Sock Puppet Workshops!

I love puppets and started using them a lot when I worked doing 'baby drama' in England. Manipulation of puppets requires skill, practise, plenty of creativity, and offers an outlet for expression.
In my puppet workshops not only did the students get to create their sock puppets in their own unique ways, but they also gave them their own personalities, voices and ways of moving.

The first lesson was the creation of the sock puppet! A beautiful artistic mess!

Now, normally I would emphasise the techniques involved with manipulating the puppet as a second class, and then creating shows would be the third class. However, due to language barriers I felt it was difficult to 

get them to understand certain concepts, so I combined my lessons two and three into one, and with these students I emphasised 'playing' and creative expression. 

Puppet tag - We started by playing 'tag' but it was the puppets who had to tag another puppet!

Techniques - I showed the students three important tips - 1) Only move the thumb when puppet is talking. 2) Always focus on the puppet. 3) The puppets mouth does not close completely when it is talking. 

Head dance - standing in a circle we take it in turns dancing with our puppets heads only (and our own head of course). So simple dance movements involving looking at the puppet, looking away, both ourselves and the puppet looking in a certain direction, etc. 

General puppet dance - taking it in turns, and with silly music, we would get our puppets to dance and the rest of the circle would copy the movements. This is a good exercise in exploring what our puppets are capable of doing. 

Alphabet - we all said the alphabet together a couple of times with our puppets, ensuring the puppets' mouths opened for each syllable. 

Thinking about character and voices - I wrote some words of personality traits on the board (in Hungarian) and got them to think about what their puppet is like, and then how does this affect their voice?

They thought about it a bit, messing around with friends, before we did 'introduction'.

Introduction - Walking around the room the puppets would say 'hello' to each other in their own voices, saying their names and maybe a bit about who they are.

Role play - In small groups the students would create a short play (1 minute) in which the puppets introduced themselves to each other. 

Do they like each other? Are there some puppets who get on really well, or is there an obvious clash between some? What kind of stories naturally appear through the use of our puppets and their unique personalities?

After showing the other groups their role plays, we ended with a creative task of making either a music video or a television commercial. 

All groups ended up doing a music video with their puppets and we made a make shift theatre using a couple of tables and the red curtains in the room we were using!

I think this was a good lesson for getting them to create. Unfortunately I could only show them the basic techniques involved in puppetry as I cannot explain concepts in the Hungarian language. However I think they really went to town with the creation part and if they particularly enjoyed it they have their sock puppets at home to play with. :) 

Characterisation Lesson Plan!

Hello to all!

I wanted to share a lesson in 'Characterisation' that I've been using for a while now, developed by myself, for younger students / those new to acting. I used it with students between the ages of 9 and 12 and it worked perfectly.

I have a big bag of hats, scarves, glasses, bags that is essential for this lesson - which is what makes it so enjoyable, because we all know kids love dressing up!

The aim of this workshop is to encourage students to think about the various ways we can create a character - focusing in particular on walks and voices. By creating an awareness of how individuals differ vastly in the way we move and behave students will undergo various games and improvisation exercises that inspire them to walk, behave and talk in new, imaginative ways, depending on the character they have invented through the process of dressing up.

This is an hour's lesson plan with exercises mentioned at the bottom that didn't work and why (remember that myself and the student's don't speak the same language so everything must be simplified!).



1. Grandma's footsteps with hats

The children play this well-known game but with the added challenge of having to put on a hat before reaching the other side! This also 'introduces' them to the contents of the costume bag in a fun way that prevents them from all running to them and grabbing them/snatching them/fighting over them!

2. Walk and greet 

Students dress up and create a distinctive walk. They walk around the room until they are comfortable with this walk, then they decide on how they greet each other (do they say 'Hello' or 'Hi' or 'Alright?' or 'Good day!' and with what kind of voice?). When I clap my hands they swap costumes with the person nearest to them and create something new.

