1. GENERAL HEADING: Warm-up Exercises

2. TITLE OF EXERCISE: "Soliloquy Freeze Tag"

3. GOALS: To prepare for performance, to build confidence, to increase contact and communication

4. NUMBER OF STUDENTS: Full class

5. EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES: None, but all members of the class need a pre-memorized soliloquy.

6. CLASS TIME NEEDED: Twenty to thirty minutes.

7. STEP-BY-STEP DESCRIPTION: In an open area (preferably a stage) all members of the class move about the space speaking their soliloquies simultaneously. On a signal from the instructor, all class members freeze. The instructor taps one actor, who continues his/her monologue from the point he/she had reached. While speaking it, he/she moves about the room making direct eye contact with others, moving from actor to another only at logical sentence points. When the actor reaches the end of the monologue, all begin moving again reciting their monologues until the instructor again stops the group and taps another actor.

8. POINTS FOR OBSERVATION, DISCUSSION: Instructors need to observe closely to see that the individual actors make very specific eye contact, and lock eyes with their "target" for the length of a unit of meaning. The tendency is to avoid this eye contact or to weaken it by moving on to another actor in mid-phrase. Through side-coaching encourage full contact.

9. SOURCE/REFERENCE: Audrey Stanley

10. ADDITIONAL READING: N.A.

11. VARIATIONS: This exercise is very useful for preparing beginners for performance. Two actors can be tapped at once, to avoid performance anxiety or to move faster.