The Voice of the Puppet

Created by: Megan Michaels

Learning Level:

First year theatre students (originally created for junior high students)

Prior Experience:

Pantomime, Plot structure, Staging rules

Unit Educational Objective:

Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of vocal qualities (rate, pitch, tone, diction, and projection) by designing a unique voice for a puppet and performing in an original, rehearsed puppet show.

National Core Arts Theatre Standards:

TH:Cr3.1.HSI

a. Practice and revise a devised or scripted drama/theatre work using theatrical staging conventions.b. Explore physical, vocal and physiological choices to develop a performance that is believable, authentic, and relevant to a drama/theatre work.c. Refine technical design choices to support the story and emotional impact of a devised or scripted drama/ theatre work.

TH:Pr6.1.HSI

a. Perform a scripted drama/theatre work for a specific audience.

Lessons:

LESSON 1- Rate, Pitch, Tone, Volume

Educational Objective: Students will demonstrate their understanding of vocal rate, pitch, and tone by using the terms to compare and contrast two different voices.

LESSON 2-Diction

Educational Objective: Students will show the importance and execution of diction in performance by creating tongue twisters to teach to and practice with the class.

LESSON 3Designing a voice for a character

Educational Objective: Students will choose a character from a fairy tale and design a vocal pattern for them using the various qualities of voice and animal imagery.

LESSON 4-Anatomy and Script Writing

Educational Objective: Students will demonstrate their understanding of basic vocal anatomy and script writing by labeling a cartoon chart with the different parts and working together to create a short script.

LESSON 5-Designing

Educational Objective: Students will design a voice and a puppet for their character in the script they wrote previously.

LESSON 6-Making Puppets

Educational Objective: Students will execute the designs they made by crafting their puppets and practicing their vocal patterns.

LESSON 7-Preparation and Rehearsal

Educational Objective: Students will rehearse their puppet shows with their puppets and voices that they have designed.

LESSON 8-Performance

Educational Objective: Students will use vocal variations to create interesting performances for specific characters.

LESSON 1- Rate, Pitch, Tone, Volume

Educational Objective: Students will demonstrate their understanding of vocal rate, pitch, and tone by using the terms to compare and contrast two different voices.

Supplies:

Clip from Alvin and the Chipmunks (opening scenes from Warewolf episode)

Clip of Eeyore (scene from Winnie the Pooh episode where Eeyore loses his tail)

Clip from Singing in the Rain (I cant make love to a bush! scene)

Clip of Professor Trelawny from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (the prophecy)

Packages of 3 different colors of stickers

5 posters labelled individually: Rate Pitch Diction Tone Projection

Footloose rap divided up on slips of paper

Pre-Assessment: Have 5 different posters around the room. Each one is labeled with one of the following words: Rate, Pitch, Diction, Tone, Projection. At each poster have a set of stickers (red, yellow, green).

Divide the class into five groups. Each group needs to be assigned to begin at one of the posters. Tell the students that if they understand the word on the poster and could explain it to someone else, they get to put a green sticker on the board. If theyve heard of it, but are not sure what it means, then they put a yellow. If they have never heard of the word before, then they put a red.

Each group starts at one poster, but as soon as a student is done then they do not need to wait for their group to move on to the next one. They need to go to all 5 posters.

After the students are done, have them stand at the poster that they thought they knew the most about. Have each of these new groups present and explain the word to the class. This allows you to see where they will need the most help and explanation. Discuss the words and tell them that today we will be focusing on pitch, rate, and tone.

Hook: Ask who do you think has the deepest voice in the class? (this will be fun because in middle school many of them are still having their voices change). Who has the highest voice? do you have a friend or relative who has a unique way of speaking? Someone whom you can identify just by hearing their voice? Who is it? What makes their voice unique? Can you mimic it for us?

Step: The way we use our voices can tell others a lot about us and can make us stand out against the crowd. Today we will talk about rate, pitch, tone, and volume.

