Offer a strategy that can help make the work acting instructors do with their students as they prepare for college auditions as effective as possible. Looks at the process of finding an appropriate monologue. Established some ground rules for preparation and apply them to the monologue's development. Reviews suggestions to help students present…

Relates experiences as a recruiter for college theater programs in Florida. Provides tips for students in finding an appropriate monologue, developing the audition, and performing the audition. (PA)

Presents a sequence of exercises that address the importance of using words effectively, and considers the insensitivity so many young actors today have regarding the words they have been given by playwrights to say. Intends to help students better connect and deepen the meaning of the words they use as actors with the objectives they choose to…

Continues a discussion of script analysis for actors. Focuses on specific scenes and how an eventual scene-by-scene analysis will help students determine a "throughline" of a play's action. Uses a scene from "Romeo and Juliet" to illustrate scene analysis. Gives 13 script questions for students to answer. Presents six tips for…

Describes an effective scene study class including the sequential tasks of: analyzing the script independently; collaborating with a scene partner and finding common ground; developing the throughline of action; and working the moments, the beats, and the overall scene until each moment flows into the next. Considers ways to set up classroom…

Suggests that improvisation is an excellent catalyst for getting a scene jump-started or back on track. Presents two specific examples of how the author used improv in his own scene study classes. Notes the fundamental task teachers must master prior to improv work is how to isolate the essential dynamics of the scene. (RS)

Presents essays entitled "Safe Spaces,""This Is Our Part,""Theatre and Community,""Real People Performing in Real Time,""Express One's Heart,""The Lessons of Popular Culture,""The Context of a Play,""The Human Condition,""A Need for New Tools,""Defiantly…

Presents a sequence of exercises that requires students to think about telling their stories in terms of physicalization. Requires students to think about their blocking: their chosen movements on stage, the gestures they use to communicate their stories, and the business they must create to keep their stories believable and clear. (SC)

Describes students' experiences in examining different theatrical interpretations of the same work. Discusses how comparing different videos of the same script can demonstrate how there is often more than one way to solve a production problem. Considers teaching experiences involved in studying different theatrical presentations on video. (SC)

Asserts that directors and teachers should understand a script from the points of view of the audience, playwright, and characters. Explains how making notations in a script can help actors find, make and remember choices while acting. Explains a notation system for "scoring" a script. Concludes that teaching students how to score their parts…

Discusses the rules for two theater games that train students to focus on objectives: (1) Time Bomb, in which students must maintain eye contact with the instructor, or the instructor will "blow up"; (2) Red Light, Green Light, which may be used with younger students--the object is to tag the person who is "it." (PA)

Confronts the challenges of getting young actors to embrace the use of language. Presents a series of exercises designed to expose students to the potential power of the spoken word by using three different kinds of texts: advertising copy, children's storybooks, and the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. Discusses how the author engages his…

Shows how teaching students the basic principles for reading Shakespeare aloud (and approaching Shakespeare from a dramatic production perspective) is a valid and valuable approach for the high school classroom. Shows that the key is to examine the dialogue within the dramatic context of the play and use dialogue and actions to tell the story. (SR)