Exploring Ritual and Sacrifice Through Physical Theatre

Witches

L1:Witches Objectives: • To understand and explore ritual and sacrifice. • To understand and apply Physical Theatre. keywords: • Ritual • Physical Theatre • Movement • Soundscape • Devise • Rhythm, pace and timing.

L1:Ritual and Sacrifice Ritual(A ceremony in which the actions and wording follow a prescribed form and order ) List as many common rituals that you can think of. Sacrifice (An act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy) List as many different forms of sacrifice that you can think of. Devise a ritual • You must show the purpose of your ritual • Include a sacrifice

L1:Physical Theatre Use the body only to create movement, gesture, expression and soundscapes to demonstrate your ritual play. Some elements of Physical Theatre: • Stylised movement • Physical theatre has a focus on movement but can be separate from the spoken word or united with it to expand and explore its meaning. • Uses techniques such as movement, mime, gesture and dance and can be used to explore complex social and cultural issues • Use of repetition of movement and sound/words. • Actors can be props and furniture etc. • Can be ritualistic, slap stick comedy, symbolic, abstract, surreal. • Rhythm is changeable.

L2:What do you think of when you hear the word Witch? Write down how the word WITCH affects your: • Emotions (How do witches make you feel?) • Memory (Have you read about/seen/dressed up as/ etc. a witch?) • Imagination (What images appear in your head?)

L2:Salem Objectives: • To create a Still Image showing Salem Witch Trial • To Thought track characters created from the Still Image • To use Conscience Alley to explore the character ‘Abigail’ from The Crucible. Keywords: • Still Image • Thought Tracking • Character • Conscience Alley • Motivation

L2:Salem Still Image

L Crucible by Arthur Miller • How does the character of Abigail make you feel? • How do you feel about the people who were accused of being witches? • What motives did the accusers have? • Do you think that in Salem they really believed in witches? • Why did no one try to save the accused? Conscience • Who is Abigail? • What has she done? • When do you think that she would be fighting with her conscience? (What are her dilemmas?) • What would she be thinking about when she fights her conscience?

L2:McCarthyism How is McCarthyism similar to the Salem Witch trials?

L3:FEAR Objectives: • To understand how the use of contrasts can help to show meaning. • Explore Fear and understand how it influences behaviour. • Improvise a short play showing a negative consequence of fear. Keywords: • Improvisation • Emotion • Movement • Expression • Voice • Narration • Thought Tracking • Contrasts Mind map • What are you afraid of? • What does FEAR mean to you?

L3:FEAR • Is a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined. • Fear is used to persuade people of ideas which would otherwise be widely rejected. • Fear is used to dissuade people from ideas which would otherwise be wildly supported. • Fear always has a victim? Discuss. • Is fear a good emotion? L2:

L3:Contrast • “Look there.” (Very loud, then loud with big gestures, then quietly with large movement and gestures). • “What is it?” (Very quiet, then loud with big gestures, then quietly with large movement and gestures). • “A mouse.” (Smallest of movements, then quietly with small gestures, then loudly with small movement and gestures). • “It’s stealing our lunch!” (Big gestures and large movements, then quietly with small gestures, then loudly with small movement and gestures).

L3:Can you think of any situations when fear is used to control? What wouldn’t you do if you were afraid? • Make a stand? • Speak out for someone else? • Face your fear? What would you do if you were afraid? • Hide from? • Run away? • Pretend it wasn’t anything to do with you? • Falsely accuse?

L3:Improvisation of Fear Improvise a play that shows a consequence of FEAR. • What is the fear? • Will a character obviously show that they are afraid through expressions, voice and movement? Or will fear be shown using other devices such as thought tracking or narration? • What action takes place during the fear? • Will the conclusion be happy or sad? • What is the result/ending?

L4:Recap Objectives: • To explore current issues through the theme of Witches. • To understand what a Scapegoat is. • To create a thoughtful role play. Keywords: • Role play • Improvise • Devise • Scapegoat

L4:What would you do if you were accused of something bad that was false? What would you do if someone close to you was accused of something bad that you knew was false? The Scapegoat(One that is made to bear the blame of others).

L4:Now • There are still people today being imprisoned, tortured and killed after being accused of being a witch. • Some are young children. • The motives for accusing these victims are varied, from control through fear, obtaining wealth, lessening an economic burden, blaming (scapegoats), being afraid etc. Mind map • Have your thoughts on the word WITCH changed? • What do you think of now when you hear the word Witch? L2:

L4:Role Play Improvise a role play about someone who becomes a scapegoat without a happy ending. • What are they accused/blamed of? • What evidence is there of what they are accused of? • What motivates the accuser? • How will you show that the accusation is false? • What are the consequences of the false accusation?

L5:Devising Objectives: • To understand and apply Theatre in Education. • To use the stimulus ‘Witches’ to devise a performance. • To devise a performance for a specific audience with the intention of teaching something to that audience. • To plan how the participation of an audience will happen. Keywords: • Theatre in Education • Multi-roling • Devising • Facts • Educate

L5:Theatre In Education (T.I.E.) • There is a purpose for the audience to be educated about something. • There is a specific audience that it will be intended for. • It will show a variety of viewpoints from different characters. • The audience is usually involved in some way. • It will usually use direct address or narration. • It may include facts and figures to educate an audience. • It will usually present a dilemma or message from a moral or social theme. • It may invite the audience to participate via discussion, debate, a game, or other activity.

L5:Devising Using ‘WITCHES’ as a starting point devise a play to be used for Theatre in Education. Things to consider • What is the intended audience age range? • How will your play be relevant and appropriate to your audience? • What would you want your audience to learn? • What do you want your audience to think about? • How will your audience participate?

L6:Performance and Evaluation Objectives: • To demonstrate performance skills that are consistently high and make good use of voice, movement, characterisation, pace, style and timing, as well as staging. • To educate an audience. • To analyse drama in performance, using appropriate language and theatre vocabulary to suggest improvements • To self-assess own work and assess the work of others (Evaluation) • To set your own targets for learning

Exploring Ritual and Sacrifice Through Physical Theatre