- I found it difficult to get the students to concentrate here and stop giggling and talking to each other as 'themselves'. Which is why the next exercise 'Cat walk' was good!

3. Cat walk

Half the students sit at one end of the room and the other half stand at the other. On the count of three they walk (with their accessories) to the other side of the room, showing off their 'walks'. This is to encourage the students to watch, and learn from, each other.

 4.  Park bench improv game

Two or three chairs are placed in the centre of the room (depending on how many students there are), all costume bits are on one side of the room, and students sit on the floor facing the chairs. The chairs act as a park bench, and this silent improvisation game is very pantomime-y and lots of fun. One student will go and dress up, then walk to the park bench as their own unique character. They sit down (unless their character doesn't want to) and wait for the next character to come. They interact with each other in silence, until the first character finds a reason to leave. I try to encourage exaggerated movements and interesting characters for this, and once they get into the swing of things it really works.

5. Doctor's waiting room

This can be a development from the park bench game. No need to change the setting (maybe add another chair or two), but suddenly all character's have an ailment and must mime opening the door to the waiting room, walk in and sit down. They can talk in this one too, and to spice things up I try to get them to heighten their ailments until they can't do so anymore (coughing until they're on the floor unable to cough anymore, for example), then bring it back down.

6. Britain/Hungary/Whichever country's Got Talent

I act as the judge and give students five minutes to think of their act for this famous talent show. The idea is that they get inspiration from the hat's they choose to wear (for example, a black bowlers hat could imply a mime act, a chef's hat could show someone who can eat food incredibly quickly). They can work individually or in pairs/ groups. They come on stage and introduce themselves as their characters and then show their skills!

I created a couple of other games that didn't really work. The first was a musical game, in which students stood in a circle passing hats / glasses / scarves around the circle, accompanied by music (similar to the game pass the parcel - only everyone is passing and receiving at once). When the music stops they must wear what they have in their hand and dance around the room when the music starts again.
I think it was a bit too fiddly passing the hats around, if one student dropped one then it would delay the whole game and everyone would be stood waiting. It took too long to put scarves etc on for such a quick-fire exercise, and they all seemed a bit too uncomfortable to dance.

I also created a game inspired by the famous Boal's Ball game. In this case, students all created  a highly exaggerated way of moving and a way in which they say hello. They move around the room focusing on themselves and then the people around them. After a while they slowly walk side by side with another student and watch each other, so that they can then swap not only hats/accesories, but also exchange walks and greetings. They do this once or twice more before finding who has their original hat/walk/greeting and comparing it to what they made.
I think this didn't work because it was too complicated to explain to students who do not share a common linguistic code. They did try, but when swapping walks/hello's they just didn't seem to get it right, so I don't think they understood the concept.

New year new (dance) lessons!

Happy 2014 to everyone and I hope you are feeling as refreshed and wonderful as we are!

Firstly, I'd like to say how brilliant the students were in their show/demonstration at the end of 2013. Myself and Clara were very impressed at how natural the students were on stage - being in front of an audience didn't seem to phase them in the slightest. We had no idea what to expect from them with regards nervousness/ stage fright, so we were so pleasantly surprised!

This year we have lots of exciting plans! I have prepared some lessons in sock puppet making and creating stories, mime workshops, juggling workshops and starting yesterday there are now lessons in dance.

I see the dance lessons as an opportunity for the students to-

 1) learn new skills, such as rhythm, co-ordination, basic dance moves
 2) develop confidence and social skills
 3) develop self-expression and communication using the medium of the body
 4) create stories through movement

With an emphasis on dance for musical theatre (as that's what I have most experience in) lessons are divided into three sections.

Warm up  - warm-ups are so important in ensuring the body is prepared for the lesson's content and to lessen the chances of injuring oneself. We spend 20 minutes doing a general warm-up, making sure all body parts are included in the exercises and stretches. The last 5 minutes will show an introduction to the lesson's specific steps.

