teaching shakespeare acting – Teaching Shakespeare through Performance

How to Increase Student Energy Level in Shakespeare Performances

Posted on March 9, 2019 by Ted Tibbetts

Hesitant, inexperienced, and nervous student actors often rehearse and perform with all the urgency of a snail creeping unwillingly to school. They find it difficult to understand the importance of energy without concrete instruction. Thus, giving them an anchor of various energy levels often help elucidate the subject for them.

Here is the script I use for this activity. I model each level by doing the activity with the students.

Okay, this activity is called the Seven Levels of Energy.

Energy Level #1

So, everyone lie down on the floor. Yes…on the floor. On your backs. Eyes closed. This is energy level number one. Imagine that gravity, an overwhelming force, pushes you into the floor. You are like a pool of liquid. You are so tired that you can barely lift your fingers. Go ahead, struggle to lift a finger. It’s Monday morning and you struggle to get out of bed at energy level number one.

Energy Level #2

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, we can’t stay at energy level number one. We have things to do. So, at energy level number two, which takes all of your effort and concentration, struggle to your feet. That’s right, do that now…struggle to your feet where you can barely stand because it feels like you have a thousand pounds on your back. You even stagger a bit trying to maintain your balance. Nope, you can’t talk at energy level number two, you can barely stand. Feel that weight on your back. Okay, good.

Energy Level #3

Well, we can’t stay at energy level number two, either, so let’s go find the coffee machine. At energy level number three, if we concentrate really hard, we can move from point A to point B. We may sway a bit, side to side because we’ve still got that heavy weight on our back. Nope, still can’t talk at energy level number 3, it takes all our concentration to get to one spot. Then we have to pause, rest then get to the next spot.

Energy Level #4

Now that we’ve had our coffee, we can move onto energy level number four. This is normal everyday walking around with no particular purpose. Oh, there’s people in this world. Yes, now we can talk to them. “Hey, how’s it going? Good. You?” Yup, just walking around with no particular purpose, no urgency. Not like you guys, of course, but perhaps some of my less motivated students…. Just walking around normally. Ho-hum. The thing is, with energy level number four, nothing gets done. There are no stakes, nothing matter, no one cares. Until we get to energy level number five.

Energy Level #5

Okay, now we’ve got purpose! We have goals to accomplish! I need to move this chair over here. I need to carry this backpack over there. Very Important! This needs to be done and done correctly or there will be consequences…significant consequences. I need to come over here and tell Jack that our performance today is essential to our success! Very important! Move with purpose. Move with urgency. Pick up the pace. I have clear objectives, clear goals. I’m motivated.

Energy Level #6

When we get to energy level six, we’re late! We’ve got to run! It’s critical! Lives are at stake! Our future! Run, run, run! This has to be done NOW!! The essay is due in 15 minutes! I need to score the winning touchdown! Go, go, go! Something really bad is going to happen if we don’t get this done! High stakes! We must not fail!

Energy Level #7

When we get all worked up, we sometimes move to energy level number seven where all we can do is scream: “AHHHHHHHHRGGGGHHHHHH!” and collapse to the floor. Back to energy level number one. We’re exhausted again and feel heavy. Kind of feels like most days of my life…

Debriefing

After completing the activity, I gather students in a circle to talk about it. I always ask, in theater, which energy level should we avoid like the plague? Inevitably they say, “Number one!” to which I reply, “My friend, Mark, once played Julius Ceasar. After they stabbed him he had to lie on stage for 15 minutes of Mark Antony’s speech. He was in three shows and was tired. I often had to kick him so he would stop snoring. That’s pretty much energy level number one”

“Okay, energy level number two.”

“Imagine you are wounded, or really old. I’ll bet you would walk like that…hunched over, feeling like you had a heavy weight on your back.”

“Okay, four! Yeah, energy level number four, avoid that.”

Exactly. Energy level number four doesn’t “read.” It communicates nothing. It’s emotionless. One, two and three can show several different emotional states. Six and seven, definitely. But four? Boring. Uninvolved. Purposeless.

