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Acting Class 2

2016 September 07. Wednesday.

What is this?

Notes on today’s acting class. Theatre 126. University of Kentucky. Fall 2016. Professor Matthew J Schneck. These notes are not proofread by anyone so watch out for mistakes.

The Door Conflict Resolution Exercise

Last Friday Dr Schneck gave us homework to get done by today’s class:

We have a physical door on wheels in this room. Think of two situations where you want to go through the door but have an inner conflict. Props or costumes are encouraged but not required.

The story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. The other end of the story is on the other end of the door.

You can talk once you go through the door but not on the first side.

Miming and demonstrating are discouraged. Be real.

Some examples:

Today ten people each did one of their ideas.

Lessons Learned from Performance and Feedback

The biggest lesson is usually stated show; don’t tell, meaning that when you act out a scene where you (for example) try to push a door open, you should look how someone looks when she is opening a door in real life. Don’t stand back and run at it. I think a better way of saying it is do; don’t demonstrate.

Chase went first and acted out “I have to pee but the door is locked”. It was very well planned and mostly well preformed. When he tried to get his keys off of his backpack, he spun round and round trying to reach them. This was funny, but slapstick, which isn’t what we want. On his redo, he struggled to get the keys off his back, but in a shorter and realistic way, and it was still funny.

I went fifth and acted out “I’m bad at dancing and scared to go back into zumba”. On my first act-out, I tried being too many things: exhausted, thirsty, bad at dancing, alone. People gave me feedback and on the redo, and I just focused on the bad-at-dancing part (by practicing in the hallway). It worked much better.

Public Domain Dedication.