Technical Theatre:
http://k8elle.edu.glogster.com/technicaltheatre
Movement:
Resources/Content for Use in the Drama Classroom
Adrian Anscombe, Christine Hauck, Naomi Snelgrove
Games (12 in total):
Game Name: Social Machinery
Number of Players: 3 or more per group
Discipline: Movement
Form: Creative Movement
Source: Movement (p. 7)
Instructions: This game begins with a circle of people. One person goes to the center and begins a repetitive motion. The second person joins them in the centre and makes a new movement to add to the motion. Now it is a machine. Each new person that joins creates a new motion and adds to the machine until everyone works together.
Variations: Add sounds, or prescribe real machines to make (like cars).
Rationale: This game helps students to learn to work together, to be creative in their movements, to have a successful experience, and to become confident in their abilities.
Game Name: I am Walking
Number of Players: Small groups, 3 or more each
Discipline: Movement
Form: Creative Movement, Mime
Source: http://www.childdrama.com/iamwalking.html
Instructions: Before play, prepare a set of cards, each containing the second half of a sentence.
Below are a few examples, but you can think of more:
". . . through a blinding snowstorm, looking for a lost child."
". . . across the Great Plains on the way to Oregon."
". . . to school on a cool late fall morning."
". . . down a dark alley, looking for an escaped prisoner."
". . . through the Amazon rainforest, in search of rare species of animals."
". . . to the platform to receive a gold medal."
". . . down an empty highway, running away from home."
". . . along the Boardwalk near the beach on a summer evening."
". . . across the deck of a sailing ship during a storm."
(The idea is that the first half or each and every sentence is "I am walking")
Divide the class into groups of three or more. The groups will "perform" one at a time.
The first group enters the performance space. A representative draws a card from the pile, and they share it around so everyone can see it, but there is NO DISCUSSION. On the instructor's cue, the group must create an instant scene (using pantomime, and, if the instructor chooses, sounds, props, etc., but no words) that will convey the COMPLETE sense of their sentence. This can be done, obviously, in lots of different ways. One person might become the person who is "walking," while others become the environment, or "supporting" characters. The challenge comes in the fact that the group is not allowed to discuss or plan. If each individual in the group decides that he would be the best person to be the "lost child," for example, the group will almost certainly fail to communicate the snowstorm. Each member of the group must evaluate what the rest of the group is doing, and respond by contributing, not in the way that makes himself look best, or in the way that is most "fun," but in the way that best reinforces the effective communication of the group. The most effective groups will therefore be the ones in which everyone is able to sublimate their own individual stardom to the stardom of the group.
Once the group has performed, others in the class try to guess the sentence. The group who performed should try not to react positively or negatively to the guesses until everyone has guessed. In this way, no one changes or suppresses their guess once they know it is "wrong." This is important, because the "guesses" are the best kind of descriptive feedback on the effectiveness of the performance. I often use this as a jumping-off point for discussing the idea of communication, and of responsibility for the messages one sends, whether intentional or not. If the group intended to convey the sentence "I am walking on the deck of a sailing ship," but most of the class guesses "I am walking on top of a locomotive train, chasing a train robber," it is not because most of the class is "wrong" or "stupid." It is, in fact, because what the group actually conveyed, intentions notwithstanding, was this second idea. By knowing what the audience saw, the group can judge how effectively they have communicated.
Obviously, this process is repeated until all groups have had a turn to perform.
Rationale: This exercise allows students to interpret ideas into movement. They receive feedback from their peers and work together to express meaning.
Game Name: The Escape
Number of Players: Unlimited
Discipline: Movement
Form: Mime, Creative Movement
Source: Jr. High Teacher Resource Manual
Instructions: The whole class attempts to walk from one side of the room to the other without making a sound. There is no need to rush as there is no time limit on this part. Repeat if there is any noise at all. Repeat in pairs. One player in each pair is wounded and depends on physical help from the other; the one not wounded is blind and depends on sensitive guidance from the wounded one. Repeat if there is any noise at all.