Step: (Have them write these definitions in their journals) Define Rate for them. Ask the guys, Boys, which of you have sisters? Who can do an impersonation of their sister? (if someone can, let them demonstrate) What happens when two girls start telling a really exciting story? (they talk really fast)

Step: Have the class all turn to their neighbor and mimic excited girls in the hallway. Explain that often the rate at which we speak can indicate our excitement level or our energy. (You may also have them practice by pretending that they are girls at a One Direction concert.)

Step: Define Pitch (high and low) and tone (the emotion in the voice). Tell a partner just one sentence about your morning. See if you can decide whose voice is deeper. Ask them which in each partnership is deeper. Tell the same sentence again to the same partner, but this time use an emotion in your voice too. (In other words have them think about how they feel about their morning. What is their opinion on how it went and use that opinion to color their tone.)

Step: We are going to practice by comparing and contrasting a few people we are familiar with. Hand out a sheet that has a kind of rating system on it so that they can rate each example on the various things youve defined for them.

Alvin and the Chipmunks (opening scenes from Warewolf episode)

Eeyore (scene from Winnie the Pooh episode where Eeyore loses his tail)

Singing in the Rain or Guys and Dolls (I cant make love to a bush! scene)

Professor Trelawny from Harry Potter 3 (the prophecy)

Step: What did you notice about the way these characters spoke? What if Prof Trelawny had Alvins voice pitch and rate? How would that change her character or the feeling of her line? How would having a voice like Alvin make it even harder to take her seriously?

Step: We are going to practice. Cut the following rap into several beats or lines-one on each strip of paper. At the beginning of each line they should see listed the number for the order that lines go in and at the end of each line include the vocal quality that they should change as they say the line. (example a strip might read like this: (2) Ever since the dawn of time [pitch]) The students should come up with creative ways to say the line using variations of pitch, rate, volume, etc.

Footloose rap: Dancing is not a crime./ Ever since the dawn of time, /if anything, everybody had the right to howl at the moon and move all night. / When folks were tribal, back before the Bible,/ they were liable to dance when the crops came in /or theyd pull out all the stops when the earth would spin, /or maybe they had a battle to win, /so theyd go thumping on a tree trunk/, grooving to the free funk, /and just like that in nothing flat /theyd be hands clappin, toes tappin, feet flappin, dogs yappin, HEY! /I could-a told ya that would happen. /They would dance every time they had a chance./ Whatever the reason or circumstance./ So if youve heard about Adam and Abraham, /you will remember this guy from the book of Samuel./ David, hey, ya know King David? Dave!/ He made a science outta knockin down giants./ The bigger they come, the harder they fall. / He didnt like math or geography,/ but check this out, he loved choreography. / It might sound odd, but David thought it brought him closer to God,/ so he would dance. /Every time he got the chance

Step: After 3 or 4 minutes of practice, have them line up in the correct order of the phrases. Explain that you will be hearing all the lines that they have been working on. Ask them to pay attention to the changes that they hear in the others voices and lines. Have everyone say their lines using the various pitches and rates they discovered. Go down the line until you come to the end. NOTE: In an ideal setting, no one would have the same line as someone else, because we dont want them to be influenced by what someone else does. Dont let them hear the original performance from the soundtrack until after this experience.

Step: Ask them, Which lines stood out to you? Did you have a favorite? What kind of pitch or rate did they use? What kind of person did they sound like? Did their rate or tone change the feeling of the line?

Step If you choose, have the students see or listen to a performance of the actual rap from Footloose. Have them compare some of the lines they said to how it was performed. How was the feeling different?

Step: Remind them that the rate and pitch of our voice are very important not only to the feeling of the line, but to the presentation of our characters.

Step: Give them the homework assignment to go home and take notes on the next thing they watch (TV show, news, movie, etc). Have them find two different people or characters and compare and contrast their vocal qualities. Have them copy down the requirements of the assignment from the board. They will need to turn in a paper that says what they watched, when, and the names of the two people/characters. They should answer questions like what did they have in common? How did they differ? What did their voices tell you about the person or the persons emotion?

NOTE: If a student is worried about having time to watch something on TV or if their parents do not allow them to watch during the week, suggest that they listen to any conversation between two people. This could be their parents, siblings, teachers in the hall, peers at lunch, church, etc. They just need to be able to tell us where, when, who, and compare the two voices.

