Scenes

  This week in class they got their first pieces for scene study. All of the scenes were from different plays that most of the kids admitted they had never read before. This struck me as odd because I've never studied a scene from a play that I've not been forced to read. 

   I've always been taught the best thing you can do is get all the facts. This includes previous action, time, and place. All of these things creates a very specific perspective and opinion that a character has on their world and situation. This opinion will have an impact on how they react to everything. 

   I know that for me this has been at once helpful and scary. Helpful, because you are better informed and it does create a richer performance. Scary, because you are constantly worrying " did I forget something?" Also if you know the play, you may feel the need to live up to productions you've seen before. One of the guys in class pulled out his smart phone and searched for his scene on youtube to get "perspective". Unfortunately, even if you don't have intentions of recreating another's performance, it can still, without you knowing, have an impact on the way you say your lines and reduce the level of sincerity and discovery of the scene.

    It'll be interesting to see how the scenes turn out because I've never seen it down this way. It might reduce hesitation and liberate them a little if they don't know the context of the scene.