1. GENERAL HEADING: Improvisation

2. TITLE OF EXERCISE: "Fantasy"

3. GOALS: To synthesize naiveté and imagination; to be childlike.

4. NUMBER OF STUDENTS: Group exercise or individually.

5. EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES: A baseball cap, a stick, a letter on a table w/chair.

6. CLASS TIME NEEDED: 10 - 15 minutes.

7. STEP-BY-STEP-DESCRIPTION:

Place a baseball cap on a table. Imagine that it is a rat. Justify this perception. Picture the physical aspects of the rat; its size, color, shape. You must see the actual cap, but regard the size, color, shape as those of a rat's.

Now imagine the cap is a cuddly puppy. Imagine the brim is the puppy's muzzle, the cap's top as its back, and so forth. Your relationship to it and your ability to perceive the puppy's physical properties will then endow it with reality. Create an attitude toward it: love, interest, disgust. Show your attitude toward the puppy through your handling of the cap.

Look at a stool. Create an attitude toward it as if it were 1) a beehive 2) a kennel, housing a vicious dog, and 3) a huge basket of food.

Look at a stick on the stage. Create an attitude towards it as if it were 1) a gun, 2) a snake, and 3) a musical instrument.

Find a letter on the table and read it. First decide whether it contains good news or bad. In either case, imagine all the details in it: 1) who wrote it, 2) for whom it was intended, 3) what does it say?, 4) what is the background of its contents, 5) who are you, 6) from where have you just come.

8. POINTS FOR OBSERVATION, DISCUSSION: The use of imagination; the ability to act instinctually; and emotional and sense memory.

9. SOURCE/REFERENCE: Evgeni Vakhtangov cited by Mel Gordon in The Stanislavski Technique, NYC: Applause Theatre Books, 1987.

10. ADDITIONAL READING: N.A.

11. VARIATIONS: Endless.