Presenter: Jeanie Forte, Jordan
Middle School, Palo Alto, California:
Demonstration Lesson — Theatre
Bay Area California Arts Project - 2001/2002
Contact: jforte@pausd.org
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Lesson Plan:
Voice and Character
Overview:
The cornerstone of any acting study involves discerning a character’s motivation. What makes my character behave the way he/she does? What does my character want, what motivates him/her? Acting students are trained to identify character motivation for the play, the scene, the sentence, even the word. As more than one acting coach will say, don’t speak a line on stage unless you know exactly what your motivation is when you say it. That is to say, all human action is motivated. All that we do is guided by some inner desire, whether conscious or subconscious, and it therefore has an emotional origin. Thinking leads to conclusions; emotion leads to action. It is important for actors to m ine their characters’ emotional lives, to articulate motivation in terms of desire, "What do I want?" before they can bring that character to life on stage.
One of the most important attributes of character is vocal quality-- an important aspect of bringing a stage character to life is voice. Each character has a particular voice, one that arises from an actor’s understanding of motivation and personality. Beginning actors can make the connection between voice, character, and motivation, through a series of improvisations and exercises designed to help them explore how these are linked.
It is also crucial to actor training that students recognize the importance of their voice and work towards its strength and flexibility. Voice is one of the actor’s primary tools in developing and expressing character on stage.
Visual and Performing Arts Standards Addressed:
Grade Eight, Strand 2.0 — Creative Expression
2.2 Perform character-based improvisations, pantomimes, or monologues, using voice ... to enhance meaning.
Grade Seven, Strand 2.0 — Creative Expression
2.1 Use improvisation in rehearsal to discover character and motivation
Grade Six, Strand 2.0 — Creative Expression
2.2 Use effective vocal expression ... to create character.
Enduring Understanding:
Through their use of improvisation and work on character, voice, and motivation, students gain a deeper understanding of human thought and action, and how those are connected. They become better observers of human behavior and social interaction, and better listeners for meanings and personality traits associated with vocal characteristics. They also discover a wider range of expression and communicative abilities for themselves.
What is worth being familiar with? Students will understand how vocal quality reveals/suggests character and motivation.
What is important to know and do? Students will learn and use improvisation skills to explore the relationship between voice and character. They will practice character definition through improvisation, discovering how voice works to reveal character and motivation.
Essential Questions:
How does one use voice to define/reveal character and motivation?
How can improvisation help in developing character and voice?
What is the basic relationship between voice, motivation, and character?
Performance & Assessment:
Students will begin with basic vocal exercises to
help them begin identifying connections between
voice and character, then move into more complex
improvisation focused on vocal qualities paired with
motivation and/or character.
Students demonstrate in a short improvised scene appropriate vocal quality to create a well-defined character with clear motivation.
Assessment:
- Teacher observation of student participation and performance during improvisation, exercises, and discussions
- Informal checks for understanding as lesson progresses
- Performance of final improvisation giving voice to a well-defined character with clear motivation (All students should be able to identify the character and the motivation of each student performer in the final improvisation exercise)
- See attached rubric for evaluating the final improv demonstrations. Students will also evaluate themselves based on this rubric, which they will be given at the beginning of the unit. They will have the opportunity to help shape the rubric in our initial discussion of the unit.
What is needed to teach/to enable students to meet the standards?Materials:
A room large enough for students to form a group circle; a few chairs
Vocabulary:
Character
Range
Motivation
Breath
Voice
Diaphragm
Vocal quality
Head voice
Pitch
Chest voice
Timbre
Inflection
Emotional color
Volume
Projection
Performance Tasks:
Warm-up Exercises:
Vocaleses — Follow the leader: leader starts off on simple syllable such as "La" and changes pitch, rhythm, tempo and timbre, while group tries to follow; leader can change syllable at any time, and pass leadership to a new leader by stopping mid-sound and pointing to another person. New leader should start with interrupted sound, then move on to new ones.
Lip Limbering — mouth/face exercises (rubber face, move whole face to the left, to the right, to the ceiling, to the floor; open it all up like a sun, close it all down like a prune; do these slow, fast, varied); consonant/vowel chains (ah oh oo eh, 3 times, tah toh too teh 3 times, bah boh boo beh 3 times, cah coh coo keh 3 times, fah foh foo feh 3 times, then all in sequence extremely fast); tongue twisters ("rubber baby buggy bumpers")
One to Ten — Group in a circle, leader explains that we will count One to Ten using different vocal qualities to suggest character: Drill Sergeant, Romantic, Elderly, Small child, Happy, Sad, Opera star, Rock star, etc. Everyone should count together at the same tempo, with the leader. Do one character from one to ten, the next from ten down to one, and so on. Use one set of one to ten and back to practice vocal projection, working from "street" voice to stage voice, and down to a stage whisper.
Circle Throw — Group in a circle, toss an imaginary ball from person to person, tossing a sound at the same time. Thrower makes eye contact, tosses ball with sound; receiver quickly repeats thrower’s sound, makes eye contact with someone else in the circle while making their own, new sound and tossing the ball. New receiver repeats 2nd thrower’s sound, and so forth?get the ball moving as fast as possible. Sounds only, not words. Encourage students to vary their pitch and sound color.
