Only part of the Yolanda Session

I promise I will type the rest up later, but I should get to sleep now! Here's part of the VERY VALUABLE session we did with Yolanda yesterday. More later. . . .

Rehearsals going well for our group as well. . . .despite the Benedick sandwich. Y'all not in our group will see. ;-)

We started with a quick warm-up
We did this warm up where we clapped once to these Italian or Spanish words, then clapped a short rhythm to another word, then a longer rhythm to another word. She could call out the word, we clapped. It was a nice quick and rhythmic warm-up!

After this, we started with "Playing the Globe Stage." She asked for a volunteer and had us all sit in chairs around that person. She then whispered in her ear a suggestion in how to play this monologue of Beatrice's. Obviously, she suggested that she perform the monologue with very little emotion, not moving, and not making eye contact with anyone. She would give the line to her, and she would repeate it. Then, Yolanda asked us what we would change about how she performed. We needed to be specific. She said if you asked this of students and they said, "She needs more emotion," we should ask them "What do you mean?" to get them to be specific. After suggestions were given, she performed again with the suggestions.

Now we were all given a cue script for Much Ado About Nothing. We were given four stage of doing the cue script:
1. Just read it
2. Just look at it for the movement suggested in the script
3. Do it
4. Refine it into a performance
Eventually we all performed and then she had volunteers from each of the groups perform the scene.

After we came back from our break, we opened with a couple of games.

The first was a simple game. You all wander about the room. The monitor claps one, you touch one person's shoulder and hold. You clap twice, you touch two shoulders and hold. You clap three times and you have to touch two shoulders and use your leg to attach yourself to another person. You clap four times and you have to tap as many shoulders as you can without having anyone touch yours.

Another warm up game: "The Tempest." One person is the caller in this game. They goal is for two people to create a house over one person in the house. If the caller says "People," all the people have to find a new house, including the caller. The odd many out becomes the caller. If they call "Houses," the houses have to find a new person and the people stay. If they call "Tempest," everyone changes as they spin around as if in a storm.