Unit One - Introduction to Drama
Module 2: Actor's Tools
Lesson 1 - Identifying Objectives

Introduction:
The purpose of this lesson is to give students familiarity with motivation and objectives.

Objectives:
- to demonstrate the ability to portray a character's motivation within a scene
- to understand objectives as a character's "wants"
- to use improvisation to explore characters and situations

Resources:
theory of objectives, response handout, Macbeth analysis sheet, interview improvisation evaluation sheet

CELs:
C, PSVS

Components:
Cultural/Historical, Creative/Productive, Critical/Responsive

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Activities:

 

Activity 2- Interview and response
Read the theory objectives yourself to prepare to teach it.

Have your students interview three people outside class about a difficult personal experience. The students must create a list of approximately 10 questions and include three required questions:
What were you intending to get and/or accomplish? What tactics did you use to get what you wanted? What obstacles prevented you from getting what you wanted?

After conducting the interviews, the students should record the similarities in the types of responses on a Response sheet (handout). These sheets of paper become the basis for dramatic interviews. (60 min. or homework)

Activity 3 - Interview Improvisation
Break the class into groups of two and have groups trade responses sheets. Give a definition of one of the goal terms (objective, motivation, intent) and discuss it as a class. Explain why having a goal is essential for good characterization.

Each individual in the group then reads the information on the his or her new response sheet and creates a new character from that information.

Each partnership chooses A and B: the objective (intent) of character A will be to gain B's sympathy about (or help with) the issue from the response sheet. A and B conduct an improvisational discussion. Then B sets a goal of proving his or her character did the right thing. A and B again discuss, this time using B's response sheet. A does not return to his/her original character for the second improvisation.

Following the improvisations, the actors discuss what worked and did not work in achieving their objectives (intents). Each then writes a journal article of at least 1/2 a page on the process. (40 min)

Activity 4 - Finding Objectives from Text:
Read Act I, scene vii of Macbeth as a group and discuss the meanings of confusing words. Create a written summary of what happens. Then use the handout to create an analysis of the subtext (what is being said under the actual words) and the objectives of the characters. Have the actors re-create the scene using the subtext or objectives as their lines rather than the original text. Practice and play scenes for the class.
(120 min.)

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Instructional Strategies: Interviewing, Role Playing, Discussion, Homework, Reading for Meaning, Guide for Reading

Evaluation: Do a homework check for the completion of interviews. Use interview improvisation evaluation sheet (pdf). Complete your Macbeth scenes and discuss as a class. Evaluation could be conducted on quality of written work on the handout, group skills, or clarity of objectives and subtext.

On-line Activity Alternatives: The interviews could be conducted in communities of origin and responses could be faxed or e-mailed to the teacher and other classmates. Individual scenes could be video taped and the use of time evaluated by the teacher-supervisor on site. Text analysis of Macbeth could be e-mailed or faxed and a journal article could be completed on the quality of the final scene. Journals could be submitted (individually or as a group of journals at the end of the course) by e-mail.

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