LESSON 2-Diction

Educational Objective: Students will show the importance and execution of diction in performance by creating tongue twisters to teach to and practice with the class.

Supplies:

MAD GAB cards/handouts (game)

Clip of Taylor Swift Caption Fail

The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

Pre-hook/ Assessment: Have them turn in their assignment from last time. Ask them what interesting voices they heard. Can they mimic them? What made them stand out or interesting to listen to? What did the type of voices teach them about the characters or the scene?

Hook: Tell the class that they are going to close their eyes and focus on your voice. You will be saying phrases that sound like gibberish and they need to do their best to figure out what it is you are actually trying to say. When they think they know have them raise their hand. Take a card from the MAD GAB game and say it the way it is written. (example: Easel Aid Ease Man Hes a Ladys Man; Know Sayer-Nose Hair; Eye Pillow Fizz Sigh-Apple of his eye) Just do one or two. You will have to say each several times using a few different rates or diction changes in order for the students to recognize them. Consider projecting the gibberish phrase on the board so they have a visual as well.

After you do one or two together, divide the class into groups of 5-6 and give each group several MAD GAB cards. Tell them to play the game in their groups and notice how they have to change the way they say the phrase in order for their teammates to understand them.

Step: After they have played a few cards discuss their experience trying to guess what the phrases were. What made it harder? Easier? Define Diction for them. Have them add this definition to their journals with the definitions from last time. (Diction definition: Articulation in speaking or singing. The care we take in making our words clear.)

Step: Ask them Why would having clear diction be important when you are speaking or signing on stage? We are going to show a video that shows what happens to a Taylor Swift song because she is not clear enough in her diction.

Step: Tell us about a time when you struggled to understand what someone was saying or singing in a performance? Show a clip of Taylor Swift Caption Fail. This is where they took one of her songs and had Google Caption translate it into what it thought she said. Use this clip to demonstrate the importance of diction in performance. Ask them: How did these misinterpretations change the meaning or the feeling of the song?

Step: Explain that in order to be good performers and make sure that our audience understands what is happening in the story we must practice our diction. Have you ever been to a performance where you could see the spit flying from a performers mouth? We dont need to spit to have proper diction, but we need to savor every move we make with our mouth. Briefly introduce them to their articulators (teeth, lips, tongue), you will go further in depth with this in another lesson, but you want them to pay attention to these parts of their mouth and what they feel like as they use diction. Have them say the phrase Percussive Diction. Have them slow every syllable down so they can feel every consonant and vowel. Explain that it probably feels unnatural to them, but it sounds clear and normal to an audience member. Explain the use of the articulators.

Step: We are going to practice with a poem by Lewis Carroll. The Jabberwocky. Project the poem on the overhead or screen and warn them that many of the words are gibberish and will feel strange in their mouths, but their goal should be to make it sound as normal as possible while using percussive diction. Tell them how to say the difficult words that are in the beginning. Consider reading the whole poem to them first so that they can hear what it is supposed to sound like. Allow them to practice with a neighbor and then have them say the poem 2 times as a class.

Tell them its a competition between the boys and girls. The girls will say the first half using the best diction they can and then the boys will say the last half all together using the best diction they can. Give them a few minutes to practice. Then hold the competition

Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

`Twas brilling, and the slithy tovesDid gyre and gimble in the wabe:All mimsy were the borogoves,And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!Beware the Jubjub bird, and shunThe furmious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:Long time the manxome foe he sought --So rested he by the Tumtum tree,And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and throughThe vorpal blade went snicker-snack!He left it dead, and with its headHe went galumphing back.

"And, hast thou slain the Jabberwock?Come to my arms, my beamish boy!O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brilling, and the slithy tovesDid gyre and gimble in the wabe;All mimsy were the borogoves,And the mome raths outgrabe

Step: After the competition ask them questions like: which words or sounds were harder to make clear? What could you do to practice diction? Point out some parts of the poem that you thought had great diction and parts that did not.

