Drama, Monday, Period 2 [05/11]

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

“Good morning, class. I’m Sophie Devereaux. I’ll be teaching you the basics of Drama, that is, acting, for the next seven weeks.” Sophie smiled at the dozen or so students in front of her, and sat down at the edge of the Danger-Shop-created stage. (That had been a fun hour, figuring out how the computer worked.) “You may call me Sophie, or Ms. Devereaux; please don’t call me Professor. I’m an actress, not an experienced educator. This is my first semester teaching, so I hope that you’ll forgive me any errors I make.” Without having rehearsed her patter, she’d worked out what she wanted to say in advance, and now Sophie-the-teacher rolled right along like clockwork.

“The point of this class is to give you an idea of what actors do—not just on-stage, but to prepare for a part, and how we sharpen our skills before auditioning. It’s also to have fun! Since many of you probably don’t want to become professional actors. And why would you?” Sophie gave them a wry smile. “An actress whose work I admire stated that ‘we get paid to stand around and wait, and do the acting for free.’ That’s true of most of us in this profession. Acting is fun, is joy. The work that goes into waiting for it, or getting a part, or surviving in the meantime? Not so much.”

“First days are usually taken up with introductions, and questions of why you took this class, and what you hope to get out of it. I’m going to delay that until next week, unless you wish to introduce yourselves during the exercises, of which there are two. The first?” She held out a hat. “Pick a piece of paper out of this hat, and introduce yourself as the person named there. For those of you unfamiliar with the name, make something up! I’ve included their profession too—and if you’re unfamiliar with that as well, please, keep going. Feel free to quiz each other on your imaginary backgrounds, your deeds, your character; just see how long you can pretend to be someone else.”

“The second exercise is one in movement. I want to suggest that if you’re serious about becoming an actor, that you take classes in mime.” Sophie’s smile widened. “Although you’re not actually required to become one; I understand most people find it an art that’s best left to party games. But as actors, we need to know the limits and specifics of what our body is capable of. Expression is not just what one does with one’s face! Posture, gesture, all of this go into creating a believable character. Actors with dance training also do exceptionally well on the stage and screen, because they have control over their physicality.”

Sophie stood up, and gestured to the pile of props on the stage. “Pick a prop, any prop, and a partner, and create a scene about the object, making physical use of it in some way. As you can see, none of them have an immediately obvious purpose; your job is to interact with it, and the person whom you choose, in a way which makes the purpose you choose for it believable.”

"I'll be available after class if you have any specific questions."

[ooc: And OCD is a go!]

Comments

Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

The names in the hat include:

Wendy the Werewolf Stalker (a slayer of monsters)
Mister What (an time-traveling fixit person)
Casa, M.D. (a diagnostic doctor (healer))
James Bund (international man of mystery)
Raymond Dark (vampire private detective)
Barjossakin (a pirate)
Bitterwoman (a superhero)
Amleth (a prince of Danes)
Dr. Lazarus of Tev'Meck (an alien starship officer)
Lieutenant Tawny Madison (a communications starship officer)
Bobby Flay (an Iron Chef)
Runner (a Texas Ranger)
Major Stacey Monroe (an intergalactic explorer)
The Church Lady (a Television show host)

[ooc: feel free to make up your own, just try not to duplicate any previous draws, and keep in mind the meta-rule. Take it as far as you can, just introduce your 'self', and go from there!]

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[abetterthief.livejournal.com]

Sighing, Parker picked a name out of the hat. "Hi, I'm Barjossakin, a pirate," she said in a monotone.

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

"Good afternoon, Mr. Barjossakin," Sophie said, trying to draw Parker out. "What made you become a pirate?"

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[abetterthief.livejournal.com]

"I picked it out of a hat of possible careers," Parker said.

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Gabrielle grabbed up one of the prop swords she'd seen lying around and brandished it the way Xena usually did; she couldn't help feeling a little bit like she'd be much more into the role if she had armor of some sort. It had worked that time with Talmadeus, after all.

Well. Sort of.

"I am Wendy," she declaimed, "stalker of werewolves and slayer of fearsome monsters everywhere!"

