This was not a rehearsal room where we sat down and discussed how we were going to move… you want to say “GO AND DO IT!” and be their biggest cheerleader. - Emma Rice.
During rehearsals, Emma Rice liked to do practical exercises that helped ‘to release something between two characters’ in a scene. The following exercise, taken from Emma’s rehearsal room, will help students to think of the text from a more playful perspective (as opposed to a set text), approaching the writing as if in an RSC rehearsal room, using Emma Rice’s own rehearsal exercise. It will also help students think about characterisation. For example, thinking about objectives (what does a character want or need in the scene?), tactics (what actions do they take in the scene to get what they want?) and intentions (how do they want to make the other character feel?).
You will need Rani and Hari Scene 1 resource. You will also need a small item, Emma used a 50p but you can use a pen, a rubber, even a small handwritten note or anything that students will have in the room. This exercise will take 15 minutes.
- Ask the students to get into pairs, assign a ‘Hari’ and a ‘Rani, and read the scene once through.
- Invite the students to reflect on the scene, what do they think has happened just before this moment? What stage of Hari and Rani’s relationship is this?
- Ask the students to read through the scene again, this time they are going to try and pass a small object to each other secretly 3 times.
- For this exercise, encourage the students to think about setting (public vs private), tactics (the different ways you can play with passing the object) and intention (how do you want to make the other character feel?).
- Allow students to run the scene and this exercise 2 or 3 times.
- Invite the students to share their scenes with the others and allow time for reflections. Why might this be a useful exercise for two actors playing Hari and Rani? How does this enhance the story telling from an audience perspective?