I suggest focusing on energy level number five. Make sure your character work to accomplish something. Know what they want and that getting it is important to them. If your characters don’t care, the audience won’t care and they’ll be bored with your scene.

Think of theater like the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Kindergarten Cop. Has anyone seen it? No? I know, I’m getting too old. Anyway, in this movie, Arnold plays a police officer. He’s used to getting what he wants, justice, by beating up bad guys. However, when he takes an undercover job as a kindergarten teacher, he can’t beat up little kids, so has to learn to use LANGUAGE to achieve his goals. That’s what theater is all about. Think about how your character uses words to accomplish goals.

Bonus Strategies

Although the Seven Levels of Energy activity works well to communicate the theory, sometimes students need some additional practice to put the concept into practice. If I see a group hovering around energy level number four, I usually give them two additional challenges.

Four Corners

I place each of the scene members in the four corners of the performing space…the farther apart, the better. If we rehearse in the auditorium, I tell them to stand way out in the corners of the seats. “Okay,” I say. “Stay in character and project your lines across the space to your scene partners.” While this challenge works well for “soft talkers” as well, it helps to increase the energy with which they speak.

Speed-through

Another strategy I use to increase energy levels is the speed-through. I tell students to literally RUN through the scene, speaking as quickly as possible without losing any of the sounds of their words. Imagine that you are racing another group performing the same scene. If you drop any words, you’d have to restart, so maintain line integrity, but GO FAST! This often creates the urgency necessary to transform a lackluster energy level to a more dynamic one.

Fun Fact

I was presenting this activity at a conference in Denver one year and during energy level number six someone moved my presentation notes. I never found them. Luckily I had my presentation pretty well anchored in my head so we were able to press on without any problems. It was a fun group and well worth losing notes!

Acting Shakespeare can understandably intimidate students and inexperienced actors. This reluctance often translates into dull scenes that do little to combat the notion that Shakespeare plays are lively and dynamic. However, these teaching strategies will help reticent students understand the appropriate energy level necessary for entertaining scenes!

Fun Shakespeare Activity for Teaching the Use of Space

Posted on March 7, 2019 by Ted Tibbetts

Most…okay all, of the time when I begin using performance to teach Shakespeare in my classroom, the actors look like they’re playing hacky-sack rather than performing a scene. That is to say, they stand in a circle and read to each other. At first, I don’t mind. I don’t want to burden them with too much too soon. After all, just getting the text can be challenging enough. However, as we move deeper into the play and closer to performance time, I want them to be able to use space and visual images to communicate ideas as well as the language itself.

I begin by showing the Queen Mab scene from the Zeffirelli Romeo and Juliet. I ask students to pay attention to the colors and the use of space by the actors. In particular, where do actors stand in relation to each other and how do these elements change over the course of the scene.

For those who know the scene, it begins with many warm colors: oranges and reds, and Mercutio appears above everyone commanding attention like an actor on stage. Mercutio’s language at the beginning reminds us of Cinderella and the Fairy Godmother with images of a carriage drawn by “a team of little atomies.” As the images grow darker, however, so does the mise-en-scene. Mercutio jumps down from the ledge, seems startled with his own line of “drums in his ears,” then separates himself from the rest of the group. The next shot reveals Mercutio alone and downhill from everyone bathed in blue light, with his words echoing, “This is she…this is she….”

On a basic level, we can talk as a class how the scene moves from bright and orange with Mercutio elevated and surrounded by friends to dark and blue with him lowered and isolated. Thus, the director reinforces the written text with a visual one.

After analyzing this scene, we synthesize one. For this process, we play a game called “Screaming Sculptures.” First, I ask how many dimensions in a given space. While metaphysical answers may vary, the class comes to the agreement that space can be defined through width, length, and height. So, I tell them, in our sculptures, we want to do our best to use as much of that space as possible.

