Beat by Beat (3 Person Scene); Driving Miss Daisy: Day 2

Lab: (until 8:00)

• Create or define 2 characters. Use short term/long term factors to define your character. 

Long-term factors that shape a character's voice:

• Ethnicity/culture
• Age
• Geography
• History
• Attitude toward life
• Education
• Occupation
• Lifestyle
• Special interests
• Beliefs (political, religious, etc.)

Short-term factors:

• Who the character is speaking to
• Current physical state
• Current emotional state
• Current mental state
• Where the character is speaking (setting, including time)

You may use characters that you have created in your notebook/journal, or based on the exercises you have already used, or create new ones.

• Write or type your 2 characters on a "character sheet" for your play. 
• Choose a place or setting for the action of your play. Describe this specific location in fewer than 5 sentences. Remember to indicate TIME, weather, and season.

Once you have your character definitions, write the following beats today in the lab:

• Beat #1: Introduce your two characters on stage by their actions. It should be clear who a character is only by their actions.
• Beat #2: Have characters discuss a topic outside of their own experiences (a social issue, religious issues, political issue, historical issue, or an event that happened off-stage, etc.)--peek at the themes link below for some ideas...
• Beat #3: A). Introduce a current problem or B). introduce your setting. or C). Discuss a third (off-stage) character.
• Beat #4: A). Introduce your setting or B). Introduce a current problem or C). Discuss a third (off-stage) character--(the opposite of your choice from #2 above.)
• Beat #5: An internal problem one character is having connected to the current problem. The second character may offer help, hurt, persuade, or inform.
• Beat #6: The second character complicates the situation by changing objective. Choose an objective for your first character.
• Write only up to beat #6. If you finish early, flesh out your scene so far, or begin your homework. See below.
• If you have an idea what the theme of your play might be, identify it by giving your play a title. Look here for ideas for themes. 

At 8:00, we will return to room 238 to continue/complete Driving Miss Daisy. Please turn in your analysis sheets when we complete the play.

If we finish before the end of the period, we will pick up The Vampire Lesbians of Sodom by Charles Busch.

HOMEWORK: Read the article on cross dressing, commedia dell'arte and the English pantomime. Annotate and take notes on key or major ideas in the article.