Just got back from the workshop, it was a blast! We actually did two sessions of an hour & a half each.
The first session was an older group of kids, average age of 10 years old, and there were 25 - 30 kids! They were fairly rowdy through out the session, and weren't always listening. They didn't really go for the first part where Cynthia and I spoke to them in costume and in character. "If you're really a magical fairy, magically make some cheese for me." (I guess he was hungry??), "I didn't know fairies wore pink converse." (I have shiny pastel pink converse as part of my costume). "You look like mutated butterflies." (Eww!)
It got better once we took off our costumes and started talking to them about acting. A couple of the kids came up to me and asked me if I was really an actor. I said "Yes." They asked, "Have you been in any TV shows or movies?" I told them I've done background work in a bunch of movies, and that I was auditioning to get speaking roles. They thought that was the coolest thing. "What movies have you been in?" I listed off a few, but said that I was just one of those people walking around in the background, usually blurry. They still thought it was cool. They asked if I'd been in any plays, which ones, etc.
Cynthia led most of the exercises during the first session, and she was teaching essentially the same stuff I've been learning at The Acting Corps, in the Daily Acting Workout, and the movement class. We did a focus & connection exercise called Heartbeat--everyone stands in a circle holding hands, the first person squeezes the next person's right hand, then that person passes the squeeze on to the third person's right hand, so you receive the squeeze with your right hand and pass it to the next person with your left hand. Anyhow, the squeeze goes around the circle, and if everyone focuses and works together, it starts to feel like a heart beat, strong and regular. It's really fricking cool, we do it in the DAW all the time. Of course, with the kids today, it never quite got rolling smoothly. When we finished, one of the kids said, "I didn't like that exercise because nobody was working together." Which led to a discussion about working together as actors, being aware of each other and being focused so that you can make sure you say your lines at the right time, be on stage at the right time, etc.
Next we played Telephone aka Operator aka Chinese Whispers, and talked about the importance of listening as actors. We also talked about patience and respecting the other actors by being quiet so they could focus.
Then we did the animal movement activity, and they all really enjoyed that. Some of the kids were unsure of what to do, so I gave them an animal and told them to explore, that they couldn't do anything wrong.
After that was the laughing exercise which didn't go over quite the way we expected. We had all the children sit in a circle, and then one by one lay down with their heads resting on the stomach of the child next to them. There were a lot of complaints about heads being too heavy for stomachs, but we did get some laughter going. Afterwards, we asked the children about their experiences, and a few of them said they felt really uncomfortable, they didn't feel safe with their heads on someone else's stomach. That surprised me, but I brought up that our stomachs is where our emotions come from, and it probably took a lot of trust for that exercise, so we talked about what emotions could come from the stomach, and the kids really got that: feeling nervous, feeling scared, feeling happy are all things they came up with.
Then Cynthia started the Dreaming Exercise, and that really didn't go very well, the kids got really bored and talkative. We were attempting to guide them through a mediation in which they visualized themselves in 20 years. Some of the kids started out really being into the whole meditation thing, but even they got bored about half way through. Cynthia spent a long time on coaching them to see how they'd look physically. Then we got into what kind of job they'd have, how much money would they make, would they have a family. Afterwards, Cynthia asked if anyone wanted to share what they had visualized, and most of the stuff that was shared was just goofing off: "I'm going to control the universe with robots", "I'm going to be beautiful and rich, and my friend is going to be married to Britney Spears." That sort of thing. So Cynthia and I learned that we need to tweak that part of the workshop, at any rate.
The next group of kids was younger, average age 7 years old, and there were only 11 of them. And Cynthia put me in charge of this one, so that I was leading most of the exercises, and making decisions on how to proceed within each activity, and Cynthia cuing me as to which activity was next. The kids all listened really well, it was awesome working with them. We started with the heartbeat, which actually went better with this group (maybe because it was smaller) although there were a lot more heartbeats coming back to me than I was sending out. Then Operator again, and then the animal movement, and we had a lot of great animals: sea turtle, hyena, wolf, lion, dolphin, turtle, dog, cat, to name a few. And the cool thing was each child got on stage to let the other kids guess what animal they were, and we allowed the performing kid to pick who from the other kids with their hands up would guess. I think that's really awesome for kids to feel like they've got some control, some choice, as opposed to adults always telling them what to do.
