|
MASKS & MIME |
F I N T U S H E L 708 Aston Avenue Santa Rosa CA 95404 (707) 526-1481 www.fintushel.com |
Teachers--please feel free to print out or copy this guide.
To download this Teachers' Guide in WORD format, click here
.
|
|
How do we understand one another . . . at a glance? |
|
OBJECTIVES
Students will learn about theater (a)
through observing and responding (Assembly)
(b) through active participation (Classroom Activities) in:
§ Improvisation Games
§ Creative Movement
§ Mime
§ Stage Clowning
§ Using Our Bodies to Create a Rôle
AT THE ASSEMBLY
Teachers--please don't let on before the show, but here is the line-up . . .
OLD MUSICIAN! A mask character--with music on concertina and flutes.
TRAFFIC PYLON MASK! A found-object mask
shows how a small change in scale makes a big difference
in what we see. (Try dextupling the length of your nose, then
turning without knocking people down!)
LAZZO OF THE ARROW! This lazzo
(clown routine) proves that, as anyone who has ever tried to follow
directions in a strange city knows,
there is nothing so much like left as right.
UPS & DOWNS! Another ancient lazzo:
an imaginary elevator, escalator, staircase. Does the performer
create this illusion--or is it the
audience??
MIXING BOWL MASK! Put it on your head, add two refrigerator magnets for eyes . . . voila!
3-LINE MASKS! This series of flat,
nested masks, each bearing only a few brush strokes, proves that it's
the audience's seeing that
makes theater as much or more than any performer's skill. Each mask seems
to
creates a different character.
WALLS AND ROPES! A survey of pantomime illusions co-created with the audience.
AUDIENCE EXERCISES! In our
seats--movement games create, first, concentration, and then a visceral
event as everyone is sliced in half.
KIDS IN MASKS! Three children onstage in
puffy larval masks try to peek at one another without being
caught. In the process, their
masks come to life!
THE SMALLEST MASK! A clown nose, of
course--two really: one for me and one for
someone in the audience . . .
PRE-SHOW ACTIVITIES
"What you are speaks so loudly that I cannot hear a word you say."
The best preparation for Masks & Mime is a discussion of Body Language.
What can you tell about people by the way they they walk, sit, wave, or even breathe?
How would you walk/sit/wave if you were happy? Sad? Angry? Etc. (Show us!)
Can you show us (e.g.) anger in you shoulders? Jealousy in your chin? Sadness in your stomach? In your legs? Etc.
It's been said (Francois Delsarte) that everyone is a head person, a chest person, or a hips person, depending on "where their motor is," i.e., where they move from. Which type are you? Which type is each person here? (One by one, students cross before the class, and the classes determines "where their motor is.")
The NY State Education Department suggests this relevant exercise:
The teacher presents a photograph
depicting actors or real people with a strong physical presence,
then asks each student to make three
observations about each, based on posture or gesture.
FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES
Bring historical and literary characters to life. E.g., in what part of his body, do you think, was George Washington's "motor" (head, chest, or hips)? Show us!
Snow White's Heart: Like the hunters in Snow White, who must bring back Snow White's heart in a box, show us the "heart" of someone else's movement--someone at home or at school. Walk before the class as that person would walk. Can we guess who you are . . . ?
Ups and Downs: In the assembly, Eliot seemed to go up and down an escalator and stairs behind a low screen. Really, he was tricking us by going in two directions at once: down and across. (Eliot's note: I imagine a triangle with my height as its height and my path as its length--then follow the hypotenuse.) He kept his back very straight, and he bent his knees little by little while he walked. Try this on the other side of a desk or a waist-high window.
Prop Rounds: Present to the class any simple object, for example, a yardstick, a bowl, or a waste basket. Invite students to imagine what else it might be and to show us. (Examples: The yardstick might be a trumpet or a baseball bat or Pinocchio's nose. The bowl could be a hat, a belly, or a steering wheel.
Movement Shapes: Draw a squiggle on the board, or have a student do so. The squiggle may be made of curvy lines or straight lines. It may be tight or loose, brittle or fluid. Challenge students to move the way the squiggle feels. "Reading" this squiggle is the same as "reading" a mask. This is exactly how mask performers discover how to bring each mask to life.
Mask Characters: Make simple masks of paper plates or bags. Insist that every mask have some clear feeling to it. Then challenge students to bring their mask to life by "reading" it and moving (standing, sitting, walking, waving, etc.) the way the mask would!
RESOURCES
Viola Spolin, Improvisation for Theater...... The mother of all theater game books!
Maravene Loeschke, All About Mime.......... Organized as
a college course, a how-to book with lots of
background information and a guide to composition
for performance.
Claude Kipnis, The Mime Book.................... The best
book in print for teaching and understanding the actual
techniques of illusionary mime (the wall, mime walk, rope pull, etc.)
Bari Rolfe, Behind the Mask......................... The
principles of Mask Theater explained and illustrated