UpstagePrimary/Workshop 2

Building on forum discussion of online environments and the process of story
The Devising process: • Assemble at stage for UpStage Play (email with link and login instructions)

Review of UpStage tools and discussion from workshop 1. Check; - everyone can pick up an avatar, move, speak, and change their name - avatars can follow stage directions, left, right, up and down (in front and behind other avatars) - players can change backdrops and hold props - players can draw and using audio

• The Devising process

Encourage the group to think about a story they might tell by acting out (eg.popular nursery rhyme, local tale)

- Use stage in devising process - Explain the rules of Story, Story, Die (negotiate time for pause, length of sentences) - each character has one line to add, next character picks up the line and adds their line to progress the story - characters die when they stop the story progressing, repeat themselves, or pause for too long before speaking - tutors use their turn to assist group to find natural

• Capturing the process, screengrabs and saving the UpStage log Explain how to take a picture of the screen especially useful to save images of drawings used in the storytelling

- Mac = command+shift+3 for whole screen, commans+shift+4 for a selection tool (drag across the area to take a picture of) - Windows/PC = PRNTSCRN button (up by Delete) then paste into a document, ALT+PRNTSCRN to capture only active window

- To save the log add /log to the address bar in your browser - if you are in the stage demo then UpStage address ending in ...demo/log will give you the text information typed into the chat window

• Assignment: Use your captured piece of UpStage log and explore the ideas, characters and storyline - read through the log of the devising process and compare screen captured pictures - discuss which characters and ideas that stood out - try adding some more information to each character [what they like, where they have been, what they want to get etc) - have another go at the story, story, die or recreating some of the story you all like - think about new characters that might be interesting in your story