English for musical theatre actors 60211100 Study manual for students of musical theatre actor

Task 8. Stop And Walk
Stop And Walk is one of the most high energy theater games for big groups. You can use this game to warm up a large group in a fun way. Here is how to play Stop And Walk: First, tell participants the “walk” and “stop” commands. When you say “walk,” participants must walk around. When you say “stop,” the participants must stop. Repeat the two commands several times until participants get used to the game. Next, switch the commands and announce this change. For example, when you say “walk,” participants will have to stop instead. When you say “stop,” participants will have to walk instead. After repeating the reverse commands, you can add other commands like jump or dance. Let the participants know that “walk” means stop, “Stop” means walk, “Jump” means jump, and “Dance” means dance. Say any of the commands randomly while participants try to carry them out without mistakes. You can switch other commands too, like “jump” for “dance” and “dance” for “jump”. Although there is no winner in the Stop and Walk game, the game will keep your group active and engaged. The game is also good for laughs, as the struggle to remember and follow commands can be quite funny to behold.

Lesson 4.	Learn English like the Hollywood stars
Grammar:	Future tense

Let’s play mnemonics
Human memory is a tool that can be developed and trained, regardless of the initial indicators and the age at which this development begins. The idea of mnemonics is that our memory stores images and pictures very well. It allows you to convert any information to some image, so you can easily remember tables, large series of numbers, new languages, etc. Description of the exercise: There is not much difference if the exercise is done individually or in a group. If individually, then the person simply writes down 20-30 unrelated words. If in a group, – someone asks each participant to name a few words and write them all. Then, the words are read several times, first, it should be a slow reading with one picture – association about each of the words. Every following word, or rather its image, has to have some connections with the previous images. For example, if you have words “plane”, “door”, “elephant”, then, the association may be an image of a plane that crushes into the door and there is an elephant sitting behind that door. At the end, you will have your first “movie” script ready to be filmed!
Hollywood stars
Many of the best actors in Hollywood, for whom English is not their native language, learned English in a short period of time because they had to act in an American film. It’s not surprising that such a motivation – the wealth and fame that Hollywood offers – was behind their success in learning English. After all, they had to learn English as quickly and effectively as possible.
How to learn English quickly while taking time off from main career?
By watching movies in English. This method develops listening and speaking skills and helps to learn new, difficult words and sentences effectively. Foreign language films often have the option of watching with subtitles. This is quite helpful, as it is easier to read in a new language than to understand others who are speaking quickly. Listening to conversational speech and at the same time reading subtitles makes it easier to connect the spoken word with the written word.
TV shows and films also help people learn the most up-to-date words and slang expressions. These are things that aren’t taught in school. This is especially helpful to actors who have to play “bad guys” from the street whose speech is full of slang expressions. This method was effectively used by the famous Hollywood actresses Charlize Theron from Africa and Melanie Laurent from France.
Another great method is a language tandem is often used when someone needs to learn a language quickly. A language tandem is a method by which two people regularly meet and practice the language they want to learn. For example, a person who speaks German but has just started to learn English meets with a person who speaks English but has just started to learn German. As a rule, the first half of the conversation will be in German and the second half in English. That way, both have a chance to practice the language they’re learning.
The next quick method is acting and surrounding yourself with native speakers.
The most developed way to learn a language still remains travelling to a country where the language is spoken and surrounding yourself with native speakers. Many people who have learned English – including some among the Hollywood elite – confirm that this is the best method.
Especially for actors, the only way to learn how to use and pronounce slang words and expressions is to immerse oneself completely in an environment where the language is spoken. This practical approach is much more effective than any other. Method acting refers to a group of methods widely used by Hollywood actors to better immerse themselves in the role of the character they are playing. The actor will often remain in character even when the cameras are not on. In other words, he lets the character affect his own personality, thinking.
This method can also be used when learning English. Imagine that you are an English speaker, and speak only in English during the course of the day. This will do much to improve your progress in learning the language.
The above methods of language learning are very effective and have shown sufficient results. In theory, language learning can seem boring to those in the acting field, so mostly practical and fun, learning in pairs helps those who get results quickly.