UNTRAINED

NB Teachers should consider which option is most suitable for their class depending on the confidence and experience of the students
Option 1 – Simultaneous exploration – each student does the activity/sequence at the same time
6. Have the students find a space to do the series of activities listed above
7. Teacher to call out each action outlined above and students to do them in their own space
Option 2 – Students do each activity/sequence in small groups with other students watching
6. Students to be in groups of no more than four. One group to be selected while the others watch as ‘audience’.
7. Each group in turn to rotate being the ‘performers’ and doing the series of actions outlined above
8. Students to discuss how it felt to do the different actions. The following questions may help prompt discussion.
• Were some actions harder than others?
• What did doing basic actions tell them about the way their own bodies moved?
• Had they thought about simple things like how they slept or putting on a shirt before?
9. What did they learn about others through watching their simple movements? Did it change their understanding of how they
interact with others?
Nature of Performance
Topic/Theme Learning Experiences
Nature of
Performance
1. Students to consider the following quote:
“I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching and this is
all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged”
(Peter Brook, 1968 p9)
2. Ask students to work in pairs and discuss this quote in relationship to:
a) their own experiences of viewing performances/theatre
b) how this relates to/sheds light on the production of Untrained
c) how this quote/perspective might shape their understanding of the question, ‘What is performance?”
Each pair to do the following activities based on their understanding of what performance is.
3. Pairs to brainstorm words, images and anecdotes to represent their understanding of performance.
4. These should then be swapped with another pair. The alternate pair is to highlight five of the words, images or anecdotes they
believe represent most clearly an understanding of performance. They then give these back to the original pairs.
5. The original pairs are to consider the five selected words, images or anecdotes and match these with colours.
6. Pairs are to create a visual arts piece displaying the five words and appropriate colours to portray their understanding of
performance.
NB These could be displayed along with the original words, images or anecdotes that inspired them if desired.
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