Category: Body Attitudes And Gestures

Appreciating Good Acting

5/9/2025

James Baskett (1904-1948)

The Uncle Remus stories of Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox and Brer Bear have been around for a long time.

The actor who played Uncle Remus in the Disney movie "Song of the South" was only 40 years old when he got the job. His whole demeanor changed as he played the old man. I'm sure they had to pad him in costume because I have seen pictures of him as a trim youngish looking man. But he modified his voice and changed his mannerisms and walk to look and sound old. I learned that he also did the voice of the main villain Brer Fox who had a high manic voice delivery. Both characters were so different, it was hard to believe they were done by the same actor.

An appreciation for good acting is something I hope to instill into my young Thespians during my Summer Theater Camps. This year the acting should be helped along by having each child dressed in a costume of an jungle animal. Somehow, the suspension of disbelief for these kids is easier with the combination of fanciful costumes and fun songs.

One of the characters is the Monkey. This creature will have body, ears and tail that will hopefully give the impression of a monkey, but of course won't really be anything like a monkey. However, once we add the silly song and "oo ee doo bee dah ee ee oo oo" scat singing with jazzy movements and perhaps even some gymnastic tricks, we may just have a passable Monkey.

The Monkey comes out putting himself or herself forward as a candidate to become the new royal ruler of this jungle community. Because he/she has stolen the former King's regal robe and parades grandly around in it while he/she dances, the Monkey fools the ensemble and they decide that he/she should be the next King.

The animals have a fun time dancing and singing with the Monkey.

Here's a preview of "Monkey See, Monkey Do"

Monkey I'm bringing you a sneak preview
                  Of something slick and totally new,
                  My regal traits in grand debut ----
                  Monkey see, Monkey do.

                  Just vote for me and get a clue
                  You can cut the noise and hullabaloo.
                  My noble queenship's (kingship's) overdue ----
                  Monkey see, Monkey do!

                  [Dance Break with tricks and scat singing:]

                  Ooh-ee doo be doo be doo wah-pah
                  Ooh-ee doo be doo be doo wah (ooh ooh)
                  Ooh-ee doo be doo be doo wah-pah (ooh)
                  Oo-ba-di-doo-ba-di doo-ba-di-doo-wah!

                  Just vote for me and get a clue
                  You can cut the noise and hullabaloo.
                  My noble queenship's (kingship's) overdue ----
                  Monkey see, Monkey do!
                           Monkey see, Monkey do!
                                    Monkey see, Monkey do!
                                             Monkey see, Monkey do!

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Blocking Crowd Scenes with Kids

10/23/2023

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Blocking children in a scene and making the business look natural can be about as easy as herding cats!

First problem: The little dears get distracted very easily and don't remember their positions.

Second problem: They try to line up in straight lines (which never occur naturally) and when they realize the line is crooked, they spend the rest of the scene telling each other where to stand to straighten up the line.

A very wise director used to say that the best way to BLOCK for Children's Theater is to group the young children into "friends" or into lots of little groups of two or three each. That way they can work together in remembering where they should stand. Besides, small groups on stage look more natural. Straight lines never happen in real life. Just go out and watch random crowds standing about. They stand there in small groups of twos and threes.

When planting a flower bed, the most natural and elegant design plan is to plant like plants in groups of odd numbers, such as 3, 5, or 7. Well, 5 can be broken down into a group of 2 plus a group of 3. And 7 can be divided into two groups of 2 plus one group of 3. I always try to plan the blocking for large groups of children on the stage to follow this design plan. Just like planting a flower bed, I will assign actors into groups taking into consideration their heights, their lines, actions, costumes, and access to microphones. Obviously, I try to put the smallest children where they can be seen, but I don't want to block the taller children by always relegating them to the back row either. I always try to create movement in the scene or dance that will allow for flow to let more of the actors to be seen.