She was awfully out of character, but cut the girl some slack; she'd never seen the show.

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

Not even close to the original, but that did let Sophie know that the girl hadn't seen the TV series, or heard of it-- although the clothes were something of a giveaway. "Wendy, how splendid you could be here! We've an infestation of dragons just over the horizon! What shall we do?"

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

"Dragons?" Gabrielle thought frantically. Dragons, dragons . . . she and Xena had never dealt with those before. Maybe they were kind of like hydras? She looked around and grabbed one of the Aerobies from the prop pile, brandishing it in her free hand. "Is anyone in this village willing to stand and fight?" she yelled in her best imitation of Xena's rallying-the-troops voice.

Um, no, Gabrielle, that's not how Wendy works.

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[17andinfected.livejournal.com]

Shilo drew a name and smiled a little to herself, then turned to her classmates and adjusted a pair of imaginary glasses. She's totally not mimicking Nathan at all, honest.

"Good morning. I'm Dr. Casa," she said, trying to sound self-important.

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

Sophie gave her a delighted smile for playing along. "Good morning, Doctor. Are you here to examine a patient?"

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[iamnotallgirl]

Jill drew hers, sighed, and said, "I am Amleth, Prince of the Danes," in a sort of morose monotone.

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

Someone who was at least familiar with the text, then. "Your Royal Highness, welcome to Fandom. What brings you to our shore?"

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[likethegun]

Sam snorted a little when he saw the name he'd drawn, and took a minute to get a straight face.

"Good morning. I am Bitterwoman," he said with a toss of his head that actually might have worked with his hair. "I'm here to rescue you."

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

Sophie turned the usual impulse to laughter into a wide, approving smile. "Bitterwoman, thank heavens you're here! There are villains just over there--" she pointed to the gigantic stapler. "They need to be defeated!"

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[walks-two-paths.livejournal.com]

Savannah cocked her hip out after reading what she had picked.

"I'm Major Stacey Monroe, Intergalactic Explorer."

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

"Major Monroe, good to meet you," Sophie said, giving her a business-like nod and a serious look. "What can you tell us about other planets, and their possible military threat level?"

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[chic-harper.livejournal.com]

Harper jumped into to the role with enthusiasm. "Hello! I am Lieutenant Tawny Madison and it's my job to tell you that hailing frequencies are open!"

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

"Lieutenant! Hail the Tev'meckians, please inform them of our arrival at the Forbidden Zone," Sophie said immediately, sounding stern. "And get that computer working perfectly!"

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[trigons_child]

Raven picked out a name. "I am Raymond Dark, private detective and vampire," she stammered.

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

Sophie kept her smile as easy and encouraging as possible with the shyer girl, and said, "That sounds fascinating, Raymond. What made you become a private detective?"

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[notasuiciderisk.livejournal.com]

Eric stared at the name, knowing that it was familiar, but it took him a moment to place it.

He coughed, then stepped forward: "The name is Bund. James Bund," he began, managing at least at first to pull of something of a suave posture. "But you can call me... the last person you'll see on this planet." Eric posed, faking a gun in one hand.

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

"You're wrong, Mr. Bund, so wrong," Sophie answered, giving him a narrowe-eyed glare. "How are you going to stop my death ray from destroying the Earth?"

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[golden-rising.livejournal.com]

She was still smiling from seeing her brother's introduction, when she looked at her name. Of course.

Stifling a groan, she jumped up onto her desk, arms uip victoriously, "I'm Bobby Flay, and I'm king of this kitchen."

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

"Mr. Flay, tell us your secret to winning the Iron Chef challenge with tomatoes. We're eager to hear your culinary secrets," Sophie said, smile already widening.

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[robinthefrog.livejournal.com]

"Hi! I'm Mister What. I'm here to fix your VCR. Before it even breaks."

Re: Exercise 1 - Introductions.

[magdaofslovenia.livejournal.com]

Ow. That would be Sophie's brain taking another hit across the cerebellum. "Mister What..." She said slowly. Perhaps it was a marionette? Or a robot? A robot frog? "I don't have a VCR any more," She said, rallying. "Perhaps you're lost?"