{"id":63,"date":"2020-07-20T22:45:43","date_gmt":"2020-07-21T05:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edtechuvic.ca\/pop\/?p=63"},"modified":"2020-07-20T22:47:53","modified_gmt":"2020-07-21T05:47:53","slug":"phil-duchene-tiny-studio-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edtechuvic.ca\/pop\/2020\/07\/20\/phil-duchene-tiny-studio-drama\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil Duchene :: Tiny Studio Drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018I get lockdown \u2013 but I get up again!\u2019 – Banksy<\/a> (quote from the closing doors of the video)<\/p>\n

Inspired by lyrics from Chumbawumba\u2019s \u2018Tubthumping\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Some First EDCI Zooming Thoughts<\/p>\n

I have been working as a kind of TA for Monica Prendergast on her Grad Drama Education 571 course this summer.<\/p>\n

Now, this was done partly with a view to my own on-line teaching in the fall and winter this academic year but we both wanted to see how much of our Drama in Education work was basically doable on-line.\u00a0 The initial dismay of having to adapt ensemble studio work to a solitary confinement model was initially pretty dispiriting. So how much of the material we use is adaptable?\u00a0 Ball-park; I\u2019d say about half.<\/p>\n

First off, I have been concerned by Zoom performances, often by people who represent not just themselves but large organisations, even countries, who sound and look as though they are broadcasting from the bottom of a lake or in the middle of a particularly virulent solar storm.\u00a0 It seemed to me that we had to present at least an awareness of how to minimise potential technical problems especially given the nature of what we were teaching.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what we did:<\/p>\n

– Set up a small UVic office to give at least 8\u2019 x 8\u2019 space for a presenter in which to move<\/p>\n

– Purchased a Snowflake USB microphone ($135), Stream webcam ($150), an 8\u201dring light ($100)<\/p>\n

– I brought in 2x100w stage lights on tripods, a 42\u201d Samsung tv (hard to see thumbnail faces on computer screens at any distance) and the cords and connections to make it all run<\/p>\n

– I painted two panels of the wall green (for a nice sharp green-screen backdrop)<\/p>\n

– We are running our mini studio through either a Mac Pro or AirBook<\/p>\n

The results are bright and crisp.\u00a0 The presentation can go beyond simple stand-up with teachers able to move and model movement.<\/p>\n

My students will be asked to ensure they have similar floor space available and encouraged, if possible to move beyond the in-computer camera and microphone courtesy of a supplier such as Amazon.\u00a0 Some basic tenets such as not shooting into light and being aware of sound in their own environment will also be shared. We discovered we need audience sound, even with delays and the obvious potential problems. Teaching Drama to a silent audience is like a non-response crowd for stand-up comedy \u2013 tough.<\/p>\n

How does it all work?\u00a0 Drama structures such as conscience alley, where students contribute a line in role to share an actor\u2019s thought as they move towards the camera (as opposed to down a line) is quite doable; writing-in-role is as simple as using the chat feature; drawing-in-role is huge fun courtesy of the white board; tap-ins to actors just an easily named cue.\u00a0 Games are readily adaptable using ideas like passing invisible \u2018photon balls\u2019 to connect a group or sharing a common object such as an apple between thumbnail pictures.<\/p>\n

Breakout rooms are seamless and easy to change permutations. I am putting together a working list of our commonly used Drama forms, structures and games and their adaptions.<\/p>\n

Alas, the important ensemble contact material, such as play-building, tableau or mirroring, can\u2019t work.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think actors could be trained in such circumstances but teacher candidates can certainly learn and practice performance skills in the space.\u00a0 Early days, still\u2026<\/p>\n

Phil<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo by Kyle Head<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018I get lockdown \u2013 but I get up again!\u2019 – Banksy (quote from the closing doors of the video) Inspired by lyrics from Chumbawumba\u2019s \u2018Tubthumping\u2019 Some First EDCI Zooming Thoughts I have been working as a kind of TA for… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":65,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-open-mic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edtechuvic.ca\/pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edtechuvic.ca\/pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edtechuvic.ca\/pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edtechuvic.ca\/pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edtechuvic.ca\/pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/edtechuvic.ca\/pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69,"href":"https:\/\/edtechuvic.ca\/pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions\/69"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edtechuvic.ca\/pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edtechuvic.ca\/pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edtechuvic.ca\/pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edtechuvic.ca\/pop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}