Denver Public Schools
Shakespeare Festival Professional Development #1: Staging the Scene
Tuesday, November3rd, 6-8pm
Denver Center for the Performing Arts Education
Thursday, November 5th, 4:30pm-6:30pm
Hamilton Middle School
Part One: DPS Shakespeare Questions and Planning (30 minutes)
1. Opening Circle
o Participants answer the following questions:
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Name
School
Challenge you’re facing with this project
2. Time Line
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Actors create a physical time line across the room of something mundane
o A day at school/what a person does in the morning/etc
PD Exercise: DPS Teachers create a physical timeline across the room representing the process leading
up to the Shakespeare Festival
o Dots can include (not necessarily in this order:
 Choose scenes, select your ensemble, parent meeting, schedule busses, contact DCPA
about workshops, actor contract, permissions slips, cast the show, get costumes from
DPS, read-thru, text work, character work, block scenes, memorization deadline (offbook), run-throughs, notes, fun run-throughs
 AUDITION DAY
 More run-throughs, dress rehearsals
Rehearsal Exercise: Actors create a timeline of the play OR of the scene
3. Other Questions/Concerns
o Discussion with DCPA Instructor and/or Beau and Anna
Denver Center for the Performing Arts: Education
jaustgen@dcpa.org
jwalvoord@dcpa.org
303.446.4892
http://www.e-shakespeare.org
www.denvercenter.org/ACT
Teaching Artists- Jessica Austgen and Justin Walvoord
Page 1
Part Two: Staging (90 min)
1. Stage Picture Smithsonian
Blocking Call and Response
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Instructor calls a Stage Picture cue and the students respond as an ensemble
Places Please- actors freeze where they are, look at the director and say “Thank You, Places”
Stage Postions:
o Left, Right, Up and Down (Students move or point to those directions of the stage)
Center Stage- Clump in the middle of the stage
o Focus Left
o Focus Right
o Focus Down
o Focus Up
o Fan (Focus on one person Center)
In Crowd
Out Crowd
Clumps- form three distinct clumps in a triangle shape on stage
Chorus Line
o Upstage
o Downstage
o Center
Breadline- Straight line running upstage to downstage
2. Scene Painting
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Participants explore different environments by becoming animate and inanimate objects
Rehearsal Exercise: Students scene paint the set for their scene
o Why:
 So everyone knows what their environment looks like even if they don’t have a set
 So exit and entrance areas are clearly delineated
o Encourage students to be as specific as possible
o Everyone must agree.
Denver Center for the Performing Arts: Education
jaustgen@dcpa.org
jwalvoord@dcpa.org
303.446.4892
http://www.e-shakespeare.org
www.denvercenter.org/ACT
Teaching Artists- Jessica Austgen and Justin Walvoord
Page 2
3. Entrances and Exits
Every entrance is an exit from somewhere else, every exit is an entrance somewhere else
 Why:
o So students enter and leave the stage with a sense of purpose
 Rehearsal Exercise:
o Two chairs on stage.
o Student One is seated in a chair.
o Student Two enters and says “Sorry, I’m late.”
 They must give it meaning. Where have they just come from? Why are they late?
How do they know the other person?
o Student One replies with an improvised line of dialogue based on the way Student Two
entered and spoke their line.
o This is not a guessing game. It doesn’t matter if Student One gets it “right.” It is more
important that Student Two is very clear.
4. Moving with Intention
Encourage actors to know WHY they are moving on stage (ie, not just because their teacher told them to)
 Actors move around the space neutrally
 The instructor ask them to move with an emotion or adjective.
 Rehearsal Exercise: have students move with incorrect intention
o ie, Romeo crosses to Juliet as if he were angry with her, rather than moving lovingly.
5. Fun Rehearsal Exercises
You’ve blocked your scenes! Good for you! How do you keep running them without burning your students out?
 Speed Through: Have your actors go as fast as humanly possible, but they must say all their lines
correctly
 One actor does the whole scene as a one man show
 Perform the scene with the “wrong” emotion
 Perform the whole scene as if it were a silent film
 “Worst Scene Ever”- let your actors do the WORST job as they perform their scenes. See what
“doing a bad job” means to them.
6. Questions for the DCPA Teaching Artist
Resources for Teachers:
http://www.folger.edu/
http://www.e-shakespeare.org/
Denver Center for the Performing Arts: Education
jaustgen@dcpa.org
jwalvoord@dcpa.org
303.446.4892
http://www.e-shakespeare.org
www.denvercenter.org/ACT
Teaching Artists- Jessica Austgen and Justin Walvoord
Page 3
Notes:
Denver Center for the Performing Arts: Education
jaustgen@dcpa.org
jwalvoord@dcpa.org
303.446.4892
http://www.e-shakespeare.org
www.denvercenter.org/ACT
Teaching Artists- Jessica Austgen and Justin Walvoord
Page 4