On Friday, Oct. 24, students in Mrs. Neth’s, English, Advanced Speech class practiced their duet acting scenes.
Duet acting is one of many “events,” or projects, that the speech students do throughout the year. The students also participate in reading out loud, impromptu and other acting events. Doing a variety of projects allows students to be exposed to all types of speech.
“I like this project [duet acting] because it’s a new spin from the usual class-work we have to do. When you don’t have the opportunity to go up on a stage live because of other extracurriculars, this gives you the chance to do it,” Rachel Kozel (10) said.
What’s unique about duet acting, however, is that there are only two actors in a scene. The scene lasts about five-to-ten minutes. The actors wear regular clothes, cannot use any props, and the “set” is two chairs and a table.
“It’s [duet acting] really cool. Me and [Sarah Colby (12)] have a really intense piece so it’ll be fun to try to portray it,” Brittany Busby (11) said.
Though this event is fun, students still face some challenges.
“Probably one of the main difficulties is trying to figure out a good way to act a scene with the correct emotions, because we have characters who are so much older than us and have done things we haven’t experienced,” Busby said.
On the other hand, duet acting is an easier event than most.
“This is easier than others [events] because you’re doing movement and the words just kind of come when you know the scene well enough and you’re able to impromptu lines if you don’t remember them completely,” Kozel said.
Duet acting not only helps students with their memorization skills, but it also gets them to express their bodies and faces.
The students will start performing their scenes on Wednesday, Nov. 5.
