Unit 2

Activities for exploration

Reading and Analysing the text

• To find out all you can about your character• Need to read whole play, even though only

performing and extract.• Come to a complete understanding as possible• Ask yourself in the first person, e.g. Olivia in

Twelfth Night

Activity 1 Analysing the Text

• Read through your chosen plays and ask yourself the following questions, and make notes:

• Who am I?• What do I look like?• How do I behave?• How do I think?• What do I sound like?• What happens to me in the play? • more

• How do I react to other characters in the play?• How do others react to me?• What motivates me?• What feelings do I experience and show in the

play?• How do I react to events?• What attitudes do I have?

Experimentation

• Much of what you find out about your character can happen by chance.

• You should experiment and play around with the text.

• The process of interpreting and creating a character is one of discovery.

Activity 2Experimentation

• Try these different ways of experimenting with the text:

• Reading the text at different speeds• Trying out different voices and accents• Walking in different ways as you speak the

lines• Speaking the text against different musical

backgrounds more...

• Acting out the text whilst another person speaks the lines

• Acting out the speech in a confined speech, then in a large open space

• Wearing different clothes, especially hats and shoes, each time you act out the speech

• Putting the character in different situations from those in the text e.g. Eating a meal, riding a bicycle, playing cards

• Trying out the scene using different props and furniture