Weeks 1 and 2

 BERNARDA ALBA WEEK TERM 2

Week 1

1. PRESENTATIONS - 2 hours

Groups to watch each other make notes in their actors logs and run Q and A after each one. 30 mins per group approx.

Each group must provide hard documentary evidence to be handed in so that the rehearsal   room can be adorned with our discoveries at a later date.

2. THE BASIC OBJECT EXERCISE (2 hours)

ONE MINUTE OF ACTION LIVED ACCORDING TO UTA HAGEN’S 9 QUESTIONS – This work should have been started over the holidays.

Students must decide a routine, mundane moment in their character’s daily life where they can apply the principles of action and repetition. Specifically they need to think of something where they’re able to answer the following questions:

1. Who am I?
2. What time is it?
3. Where am I?
4. What surrounds me?
5. What are the given circumstances?
6. What is my relationship?
7. What do I want?
8. What’s in my way?
9. What do I do to get what I want?

Once they determine the situation they want to use in their exercise, have students write a detailed description of the occurrence.

Once students have had sufficient time to practice the exercise and scene, have them perform and watch each other individually

To performers: emphasize that they are simply trying to “recreate 2 minutes of their character’s life and bring it to presentation as if for the first time”

· Once everyone has performed, discuss their process in doing this exercise (Possible questions: what did this exercise do for you? How did it help you? How do you think it can help the performance overall?, etc.)
· Conclude by emphasizing “all technical variations of the ensuing exercises incorporate the elements you have examined in this one. Don’t omit any of them.” 

Week 2

3. DEVISING – 2 hours

In 4 groups of 5 or so - work on devising theatrical scenes for exploring the world of the play and the motivations of the characters. Spend some time sharing and critiquing each other’s versions as a whole class.

12 RULES FOR DEVISING

You must create a piece using all of the following

1.     Three acts corresponding to the acts of the play, each with a title (ie, Mourning, Sewing, Eating), as well as a clear beginning, middle, and end

2.    Creative, multiple uses of six chairs, six fans, and Bernarda’s cane

3.    An invented song using text from the play, sung by different characters at different times with different moods/intentions

4.    An invented game using the chairs, fans, and/or the cane

5.    An invented mourning ritual

6.    An invented religious ritual using the religious text from Act I

7.    An unlikely prison

8.    A close-up of a private moment

9.    A “daily life” montage

10.  Violent closeness

11.  Tender distance

12.  A metaphorical image/gesture of vitality being repressed