Campfires and Characters Skip to main content

Campfires and Characters

Dramaturgy Workshop Day 5

One of the activities the cast was hoping to do was to sit around a campfire and roast marshmallows together, so we worked a campfire night into dramaturgy week. We set up a speaker with river sounds to create the environment of sitting next to a fire on the bank of a river, and—though we had S’mores rather than bacon, apples and biscuits—it felt as though we were in a scene of the play and sitting around the fire after a long day on the river (it had been a long day in our rehearsal boats).

After getting settled with our marshmallows we ran through one of the campfire scenes from the script. Then, to explore characters further, we built onto the scene by having the cast improvise in their characters. It was great exploration, and we learned so much about the characters and their relationships to one another.

Related Articles

data-content-type="article"

Guided Meditation

November 04, 2023 08:55 AM
The Boy at the Edge of Everything
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

Nurturing Seeds and Ourselves

October 25, 2023 10:22 AM
Ever since the beginning of the rehearsal process, director Kris Peterson really wanted the cast to get their hands in the dirt. Like the events of the musical, the earth has a power to connect us to each other, and she recognized that. One way that Charlotte and I thought to do this was to provide a small number of seeds to each cast member and invite them to grow their own plants over the summer. This was also a way to encourage the cast members to stay mentally connected to the show even when they were physically distant from the rehearsal space.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

Our Own Secret Garden

October 25, 2023 10:03 AM
The power of healing and growth is a topic not unknown to students at BYU. Educators and learners alike were asked to stretch their capacity to hold both powers in one hand as they were transplanted from their on-campus home in the Harris Fine Arts Center, to the new West Campus building, formerly known as the old Provo High School. The college of fine arts and communication, which includes Theatre, Media, film, Art, and Design departments, had to establish new communities, while major construction projects prevented them from being as close to the rest of campus as they might like to be.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=