Stage Play Blocking and Rehersal

Today, my colleague, Tamara and I saw our actors in small group practice sessions, where we were trying to pre-teach the idea of blocking. Blocking means planning and communicating where on the stage the actors will start and where and the stage the actors will move. Tamara and I don't use this word much so demonstrating what the word meant was harder than I expected. I got so tangled up trying to use the word, blocking, that every sentence sounded more awkward than the last. Tamara, I said, where do you want to block me? I mean block me where you want? I mean, you block and I will go. Finally, I turned to Kate Horvath, our resident acting expert and asked her How do I say this? She said, Ask her where do I go?

Here is a video model clip that we showed the kids of the scene that we were rehearsing. This it the first time that we have tried to teach children several lines. We took the lines, more or less, out of the wonderful acting book that we are gratefully using called Acting Antics by Cindy B. Schneider.