Rationale: This game teaches students to take their time, be sensitive to problems, be aware of others, make no sound, and working together.
Game Name: Puddles
Number of Players: 3 per group
Discipline: Movement/Acting
Form: Creative Movement, Tableau
Source: Movement (p. 6)
Instructions: Have the students on the floor. Suggest to the students that they are water. Discuss what water is all about (its properties, including its fluid properties and structure). They become water! All the following suggestions come from the teacher: A little boy throws a small rock into the puddle. How do they react movement-wise? It's just a small rock. What happens if he throws a big rock? Similarly what happens if he gets in the puddle and jumps up and down? After a while the puddle calms and becomes smooth and placid. Suggest the sun is hot; so hot that the puddle evaporates. As they evaporate they float up onto their feet. Eyes are to be kept closed at all times. They form thunder clouds, no forward or backward movement is needed at this time. Torso movement including hands and heads is suggested. The clouds rain, they fall in a gentle rain to a puddle which runs into a large river which runs over a spillway at an electrical dam. They go over the turbo's. They are now electricity. The students now have all the properties of electricity. Suggest static, colours, shocks, and sparks. Travelling along wires to a kitchen outlet, the electricity will run the appliances in the kitchen. Tell them they become the appliances. This is where their movements in space will occur. Reward students verbally on the kitchen appliances they've created. Approx: 20 minute exercise.
Rationale: A guided story interpreted through movement helps students respond to audial clues and express what they think the ideas are.
Game Name: Stop/Start with music
Number of Players: Unlimited
Discipline: Movement
Form: Creative Movement, Dance Drama, Improvised Dance
Source: First-hand experience in a number of drama classes
Instructions: Students disperse throughout the room and stand in their own space. Once the music begins everyone must dance or perform some form of movement as it plays. When the music stops, everyone must freeze exactly as they are. If anyone moves after the music stops they are “out” and become watchdogs for the remaining students. This continues, starting/stopping the music, until whenever you deem necessary. If you want to go until there is only one person left or if there are five people left, it is totally up to you.
Rationale: This game helps to increase a student’s concentration, while at the same time allows them to perform improvised dance, known dances, or other creative movements to the music. It also stresses being aware of one’s surroundings as you would not want to dance into someone else!
Game Name: Fox and Rabbit
Number of Players: Unlimited
Discipline: Movement
Form: Movement
Source: First-hand experience
Instructions: The teacher will choose two students to be a “fox” and a “rabbit”. The rest of the class must pair up with another student and disperse around the room creating “rabbit holes” using their hands and arms. The object of the game is for the “fox” to catch the “rabbit”; should the “fox” be successful in tagging the “rabbit” the roles are reversed and the chaser becomes the one being chased. However, the “rabbit” is able to become safe by “entering a rabbit hole”, passing underneath a pairs arms and taking the place of a student as part of the “hole”. When the “rabbit” enters, whoever he/she has their back to becomes the new “rabbit” and must flee from the “fox”. Variations: Add two or more “foxes” and “rabbits”.
Rationale: This is a great physical activity/warm-up exercise. It not only gets the blood flowing, but it also requires quite amount of concentration on the student’s behalf, for paying attention to whether or not they are the one’s needing to flee, etc.
Game Name: Name Game
Number of Players: Unlimited
Discipline: Movement
Form: Creative Movement, Spontaneous Improvisation
Source: First-hand experience
Instructions: The class gathers in a circle. Each student will then take turns going into the middle of the circle performing an action of some sort. Once they have reached the center they will call out their name. They will then return to the circle continuing their action. Once this has occurred, all the other students will mimic the first student’s action/call that student’s name in unison. This is continued until every student in the class has had a chance to do an action/call out their name. Variations: Students can be instructed to act out animals, character traits (ie. old person, ballerina, etc.), or any other number of movement types.
