First 3 Sessions

Session 1

Project Aims:

•Have fun through game play and drama.

•Challenge the stigma of mental illness.

•Create a piece of work with Artistic integrity that we can all be proud of.

Mad hatter's tea party Friday 13^th June - dress up and serve tea.

9-11am

Name, strand and 1 thing you like

Tension release exercise

Golden breath

Bomb and shield

Zip zap boing

Massage circle

Glass serpent

Imrov - 11-1pm

Mission, name and 1 thing.

Trust circle

mirror circle

Park bench

Image circle

Forum theatre Scenarios

Change the scenario

2-4 pm

Groups 4-5 Improvising from the following texts

Pale Horse

Dissocia

Book of disquiet

4.48

                  

Plenary, what we have liked challenged, discovered? For Friday everyone bring a warm up game they can lead. 

Session 2

•  Student lead games from ‘Games for Actors and Non-Actors’ by Augusto Boal.
• Image Theatre. Sculpting A and B

Lost and Found
Insecure and Confident
Excluded and Included
Voiceless and Voiced
Weak and Strong
 

•  Create a still Tableaux of five images brought to life with music

•  Everyone ask a question that they want this work to answer on the theme of 'challenging the stigma of mental illness through drama’. Create a list of these to be shared with the group after lunch.

• Warm up exercise (vocal, physical and shake out)
• Relaxation exercise - open and close like a flower. pick up a pebble, a net, a hammer.
• Choose a question from the list and answer that question.
•  Making the body articulate (psycho-physical exercises from Michael Chekhov ‘To the Actor’)
• Shuffle the answers. Everyone choose a different one and find a psychological gesture for the story you chose.
• Perform your psychological gesture and read out story to class. Connect to the emotion of the piece using psychological gesture

 
 Session 3

Lesson objective: To learn about status and create some scenes exploring the stigma of mental health in relation to status.

11.15 – 11.30

Games Lead by: Kizzy, Hannah, Karise

11.30 – 1.00

1.         Grandmas Footsteps

2.         What has changed

3.         The French Telephone

4.         The great game of power

5.         Status party

Lunch

6.         Colombian Hypnosis

7.         Mad Hatter’s (with status - groups of 4)

8.         ‘What is normal?’ writing task and sharing.

Status Interview and Status Party

1.  Explain and explore the idea of “status”:

2.  We all have different status in different situations.

3.  From now on we will describe it on a 1-10 scale, 10 being practically a God and 1 being the lowliest creature you can imagine.

4.  What status are you?  If a ten walked in the room, would you talk to him/her?  What about a 1?

5.  When was a time in which you were a 10 – in other words, when you had complete power and authority in a situation?

6.  Have scraps of paper each with a number from 1-10 written on it.  Mix them up in a bowl/hat.

7.  One at a time, students will draw a number from a hat.

8.  Without telling us their number, the actor knocks on door enters the stage, stands, has a job interview.

9.  The other students try and guess what number they were.

10.  Have the student try it a few times until it becomes clear to the audience.

11.  Ask two students to take the stage and improvise a part scene. Party host and party guest, the party is bring your own but the guests have forgotten to bring anything.

 12.  Half-way through, tell them to “switch” statuses.  Make sure they don’t switch characters, but only who is in control of the situation, keeping their original characters.

Reflection:

-  Explain that status is one more layer they can add to their characters.

-  If you are rehearsing a play, ask them to think about each scene their character is in and what “status number” their character would be.  What factors are influencing their level of status?