TEAM Lessons

(over a period of classes)

---

We have been talking about something called TEAM for the past couple of class periods. TEAM stands for Tension, Emotion, Atmosphere, and Meaning. We were given a handout that goes into detail about what each of those mean in theater and what questions to ask to guide our thinking in that area. After learning about TEAM we discussed performance and production elements that directors can use to create TEAM in plays. The performance elements are face, voice, gesture, body, and movement. The production elements are light, sound, costume, and set. We have to use these in our Director’s Notebook so learning about them now is extremely helpful so we know what exactly to look for and what to use to accomplish creating TEAM in our plays. To gain a deeper understanding of TEAM, performance elements, and production elements, we watched the Great British Baking Show and identified where directors created moments of tension and emotion, and how they created meaning and a coherent atmosphere. In the show the directors created a soothing and aesthetically pleasing atmosphere. They did so by having slow shots of flowers and landscapes outside the tent with soothing music playing. They would do this every couple of minutes and it really did set the tone for the show to be refined and calming which of course contrasts with the drama and freak-outs that comes with a baking competition. I think that this contrast made the drama seem even bigger. They were able to establish tension by foreshadowing that one guy’s idea would not work and then when it didn’t work they had a lot of close up shots of his face. These close up shots also created emotion because they showed him looking sad and his competitors looking concerned at what he was going to do.

This activity helped me a lot because it simplified what we were talking about and made it easier to understand. I now have a better idea of how I can apply TEAM to my Director’s Notebook play using production and performance elements.