Students form groups of four or five. I will then give each group a scene that they will depict. My favorites include a baseball game, a rock concert, a bank robbery, and a day at the beach. One at a time students scream, (really just to add some more energy!) then run to the performing space, strike a pose, and freeze. The combination of all the poses should depict the scene that the rest of the class will try to guess. In addition, they should attempt to use as much of the space as possible.

Each group establishes an order of appearance…that’s all they can talk about. After the first student screams and strikes a pose, the other students must figure out what the previous students are depicting and build from that scene.

For example, in our bank robbery example above, the first student may strike a pose of a person holding a gun. The second person may run in, then stand in front of the gun with his or her hands in the air. Person number three may see that a length of the space has been covered, but not the height, so he or she may fall flat on the floor like they’ve been shot. Person four may decide that the mid-level space off to the side has not been used, so he or she may kneel behind a desk pretending to call the police.

After each group member strikes their pose, I tell the group to stay frozen, then ask the class to guess the scene and also explain each pose. At this point, I tell the sculptures that they may relax a bit, (it can be tough to hold some positions for a long time) but to stay in their general space.

Then, as a class, we critique the art. “How was their use of space lengthwise? Width? Height?” At first, students struggle to know what to do, or how to use the space, so I will offer suggestions. “What if you moved over here? What could you do to use this level?” Many times I ask the class for suggestions. After discussing the tableau, we repeat the process for each group.

I love the question “what could you do to use this level?” It helps generate some stage “business” ideas. I often tell students about a part I played in As You Like It. During rehearsal, I couldn’t really figure out what to do for stage business during the wrestling scene. No one was using the floor level, so I decided that my character would begin a betting pool and start throwing money on the floor. This created an entire subset of activity for the scene. The prop master even had money printed up with the director’s face on it!

To make the activity more complex, I sometimes facilitate “Advanced Placement Screaming Sculptures.” Here I will either give the group a vague scenario that they have to create like, “This is a family reunion portrait. Not everyone is happy to be here. Go.” Then they have to figure out, without talking, how to communicate this idea using the space. It also provides an opportunity to talk about character development. What can we learn about characters by their posture? When students find themselves truly ready for a challenge I simply tell them, “Create a tableau.” Again, without talking, one character strikes a pose and the other group members follow one at a time building from each other to create the sculpture. Then the rest of the class tries to interpret it.

This activity also works well to sort the chaos of large scenes. I remember directing Merry Wives of Windsor and trying to block the last scene. I think every character in the play is in that scene. Maybe even a few from Henry V. It looked like a flash mob. I finally said, “Okay, you’ve got 30 seconds to sculpt this scene…go!” Actors looked at each other, looked at the space, figured out their relationship to each other, and, suddenly, the ending became clear, tidy, and in the words of Scuttle, “an aesthetically pleasing configuration of” actors!

When teaching Shakespeare, incorporating the use of space to underscore the written text with a visual text can help students really see the relationships among the characters. So give it a try and let me know how it goes!

The Number One Reason I Love Teaching Shakespeare (Way Beyond Standards…)

Posted on February 11, 2019March 4, 2019 by Ted Tibbetts

-Ted Tibbetts

I felt almost giddy in the classroom. Clearly, my students could sense it. I was introducing the Shakespeare unit; I’m sure I was gesticulating wildly, talking fast, and perhaps even foaming at the mouth a bit. Cassius would have disapproved. I paused for a breath and one of my students raised her hand.

“Why do you love teaching Shakespeare so much?”

I felt pretty sure I knew the answer; but I started off with the typical, “It’s good for language skills and cultural knowledge and the human condition and…,” but then I stopped. And told them a story about MaryAnn.

Afterward, wondering if others felt the same, I did some research. As it turns out, I agree with the Shakespeare teachers out there. I particularly enjoyed Brian Sztabnik’s article “Why I Love Teaching Shakespeare (And You Should Too!)” He’s spot on when he says that getting up and acting it creates “less of a sedentary place and more of a dynamic environment for learning.” I couldn’t agree more that the themes foster “sophisticated discussions.” And he even acknowledges that as a student, reading Shakespeare helped him develop his reading confidence. I would add that the confidence-building extends beyond reading. In fact, it has had the most significant impact on both me and my students.

