Today we really focused on Ella's reactive acting - or acting based on real time reactions while acting in a scene with more than one character to improve the overall flow of the scene, how natural both/all actors appear, and being able to adjust based on what is actually happening vs. what it says in the script.
We started our lesson by "doing our homework" - having Ella map out beats, major character shifts, and words to emphasize. She is getting better and better at identifying how a scene should be mapped out, and leaving herself visual reminders on how to set the pace of a scene, and where to take it to maintain the dynamics needed. Then, we got into rapid-fire scene work, having Ella respond and react to different ways of playing the scene (playing both characters). Ella did so awesome - adjusting her lines and actions depending on the character backstory she created and how the lines were delivered from other characters in the scene. She gets better and better every single lesson!
Character/body shifts We also continued our work on deliberate character and body shifts. When trying to apply these techniques at first it will feel very unnatural, but they are important for the audience to see to help differentiate between emotions, actions, and scene/character changes. Today we worked on complete body shifts when a character shows a change in emotions going from one side of the room, to facing the other. (We are working towards making our actions big enough for a theatrical stage). She did so great!