Step: One of the ways we practice or warm up our mouths is by saying tongue twisters over and over again. In groups of 3 create a tongue twister that you can teach to the class. Give each group a consonant to focus their tongue twister on. No swear words or brown-bag content. Give them about 7 minutes to create it (if, after 7 minutes they need more time, give them a couple more). Consider giving them a list of simple words that start with their consonant they were assigned to help them think of words.

Step: Have a couple of the groups teach the rest of the class the tongue twister and practice it several times.

Step: Have them add higher pitch to the tongue twister while keeping diction intact. Say the tongue twister at a faster rate while keeping diction intact!

LESSON 3Designing a voice for a character

Educational Objective: Students will choose a character from a fairy tale and design a vocal pattern for them using the various qualities of voice and animal imagery.

Supplies:

Clip of any appropriate interview with Ralph Fiennes

Clip of Lord Voldemort in the graveyard in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (starts with Welcome my friends. Thirteen years its been)

Picture of the Dragon from BBCs Merlin.

Picture of a wrinkled old man

Hook: Today we are going to do an energy circle. This is where everyone stands in a circle and once person starts by doing some kind of action and a vocal thing (this could be saying a line or making a funny sound). The person on their left then does the same thing and it carries down through the circle. It is like doing the wave. Once the action and sound come back to the person who first did it, the person on their left starts a new one and it then travels like the wave through the circle. This continues until everyone has had a turn coming up with something for the circle to do. However, this time their vocal action must be animal based. Moo, bark, etc. It is ok if there are repeats, but try to help them come up with a variation on it instead of doing the exact same thing

Before you start ask them to look for the qualities of each sound (pitch and rate).

Step: Did you hear some interesting sounds? Which? What were they like? What do you think that animal would sound like if they were speaking English? What qualities would their voice have?

Step: Explain that in order to create an interesting voice, we must know who our character is first. Sometimes actors will take one personality trait from their characters and build their voice around it. This often happens in fairy tales or when the character is an animal or has animalistic traits.

Step: Review tone, pitch, and rate with them. Since last class period have they heard any unusual or interesting voices?

Step: Tell them that they are going to hear examples of how changes in these qualities can create a vocal pattern for a specific character. Ask them: If you were playing a character who was described as a snake, what changes would you make to your voice to get it to sound snake-like? Have them discuss their ideas with a neighbor.

Play a clip from an interview with Ralph Fiennes so they can hear his normal speaking voice (only let them hear the audio so they will focus on the voice). Tell them that the next sound clip is the same person, but he has made changes to his voice to create his character who is described as a snake. Play a clip from Harry Potter where he is playing Lord Voldemort, who is snake-like, clip (only audio). What were the changes they heard? How does it sound more snake-like than before? Make sure to point out that he may have created a voice that was different than what they would have done. If he did, it is ok. Actors and designers often make different choices for similar ideas)

Step: Show a picture of the dragon from Merlin. NOTE: Dont tell them its from that show, it might taint their design ideas. Ask them: What characteristics would an old dragon have? Have the students list on the board ideas that they have about his characteristics ( the dragon is old, wise, big!) Have a student act as scribe and write what they all come up with on the board.

Ask them: Given the characteristics you listed, what do you think his voice would sound like? (let them refer to their scales from lesson one) Would they sound angry or dangerous? Soft? Gruff? High? Low? Fast?

Introduce the clip of the dragon by explaining again, that the following is just one interpretation of what a dragons voice could sound like. Play the clip (audio and visual, any Merlin scene will do wherein Merlin speaks with the dragon) for them to see and hear the qualities of the voice.

Step: We can also work the other way round. Show a picture of an old man. Ask them: what personality traits or characteristics might this person have? What animal do those traits remind you of?

Step: Explain that they will now get to practice changing their voices for a specific character by picking a person or animal from a fairy tale and designing a voice for them. Divide them into groups and assign the groups a fairy tale.

Step: Have them decide on a character and let them refer to the scales they used in Lesson One to help them decide what qualities they will give their voice. (They should be looking at rate, pitch, tone, and diction.) They need to be prepared to introduce themselves to someone while using their new voice. Give them about 10 minutes to work on this (check on their progress about half way through and allow them to brainstorm in their groups).

