions I asked the actors rehearsing The Bright Blue Mailbox Suicide Note. The scene we went through begins with Moe's line "It's a girl" (page 7) and ends with Ken's line "I'm gonna go home and watch the game." (page 13)

What is the physical reaction of each character to the note? Who looks and who doesn't?
Try treating the note as a game of keep away. The less serious they treat the note, the more punch Ken's reveal will have.
At what exact moment in the scene does Ken decide to tell the others he's tried to kill himself? At the beginning of the scene he probably has no intention of telling.
To Lisa: You say in this scene you could never slit your wrists, and yet your monologue later in the play suggests you have thought about just that. How do you say this line?
What do the other characters think of Bee Bee?
Has Karen been friends with this group long? Or did she join as Jake's girlfriend?
What is the relationship between Joan and Moe?

The purpose is to be as detailed as possible and not worrying about lines or blocking. Nitpick every line's meaning. Ask questions, get into a dialogue, and work that scene!

Download of the Month

Download The Bright Blue Mailbox Suicide Note, the example play for this workshop.

Conference Alert

Here's our upcoming conference schedule. If you're attending, please drop by and say hi!

In the Next Issue

In April we're going to look at our New Releases.

Stay in Touch

Future issues will be guided by your suggestions. Email stories, tips, suggestions, and questions to us by visiting: http://www.theatrefolk.com/contact. This newsletter belongs to you!

Some of our playwrights post to the Theatrefolk Blog. Check it out for insights into what's happening with Theatrefolk.