Workshop 10 : Staging part 2

Setup: What do we need?

  • A workspace: The provided room should be sufficiently spacious and arranged in a way that can accommodate all participants and allow freedom of movement, as the workshop requires physical engagement.

The Participants:

Preschool students aged between 4 and 7 years, with the group not exceeding 30 students.

Facilitators:

School teachers, educators, drama instructors

Objectives of this workshop:

  • Explore characters
  • Begin spatial staging

Time Required:

45 minutes

Implementation:

The workshops will utilize techniques of bodily expression.

Outcome:

By the end of the session, the children will have:

  • Practiced their improvisational skills
  • Enhanced their understanding of space

Session Start

The Clap
In a circle, the children pass a clap to their neighbor (they clap their hands) while going around the circle. To make the clap pass, the students must look into each other’s eyes before clapping their hands!

2. Warm up

  • You can review the instructions from last time (walk, stop, hop, rhythms, numbers, environments) to assess the students’ progress from one session to another. We
  • walk in the space embodying the different characters created by the students.

3. Improvisation

  • We divide the class into two groups: on one side, those who will move like the main character, and on the other side, those who will act like the friend of the heroine/hero. We initiate movement in the space, and then we ask the students to encounter each other: what do they do together? A knight who rides on the back of their horse? A fairy who transforms the icy breath of their friend, the unicorn, into a rainbow! They must use the characteristic elements of their character and the relationship established with the other.

  • Same exercise: this time one group is the heroine/hero, and the other is the adversary!

  • Beginning-of-the-story tableau: Just like in session #3 about representations, the students create a tableau of the imagined setting for their story: if it’s a forest, there should be trees, mushrooms, rocks, maybe the cave where the character lives, flowers…

3. End of the session

The Clap
The leader positions themselves facing the other members of the group in order to be well seen by all. They place their arms horizontally and start clapping their hands above their head. The others must imitate them while following their rhythm. Then, little by little, the leader accelerates the rhythm until it culminates in applause.