In Children's Theater we teach skills by playing acting games. Some of these exercises are designed to get the children to feel comfortable working on the stage and understanding how to create a good stage picture for the audience. Then when it comes time for blocking, the director won't feel like she is trying to herd cats!

ACTING EXERCISE: This game I call "Best Friends and Worst Enemies." Have the children spread themselves out across the stage so that there is plenty of space between them. Then explain that they are going to learn to create good stage pictures. Have several pieces of music ready to play that have very different moods and tempos.

Instruct the children pick a best friend and a worst enemy but keep it to themselves. Tell them that they must always stay as close to their "best friend" as possible all while staying away from their "worst enemy." (It gets quite funny if someone's best friend is someone else's worst enemy.)

Play one selection of music for a few measures and have the children move around the stage with great abandon expressing the mood of the music. When the music ends, they should freeze and pose themselves creating a good STAGE PICTURE.

The people in the front should make themselves lower (crouch, sit, kneel, hands down). The people in the middle adjust so that they do not block shorter people behind them but remain taller than the people in front of them. And the people in back pose with arms stretched high, stand on tippy toes, or climb onto a stage block to become as tall as possible. Repeat several times.

Ask the children if they could tell if they were someone's "best friend" or "worst enemy" during the rounds. Ask them if they ever ended up standing right next to their "best friend" during the FREEZE. It can be a rather fun game.

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Making Emotions Readable on Stage

9/11/2023

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Several years ago, I worked at a school for students with learning differences. Children came to this school when they had reading difficulties such as Dyslexia or trouble with communication or social skills such as Autism or Asperger's Syndrome. There the children received teaching that matched their particular differences, and also helped them with socialization. Because many of them had been ostracized from associating with other children, this was an important step in helping them grow into maturity and be able to function later as adults.

I thought it was interesting that one of the main tools the teachers used for helping children read body language and understand facial expressions was to have them watch segments of Soap Operas and Situation Comedies. A clip was shown and played without sound, and the children were to watch the actors' body language and facial expressions. They were to explain the actions and emotions the actors portrayed and make predictions of what would happen next.

Some of the situations were very basic such as predicting when people were HAPPY or SAD or ANGRY or PLEASED. Other situations were more difficult to predict such as when the actors were portraying CONFUSION in making a decision, or being IRRITATED when someone makes them feel uncomfortable, or being BRAVE in a tough situation, or trying to give COMFORT to someone.

Many of these children had trouble understanding how one's own actions affect other people. Watching these video clips really helped the children learn to understand the cause and effect of human EMOTIONS and body language.

In Children's Theater, we work with the kids to help them explore EMOTIONS and how to portray them on stage. Because in LIVE THEATER, the audience is usually quite far from the stage, the actors need to "play it big." Any facial expression also needs to be accompanied by a large body attitude or gesture to help it "read" better. On film this would look ridiculous, but for stage work, large facial expressions and movements are a must. To be successful on stage, the actor must use his entire body to make EMOTIONS readable for the audience.

EMOTIONS ACTING GAME: The basic human emotions are all forms of LOVE, RAGE or FEAR, but beyond these are many sub categories. Write a selection of emotions or human attitudes onto notecards and have each child take a turn interpreting that emotion or attitude.

Possible choices: HAPPY, ANGRY, SAD, CONFUSED, IRRITATED, EXCITED, LONGING, SATISFIED, WORRIED, HUNGRY, FLIRTY, GRUMPY, INTENSE CONCENTRATION, HAUGHTY, KIND, FLAMBOYANT, STRONG, WEAK, NERVOUS, BRAVE, CHEERFUL, EXUBERANT, SICK, GOOFY, NERDY, and the list could go on.

In my experience you do not want to give license for kids to be BORED or TIRED or AMBIVALENT, so do not give those as options under any circumstance! If you do, you will be SORRY!

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Appreciating Good Acting

Blocking Crowd Scenes with Kids

Making Emotions Readable on Stage

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