Games -  who knew there were so many dance games you could play with children? :)  For this 20 minutes, the children have fun with dance, and get to create. They will dance solo or in pairs or groups to the rest of the class, and they will have the opportunity to lead their own routines or create their own choreographies.
Example of games are musical statues (they freeze when the music stops), who is the leader? (in a circle one person leads movements and the rest follow very closely without looking directly at the person, another student who waits outside then comes in and has to guess who is leading), and silly dances to silly music (students take it in turns either solo or with a partner to cross the room doing a silly dance, accompanied by humorous music). More creative activities include 'beginning middle end' in which a 20 second piece of music is played and they create a mini choreography to it, which tells a story with a clear beginning, middle and end. Also, 'the labyrinth' takes a piece of science fiction music and in pairs students create a short routine showing themselves moving through a labyrinth and the various obstacles they encounter - these exercises really encourage thoughtful response to music and how it makes them feel.

Choreography - we recap some moves and then make a choreography. Yesterday we did the box step, chasse, and started learning the pirouette (this will take a few weeks). We then danced to 'Step in time' from Mary Poppins using our new moves and more!

We both look forward to what 2014 brings us and will continue to make the most of working with the children of Jaszbereny!

Working towards Christmas show

Christmas holidays are approaching and we are scheduled into the theatre's programme to put on a show for all interested in what the Spanish-English duo have been teaching the youth of Jaszbereny!

Despite time restraints, we are feeling the Christmas magic, have great ideas and are confident about showing off the students' talents.  We are both devising together with the students, by finding connections between activities that work well and developing them into a small routine.
For something to work well it usually adheres to the following criteria - the students are engaged and focused - there is a definite flow of creativity energy coming from the students - progress is made throughout the duration of the activity (students respond better, understand more, feel more).

This last few weeks we have been using a combination of exercises the students already know and are familiar with, and new exercises, whilst paying particular attention to exercises that 'work'.

With one group of teenage girls we are focusing on different devises you can use to tell stories. Their English is very good so I can really do a lot with them and get a lot out of them.
Today we started by playing with still images which either did or didn't come alive when I clapped my hands. I started simple (happy/sad) but then went more abstract (power/weakness) then even more abstract (red/blue). The idea is they do not think, but immediately sculpt their bodies into an abstract image to represent the word I say. They should use their whole bodies and not just their face and arms (which shyer students are prone to doing).
We then played with frozen scenes, so they created a bullying scene, Christmas scene (family with children opening presents), market scene, pub scene, and so on, before they created their own for me (they did restaurant and bus - very well!).  When I clapped, they would bring each scene to life.

                                                Students at the pub pictured below!

We then worked with stories. I assigned one group Little Red Riding Hood, and another group were free to choose their own story and they made 60 second plays by acting the whole thing in less than one minute.
The other group chose Cinderella which had some particularly strong images in it, so I decided to use this for the next activity which was to show the story using only 5 frozen scenes. I sat with my eyes closed and got them to say 'open' when they were positioned ready for scene 1, then close as they got into their positions for scene 2, and so on. Over the next few weeks we will explore other devices such as flashforwards and backwards, genre changing (e.g making a 'real-life' version of a story) and character changing (well-known characters from other stories find themselves in a new story), ready for our end of term show!

Physical Theatre in Debrecen

   Once every fortnight we go off to Debrecen - very close to Romania and the second biggest city in Hungary -in order to teach. Our boss, the wonderfully talented Tibor Varszegi has connections at the Debrecen National Theatre. Peter Gemza is the artistic director and worked, studied, and made theatre with Tibor. Both are very experienced in physical theatre, contemporary dance and choreography.

   We teach a group of about 12 teenagers from a secondary school that specialises in drama and these students are GOOD. They come to us on a Saturday for extra lessons (and because they are in English) and they approach every exercise with passion, commitment and more than 100% energy and effort. They LOVE theatre and we LOVE teaching them!