Circle Beep — Group in a circle, leader starts by passing a beep to person on left or right, and that person passes it to the next, and so on?beep can change direction at any time. Beep can also be interrupted by character beeps: "Star Trek" (I am a Klingon warrior"), "Valley Girl" ("Like, Oh, My God"), "Puppy Dog" (Down on all fours, panting), "James Brown" ("Jump up! Jump back! Unh!") It’s fun to add one that you can make up based on a group member. When someone receiving the beep instead calls out a character beep, EVERYONE in the group does the character, and then the person restarts the beep by passing it on to either left or right. Beep should go as fast as possible, but character beeps have their particular rhythm and vocal quality.
Character and Voice:
Nursery Rhymes — A student recites a nursery rhyme, "plain" at first; then leader gives them a character type, to say the rhyme a second time, e.g.: TV news reporter, Police detective, Shakespearean actor, Interior decorator, Talk show host, Elegant socialite, etc. Talk about each one and give students a chance to improve on their voice if they want, saying the rhyme again. Then do another round focusing on emotional states: Angry, Suspicious, Sad, Ecstatic, Paranoid, Impatient, Triumphant, Lonely, etc. Discuss how this is different from the first roundà can we combine a Character type with an Emotional state?
Greetings — Students will walk around greeting each other with simple handshake and hello, in the context of a character type that I give them for each round, e.g.: Greet each other like long lost friends; now like worst enemies; now like very elderly; now like small children; now like high-powered business executives; now like street bums; now like androids; now like aliens from another planet. Then discuss the exercise, in terms of taking hold of character traits, specifically voice. How, for example, is the elderly voice different from the child’s voice?
Bus Stop — A familiar improvisation exercise, but this time students will focus on voice to establish character. Using primarily vocal quality to define character, students also need to have a clear motivation that is carried through the voice. Motivation should come through without stating it directly; as each student prepares to leave the stage, audience tries to identify what the character’s motivation was, which gives feedback to the performer so they can tell if they are accurately communicating motivation.
What Scene Is This? — Given a short dialogue scene of unidentified characters, students pair up to decide what the scene is about, who these characters are, what kinds of voices they need to have; then they perform the scene for the class. Audience should be able to identify who, where and why for each performance.
Three Tricks — Students choose one term from each of the three columns on the attached sheet, then pair up with another student. They determine conflicting motivations for their two characters, and develop a specific voice for each one. They will then improvise a short scene (about two minutes) for the group. At the end of each scene, the audience should be able to identify each character’s motivation, and be able to comment on the appropriateness of the vocal choices made.THREE TRICKS AND RUBRIC MAY BE PRINTED OUT FOR STUDENTS' USE
"THREE TRICKS" — Choose one term from each column to create your character
flamboyant
shy
arrogant
friendly
morose
happy-go-lucky
bossy
argumentative
snobby
suspicious
eager
bullying
weepy
triumphant
bored
nervous
cold
excitable
ecstatic
worried
cautious
angry
doubtful
perky
lonely
wistful
whiny
sullen
annoyed
hard-hearted
surprised
feisty
playful
nostalgic
nosy
daring
miserly
psychic
talkative
determined
French
religious
Brazilian
teen-aged
Norwegian
hillbilly
clumsy
chatterbox
high-powered
elegant
sleazy
ditzy
conservative
rude
generous
elderly
beautiful
handsome
vain
humble
athletic
fashionable
British
phony
silly
politically incorrect
nerdy
bohemian
cool
corny
middle-aged
chain-smoking
wealthy
fearless
capable
nurturing
brash
spiritual
not-too-bright
intellectual
interior decorator
political activist
receptionist
class president
janitor
Shakespearean actor
nurse
butcher
postal worker
chimney sweep
superhero
professor
lawyer
handyman
garbage collector
butler
secret agent
housewife
thief
donut baker
king
queen
laser technician
astrologer
banana grower
cowboy/girl
bus driver
ballet dancer
go-go dancer
tree farmer
zoo keeper
ganster
lifeguard
matador
mechanic
lion-tamer
airline pilot
yoga expert
soldier
sports star
ASSESSMENT RUBRIC — VOICE AND CHARACTER
Grade Eight, Strand 2.0 — Creative Expression
2.2 Perform character-based improvisations, pantomimes, or monologues, using voice ... to enhance meaning.
Grade Seven, Strand 2.0 — Creative Expression
2.1 Use improvisation in rehearsal to discover character and motivation
Grade Six, Strand 2.0 — Creative Expression
2.2 Use effective vocal expression ... to create character.
Skill: using voice to demonstrate character and motivation
Beginning — Voice basically unchanged from student’s own voice;
unclear character definition; unclear motivation.Developing - Student showed attempt to create a different voice for the character;
some floating in and out of character voice; some sense of character definition
emerging; some effort to show motivation.Accomplished — Clear character voice, revealing at least two different traits of character;
consistent use of voice; clearer sense of motivation.Exemplary — Character’s motivation clearly informs the voice and all action; voice
consistent throughout, realistic and appropriate; well-defined character with
at least three visible/audible traits