8th February- Hot seating and Role on the wall

8^th February

What is hot seating?

What is good hot seating?

Why is it useful during rehearsals?

How could it be used in a TIE workshop?

What is role on the wall?

Why is it useful in drama rehearsals?

How could it be used in TIE workshops?

Hot seating is a drama convention where an Actor/ teacher or participant is interviewed using spontaneous improvisation in character.

It is used to find out more about the actors character in a performance. To do this you have to be good at improvisation and not come out of character.

Good hot seating is where the actor manages to stay in role for the required amount of time and answer the questions appropriately to their character. Good hot seating uses body language and facial expression to show the characters person. Using props and costume is really helpful as it helps you relate better and more efficiently to the character. Good hot seating should always be intense to watch and use a variety of drama techniques. Because it uses spontaneous improvisation it’s hard to know when the actor is going to answer, not to talk over somebody or if you have pushed it too far. If the actor makes you feel like this then he/ she is hot seating well making the scene believable and intense. During a hot seating task, if you do not know what to say pause and think in character as it makes it look so much more professional and makes it look like you are your character.

In rehearsals hot seating it effective to help students understand more about a/ their character. Leaving the room/ scene and re entering and then leaving again helps you come in and out of character easier and more professionally.

Used in TIE workshops can be helpful because it can really help a student understand the story, meaning and character of this production. If a student knows somebody that’s going through this issue or is going through it themselves then if we approach it right, we will be able to help that student come to terms with the issue or get through it easier. Hot Seating can also be a part of why an issue is dealt with differently as we may give advice or information that a student didn’t know before.

Hot seating rules:

Find a similarity to relate to you character or scenario because it makes the task seem so much more believable.

Don’t be worried about not asking a question just make sure you are involved in what is happening.

Don’t worry about speaking over people or your question sounding stupid; say it anyway because you may be surprised.

Ask a mixture of open and closed questions so the actor can have a variety of different answers.

Don’t worry about going down a different route just ask it anyway.

Hot Seating Tom: James’ father,

                          Mr Matthews,

His feeling whilst being hot seated...

He felt stuck with what to say,

He tried to think of past scenarios and personal experiences and used this to make a new character,

Weird. He said it felt weird being somebody else and having to think spontaneously as somebody else,

“As the questions grow you feel like you are becoming more like your character... It’s like you have a performance/ energy bubble around you in the world of your character... You have to allow your actors/ spect actors to commit... The set up is really important... Everybody in the hot seating activity has to commit to the performance world.”  Tom Willshaw

Reviews from everybody:

Imogen- It’s difficult to play an 8 year old.

Olly- Builds a lot of tension. I was worried I might run out of things to say.

Abi- It’s really difficult to convince your audience/ spect actors.

Frankie- My audience were laughing and it was really misleading for me as the actor.

Emily- I found it hard to stay in character and it was hard to be spontaneous.

Tom- I enjoyed this task and it was nice to be able to improvise.

Me- I found it challenging because my character has very little to say so I couldn’t think of many questions or answers about my character.

Francesca- I found it easy to stay in character but the questions were really provocative and I had to force a lot of reactions.

Role on the wall:

Role on the wall is a drama convention used to help an understanding or to get to know a character better. It is where a body outline is drawn and around the outside of the body you have to write words or phrases about what others think of your character. In the middle of your drawing you have to write words or phrases about your character from that characters point of view. For example:

 

An example of role on the wall from Miss Woffinden



It is useful in drama to help an understanding of a character and to help focus students and get them to think more widely about this character.

In TIE workshops it can be used to, again develop the student’s interest and understanding of a play and character and help their social/ political issues like I mentioned for Hot Seating.