Description
Materials
Full Lesson Plan
(May be used prior to auditions or study of “Into the Woods”) - Prior to starting the exercise, recollect with the students stories from childhood that have to do with witches and wizards, etc. “Sleeping Beauty”, “Wizard of Oz”, “Snow White”, “Harry Potter”, etc. will probably be some that will come to mind.
Then ask the class to separate out and each person find a space to work. Everyone is to take on a shape which best represents their idea of a witch/wizard. They can choose to be a dark or a strong and beautiful power. They are asked to imagine they are very powerful and that they are making a very powerful spell. They are to imagine a cauldron in front of them into which they are putting together a strange mixture. Add a sung spell or chant of gibberish.
Extension – Working in pairs, the students are to imagine that one of them is very evil and plotting to give the other one poison(or cast a spell). The other person is a friendly innocent who never realizes the mischief of the other. The tone of this exercise is to be humorous rather than serious. The nasty one is to let the audience know, through actions and gibberish, that mischief is afoot. All the signs are there for the innocent one to read but they never guess.