Step: Have the students circle up together. Have them go around the circle and use their new voices to introduce themselves and their characters to the group. Explain that they must use the form of the slate to do it: My name is The Big Bad Wolf and Im being played by Emily Feveryear.

LESSON 4-Anatomy and Script Writing

Educational Objective: Students will demonstrate their understanding of basic vocal anatomy and script writing by labeling a cartoon chart with the different parts and working together to create a short script.

Supplies:

Vocal Chart

Each student needs a piece of paper

Hook: Have the phrase, The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue written on the board. Have the students read it out loud together. Have them go faster, slower, louder, and then again more clearly.

Step: Ask a student to tell you one of their favorite lines from a movie. Write it on the board and have them practice rate and pitch and diction with this line as well. Ask them if they have been paying more attention to the way they speak naturally during the day because of the things you have talked about in class. Discuss as they share.

Step: Explain that today they will be learning the very basic parts of our vocal anatomy.

Step: Hand out a chart of the vocal anatomy. Project the same chart of the vocal anatomy on the board. Go through each part and label it with the students.

Vocal chords-the chords that vibrate to make your voice

Teeth-our tongues move air near and between our teeth in order to create different sounds

Top of mouth (hard palate)-this also helps us create shape and sound with our breath

Tongue-helps us create sounds for individual letters

Nasal Cavity-air flows through here too when we talk and breath. We can also direct our air when we sing toward our nasal cavity in order to make our sounds more direct or piercing.

Step: Explain that the muscles we use for breathing play a vital role in giving us energy and projection while performing. Define projection as the ability to use our breath to project our voices farther. Actors use this in order to be heard from back in the house/audience.

Step: Show them the difference between breathing with your chest and breathing with your diaphragm. Have all the students lay on the ground on their backs with one hand on their chest and one hand on their belly. The goal is to have their bellies rise up and down with their breathing rather than their chest. Babies breathe with their diaphragms. This gives them/us more air support when we act and helps us project as well.

Step: To practice using their diaphragms and projecting, have all the students stand in a row facing one way. Explain that you will go down the line and each person will need to take turns saying Hi! My name is [state their name or an appropriate character name]. They need to make sure they take a deep breath before speaking, make their diction strong, and make it loud enough for you to hear at the other end of the room.

Step: Tell everyone to write down the name of a man/boy. This man should be someone that everyone knows. He could be a character from a book or movie, etc. or he could be a real life person like a famous actor or a teacher.

Step: Once theyve written it down, have the students fold down the name in such a way so that they can pass the paper to the person on their right without letting them see the name. The next person writes met followed by the name of a well-known woman/girl. They fold the name over again and pass to the right once more.

Step: The next person writes at followed by the name of a place or event (somewhere where you could meet someone). They fold and pass after writing this as well.

Step: The next person writes she said followed by any appropriate thing they want. It could even be a line from a show or movie if it helps them think of something. After writing, they fold and pass once again.

Step: The next person writes then he said followed by another appropriate line of whatever they think of. They fold and pass again.

Step: The last person writes and so followed by the end of story or tale. It can be any appropriate idea they have. (examples: and so they lived happily ever after; and so they went to eat ice cream; and so the aliens attacked NY and separated them; etc)

Step: If the class is fairly small, have the students take turns reading all of what is on the paper they ended up with. They should be pretty random and funny. If the class is really large, just have a handful of students read their final papers.

Step: Explain that today they will be put into groups of 3-4 and will get a chance to write their own script for a puppet show! The show they write should only be about 2-3 minutes long (one lined sheet of paper that is front and back and another that is just one-sided) and it does not have to follow the format we just used for the game. It was just meant to get their creative juices flowing and the format can be used as a model if they have a hard time coming up with something. They need to think of characters that they can develop different voices for.

Step: Place them in groups. Give them about 5 minutes to brainstorm story ideas within their groups. After 5 minutes, get their attention and have a couple of them share what ideas they have come up with. Ask follow up questions that will help them think about the kinds of voices they will need for their characters. Encourage them to use animals or other strong character types. This brief follow-up discussion should help refocus their work if they begin to get off track or become lost.

