Theatre Exercises/Warm Ups

In Period 2 Theatre, on Thursday, we did warm ups and acting exercises for different parts of the body:

Feet/Legs:

To warm up our feet/legs, and to establish the relationship between the floor and our feet, we took our shoes off and began to draw circles with our feet in the air; this warmed up our ankles and 'woke up' our feet. We then began to swing our legs (one at a time) backwards and forward while brushing the floor with our foot every time it came in contact with the floor; this helped us understand the relationship with our feet to the floor and how helpful the floor is to our acting, as it keeps us stable and gives us the ability to move around.
After, we brought our knees up, so they were in line with our waist, and then brought them out to the side, to stretch our thighs, so that we we were able to move around quickly and easily because our legs were all stretched.
We also stood on one leg, for about a minute each, to practice balance so we wouldn't fall over in any performances.

Arms/Shoulders:

To warm up our arms and our shoulders, we bought one straight arm up to the sky and then rotated it so our shoulders were warmed up as well. When the arm went up towards the ceiling, we followed our hands with our necks so we also warmed up our necks.

Diaphragm:

To exercise our diaphragms, we all lay down and did breathy sounds; we put one hand on our breast-bones and the other on our stomachs and then made noises like 'hu-hu-hu', 'hoo-hoo-hoo', 'ch-ch-ch', to feel our diaphragms moving and working.

Imagination:

We did 2 separate exercises for our imagination; one with eyes open and the other with eyes shut. The one with eyes open, the teacher would say things for us to imagine and he would talk about a feather on our lips and we had to blow it away (part of the diaphragm exercise). The other imagination exercise, the one with closed eyes, was when the teacher would talk about how we imagine our characters and how they look, talk and appear in our minds.

Finding space:

To find space, we played a game where you had to walk in random spaces where no one else is; this is so that, in your performance, you won't be clumped together so the audience can't see you. It's also helping you practice finding your own path (not following anyone else).