Information
As stated before, Dramatic Tension, is created by characters having different competing objectives and circumstances that cause barriers to characters getting their objectives. This tension is slowly built up through the play. It is introduced at the beginning of the play and barriers increase causing more tension until the Climax of the play, where the characters either achieve their objectives or fail at them.
Action
Exercise A: Walk
Instructions: Half the class will be on one side of the stage, while half of the class will be on the other side. In sixteen beats cross to the other side of the stage.
Exercise B: Late for Work
Instructions: Now on the other side of the stage, cross back. But this time imagine you are late for work and you only have eight beats to cross the stage in a brisk walk.
Exercise C: Narrow Gate
Instructions: At center stage set up two chairs that are only six feet apart. They represent a gate at a busy metro station that people commuting must pass through. Now everyone must walk across the stage as if they are late for work and pass through the gate. If a person bumps into another person, they must say, "Excuse me" in character.
Exercise D: Making your Partner smile
Instructions: Pair with a partner. Stand opposite your partner and devote about twenty seconds to each of the tasks that follow. At the end of the list, change roles, and repeat the exercise: (1) Study your partner's eyebrows (2) Make your partner smile (3) Study your partner's mouth (4) Make your partner laugh (5) Ask yourself: What makes my partner laugh? (6) Make your partner laugh loudly (7) Study your partner's eyes (8) Ask yourself: What does my partner see, looking at me? (9) Make your partner take you seriously. (10) Smile (11) Take your partner's two hands. (12) See the four year-old child your partner once was (13) See the elder that your partner will become (14) Make your partner smile.
Exercise E: Lines Together
Instructions: Learn the following lines
A: I'll see you again
B: Next week
A: Perhaps
B: Goodbye
Conduct this scene facing your partner. Then change the scene by conducting the scene facing away from your partner. Change the scene one more time by having one partner facing the other and the other partner facing away.
Exercise F: Afraid
Instructions: Learn the following lines
A: This is the right way
B: I don't think so.
A: I don't care what you think... Afraid?
B: Of course I am afraid.
Conduct this scene if partner A is older and partner B is younger. Reverse. Conduct the same scene if the partner A is younger and partner B is older.
Reflection
One of the great things about acting, is the interaction that can happen between actors. Often when auditioning, actors will be asked to audition in groups to see the interaction between the actors. It is as important as the individual acting abilities. Acting is action but it is also action with somebody else. Your acting partner is a person who creates the illusion of the play with you. The more fully you contact your acting partner, the better you will be at acting. Write some notes about which scene you would like to develop with your partner.
