(chill upbeat music)
-: Hello, my name is Aishe Keita and welcome to Story Story.
Today, we're gonna be focusing on character building
and all different kinds of characters
that live in our body and live out in the world.
Let's first start with a warmup, okay.
Raise your hands tall like a tree,
stretching out the whole body.
And go to one side.
Oh that feels good, doesn't it?
And reach up like a tree, tall
and to the other side.
Yes and grab one foot, balance yourself
and stretch it back, just like this
and drop and hop to the next one
and stretching out that leg, nice
and let's reach up again, tall like a tree
and bend all the way down, touching your toes,
stretching like this and come up with a shake
(moans)
Can you give me that sound?
(moans)
Nice, nice.
Now let's do some face stretching.
And make your face like a little raisin
and like a lion, (exhales).
And like a raisin, and like a lion, (exhales).
Now give me some gum chewing.
Chew some gum, really big (groans).
What gum are you chewing?
Mmm, I like that flavor.
Mmm, I got fruit gum, mmm.
Now give me a (blows raspberry).
(chuckles) Nice.
Now repeat after me.
Ten tiny Timmy tigers.
One wise whistling wizard.
Yes, two tooting tuba tuners.
And let me see if you can get this one,
a big, black bug bled blood.
(laughs) Let's do that one one more time.
A big, black bug bled blood.
Nice you guys, now let's do a nice shake out.
Let's start from seven going all the way to one,
shaking each different body part.
Follow me.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
One, two, three, four, five, six.
One, two, three, four, five.
One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four.
One, two, three, one, two, three.
One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two.
One, one, one, one, one, shake all your body,
shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it,
go crazy, go crazy, ah!
Freeze.
Awesome, you guys.
You feeling warm?
Let's get started.
Our first question today,
what makes a story?
What makes a story?
What is a story?
What are the three things that we need
for a story to happen?
What's a story?
Let's see, name one thing that you need in a story.
Nice, my answer is time and place, a setting.
Where are you at?
Right now I'm at home, right now you're at home.
In the daytime, time and place.
Our second thing we need to make a story is...
Characters, I'm a character, you're a character,
there's characters all outside.
So, for example, we have a time and characters.
Once upon a time, time,
there was a young boy, a character,
who lived in a house, a setting.
Once upon a time,
there was a young boy who lived in a house.
We already have the beginning of our story,
time and place and character.
The last thing we need is...
Nice, my answer, event, action.
Something needs to happen.
Once upon a time, there was a young boy
who lived in a house and one day, a bird flew
into his house and spoke to him.
We have an event, an action, something new happened.
We have a boy who is now talking to a bird.
We have him in a house, in a place, talking to a bird.
There's our story.
Now, let's create characters now, just using our bodies.
Like I said, characters are you and me
and everyone you see around.
So if I walk around like this.
(sighing)
What character am I playing?
Nice, something royal, a queen or a king,
just by having my chest out, walking slowly,
swaying side to side,
what about if I shake my body like this.
(grunts and stammers)
Who am I playing?
What's my character?
(laughs) An old woman or man, yes.
Just by bending over and walking back and forth like this,
I shape my body and create a whole new character
that's outside of myself.
Let's play with that.
Follow me.
Let's create characters with our bodies.
Lift your pinky.
Raise your eyebrows.
Raise your shoulder.
Bend one of your knees.
Raise your hand.
Raise your hair.
Okay, freeze.
Stay just like this, now try to walk around.
How do you walk like this character?
How does this character's voice sound?
How do we walk around?
Hello, hmm, hi, who are you,
my name is Mr. Pickles, who are you?
(laughs) You see, I created a whole different character
by changing my body and changing my voice
and you can do that at home as well.
Okay, let's go back to what is story.
Let me think of a story that has characters, time, place
and, an event, "The Three Little Pigs."
So where does that take place?
What's the first house?
A hay house, yes.
What's the second house?
Sticks, and the third one?
Bricks, right?
And the characters, three little pigs and a, a wolf, right.
And what happens?
Right, he tries to go to the first house,
tries to blow it down and it all falls down.
And then he tries to go to the second house,
he blows it all the way down.
And then he goes to the third house
and he cannot blow it down, for it is made of bricks,
strong, okay, so that has a beginning, a middle and an end.
So let's take the characters from the three little pigs.
Let's say, the first little pig,
how does the first little pig wanna stand?
It's a little scared, huh?
I think so, so maybe he stands like this.
(mumbles) This.
Bend my knees, scared.
How does your first little pig look?
Nice, I like it.
Let's go to our second little pig.
Maybe our second little pig's a little bit more brave.
But still a little scared.
How does your second little pig stand?
Nice, and let's go to our last little pig.
Think the last little pig's a little brave, right?
How does your last little pig stand?
Nice, and let's go to our wolf.
(snarls)
How does your wolf look?
Yeah, I like that.
Okay so let's bring out my friend, Djembe.
Can you say that, Djembe?
Nice, so this is my magical drum
and it makes us turn into characters,
so when you hear it make this sound,
(drum taps)
you're going to turn into one of the characters.
First little pig, second little pig,
third little pig or wolf.
First, we'll start with your favorite,
so think of your favorite one right now
and remember those postures that you had
and stay frozen, okay?
And, (drum taps) your favorite.
Nice, some wolfs are showing up and some pigs, I like it.
Now, go by my direction.
(drum taps) First little pig.
Nice, (drum taps) second little pig.
(drum taps) Third little pig.
(drum taps) Wolf.
Nice and (drum taps) first little pig.
And (drum taps) first little pig.
Gotcha there.
(drum taps) Wolf.
(drum taps) Second little pig.
(drum taps) Third little pig.
Gotcha, (drum taps) wolf.
(drum taps) First little pig.
(drum taps) Second little pig.
(drum taps) Third little pig.
(drum taps) Wolf.
Nice, now I'll do it with you one time.
And first little pig.
And second little pig.
And third little pig.
And wolf (snarls).
(laughs) Awesome, shake that out, shake that out.
(moans and groans)
Great, so now you know that characters are all around you.
Watch how people walk, watch how you walk, how they talk.
There's all different kinds of characters all around you
and they are all so beautiful, okay?
That brings us to the end of our lesson today.
Let's take three breaths together, follow me.
Inhale (inhales), exhale, (exhales).
One more time, make it big,
and inhale (inhales) and exhale, (exhales).
And let's clap all together at the same time.
One, two, three, (hands clap).
Awesome, you guys.
Thank you so much for joining me today.
I am Aishe Keita and welcome to Story Story.
Have a great day.
(chill upbeat music)