Unit 1

Character: The personality in a play or dramatic work.
Character Qualities: Characteristics which include social, physical, and emotional qualities of a character in a play or scene.
Dialogue: The conversation between two or more characters in a play.
Scene: A particular moment or segment of a theatrical play.
Script: The text of the play.
Theatre Conventions: Practices and/or devices that the audience and actors accept in the world of the play even when it is not realistic, such as a narrator, flashback, or an aside.
Articulation: The clear and precise pronunciation of words.
Articulators: The parts of the body that create consonant sounds.
Inflection: Variety in speech.
Project: To make your voice fill the performance space.
Resonance: A quality caused by vibration that enriches vocal tone.
Resonators: The parts of the body that create vowel sounds.
Improvise: To act without a script.
Theatre Games: Games/activities designed to develop acting skills popularized by Viola Spolin.
Pantomime: To act without words through facial expression and gesture.
Gesture: An expressive movement of the body or limbs.

The Art of Voice

Project.
- Speak loud enough so the entire audience can hear you!
- Speak clearly.
- Articulation: Annunciate your consonants.
Use Inflection.
- Change the volume of your voice depending on what emotions your character is feeling/expressing.
The Power House of the Voice:
- Your lungs! The air you push out makes you loud!
- Breathe in through your mouth and let your belly ‘expand.’
- Push in your abdominal muscles to release the air through the mouth.

The Art of Observation

Actors want to match the physical and emotional characteristics of the characters they are playing.
To prepare for a role, actors study and mimic a person’s:

Improve Games

•What are you doing?

•Police and Suspect

•Customer Service

•Taxi!

•Freeze & Justify