Rationale: This is a perfect activity for introducing your class and learning student’s names. In addition, it requires the students to pay attention to the actions of others as well as think creatively on their toes.
Game Name: Mime a Snowball Fight
Number of Players: Unlimited
Discipline: Movement
Form: Creative Movement, Mime, Acting
Source: First-hand experience
Instructions: Students are asked to disperse around the classroom. The teacher will then lead the class in a bit of a story where each student will begin waking up and then make their way out to have a snowball fight. The important part of this game is to lead students through many actions to mime.
Below are a few examples, but you can think of many variations:
“You are lying cozy in your bed…”
“You wake up to the sound of your alarm clock blaring…”
“As you get out of bed you go to the kitchen…”
“After your hearty meal, you decide you want to go play…”
“You go and open the door…”
“OH MY! IT’S COLD! You better get all your snow-wear on…”
After the students have “made their way outside”, have them interact with their environment. This can include having them make a snowball, or beginning to build a snowman, etc. Of importance is the fact that they really “believe” in what they are doing: they can feel the weight of a snowball, it requires more effort to push a larger snowball, it is difficult to place a larger snowball to create a snowman, etc. After interacting with the environment, the class can then be split in half where they will take part in snowball fight. Again, students are required to really believe in what they are doing: they have to make their snowballs to throw; they have to react when they are hit by a snowball, etc. Variations: Have students lift weights with increasingly heavier ones, or play catch with a ball, etc. The variations are basically endless.
Note: Students are not required to be completely silent during this, especially the snowball fight itself. However, there needs no speaking while students “wake up” etc. but various vocalizations should be encouraged, such as yawns, “hmm’s”, and the like.
Rationale: This game requires students to be imaginative and physically become involved in their miming experience. It requires quite the amount of concentration and becoming enveloped by the created world around them. It also makes the students be aware of others around them along with increasing their creative movement skills.
Game Name: Monsters vs. Zombies
Number of Players: Unlimited
Discipline: Movement
Form: Creative Movement
Source: Christine Hauck
Instructions: Discuss with students what zombies and monsters might look like. Then divide the class into half and have them practice their zombie or monster walk. Then gather all your students and have a “walk off” where two people of opposing factions do their walk at the same time and the audience cheers for which one they would like to see win. The teacher makes final decision.
Rationale: Would be a good game to play at the beginning of the unit as it allows the students to begin to understand how to develop characters quickly. This would be a good game for introducing the students to movement as it allows them to laugh and have fun while learning to commit to a physical character that they have chosen.
Game Name: The Meeting
Number of Players: Two (Partners)
Discipline: Movement
Form: Mime
Source: Calgary Board of Education
Instructions: Have students pick partners. Each student must think of a location in which he/she is standing or sitting alone. The student must show the audience an imaginary person entering. They have a short encounter with this person and show how they feel or what they might think of this person. They must also show this person leaving.
Rationale: Forces the students to slow down and concentrate on the movements. It is important to switch who is leading who as to make a fair environment in the classroom. This makes the student concentrate on what they are doing.
Game Name: Mirror, Mirror
Number of Players: Minimum two (numbers must be even)
Discipline: Movement
Form: Creative Movement
Source: First-hand experience
Instructions: Two people stand face to face. One is chosen to mimic the other person. The person mimicking them must try to become a mirror image of the person standing in front of them. After one partner leads, the roles are reversed.
Rationale: This game introduces students to miming a world around them by interacting with people who are not there. This is also good because the students begin to show the audience instead of tell the audience what they are doing or encountering.
Game Name: Statue Museum
Number of Players: Unlimited
Discipline: Movement
Form: Creative Movement
Source: Junior High Drama Curriculum
Instructions: Students place themselves around the room and freeze in a neutral state. The caller then calls out a position and all the students suddenly become whatever was called. They must remain in a frozen state only moving when a new suggestion is called. Start with generic statue poses at first; for example: Happy children, Olympic god/goddess, then move into more difficult ones.
