Activities for Student Actors
WELCOME TO MR. KATZOFF’S DRAMA CLASS
HELLO ACTORS!
____________________________________________________
We start with vocal warm ups for the actor’s first instrument
(VOICE)
Read each line out loud three times.
Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
Eh! Eh! Eh! Eh!
Eeee! Eeee! Eeee!
Oh! Oh! Oh!
Ooooooooooo!
__________________________________________________
Start by whispering.
End by THUNDERING!
__________________________________________________
1. Choose a vowel sound:
Ah Eh Eeee Oh Oooooo
2. Take a deep, deep breath.
3. Project that sound out from your DIAPHRAGM
on one, long, long breath.
(In other words, breathe out from behind your belly button)
10 seconds = MINIMUM
20 seconds = EXCELLENT
30+ seconds = OUTSTANDING
__________________________________________________
Read as fluently as you can.
Eight Apes Ate Eight Apples!
Eight Apes Ate Eight Apples!
Eight Apes Ate Eight Apples!
Now close your eyes and say it again.
__________________________________________________
Read fluently, as fast as you can.
Six Smart Sharp Sharks
Six Smart Sharp Sharks
Six Smart Sharp Sharks
Now close your eyes and say it again.
__________________________________________________
Read fluently, as fast as you can.
Sixty Six Stinky Sneakers
Sixty Six Stinky Sneakers
Sixty Six Stinky Sneakers
Close your eyes, HOLD YOUR NOSE, and say it again.
__________________________________________________
Read fluently, as fast as you can.
“BETTY BOTTER
“
Betty Botter bought some butter.
“But,” she said, “the butter’s bitter.
If I put it in my batter,
It will make my batter bitter.
But a bit of better butter,
THAT will make my batter better.”
So she bought a bit of butter,
Better than her bitter butter,
And she put it in her batter
And her batter was not bitter.
So it was better Betty Botter
Bought a bit of better butter.
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
Now put your imagination into your BODY, the second actor’s instrument.
Now you will EMBODY three ARCHETYPICAL character-types.
Sit in your chair as these classical characters.
Then do it again sitting and then standing to act them out.
__________________________________________________
You are a KING or a QUEEN.
Sit with your shoulders back and your chest out.
Give a look of being very, very CONFIDENT.
__________________________________________________
You are a THINKER.
Give a look of deep, deep thinking.
Use your eyebrows, your lips, your hands.
__________________________________________________
You are a MONSTER.
Terrify!
Threaten!
Menace!
__________________________________________________
FOR MORE ACTING, CHECK OUT
BEWARE THE JABBERWOCK!—- A Lewis Carroll Nonsense Zone