Step: Give them the rest of the period in order to get as far as they can with their stories.

LESSON 5-Designing

Educational Objective: Students will design a voice and a puppet for their character in the script they wrote previously.

Supplies:

Clip Miss Piggy Gets Fired from The Muppet Show

Each student needs a piece of paper

Hook: Show the clip Miss Piggy Gets Fired from the Muppet Show.

Step: Tell the class that they are going to create puppet shows in order to tell the stories they wrote last time.

Step: Have them get into their groups and on the backside of their scripts create a cast list. This should include the names of everyone in their group and what parts/characters they are playing.

Step: Once they have completed this short task tell them to each get out a separate, blank sheet of paper. On the paper they should draw the outline of a paper bag. On the top of the paper they need to write their name, the name of their story, and the name of their character. They should also include a brief description of their character (example: he is a dog; she is a cheerleader, etc)

Step: Give them a couple minutes to finish this.

Step: Once they have finished give them about 7 minutes to design the puppet. They should draw everything they want on their character on the outline of the paper bag.

Step: Tell them to show their puppet designs to their neighbor. What are some things you like about the other designs you see? What other characters are you excited to see in a show? Have a couple students share with the whole class.

Step: Tell them to flip their designs over and on the other side write the following:

Pitch:

Tone:

Rate:

Tell them that they need to describe the voice of their character/puppet by filling out these elements. They need to tell you if their voices are high, low, fast, slow, and any other qualities or emotions (tone) that are used too. Make sure they know that they can draw scales like the handout from Lesson One if it makes it easier and that putting medium on both pitch and rate does not make it sound like the characters voice is going to be different from the actors normal voice. It needs to be specific and needs to fit the kind of character they have designed.

Step: Allow them to work on this for about 5 minutes to give them time to experiment and design it. When they are done, give them the rest of the time to finish their scripts.

LESSON 6-Making Puppets

Educational Objective: Students will execute the designs they made by crafting their puppets and practicing their vocal patterns.

Supplies:

Glue Sticks

Tons of colorful paper

Markers

Scissors

Brown paper lunch bags for each student

Hook: I feel like having the knowledge that they get to craft a lot is hook enough!

Step: Setup tables so that each cast can work together to use the supplies and create their puppets.

This will most likely take the whole class period, but check to make sure that they have also finished their scripts. The scripts are more important than having finished puppets for the performances.

Step: Make sure they know that their designs for voice and puppets are due next time (preview day).

LESSON 7-Preparation and Rehearsal

Educational Objective: Students will rehearse their puppet shows with their puppets and voices that they have designed.

Supplies:

Recording of Let it Go from Frozen

The students puppets and scripts

Hook: Have all the students get their puppets on their hands. Explain that they are going to do a vocal warm up before they preview. Have them sit in a circle with their puppets and ask them to sing along to the song you will play. NOTE: you could have them vote on a Disney song, but one of them we used was Let it Go from Frozen.

Step: Sing the song together. NOTE: if youd rather, you can use the longue twisters that they created earlier to warm up their voices.

Step: Give them about 10 minutes to practice in their groups.

Step: Once they have finished this, have them team up with another cast and take turns performing for each other. Each cast should give feedback to the one that we watch. This feedback should include diction and projection.

Step: If there is still more time, have them rotate around the room. Each cast should be able to perform at least twice each

Step: The last few minutes of class, have each cast nominate someone in the last puppet show they witnessed for Best Voice. Have those nominees stand and introduce their puppet and their voice.

LESSON 8-Performance

Educational Objective: Students will use vocal variations to create interesting performances for specific characters.

Supplies:

Large table with a sheet over it.

Rubric for final performance

Hook: Ask the students how they would like to warm up their voices. Tongue twister, song, etc. Allow them to decide what is most helpful for them after having experienced a performance day last time.

Step: Do the warm up.

Step: Set the table with the sheet over it in front of the class. The students will hide behind the covered table in order to perform their puppet shows.

Step: Have them take turns performing for the class.