Rationale: Is another game that slows students down. The ironic part of the movement unit is to develop the skill to not move. This game scaffolds the students by giving them easy positions to eventually more difficult ones. It also allows them to use their imaginations of what these positions might look like.
Annotated Bibliography
Buchanan, Matt. “Classroom Lesson Plans.” Children's Theatre/Creative Drama.
This is an excellent website with straightforward explanations of the games. It is a reasonably laid out format, with lots of other resources and experiences recorded here for teachers. It has a bibliography, lesson plans, curriculum, and various other points of interest. It is a good resource to visit and get ideas from.
Buesgen, Janine M. Theatre Games N.p., 1999. Web. 20 Jan. 2010.
Although this website only offers sixteen drama games, they are some incredibly good ones. They are not limited to only one specific area, ie. just movement games, and have clear descriptions with the rules, age range, number of participants, and any additional materials required. In addition to the games found on the site, it also boasts a rather extensive list of plays for performance that are laid out in a very well organized fashion. It also contains links for information on performance rights and a downloadable copy, and each play listed contains important information for the title. Some of this information includes: age range, number of characters, “censorship flags”, a synopsis, and other tidbits of information. Over-all this is a fairly useful drama resource, not only for its games but other ideas presented.
Falbo, Doug. “Movement.” Drama in the Secondary School Junior High School Curriculum Notes. Ed. Janet Casey Hildebrandt. Technical Production Printing Services, Calgary Board of Education. 1980.
This is a very clearly laid out unit booklet with themes and lessons put together. It has a number of excellent games with good instructions. It would be good to look at while designing unit plans as a format, and also has a supply of resources in the back to supplement lessons. This resource is created for Calgary Board of Education, and there is likely more in the series under different topics.
Farmer, David. Drama Resource N.p., 2007. Web. 20 Jan. 2010.
This website does not contain the most extensive list of drama games, with only two examples per listed area, but that is probably due to the fact the author of the website is trying to promote his book, 101 Drama Games and Activities. Although the website is rather lacking with numbers of games, the games that can be found are presented in a clear, understandable manner. It includes various descriptions for age range, number of participants, etc., but in addition to that, also includes learning objectives. Considering this is another drama resource site, it does not deal exclusively with games, but offers a wide variety of topics to search through such as techniques, teaching resources (like lesson plans), and links to numerous other resources/sites. Despite this not being the greatest website for finding a lot of games, as a whole it has many helpful resources to look through. If the games and activities are presented in the same manner in his book, then it would probably be a good source to look into finding/purchasing.
Lord, Patrice. “Mime”. Drama in the Secondary School Junior High School Curriculum Notes. Technical Production Printing Services, Calgary Board of Education. 1979.
This is another great resource that lays out lesson plans for a teacher. They are so simply put that a first time teacher could take it and teach from it. And it really has some interesting games that I’ve (Christine) never played.
Whiteford, Gail. “Stage Fighting.” Drama in the Secondary School Junior High School Curriculum Notes. Technical Production Printing Services, Calgary Board of Education. 1980.
If you were a teacher and you wanted to teach stage fighting, this would be the way to go. This book just lays it out for you even down to individual lessons. It also teaches how do a lot of stage fighting moves. I think I could teach this unit straight from this book, and I (Christine) have never taken stage fighting.
Annotated Bibliography- Resources on Acting
By: Colleen Trumble and Mark Ogle
1) Buchanan, Matt. Classroom Lesson Plans Tiger Technologies, n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2010.
