Stage fighting - pulling hair and ears
Description
Actor Adrian Lester demonstrates how actors fight safely and effectively in drama. He focuses on the grabbing of ears and hair, stressing the importance of doing this safely and painlessly. The students he is working with then practice the techniques they have been shown.
Classroom Ideas
Watch the clip and demonstrate the two moves for the students. Ask them to have a go and then show them how to adapt the movement, for example picking someone up off the floor by their hair.
Students could look at a fight scene from âRomeo and Julietâ and see if they can find a moment where one character has a higher status than the other. Consider how they could use the ear or hair pulling to demonstrate this to the audience. Consider how these two movements can really demonstrate power. Ask pupils to begin to consider how they could then put this together with a punch or a slap to build the fight up. This could then be rehearsed with a couple of lines from the scene.
