Creating Characters Through Improv and Monologues 2-3 Week Unit Exploration in Drama Grade 9 Advanced Drama Grades

des 10-12 Katie McNamara Stage 1 - Desired Results Established Goal(s):

Through various improvisational techniques as well as classroom exercises and writing prompts, students will be able define what a character is, recognize specific character traits and archetypes, and explore different ways to develop their own characters for performance.

State Standards: 1.14, 1.15, 1.17, 1.19, 1.20, 3.8, 5.15 National Standards: 2a, 2d, 2e, 3b, 4b Understandings: Students will understand that
There are many methods and approaches to developing a character for a monologue. There are a variety of aspects that help an actor create a character including vocal and physical traits.

Essential Questions:
What is a character? What are common archetypes of characters / how can we use stereotypes in our study of characters? How do you maintain a character? How do you incorporate personal history/experiences into character work?

Student Objectives (specific outcomes) Students will know Students will be able to - How to read and ultimately present a monologue - Read and interpret a piece for performance - There is not one correct way to approach - Write a character analysis Creating and developing a character Stage 2 Assessment Evidence Performance Tasks: Other Evidence: Monologue Character Analysis Improv Exercises Facebook project Various writing activities Class participation Stage 3 Learning Plan

Day One (70 minutes)

Warm Up (10 minutes) Twizzle Writing prompt (10 minutes) Ask students to identify a favorite character from literature, TV or movie. Ask for few sentences as to why they chose this character. Then ask them to create a list of 5-10 characteristics of this character. They can include physical traits as well as personality traits, but they should be as specific as possible. Body (30 minutes) Mill and Seethe Have students walk about the space as the character they have just written about. Tell them to first just think about how that character would walk, and then encourage them to think about how they would interact with others. Tell them they can start silently interacting with other members of the class. Then, allow them to incorporate vocalizations. Have students freeze and then have a seat on the stage.

Press Conference Still maintaining these characters, students will now have to opportunity to allow us to guess which character they chose. Students will take turns being the person in the hot seat as the rest of the class serve as members of the press. They are allowed to ask questions to find out more information about the character, but cannot ask obvious questions such as What is your name? What book/movie/TV show are you from? etc. Review/ Assignment (20 minutes) Assign the final monologue project due May 8 in Intro, May 9 in Advanced Pass out selected monologues and tell students they can choose from the selected options or they can choose one of their own. If choosing one of their own, it must be from a play written in the last 100 years and at least 1 minute in length. Give them the rest of class to read over the selected monologues. They must have their choice selected by TOMORROW they will be reading them aloud in class.

Day Two (70 minutes)

Warm Up (10 minutes) Basket of Cherries Body (25 minutes) Monologue Read Through Each student will present a cold reading of the monologue they have selected to work on over the next two weeks. Characters in a Bag (15) Participants spread themselves out in the room, so that each person has enough space to think without distractions. The leader passes out a picture to each participant, explaining, "DO NOT let anyone else, even me, see your picture. You have three minutes to look at the person in your picture and become that person. Decide what kind of personality he or she has, how old the person is, what kind of life they lead, etc. Use the picture to help you decide - are there details about the person's clothes, their surroundings, their face which give you ideas? Try to create a "story" for this person, as well as a voice, mannerisms, attitude. All of your characters will attend a party at the end of the three minutes." The participants should not talk to one another before the three minutes are up. At the end of the three minutes, the participants hand in their pictures. As soon as they hand in the picture, they transform into their character. The leader should explain that they need to talk to the other characters, as if they are at a party. The participants should attempt to talk to everyone else, and try to remember things about the other characters. The party lasts five to ten minutes, depending on the number of participants. At the end of this time, the leader asks everyone to discard their characters and become himself or herself. The leader then shows the participants the pictures that were used, and asks the group to identify whose character matches with the picture. (Don't tell the participants that this will happen ahead of time. The temptation of "fooling" everyone is too great to resist for some people, and these people will purposefully make their character unlike their picture if they know there will be guessing.) The group should discuss their reactions to their pictures, and to others' as well as how everyone developed their character. Writing Prompt (10 minutes) Personal Inventory Students will return to desks and be asked to write a personal inventory as actors. This can be in a list or paragraph form. Students should write down physical traits/characteristics as well as personality traits and anything else they think they might need to change in order to become a character or things a person would notice if they were trying to portray them. Closing Activity (10 minutes) Party Quirks