Non-Stop Character Creation: Schoolhouse Rock Live, Jr!

This four-week course will equip a group of up to 8 students to create distinct characters, modifying their voice and movement to perform their own parts in an hour-long musical.

I will create a climate in which participants feel comfortable exploring their vocal range to speak like a character. We will develop awareness of pitch, speed, rhythm, and resonance. We will utilize various techniques to create multiple unique voices inspired by name, image, adjective, intention, etc. Students will enhance their ability to voice contrasting characters.

We will use a similar approach to physically embody unique characters. Through activities, we will develop awareness of how we occupy space, density / effort, speed, agility, and origin of motion. We will explore how characters travel, stand, breath, emote, and interact with their surroundings. Students will enhance their ability to physicalize two contrasting characters by the end of the hour-long meeting.

During the second week, if the student/parent would like, each student could have a one-on-one or two-on-one (if they prefer) 15 minute coaching to work on their excerpts. When working collectively in the full group, they will sometimes need to mute themselves so that they can focus on their sound and hearing me. (Due to the limitations of Zoom's audio) In this special session, they will be able to be entirely unmuted so they can be encouraged to use their strengths creatively to advance their skills.

Each day students will be provided the materials, tools, and assistance to create characters with simple props or costumes to tell the story fully. They will work to utilize the voice and movement techniques explored to create their individual parts for the production. By the end of the course, students will feel increased confidence understanding a script and having techniques to interpret a character's lines and movements independently. They will see the results of that in their interpretation of the great educational songs, as each actor will present his or her characters with distinct vocal and physical traits. 

We will play games associated with concepts included in the songs, such as identifying nouns, adjectives, and interjections; anatomy of the circulatory system; the meaning of the preamble to the constitution; the multiplication tables, and more.

If students and parents wish, they can allow permission for excerpts of their child's work to be included in a licensed production of the 11 songs that make up "Schoolhouse Rock Live, Jr." You can share it with friends and family as you wish. Footage of any student in class would NEVER be shared unless your permission is expressly offered. Learning will be equally rewarding either way.

SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK LIVE! Jr. is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.MTIShows.com.  (I have paid approximately $1,000 for these rights.)