   Myself and Clara take it in turns to teach them, so we have devised our own lesson plans. Whilst they do a lot of acting, singing and dancing at school Monday-Friday, it appears they don't have much/any experience in physical theatre, so I saw it as a great idea to start getting them thinking about what physical theatre is and how they can use it. Obviously physical theatre is vast and there is difficulty in defining what it even is. I want to do a variety of different exercises based on theories by different practitioners in order to encourage creative freedom.

Here is an example of a lesson plan I devised for them - this lesson plan probably works better for students who have already done a lot of acting and have trained their bodies. For a basic introduction for non-actors, look here. 


Physical Theatre Introductory Lesson Plan

Aims - creative freedom, exploration of body, breaking down (deconstruction) of movements, awareness of the body in order to create uncomplicated but powerful and precise gestures.

1. Getting to know your feet
We take most of our body parts for granted, so we started by moving around the room to music, exploring our feet. I told them to think about things like pressure (where is the pressure concentrated?), contact (which part of the foot is making contact with the floor?), muscle activation (which part of the foots muscles are activated and how much muscular energy is expended?) and exploration of speed, rhythm and parts of their foot they don't usually use.  I tried to emphasise slowness as I think the slower you do an exercise like this, the more familiar you become with the part of the body.

2. Getting to know your arms/hands (isolations)
Similar to the 1st exercise, but we went up a notch and did isolations - meaning the body had to stay completely still and only the arm(s) could move, and also meaning that the movements are broken down into component parts. I find this incredibly effective and love playing with isolations myself. We started by simply lifting one arm up to shoulder level but in as smooth a manner as possible, without any juddering. This is actually not as easy as it may sound. Then they could explore different parts of their arms and try isolating the various parts to see what effect they had.

3. Moving the pelvis
So many powerful actions emanate from our pelvis and this exercise is not only good for sensitising the body but also for energising the body in a concentrated manner.  They were told they had a paintbrush coming out of their bottom and with this paintbrush had to write their names as big as possible on an imaginary wall behind them with their feet stuck to the ground. This is quite physically challenging as they need to go right down low and back up again, etc. Then they chose their favourite letter to focus on, and repeat it, each time getting slower and slower so they were aware of all the miniscule movements involved. Then they were told to break down this letter into a few different movements - three or four, then even more, five or six, and to work on these individual parts, playing with them, speeding them up, slowing them down, reversing them, before putting them together with other parts. This deconstruction of movements inspires a new awareness of the body that is very useful in making physical theatre.

4. Pairs exercise - following the hands whole movements
I took this exercise from a recent workshop I attended which was run by The Symptoms Theatre collective. Check out my blog about The Symptoms here. The idea is that one person in the pair plays with their hand, they explore their hand, opening it, closing it, fanning their fingers, pulsating it, going fast, slow, moving different fingers. This is a good exercise for those interested in puppetry as it really activates the hand and raises awareness of what you can do with it and different ways you can move it.  Now, the second person must respond to the hand's movements with their whole bodies. This is one of  my favourite physical theatre exercises as it encourages creativity and freedom of expression (people can interpret the hand's movements however they want). Students also have to think 'on the spot' as they should respond immediately, so they have no time to wonder if they are doing something 'right' or 'wrong'.

5. Slow motion race
Another isolation exercise - this one taken from 'Through The Body- A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre' by Dymphna Callery who says she has 'yet to find a better game for testing concentration, focus and body-awareness.' Students run a pretend 100m race in slow motion, with the winner being the last person to cross the 'line'. The rules are that the runners must always keep in motion, must lift their foot to knee height with each step, must take the longest step possible and must not fall over.

Now that students have worked alone and thoroughly warmed up their bodies, we do some group exercises,  requiring a special type of shared energy.