Then we decided to have a faery dance. Cynthia had brought bongos and a tambourine, so we pulled those out, started everybody marching to the beat, and then allowing them to explore how a fairy might dance, or a troll or goblin for the boys. The kids really liked that.
After that we tried the laughing game with this group as well, again to a few complaints of heads being too heavy for stomachs, but this time we approached the exercise from the trust issue, explaining that from the beginning. Then we got into the laughter, and then allowed the kids to have a round of tickling because they were getting rambunctious.
And last of all, we decided to hold the Faery Queen's court. We got back into costume, with the kids helping us count how many costume pieces we each had (she had only two, I have something like 8), and Cynthia announced the arrival of the Faery Queen Apple Blossom. Each child was presented to me, and Cynthia suggested that I name them as their animal, for example, Sir Puppy. I took it one step further, and said, "Sir Puppy, Knight of Friendship and Loyalty, you are now a member of the Faery Queen's court." And I did that for every animal. The sea turtle was Knight of Peace and Tranquility, hyena was Lady of Laughter and Good Humor, the wolf was Knight of Hunting and Intelligence (I don't know, I was making these up off the top of my head!), the turtle was Lady of Patience and Determination, the cat was Lady of Grace and Skill, the lion was Knight of Courage, etc. The neat thing was the children seemed very honored, there was no laughing, and each bowed or curtseyed after receiving their title, it was all very serious.
And that was the workshop. I had a great time, I hope I get to help out again next time Cynthia has one scheduled.
The first session was an older group of kids, average age of 10 years old, and there were 25 - 30 kids! They were fairly rowdy through out the session, and weren't always listening. They didn't really go for the first part where Cynthia and I spoke to them in costume and in character. "If you're really a magical fairy, magically make some cheese for me." (I guess he was hungry??), "I didn't know fairies wore pink converse." (I have shiny pastel pink converse as part of my costume). "You look like mutated butterflies." (Eww!)
It got better once we took off our costumes and started talking to them about acting. A couple of the kids came up to me and asked me if I was really an actor. I said "Yes." They asked, "Have you been in any TV shows or movies?" I told them I've done background work in a bunch of movies, and that I was auditioning to get speaking roles. They thought that was the coolest thing. "What movies have you been in?" I listed off a few, but said that I was just one of those people walking around in the background, usually blurry. They still thought it was cool. They asked if I'd been in any plays, which ones, etc.
Cynthia led most of the exercises during the first session, and she was teaching essentially the same stuff I've been learning at The Acting Corps, in the Daily Acting Workout, and the movement class. We did a focus & connection exercise called Heartbeat--everyone stands in a circle holding hands, the first person squeezes the next person's right hand, then that person passes the squeeze on to the third person's right hand, so you receive the squeeze with your right hand and pass it to the next person with your left hand. Anyhow, the squeeze goes around the circle, and if everyone focuses and works together, it starts to feel like a heart beat, strong and regular. It's really fricking cool, we do it in the DAW all the time. Of course, with the kids today, it never quite got rolling smoothly. When we finished, one of the kids said, "I didn't like that exercise because nobody was working together." Which led to a discussion about working together as actors, being aware of each other and being focused so that you can make sure you say your lines at the right time, be on stage at the right time, etc.
Next we played Telephone aka Operator aka Chinese Whispers, and talked about the importance of listening as actors. We also talked about patience and respecting the other actors by being quiet so they could focus.
Then we did the animal movement activity, and they all really enjoyed that. Some of the kids were unsure of what to do, so I gave them an animal and told them to explore, that they couldn't do anything wrong.
