Lesson 3:

Character Types and Status

Copy and paste the following notes into your digital logbook under the heading 'Character Types and Status'.

To make an improvisation interesting it is important to stretch the imagination and create a range of characters. Characters can be enhanced by not only thinking about the character traits but also their situation. Identifying the status of your character and the characters around you will help to deepen the relationships on stage. Changing the status of characters can also make for an interesting change in a performance.

Warm-up: Animals and Occupations

There will be two sets of cards. One of them will include pairs of animals and the other, pairs of occupations. Firstly, using only the animal cards, the teacher will ask you to randomly select a card and look at the animal that you have selected. Once every student has an animal the teacher will collect the cards and indicate for you to start miming your animal at the same time as the rest of the class. You must then find the other student in the room who is the same animal as you. Once you have found your pair, sit down together and wait for everyone to finish.

The activity will then be repeated with the occupations cards.

Activities on Character and Status

Your teacher will choose from the following activities to explore 'Character and Status'.

Character Walks

Walk around the room in neutral. At various times the teacher will call out a character stereotype (e.g. mean girl, old man, body builder) and you must embody this character through your walk. The teacher will then call out 'interact' and you must interact with the other characters on the stage briefly using only a couple of words before moving on to the next person. The teacher will then call out' neutral' and everyone will convert back to a neutral walk in preparation for the next stereotype.

The activity is then repeated using emotions instead of stereotypes and at the end, discussion is held about the variations of the characters presented.

Status Pairs

You will be divided into pairs for this activity.

With your partner, decide on one of the following status relationship and create a 1-2 minute improvisation based on a typical scenario that these characters would engage in.

Parent and Child
Employer and Employee
Teacher and Student
Pop Star and Fan

For this performance, adhere to the 'normal' allocation of status in these relationships, e.g. Parent, Employer, Teacher and Pop Star would be of a high status and the Child, Employee, Student, and Fan would be low status.

Perform these to the class and discuss how the status relationship drove the performance.

Repeat this process with the same character but REVERSE the status so that the other character now has the opposing status level.

Again, perform and discuss what effect this had on the performance. What were some positive outcomes to reversing the status relationship?

Bus Stop

A bench or a row of chairs is placed on stage to create a 'bus stop'. One player starts, entering the bus stop, waiting for the bus or sheltering there. They need to make it obvious who they are. The second player then enters, who should be a totally different character than the first one and now, also waiting at the same bus stop, they interact. A third player, again a distinct and different character enters the scene, interacting with the first two. Then finally the fourth one enters as a different character and interacts. This is the cue for the first player to offer a reason to leave the bus stop, whether their bus arrives, they get a lift from a friend, they decide to walk or even leave injured. This continues until all characters have left the scene.

Digital Logbook

After this lesson, complete a logbook entry for this week, ensuring that you have included the first three lessons: Introduction, Focus and Character Types and Status. Remember to use the logbook template provided toget you stared.

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