6. Mexican Wave
To music (a concentration aid) and in front of the mirror, students are told to make a perfect Mexican Wave. Using the techniques they have developed thus far in thinking about articulation of movement, they should make the movements as smooth as possible. They can do this however they like - holding hands or not, at whatever speed (although obviously the speed/rhythm must be consistent and ideally very slow - maybe speeding up as they become confidant and aware of every small movement). This exercise works best when all students are focused and committed to performing it very slowly at first. It requires a lot of concentration to maintain it's 'perfection' but when it is achieved the students will feel that it is right. This notion of 'feeling' an exercise is important, as in physical theatre, it is never a matter of 'just doing' an exercise, it is important to understand why it is done, and to feel what is happening when it is being done.

7. Variation of above - the sea
As above, but this time students are asked to make the sea - however they want. It's good if they experiment with different ideas until they decide on what feels right.

Now that the students should have grasped an awareness of the body, an alertness, attentiveness, familiarity and the concept of 'being in the moment' (comes from 'feeling' the exercises)  after such an in-depth exploration, they can start being creative with their ideas.

Choreographies
Here as some ideas of activities to end the session. I will either choose what I think will work best, or let them decide.

Doctors waiting room / 'Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting' - I had this idea as it comes from doing simple actions, almost nothing, and really breaking them down so they are incredibly effective. Students are asked to imagine they are a bit nervous / uncomfortable, and monitor what actions they do to portray this. They might have big eyes and turn their head around the room. They might be fiddling with their hands and tapping their feet. They may be biting their nails. They be putting their head in their hands. Whatever it is, they take a simple action and break it down into it's component parts and work with these parts - slowing them down, stopping, reversing, and so on, to create the effect of 'slowed down time' when one is in an uncomfortable situation. Music-  'Popcorn' by Hot Butter.

The seed to flower - This works best as a group with a shared energy, with members exploring the multitude of opportunities available to them by working together as one with their bodies. They could climb up each other to show growth, use one body each to represent individual petals. They could bring their heads together and open slowly to show the flower budding.  Attention can be paid to the opening of the buds, the weather conditions that surround it, it's life cycle (pollenation etc) - a very creative exercise. Music - something soft and classical.

Dolls or puppets coming to life -  I love playing with the idea of dolls or puppets (both very different). With dolls I mean Barbie type dolls, with a rigidness, stiffness, lack of flexibility. There's a lot of subtext surrounding Barbies - issues such as plasticity, femininity, lifelessness, gender and society, capitalism, body image etc. Students can decide what area of 'dolls' they wish to explore and find some movements that express that which will then be choreographed together as a whole. I was inspired by this beautiful piece 'Shwarze Puppen' by students from Folkwang Physical Theatre school. 

Puppets are much more loose, free, 'floppy' and it's fun to play with the idea of having strings attached to various parts of your body. Students can play around either in pairs (one person holding the imaginary strings) or individually to create a short but powerful sequence that will be combined with the rest of the groups' sequences.

Autumn Break's Dance Workshop

It was almost 2 weeks ago now, but on the Tuesday of the half term break was an all-day dance workshop, where we focused on musical theatre songs! After a long warm-up and a few ice-breaking games we danced to ' We Go Together' from 'Grease'. I'm a sucker for 'Grease' the musical (it is my dream to play Rizzo in the West End :) ) and so I was in my absolute element! It's such a happy, high-energy song and the lyrics are quite simple too so I encouraged the students to sing along. We did lots of hand jiving, making 'trains', strutting and strolling, shoulder shimmying, and general 50s rock 'n' roll moves! 

The second song was from 'Seussical the Musical' based on Dr Seuss, and was a jungle themed song. This dance was a bit more contemporary and I encouraged freedom of movement and expression. First, students chose a jungle animal (or they could be a tribesman). They moved in the way that this character/animal does, thinking about their qualities, behaviours, and so on. Monkeys, for example, are bouncy, loose, arms hanging, 'naughty', flexible, often seen swinging. Birds are more elegant, free, depending on the type of bird - flamboyant. 

Once they had found their way of moving, we entered the stage at different points and went through a process of 'exploration' before all freezing to create a frozen jungle image. Then there were simple moves like looking to the left (what was that noise?) and then to the right (who's there?) before moving around 'scared'. They also looked for food, and participated in a small 'fight' with another animal, before all going off to sleep (the dance ended with all animals on the floor sleeping).