Here’s the story….

I began using performance strategies for teaching Shakespeare in the mid-1990s. The strategies had such positive impacts in English class that they spawned a Shakespeare through Performance elective. Several students participated in a summer Shakespeare program. Then they came back in the fall, went to drama club, came back to me and said, “Drama club’s cool, but it’s not Shakespeare. What if we had a separate drama club just for Shakespeare?”

Me (out loud) “Sounds great!” Me (inner voice) “With three of you?”

We ended up with around 25 students.

Students workshop with Desmond Barrit of the Royal Shakespeare Company

This club turned out to be one of the most powerful student groups with which I’ve worked. In the fall we worked on skill development, ensemble building, and everyone learned a monologue (including me). In the winter, we cut a play to a 15-minute farce. In the spring we produced a full-length Shakespeare play and the first week of summer vacation we spent at the Royal Shakespeare Company workshopping with RSC actors during the day and attending the theater at night. It was truly an incredible group with which to work.

MaryAnn joined the club her sophomore year. Often appearing shy and self-conscious, she struggled to decode text. Once the language anchored itself into her head she was fine, but getting words from the page to her head, then into her voice, was an arduous process.

That year we produced Much Ado About Nothing. It was the year Gap had been running the khakis swing dancing commercials, and since it was a post-war play we decided to set it in a post-WWII swing dancing era. A local music teacher and composer set “Sigh No More” as a swing song (“Hey! Hey! Nonny Nonny, Hey! Hey! Nonny Nonny”) and “Goddess of the Night” as a slow blues tune. MaryAnn’s singing voice made her an excellent fit for Balthasar. Her performances were beautiful but restrained. I could tell she still felt a bit hesitant.

Her junior year we did Merry Wives of Windsor. She played Bardolph, still a small role, but one she took seriously. Kids told me that she never broke character even backstage. It was also this year that I really began to understand how her brain worked. She still struggled with reading text, but one day I discovered that she possessed outstanding verbal skills.

We were workshopping monologues in a variation of a “dropping in” exercise. We’d asked her questions about the words in her text designed to provide her with emotional and visual context for her monologue. Then, she stood up and performed it for us. When she finished, she just stood there. And I knew that she had gone somewhere…hypnotized almost. We just sat there and waited. “The words….” she stammered and shook her head almost as if to clear the cobwebs. “The words….”

Then came her senior year. We had decided to perform Henry IV Part 1. Students had filled out audition sheets and when I got to hers I saw that she wanted to play Falstaff.

Oh, boy.

So I called her into my office.

“I see that you want to play Falstaff.”

“Yeah, that would be great!”

“There’s a lot of lines…a lot of memorization.”

“I know. I know. But I can do it. I promise.”

“There’s a lot of jokes about size, and..uh….”

“I know. But I really want to do it.”

Thinking. (Me). Waiting. (Her).

“Alright, Let’s do it.” And so began one of the most powerful educational experiences of my life.

As a teacher or a student.

I liked to structure rehearsals like this: On Monday we would rehearse a scene: work on the language, determine blocking and create characters. (Only the actors involved in that scene needed to be there.) Then the next scene on Tuesday, maybe a couple of scenes on Wednesday, and so on. On the last rehearsal of the week, usually Thursday or Friday, the entire cast would come. We would run the scenes we had already rehearsed word for word. I expected actors to have memorized their lines for those scenes we had already rehearsed. Then, we would improvise the rest of the play. “Tell me the story,” I would shout from the audience. I loved this part. A bit rocky at first, but week by week these run-throughs grew more and more comic.