After that was the laughing exercise which didn't go over quite the way we expected. We had all the children sit in a circle, and then one by one lay down with their heads resting on the stomach of the child next to them. There were a lot of complaints about heads being too heavy for stomachs, but we did get some laughter going. Afterwards, we asked the children about their experiences, and a few of them said they felt really uncomfortable, they didn't feel safe with their heads on someone else's stomach. That surprised me, but I brought up that our stomachs is where our emotions come from, and it probably took a lot of trust for that exercise, so we talked about what emotions could come from the stomach, and the kids really got that: feeling nervous, feeling scared, feeling happy are all things they came up with.
Then Cynthia started the Dreaming Exercise, and that really didn't go very well, the kids got really bored and talkative. We were attempting to guide them through a mediation in which they visualized themselves in 20 years. Some of the kids started out really being into the whole meditation thing, but even they got bored about half way through. Cynthia spent a long time on coaching them to see how they'd look physically. Then we got into what kind of job they'd have, how much money would they make, would they have a family. Afterwards, Cynthia asked if anyone wanted to share what they had visualized, and most of the stuff that was shared was just goofing off: "I'm going to control the universe with robots", "I'm going to be beautiful and rich, and my friend is going to be married to Britney Spears." That sort of thing. So Cynthia and I learned that we need to tweak that part of the workshop, at any rate.
The next group of kids was younger, average age 7 years old, and there were only 11 of them. And Cynthia put me in charge of this one, so that I was leading most of the exercises, and making decisions on how to proceed within each activity, and Cynthia cuing me as to which activity was next. The kids all listened really well, it was awesome working with them. We started with the heartbeat, which actually went better with this group (maybe because it was smaller) although there were a lot more heartbeats coming back to me than I was sending out. Then Operator again, and then the animal movement, and we had a lot of great animals: sea turtle, hyena, wolf, lion, dolphin, turtle, dog, cat, to name a few. And the cool thing was each child got on stage to let the other kids guess what animal they were, and we allowed the performing kid to pick who from the other kids with their hands up would guess. I think that's really awesome for kids to feel like they've got some control, some choice, as opposed to adults always telling them what to do.
Then we decided to have a faery dance. Cynthia had brought bongos and a tambourine, so we pulled those out, started everybody marching to the beat, and then allowing them to explore how a fairy might dance, or a troll or goblin for the boys. The kids really liked that.
After that we tried the laughing game with this group as well, again to a few complaints of heads being too heavy for stomachs, but this time we approached the exercise from the trust issue, explaining that from the beginning. Then we got into the laughter, and then allowed the kids to have a round of tickling because they were getting rambunctious.
And last of all, we decided to hold the Faery Queen's court. We got back into costume, with the kids helping us count how many costume pieces we each had (she had only two, I have something like 8), and Cynthia announced the arrival of the Faery Queen Apple Blossom. Each child was presented to me, and Cynthia suggested that I name them as their animal, for example, Sir Puppy. I took it one step further, and said, "Sir Puppy, Knight of Friendship and Loyalty, you are now a member of the Faery Queen's court." And I did that for every animal. The sea turtle was Knight of Peace and Tranquility, hyena was Lady of Laughter and Good Humor, the wolf was Knight of Hunting and Intelligence (I don't know, I was making these up off the top of my head!), the turtle was Lady of Patience and Determination, the cat was Lady of Grace and Skill, the lion was Knight of Courage, etc. The neat thing was the children seemed very honored, there was no laughing, and each bowed or curtseyed after receiving their title, it was all very serious.
And that was the workshop. I had a great time, I hope I get to help out again next time Cynthia has one scheduled.
1 comment:
What a great experience. I love the "heartbeat" concept. I might try that at Chicago rehearsal and see how it goes.
Isn't it funny how the younger children are more open to all the activities? It says a lot about how we develop as people I think.
I'm glad you got to work with Cynthia as well. You are a fabulous Faery!
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