Acting - Explore and develop your acting skills and review your

own practice

Mr Cresswell

22/1/2015
12/2/2015

05/3/2015

21 hours

BTEC Level 1/Level 2 First Award in Performing Arts

Unit 3: Acting
Learning Aim A: Explore and develop your acting skills and review
your own practice

You have been selected to be part of the actors repertory group

in a Theatre Company. As part of your role you must develop your
knowledge further of the actors toolkit skillset and demonstrate
it in a micro showcase of scenes from a playtext. You will study
acting, rehearsal and staging techniques that will culminate in a
short performance.

The first task focuses on the development of skills. You will

initially have learned about basic skills and the System of Acting
as identified by Naturalistic Theatre Director, Constantine
Stanislavski. Here you will develop those skills further by
undertaking a study of, and then mounting extracts from, the play
Walking with Shadows by Ben Myers. You will also need to
explore rehearsal and staging techniques. This study will
culminate in a short performance from the play.
You must undertake the following activities:

Participate in the workshops fully,

Demonstrate insight during the workshops
Utilise a range of staging techniques
learn your lines
Use both your own imaginative ideas and those of others to
create a well-rounded performance.
Lead and direct your short performance scenes
Respond to direction,
prepare your character for the short performance
Deliver the performance to the class.
Remain fully in character throughout the final
performance.

As part of your Actor training you must create a production log

of your work throughout the workshop, rehearsal and
performance stages. As part of this you will undertake an initial
skills audit, set targets, reflect on progress, record, review and
evaluate your performance work at key points culminating in the
short performance.
You must undertake the following activities:

Complete your skills audit by defining all of your keywords

accurately and in detail..
Clearly identify skills that need further development
Set yourself personal targets to work toward.
Review your strengths and areas to develop at least 3 times
over the course of the process.
Review your performance work at key stages.
Present detailed and thorough reviews of your performance

work that evaluate the strengths and weaknesses in your

own performance work and identify what specific elements
could be changed to improve the final impact on the
audience.
Explain and justify your reasoning behind setting your
personal targets
Reflect on your progress at least 3 times
Production log including audit and targets.
Recordings of performance pieces
Teacher observation reports
Reflection and review of own work.

Demonstrate competent use and control of technical and

interpretive acting skills in practice and development.

2A.P1

2A.M1

2A.D1

Demonstrate competent use and control of technical and

interpretive acting skills, showing consistency in focus,
response and effort in practice and development.
Demonstrate competent use and control of technical and
interpretive acting skills, showing imagination and insight and
a high level of focus, response and effort in practice and
development.
Present an on-going review of acting skills, describing
strengths and areas to develop.

Present a detailed and on-going review of acting skills,

describing strengths and areas to develop, setting achievable

2A.P2

2A.M2

targets for improvement and reviewing progress.

Present a detailed and on-going review of acting skills, making
qualitative judgements about strengths and areas to develop,
setting and justifying achievable targets for improvement
and evaluating progress.

2A.D2

Stanislavski, C An Actor Prepares Bloomsbury (reprint) 2013

Myers, B Walking with Shadows Nelson Thornes, 2002

Demonstrate limited use and control of technical and

interpretive acting skills in practice and development.

Identify, with guidance, strengths and areas to develop in

own technique.

1A.1

1A.2

To help you demonstrate your progress throughout the learning aim, every few weeks
you will be asked to set your own personal SMART target.
(Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic Target)
You should work toward achieving 3 personal targets over the course of the learning
aim.

In this section you should undertake an initial skills audit and write a definition for each of the
following keywords, which you will use over the course of the Learning Aim you are studying. You
should return to this regularly and update the words you have learnt. Please remember to Date
the definitions to show your progress!

Articulation

What is it?

Where, how and why have you used this in your

rehearsal of your extracts?

Projection

What is it?

Where, how and why have you used this in your

rehearsal of your extracts?

Breath control

What is it?

Where, how and why have you used this in your

rehearsal of your extracts?

Learning lines

What is it?

Where, how and why have you used this in your

rehearsal of your extracts?

Pitch, inflection and

modulation

What is it?

Where, how and why have you used this in your

rehearsal of your extracts?

Tone and vocal

colour

What is it?

Where, how and why have you used this in your

rehearsal of your extracts?

Phrasing

What is it?

Where, how and why have you used this in your

rehearsal of your extracts?

Pace

What is it?

Where, how and why have you used this in your

rehearsal of your extracts?

Use of pause.

What is it?

Where, how and why have you used this in your

rehearsal of your extracts?

Balance

What is it?

Where, how and why have you used this in your

rehearsal of your extracts?

Coordination

What is it?

Where, how and why have you used this in your

rehearsal of your extracts?

Movement memory

What is it?

Where, how and why have you used this in your

rehearsal of your extracts?

Spatial awareness

What is it?

Where, how and why have you used this in your

rehearsal of your extracts?

Weight placement

What is it?

Where, how and why have you used this in your

rehearsal of your extracts?