MaryAnn came to her first rehearsals with her lines already memorized. Not perfect, but pretty darn close. Although we never really talked about it, I’m pretty sure that she knew that it would be tough for her to read them and rehearse, so she prepared early. And the results were astounding. Free from decoding text she found sight-gags and interpretations that went far beyond my creative abilities.

Indeed, she made good on her promise. She learned all her lines; she created a strong character. It turned out to be a highly engaging show with comedy, drama, music, and clanging and banging broadsword stage combat. Word spread. By our last show, we had a packed house. And MaryAnn truly emerged as a star.

She had decided that Falstaff would ALWAYS have a pint of ale in his hand. At the inn, on the road, and in battle. Late in the play, during a battle scene, Falstaff feigns death, (after carefully setting his ale down lest he spill a few drops) to avoid risking his life fighting Douglas the terrible Scot. Meanwhile, on the other side of the stage, Hal, the protagonist succeeds in killing Hotspur the Antagonist. After Hal exits, Falstaff gets up and sees Hotspur lying there (after his “the better part of valor is discretion” speech.) He decides that Hotspur looks scary even dead, and, lest he “counterfeit too and rise” Falstaff decides to stab him to be sure he IS dead. Moreover, even better, he can claim that Hotspur, merely wounded, rose again and that he, Falstaff, ultimately killed him. Again, MaryAnn made a hilarious interpretive choice here saying “Therefore, Sirrah, with a new wound in your…[closing her eyes and stabbing blindly, then looking]…thigh, come you along with me.”

The stage directions then state that Falstaff “Takes up Hotspur on his back.” Fortunately for us (I’d love to claim that it was brilliant casting on my part but I don’t recall having the forethought for this), a 112-pound champion wrestler played Hotspur, so his athleticism and MaryAnn’s strength made this move possible. Not only could she pick him up but she could also retrieve her pint of ale in the other hand. Of course….

Prince Hal and other members of the army of re-enter and question Falstaff about Hotspur’s death. And then comes the stage direction, “Throwing the body down”, but how could Falstaff put him down without spilling the ale? Once again, Hotspur’s athleticism came into play. Falstaff could heave him from his shoulder, and Hotspur could use stage combat falling technique to protect himself while making the fall look real.

So, as I said, it’s a full house. Most of the audience hadn’t seen the show yet and have no idea this is coming. MaryAnn heaves Hostpur from her shoulder who falls with a great clamor on the hardwood stage floor. There is a LOUD audible gasp from the audience. I’m pretty sure I heard multiple “Oh my God!”s. MaryAnn stops…looks at the audience, shrugs her shoulders, points to the body and whispers, “He’s dead.”

Uproarious laughter and a standing ovation on the spot! And I’m choking because my body can’t decide to laugh or cry. It’s HILARIOUS but I’m wiping away tears because I am so moved by the moment. This shy, self-conscious, most likely dyslexic student has internalized Shakespeare and the language. That’s exactly what Falstaff would have said! She has developed confidence. She’s, for the moment, the hero of the play. And I think, “This is why I teach Shakespeare.”

There is no Common Core standard for that. But it’s the most important. And yes, I fully agree that the rigor of Shakespeare’s texts develop literacy and cultural knowledge and…the list goes on. But performing Shakespeare, even in low key settings of the classroom help build people, not just students. Yes, there can be some anxiety. (Anxiety is today what ADHD was in the 90s). But our students need opportunities to work on overcoming this anxiety. In a day where educational leaders and community members chant “Rigor!” studying and performing Shakespeare fits the playbill.

Performing Shakespeare builds community in the classroom. Students learn to trust each other. They bond by overcoming shared challenges. They clap for each other; I clap for them.

Difficult moments will arise. At the end of the unit, there’s usually at least one student who says, “I was terrified and never want to do it again.” Others admit, “I was terrified, but I’m so proud of myself for doing it.” Believe it or not, though, a significant additional portion of students clamor, “That was fun, let’s we do it again!”

At that moment, I’m reminded of MaryAnn. I feel myself tearing up, and my students once again wonder what’s wrong with me.