Character Study
Exercise #1
The Goodbye
(Working with Emotions)
This is a very dramatic exercise which I have done with different grade levels. It is based on a neutral mask exercise I learned while attending Ecole Jacques Le Coq in Paris. I often use this exercise with a piece of text or part of a monologue that the students are working on. I am always amazed at how well young people respond and support each other during this experience which can be quite disturbing for some students. The students should be warned about the seriousness of the exercise and just how "scary" it can be at first. I always establish a rule with the students and teacher that the students will not be forced to do the exercise and that they can leave the room if they become too upset. This can simply be going for a walk in the hallway or to the washroom. They can return when they feel they are ready.
(Note: This does not mean they can leave for the whole class time. After a few minutes I send another responsible student to go get them. This freedom is necessary in order to respect the personal situations of the individual students. I can not know if there has been a recent traumatic event in their lives or the school itself.)
The exercise works like this. The person who is closest to you in your life is leaving. This can be a real person (mother, boy friend, best friend) or if that is to scary for them then they can fictionalize someone. This person is leaving forever. You will not see them again nor hear from them again. They are leaving on a ship. A huge passenger liner. The situation is that you have not seen them in weeks and have not told them how much they mean to you. You are late and don't know if the ship has left already or not. You run full speed to the end of the pier. There are hundreds of people on board and on the pier itself. You search for your person and when you see them you say good bye to them in one movement. One large gesture and then freeze. You hold that pose and gesture while looking them in the eye. You breathe that emotion out to them. You never waiver in your focus and the emotion is strong throughout. Slowly the ship starts to leave but you stay focused on them. As the ship slowly sails out towards the horizon your gesture slowly melts down until you are simply standing on the pier looking at out toward the ship on the horizon. The ship disappears over the horizon and is gone. The person is gone from your life forever. Satisfied that you have said everything you needed to say to them you turn and walk back down the pier and exit.
We do this five or six at a time for two reasons. 1) Expediency of time since the exercise takes time to perform. 2) Students feel emotionally safer in a group as opposed going up alone. It is noted however that the students do not interact with each other or with any imaginary people on the pier.
The group must have room to run. This is very important as the act of running opens them up emotionally and gives them a true sense of urgency when they arrive at the ship.
The instructor talks them through the leaving of the ship. She or he determines the length and decides when the ship has disappeared. This is a time balancing act I know but it is important for them to watch the ship for awhile to allow the emotion to reach it's full impact.
The students should have a chance to experience the exercise al least twice. The first time is often overwhelming and the second time allows them to experience the exercise with some control over their emotions.
Important Notes.
The student does not say anything during the improvisation. A sound may come out when they say good bye but the strength of the gesture should surpass any need for words.
You must encourage them by making them build their emotion before starting by not allowing them to begin until you see that they physically have to RUN. If they are standing still they are intellectualizing and not expressing the emotion physically.
If the student begins to cry, try to encourage them to allow this to happen freely as they look out to the horizon.
Stress to them that this is not necessarily a sad exercise. They should work with different emotions. The person who is closest to you may not have a positive impact on you. This could be someone you hate. This could be a time of celebration. You have come to the end of the pier to tell them how happy they have made you and how happy they are for the person leaving. Maybe this person is leaving to a better life.
This must be a passenger liner. Their eye line and focus must be up on an angle and then slowly come down even with the horizon in front of them. They should find a spot to look at and follow that line down to the horizon.
Exercise #2
Text
When working with a monologue the students do the exercise two or three times with different emotions and with real and fictional characters. They then determine what the central emotion is for the character in their monologue. This is the emotion they work with. They go through the exercise as described above up until the ship disappears over the horizon and then they deliver their monologue. The observing students should note how well grounded the actor is and how believable they are. They should also note any changes from how the monologue has been presented by the student in the past.
End of Class #3
