Lesson 2: Uta Hagen-Sense Memory
Goals/ Objectives / Prerequisite Skills/TEKS
Goals
Students will know and apply the six steps and the use of the five senses in a scene they have created.
Students will study the techniques and skills covered in Uta Hagen Respect for Acting.
Objectives
TSW begin the study of the UTA HAGEN technique.
TSW be able to "act naturally" by creating their own back stories.
TSW place emphasis on the five senses and the six questions.
Pre-Requisite Work
Students were asked to come to class having read Uta Hagen's text on the five senses.
Students were asked to come to class with prepared pearls to share with the class.
Materials:
Uta Hagen text: Respect for Acting
Students will bring their own props from home
The answer to the six questions
Ipads (Edmodo Web Site)
Uta Hagen youtube link
TEKS:
117.65. (c) (5) (B) evaluate emotional responses to and personal preferences for dramatic performances, using appropriate theatre vocabulary, and apply the concepts of evaluation (intent, structure, effectiveness, value) to live theatre, film, television, and electronic media in written and oral form with precise and specific observations;
117.65. (c) (2) (A) demonstrate safe use of the voice and body;
117.65. (c) (2) (C) create and sustain believable characters; and
117.65. (c) (2) (D) improvise and write dialogue that reveals character motivation in short vignettes.
Rationale/ Connections:
Rationale
Discuss the importance of studying the five senses and the six questions and how we can apply the techniques to every acting assignment and project
Connections
Ask or tell, "When you watch television and theatre can you recognize actors acting or responding naturally?
Teaching Strategy / Method:
Teaching Method
Inductive: Discovery
Teacher's role
Facilitator
Instructor
Student's role
Participant
Classroom Layout
Individual seats
Up on the floor
Higher order thinking strategies
TSW remember by making a facts chart, in order to review the five senses
TSW understand by writing and performing a scenarios using the 5 senses
TSW create a performance using the five senses and applying the six steps
TSW remember by making a timeline of events in their performance piece.
Questioning strategies
Understanding: Can you write in your own words why it is important to be aware of our five senses in an acting project?
Evaluating: What do you think about applying the six steps to an acting project?
Create: Can you create a performance piece that you incorporate the awareness of the five senses and Uta's six questions?
Assessments:
Daily Informal Assessments:
Class Discussion
Analysis
Journal
Formal Assessment:
Uta Hagen Performance
Edmodo Class Critiques
Day 1
Sponge / Focus
Sponge
Journal your thoughts and ideas about the five senses. How do we use them in every day lives.
Focus
Show a related film clip from youtube (the Uta Hagen video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7v5zB-jg40
Warm Up
Students will play the game bus stop. Students were asked to place emphasis or focus on incorporating the five senses into their scenes.
As students pick a role to portray they are asked to concentrate on how things look, sound, feel, etc. in real life so you can recall them accurately when needed.
When listening to someone on stage, don’t just listen to the words — listen to the context — how they’re said, what you’re experiencing.
It’s rare that you make constant eye contact with someone you’re talking to in real life, so don’t do it when acting. (Hagen Chapter 6)
Following the bus stop warm up students discuss what they observed.
Lesson
Students will view the UTA HAGEN introductory clip from youtube.
Students will sit in a round table discussion with the instructor and discuss the text and the Uta Hagen link.
Students will discuss the three pearls that they selected to reflect on in their pearls.
Practice/Prepare
The teacher will model for the class: A morning in the Mace House. Mrs. Mace is putting on makeup, drinking her smoothie, and trying to get her two kiddos ready for school.
Students will work individually to prepare an activity that they would like to perform for the class. They should pick a simple task that they perform everyday. It should have something they can connect their five senses to a memory.
They will begin to focus on adding depth to their scenario by focusing on the transference of the five senses.
Homework
Students are asked to prepare a full scene with a beginning, middle, and end and the five senses to their work.
Students will reflect on the chapter reading as they apply techniques to their first performance.
Day 2
Warm Up
Students will complete a physical warm up and stretch in order to prepare for their performances focused on the five senses.
Students will complete a run thru of their scene.
Lesson
The students will perform their scenes. The purpose of this first acting exercise is for students to use transference and remember their senses. The teacher will spend time reminding students what Uta Hagen said in her introduction "if I can tell an actor is "acting" then it is bad acting."
The class will use the ipads in order to comment on their classmates performances.
After the students have performed their pieces, the class will discuss the experience as the actor and the audience member. Did the performances seemed "staged" or performed naturally? The students will discuss the importance of the six questions in the text. Students will identify the importance of knowing their character and the motivation driving their character through.
Wrap Up
The students will sit in the round table discussion and discuss the performances. Students are asked to honestly reflect on their work.
Homework:
Students will be given the text assignment of the six questions from Uta Hagen.
Students will reflect on their stories that they created with a simple problem and solution and work on incorporating the answers to the nine questions from the Uta Hagen text.
Students will be asked to perform their scenes again adding the nine questions to their work.
Day 3-4
Warm Up
Students will pull out their six steps questions and answers and their props that they brought from home.
Students will complete a physical warm up and stretch in order to prepare for their performances focused on the five senses.
Students will complete a run thru of their scene.
Lesson
The students will perform their scenes with the emphasis on the five senses and the six questions.
Students will honestly critique their work and discuss openly ways that the questions added depth to their stories.
Wrap Up
Students will honestly critique their work and discuss openly ways that the questions added depth to their stories.