Natural evolution of lessons

After our initial few weeks of ice-breaking games and 'getting to know each other' activities, we decided to give the kids a more substantial task to get their teeth into at the end of the session. 

The idea was simple - we divided the class into two groups and myself and Clara would give one of the groups a place (setting) and assign individual characters. They had one minute in which to make up some kind of story involving these characters in this particular place and then they had to perform in front of the rest of the class.  They could talk in Hungarian, however, they had to make it very clear WHO they were, and WHERE they were, so that myself or Clara could guess the group we didn't assign. 

This worked well - firstly it's good to do something a bit different from games, but also, some of the students who we thought very shy seemed to impress us with this kind of activity - probably because they were able to speak Hungarian, so they could remove the language barrier that may have been restricting them. 

After one week of ending with this activity, we decided it's essential to introduce the students to some basic skills, such as HOW TO SHOW SETTING, and CHARACTERISATION. 

Our lesson plan naturally evolved to that of 'Characterisation through the body'. After our warm up games (which involve some running games and concentration exercises, depending on the group's needs) we got them to experiment with different types of walks - for example, walking like a business man, a drunk person, an old person, and the idiosyncrasies encompassed by the various types, i.e, gesticulation, body language, speed, rhythm.  

We then divided the room into four invisible sections, each one representing either a baby, a teenager, a mother/father, a grandma/grandpa. Students were encouraged to move freely around the room adopting the various characters depending on which section they were in. I like this exercise because it makes use of different levels (baby crawling on the floor), speeds and tempos (a slow old grandma/grandpa) and the way they hold themselves differs completely. 

A variation of this is to get everyone to stand at one side of the room. They have one minute to move to the other side of the room, starting as a baby and going through all 'ages', arriving at the other wall as a very old, slow person. 

We then ended with the same activity (giving them a setting and characters each) but with emphasis on WHO they were, using the skills they'd acquired from the day's lesson. 

Our 'How to show setting' lesson is my favourite. We started with them walking around the room until an appropriate level of focus was attained (!), then they were told to all go to the cinema together. The main thing to look for here was that they all looked in the same direction at the same screen, and sat in rows. Then we could work on other things such as are they eating food? If so what? And what kind of film are they watching?  They would then leave the cinema together and go various other places, like a restaurant, a train, a supermarket, the beach. If we didn't think they were portraying it well enough then we could clap our hands and get them to freeze, whilst going and repositioning them until we were happy :) 

We also did the 'photograph' exercise. A photographer wants to take a picture in various contexts, so the students have 10 seconds to arrange themselves and then freeze. Examples are a wedding photograph, school photograph, party, etc. 

Finally, we did a lesson on 'Facial expressions'. Some of the students are very shy about using their faces so we played with masks - students put on an imaginary mask which gave them a new facial expression. They would then adapt their bodies and movement to fit this face and interact with each other. 

We would also do various basic emotions (happy, sad, angry, in love, scared) and stood in a line they had to change their faces as Clara moved her hand past their faces. 

I created a game to encourage them to elasticate their faces a bit more. It involved half the room being statues - in a park, or at Heroes Square in Budapest, or in a museum. When I clapped my hands they would become statues with a specific emotion that I would say - 'scared statue', 'ugly statue', 'in love statue', ' brave statue', 'angry statue' etc. The rest of the students would walk around and try to make them move/laugh by pretending to be, for example, Chinese tourists taking pictures and walking around speaking 'Chinese' and talking about/ laughing at the statues. I like this exercise as it incorporates different skills, such as concentration, balance, stillness, facial expression, body language, creativity, focus.. and so on! 

We are now in the final week (some groups are doing setting this week, some are doing faces) and next week is half term already! 

Autumn workshops will be taking place in clowning and singing/dancing before we go and enjoy a spot of travelling around the beautiful Eastern Europe! 

More pictures of students