Focus and control

What is it?

Where, how and why have you used this in your

rehearsal of your extracts?

Relaxation

What is it?

Where, how and why have you used this in your

rehearsal of your extracts?

Pace, energy and

dynamics

What is it?

Where, how and why have you used this in your

rehearsal of your extracts?

Gesture

What is it?

Where, how and why have you used this in your

rehearsal of your extracts?

Facial expression

What is it?

Where, how and why have you used this in your

rehearsal of your extracts?

Trust.

What is it?

Where, how and why have you used this in your

rehearsal of your extracts?

Stanislavskis System of Acting

Konstantin Stanislavski was a Russian actor from the 1880s - 1920s. He turned in a
Theatre Director when he joined the Moscow Arts Theatre in the mid 1890s and
developed a system of training his actor in order to get a Naturalistic performance out
of them. His system required discipline by the actors to follow and went on to be
developed into the Method a style of acting popular in America from the 1940s till
today and most commonly used in Television and Film.

Technique

Definition

Given
The information about a
Circumstances character including their
past, their relationships
and their behaviour that
are in the script

Objective
&
Super
Objective

Objective: What is the

character trying to
achieve in the scene
Super Objective: What
the character is trying to
achieve across the whole
play.

Magic If

A what if question Actors

should use to develop
their character: What if
my character were in this
situation how would they
behave?

Where did you use it in your

performance and what was the
impact on Audience?

Method of
Physical
Action

How an actor uses their

body to create their
character. Think about:
Movement,
Centre of gravity,
Status,
Body language,
Gesture,
Facial expression,
Accent,
Pitch,
Pace,
Projection.

Emotion
Memory

An actor uses a memory

from the past that they
associate with a particular
emotion to help them feel
the emotion that the
character they are playing
needs to feel.

Circles of
Attention

Three types:
Inner Focus on just your
character.
Outer Focus on your
character and any they
delivering dialogue to.
Extreme Focus on
everyone and everything
on stage around you.

Concentration

Used to focus an actors

mind to help them stay in
role and not corpse.

Truth and
Belief

Identifying what is true

and believable about your
character and then selling
this to an audience so they
see the character as
natural and real.

Tempo
Rhythm

The pace at which you

deliver your dialogue to
create a specific effect.

Working in groups of your choice pick a scene from the play to direct and stage together.
Consider the following points:

Audience Position

Movement

Characterisation

Acting Techniques

Voice Accents

Set Design

Use of Stage Space:

1. More Audience focus on the Actor the closer to the front of stage
2. Higher status for the character the closer to the centre of stage.

Levels

Entrances and Exits

In this section you should write a definition for each of the following keywords which you will
use over the course of the topic you are studying.

Script

Stage directions

Monologue

Duologue

Dialogue

Lighting

Sound Effects

Costume

Set

Prop

Audience Position

Entrance or Exit

Use the list below to record your experiments in rehearsal of the text
Freeze Frame

What is it?

How does it help explore the text?

Tableau

What is it?

How does it help explore the text?

Role Play

What is it?

How does it help explore the text?

Hot Seating

What is it?

How does it help explore the text?

Thought Tracking

What is it?

How does it help explore the text?

Conscience Alley

What is it?

How does it help explore the text?

Improvising Offstage
Moments

What is it?

How does it help explore the text?

Magic If Situations

What is it?

How does it help explore the text?

To help you in your preparations for your 2nd Performance you should undertake
the following activities to help develop your understanding of your character.

Write in the box below all the given circumstances you can determine about
your character from the text.

Explain what sub textual elements effect your character in the play and why?

Write a detailed backstory for your character charting their past up to the
start of the play.

A role on the wall exercise allows an actor to apply their characterisation

research to their practical acting. Write all the physical acting techniques you
will use inside the outline and all the essential information and given
circumstances about your character outside of the outline.

Every scene of every play has to have a directors concept. This is the plan a
director has for what each scene should look like, feel like and what it
communicates to the audience.
Write in the box below what your aim as a director is for your chosen scene
including what it should look like the rehearsal techniques you plan on using and
why. Dont forget to explain what your intended impact on the audience will be.

Instructions: Tick off what levels you have met in this Unit and colour the traffic light to indicate how confident you are with this skill.

Demonstrate competent use and control of

technical and interpretive acting skills in
practice and development.

Demonstrate competent use and control of

technical and interpretive acting skills, showing
consistency in focus, response and effort in
practice and development.

Demonstrate competent use and control of

technical and interpretive acting skills, showing
imagination and insight and a high level of
focus, response and effort in practice and
development.

Present an on-going review of acting skills,

describing strengths and areas to develop.

Present a detailed and on-going review of

acting skills, describing strengths and areas to
develop, setting achievable targets for
improvement and reviewing progress.

Present a detailed and on-going review of

acting skills, making qualitative judgements
about strengths and areas to develop, setting
and justifying achievable targets for
improvement and evaluating progress.