1. GENERAL HEADING: Performance Exercises

2. TITLE OF EXERCISE: "Paraphrase Pull-Push"

3. GOALS: To discover the feeling behind the dialogue and the tension between characters.

4. NUMBER OF STUDENTS: An even number, with pairs familiar with the same scene.

5. EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES: None

6. CLASS TIME NEEDED: 20 minutes or more

7. STEP-BY-STEP DESCRIPTION: Partners first sit, reading their previously prepared paraphrases of the dialogue to one another. Then they get on their feet and run through the scene, using their own words to tap into the characters' emotions. Then, taking one another's arms, they do the scene in their own words, pushing and pulling one another according to the feelings their words spark.

8. POINTS FOR OBSERVATION, DISCUSSION: The difference between using Shakespeare's words and our own. The effect of close, active physical contact with partner.

9. SOURCE/REFERENCES: Audrey Stanley, University of California, Santa Cruz.

10. ADDITIONAL READING: N.A.

11. VARIATIONS: N.A.