1. GENERAL HEADING: Performance Exercises
2. TITLE OF EXERCISE: "Their Exits and Their Entrances"
3. GOALS: To engage the students actively in directional problem solving;
to enhance their awareness of the complexity of so simple a thing as the
exits and entrances in a particular scene, and the implications of the decisions
made for the meaning of the scene.
4. NUMBER OF STUDENTS: At least as many as the number of characters in the
chosen scene, and preferably twice that many.
5. EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES: A space suitable for a minimal staging of the
chosen scene.
6 CLASS TIME NEEDED: At least half an hour; preferably an entire class period
of an hour.
7. STEP-BY-STEP DESCRIPTION:
Roles are assigned for the chosen scene, preferably two casts. (Macbeth,
2.2 is recommended.)
Each team decides where the entrances are going to be for the scene and
where each entrance comes from or leads to.
Directing themselves, each group blocks the scene, with primary emphasis
upon where each character enters or exits.
The two groups perform their blocking for each other.
8. POINTS FOR OBSERVATION, DISCUSSION: The difficulties identified by each
group and a comparison of how they solved the problems will enhance their
comprehension of the importance of the physical configuration of the set
and its relationship to the other elements of the play.
9. SOURCE/REFERENCE: Audrey Stanley, Co-Director of the Institute, UC-Santa
Cruz
10. ADDITIONAL READING: N.A.
11. VARIATIONS: N.A.