Full drama credit?

[Night Elf]

Dd13 is taking a drama class in Meisner Technique. It is defined as this:

 

Wikipedia: "Meisner Training is an inter-dependent series of training exercises that build on one another. The more complex work supports a command of dramatic text. Students work on a series of progressively complex exercises to develop an ability to improvise, to access an emotional life, and finally to bring the spontaneity of improvisation and the richness of personal response to textual work. The technique develops the behavioral strand of Stanislavski's 'system' (specifically developing his concepts of communication and adaptation), via its articulation in an American idiom as Method acting. The technique emphasizes "moment-to-moment" spontaneity through communication with other actors in order to generate behavior that is truthful within imagined, fictional circumstances."

 

This will be her 2nd full year in the class. It meets 2 hours each week. Since it is so expensive, I would love to create a course portfolio to submit to our high school program, Keystone. They require 180 hours and work from the beginning, middle, and end, along with sample work/tests/projects/etc.

 

Can anyone give me suggestions on how to add written work to this class to make it a full course? According to the description, it's sort of like Method Acting. I'm not sure that attending plays would help. She regularly goes to Shakespeare plays, for example. I can see her writing a report on the history of Meisner, but I'm not sure what else I could add.

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I would need to provide a plan to Keystone to get pre-approval, so I need to put all the information together before she begins in mid-August. Maybe this is a crazy idea.

 

Thank you!

[Julie in MN]

One thing I've done, but not sure how it relates to improv, is to have the student compare the script, original play, and movie version.

 

Some vocab study could be in there somewhere.

 

Good resources to look thru might be:

Home Designed Form-U-La

Movies as Literature

A couple more links: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2302197&postcount=5

[Night Elf]

Thanks Julie. I just read through the threads you posted and I'm flabbergasted! Some of the statements made and ideas batted around went so far out of my realm of being that I wanted to crawl under a rock and drag my children with me! :lol:

 

I found more than one syllabus (Ha, I managed to not have to use the plural of that word) for acting/drama/theater classes from high schools and colleges. I'm going to put something together based on those. I'm also going to ask her drama teacher for some input.

 

But any other suggestions are welcome!

[justasque]

So, at two hours a week, she'll get roughly 72 hours from her class, right? So you only need to fill 30 more - about an hour a week. I understand the plays and the acting class don't directly relate, but I'm not sure that matters. For example, grammar and vocab don't directly relate, but they're both part of English class. Acting and watching performances are both part of Drama.

 

So if she sees a play, there is work to be done before and after. Shakespeare - read summary, read script, read criticism, watch movie version, develop things to notice in the play (how do they spin a particular character, etc.), participate in a talkback, write a review afterwards, or perhaps a deeper analysis of the play. That's easily 10 hours per play, so do three plays and you're good.

 

There are also some good iTunes U things that relate - a very nice series about writing plays, for example. You might want to watch that series where they interview various actors on their technique (Actor's Studio or something?). Put on a play, direct a movie, do critical analysis of a tv show. There is so much you can include! If it is something that doesn't produce portfolio work per se, you can have her write about it - "Acting" My Favorite Class Ever", "How I Made My Star Wars Romeo and Juliet Movie", etc. The writing is both part of the work and documentation of the work.

[Wendi]

Some ideas off the top of my head:

 

Reading a book(s) on acting method and reviewing/comparing them.

Writing a monologue or scene which shows off the skills she is learning

Writing a short paper about how she would apply what she's learning to playing a given role in a play.

Interviewing local actor(s) about how they learned to act, what method they use, etc.

Attending rehearsal(s) of a local professional company, then seeing the actual performance, writing about her experience

Putting together a short program of monologues and scenes to perform for family and friends

 

Wendi

[Annie G]

Harold is a form of improvised long form comedy. It's quite fun to learn and seems like it would mesh really well with the class she's taking. Perhaps there is someone else in the class who would work with her on a piece using the Harold. There's a book about this method, by Del Close, called Truth in Comedy. Reading the book, viewing some online long form improv, and developing her own technique would surely fill up the remainder of the required time.

 

Improv skills really go far beyond being useful only on the stage- we were kind of surprised to discover that!

[micheller1]

My daughter does an afterschool drama class as well and I also bought this from christianbook :

 

http://www.christianbook.com/performing-literature-interpretation-drama-teachers-edition/9781579246235/pd/183459?product_redirect=1&Ntt=183459&item_code=&Ntk=keywords&event=ESRCP