Acting Class - The Final Bow

Yesterday was the last day of our acting classes, a day where we were able to really show what we'd learned over 6 weeks.

The class began the same, with exercises and a few rounds of "Ninja", 3 rounds of which were all won by Danielle, whom we've since realised is a lot more dangerous than she looks. 

Afterwards, Dan set up a scene using chairs, and explained to us that we were now in a Western Saloon. We were each given a character (sheriff, bartender, serving girl, piano player or gunslinger), and told to behave according to our roles. The gunslinger would stand outside of the room, while the rest of us played out the scene. The sheriff and the bartender would chat while the serving girl handed out drinks and the piano player kept the bar alive with music. At some point the gunslinger would enter, and the bar would go quiet. They would then approach the bar and ask for a whiskey, at which point the bartender would look to the sheriff for approval before serving the drink. The bar would remain silent until the gunslinger left. This scene was to help us understand the use of the dramatic pause, and also allowed us to continue our work on status. After finishing each scene, everyone would swap roles before playing it out again. It was nice to see how each person took on their given role slightly differently to the person before.

After a break and a game of burger tossing, we were put into two groups and asked to discuss situations we've been in in our lives that the group could then expand on and act out. Most of these situations happened to people while they were at work, examples included: a customer trying to get a refund on a coat because the zip was broken (it wasn't), and a lady attempting to haggle in a charity shop. Acting out these scenes allowed us to use everything we'd done over 6 weeks of acting, including showing status, hidden thoughts, and characters being put "in the shit". 

Overall, I've really enjoyed the acting classes, and am a little sad we won't be doing them anymore. I'm looking forward to putting the skills I've learned into future animations.