Introduction to the Arts is an interdisciplinary study of the fine arts disciplines of music, theater, cinema, dance, and the visual arts. This course provides students the basic knowledge, perceptual and applied skills necessary for developing an appreciation for each of the fine arts disciplines, revealing both the interrelationships and the uniqueness of each art form. Students will experience the visual and performing arts through live performances, gallery and museum tours, doing creative projects in each subject area, and classroom demonstrations.
Content Objectives
- Perceive and describe the expressive and formal elements of the visual arts, cinema, music, theater, and dance
- Analyze artistic works for their inherent meaning and the ways in which meaning is constructed
- Respond emotionally to the content of artistic works, and begin to understand the nature of their responses
- Recognize some major works and style periods in the visual arts, cinema, music, theater, and dance
- Develop an appropriate vocabulary with which to speak about the visual arts, cinema, music, theater, and dance
Skill Objectives
- Identify the basic visual elements and design principles of selected masterworks
- Develop basic drawing skills through value studies, still life drawing, and color studies
- Understand the principles of photography through pin-hole camera photography projects
- Explore the color wheel and aspects of working in abstraction in a painting, collage, self-portrait project
- Delve into sculptural form with a reductive, full-round sculpture project
- Appreciate the responsibility and etiquette of being a good audience to the performing arts through attending live performances
- Develop the basic skills of acting/storytelling as an introduction to the nature of physical performance before an audience
- Understand and appreciate the nature of character, physical communication, dramatic conflict, and the nature of acting through directed improvisations
- Perceive the basic stylistic characteristics of classical ballet, folk, jazz, and modern dance
- Experience the sensual elements of organized dance through participation in movement classes
- Appreciate the rudiments of cinema by shooting and editing a stop-action photo project
- Hear the basic formal elements of music in a variety of musical styles
- Appreciate how music is created and the expressive potential of music by composing musical segments with specific musical software
Materials
- Episcopal High School Blackboard for arts vocabulary
- Videos
- Arts media
Methods of Evaluation
- Two tests on material in the text websites, lectures, handouts, videotapes, listening examples, and tours. Each is worth 20%.
- Averaged score for writing assignments, listening or skill quizzes (including suggested tours and evening outings). Forty percent total of final grade.
- Projects: creative project work, including producing drawings and photographs, assembling sculpture, making music, creative movement, writing and acting a theater piece, public speaking and acting, and producing a short film. Thirty percent total.
- Class participation is 10% of final grade.
This course continues the work begun in the introduction to the arts course and leads the student actor into a deeper understanding of both the art and craft of acting. Exercises and improvisations will focus on internal and external character development with continuing emphasis on voice and diction, movement, script and character analysis. Students will prepare and present several scripted scenes and monologues from traditional and contemporary dramatic literature. Students will attend area theater productions and write detailed criticisms. They also will read and present to the class a text of their choice. Participation in EHS theater productions is strongly encouraged but not required.
Content Objectives
1. Students will become more comfortable and effective informal public speakers; students will learn techniques to overcome "stage fright."
2. Students will learn about basic components of live theater: acting, directing, costuming, scenery, lighting, and sound so that they may become a more appreciative but also a more discerning audience.
3. Students will learn basic relaxation and concentration techniques necessary for effective public speaking.
4. Students will learn basic techniques for correct breathing.
5. Students will learn basic techniques for voice production and projection (volume).
6. Students will learn effective use of body language and gestures for use in informal public speaking as well as dramatic characterization.
7. Students will learn basic story-dramatization techniques through the use of planned improvisations.
8. Students will learn basic approaches to character analysis.
9. Students will learn basic techniques for performing successful dramatic improvisations with little or no preparation.
10. Students will learn how to write a cogent critique of a live theater experience.
11. Students will learn a variety of memory techniques for learning lines quickly and successfully
12. Students will learn basic techniques for effective planning of dramatic improvisations.
13. Students will learn the basics of illusory pantomime.
Skill Objectives
1. Students will develop increased powers of observation towards developing dramatic characters based on real life.
2. Students will gain greater flexibility and strength in the use of their voices in all registers.
3. Students will gain greater facility with proper diction and annunciation.
4. Students will develop dramatic characters through daily improvisational scenes.
5. Students will perform characters with clear objectives.
6. Students will analyze a short two-character scene.
7. Students will memorize and perform a short two-character scene.
8. Students will analyze the character in a two-minute monologue.
9. Students will perform a two-minute monologue.
10. Students will perform a short original pantomime scene incorporating basic illusions.
11. Students will read one acting text of their choosing and present an oral report to the class.
12. Students will perform a scene, monologue, improvisation, or pantomime piece for actors' showcase at end of semester.
13. Students will attend at least one live theater event and write critique.
Materials
• Shurtleff, Michael. Audition.
• Various library reference texts
• Great scenes from the American theater
• Monologues for Young Actors
Methods of Evaluation
1. Class and/or campus play performances: acting, improvisation
2. Graded critiques of live performances
3. Written character analyses
4. Quizzes on Shurtleff’s Guideposts
This course is the second level of training acting at EHS with a pre-requisite of Acting I. Acting 2 is for the serious acting student who wants to hone his/her craft, and will focus almost exclusively on scene work and monologues. Multiple scenes/monologues and/or fully staged one-act plays are possibilities for the public showcase at the end of the course. Scenes will be chose from the canon of world literature; contrasting acting styles will be explored including Commedia dell Arte, restoration, farce and modern. Students will attend live representative productions whenever possible. Guest artist/teachers may be available to conduct special workshops in various acting approaches such as the Meisner method, the Alexander technique and the Stanislavski system.
Content Objectives
1. Continue learning techniques to become effective informal public speakers.
2. Continue the intensive training in the art of acting for the serious theater student.
3. Develop as appreciative, informed, and ever-more-discerning audience members.
Skill Objectives
1. Continue the use of improvisation as the basic experience for actor training.
2. Focus improvisations more tightly on specific character objectives.
3. Read Audition by Michael Shurtleff.
4. Read an approved additional acting text and report orally to the class.
5. Continue training on movement and voice through puppetry, mask work, Alexander technique.
6. Attend two live theater events and write critiques.
7. Analyze, prepare, and present two short two-character scenes from world dramatic literature.
8. Analyze, prepare, and present two short monologues from world dramatic literature.
9. Perform a scene or monologue in actors' showcase at end of semester.
Materials
• Hagen, Uta. Respect For Acting.
• Benedetti, Robert. The Actor at Work.
• Best Scenes/Monologues for Young Actors
• Library reference sources and handouts
• Live and videotaped performances
Methods of Evaluation
1. Graded final project, consisting of scenes, monologues, or a one-act play
2. Evaluation of oral presentations on texts and reading
3. Graded critiques of live performances
4. Class and/or campus play performances
5. Quizzes