In today's class we did some practise on staging and status. The first exercise was status, which meant, we had to found out what our status was in the scene. We were given cards with a number on it, which stated our status (e.g. 3 = lower and 9 = higher), but we weren't allowed to see our own card, but everyone else's. Our job was to guess our own status, judging by the way others have treated us and intersacted with us; then put ourselves in a line (from lowest to highest status). For example, I was a waitress with a card of number 4 (which is quite low) and I had to figure out where I should be standing in the line.
Next we practised how to create suspense and tension. We all were given a character, who would fit into a Wild West Saloon scenario, such as a sheriff, gamblers, dancers, or a drunk person at the bar with one of us being the 'villain'. The villain would stand outside the room, while everyone else was improvising and creating a noisy scene according to their characters. When the villain silently walks into the room and up to the bar, everyone had to stop what they were doing (no movement or noise), until the villain leaves. The aim of this exercise was to learn how to create tension; and by the third time repeating the same scene, we acheived a rather high level of tension in the room.
The third and last exercise of the lesson was improvisation. We were put into groups of 3 and given a place or environment and we had to come up with a quick scene or story on the spot (without being able to plan and talk with our groups). We had a rule, which was one person had to stand, one had to sit and one had to lay during the whole scene; no two people could do either one of them at the same time, or stay in one position for the entire scene.