This is a website that I first found when I was looking for lesson plan material in the class “Theatre for Young Audiences”. I really like this website because it has drama activities and lesson plans for students, elementary all the way to high school. It encompasses it all. The creator of this website also put together a list of drama resources which is again, very helpful for teachers. This website was created by a teacher and all of the activities have been used in a classroom successfully, so you know that the games will work. It also includes variations that you can use with the games to make them more challenging for the students as well and potential problems which could occur, so kind of a heads up for teachers! Another bonus is that is shows how many drama lessons could be used as cross curricular activities, which is always a bonus. Finally, this website not only has drama lesson plans, it also has lesson plans for other subjects, which is really awesome. I just chose this website in particular for this project because I really like the activities for the drama portion of the website.
2) Morton, Joy, Ron Price, and Rob Thomson. AQA GCSE DRAMA. Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers, 2001. Print.
This book is extremely helpful for nearly any form or discipline in the drama curriculum, we just happened to use it for acting in particular. It has many different activities for students as well as ways to build upon the activities. It also contains its own list of resources for teachers. It is also written by educators, so they are aware of the skills we are looking to develop and cater to that. This book is also a fairly easy read, it does not contain unnecessary complicated sentences and it organizes all of its information in a clear, concise manner. As a bonus as well, it looks like it is somewhat new, and therefore still possibly in print for us to purchase if we wanted. This book is in part written by examiners so it also has information on how to create written exams for drama, which I found very helpful. This book is more geared towards older drama students (middle school or older) however I think that many exercises could be modified for elementary if need be.
3) Baldwin, Paul and John Malone. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Acting: A Pearson Education Company, 2001.
Before your students are able to act upon the stage of stardom, they need to understand it first. This book is great as it talks about every single area of acting right from understanding what a stage is and the different areas of it to auditioning to getting your union card. This book covers all areas of theatre and probably one of the most important parts is where it talks about the parents (or in this case teacher) are being supportive and making sure the student is feeling happy and confident about him/her.
4) McCaslin, Nellie. Creative Drama in the Classroom and Beyond, Seventh Edition. Addison Wesley Longman Inc. 2000.
If you ever wondered what any of the theatre terms meant or just wanted to learn a great handful of super fantastic ideas to utilize in the classroom, this book deserves a reading. It takes every area of the curriculum and shows how you can use it effectively in the classroom. Great ideas that if done properly will work.
5) Farmer, David. 101 Drama Games and Activities. Published by Lulu 2007.
http://books.google.com/books?id=krOjNsc6CWwC&dq=acting+games&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=mddcS8m8LoXAsQOcuLXmAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=12&ved=0CDoQ6AEwCw#v=onepage&q=&f=false
This book (which I found online) is great because it covers all areas of speech, improve, acting, and are all aimed at making your classroom a comfortable, safe, and fun learning experience for all. There are breaking down barrier games such as learning names and meeting each other. He covers areas of mime and how to effectively create mime. How to create characters and even right up to moulding characters for shows and making rehearsals more fun. I think every aspiring drama teacher should have this because they could really put it to good use.
Games:
1) Who am I?
This is basically a game of charades. Organize the students into partners, have each student decide who will be A and who will be B. Once they have chosen, A’s will be told that they are the first ones to act, they will choose a profession (example, cab driver, librarian, hockey player, clown....) and they will have one minute to act out this profession for the B’s using only their bodies to portray a character. Once a minute is up, the partner’s switch so that A’s are guessing what B’s are. This game was found in the AQA GCSE DRAMA book on pg. 14 and looking at it, it could be modified in many different ways to make it more challenging or simplify it for your students. This is a good game for building acting skills because it asks for students to really think about what they need to do with their bodies to convey a certain profession to the audience when they cannot use dialogue.
2) Emotional Statues
The instructors will divide the class into pairs (numbering them off randomly). Ask each person in the pair to choose either A or B. A’s will start off this activity by being the sculptor and B’s will be the living statue. Instructors will then give students an emotion (snobbish, sneaky, angry, excited) and the students must mould their partner into this emotion, they may do this by moving their partner gently, demonstrating or communicating. They will have 30 seconds, and after this the instructors will yell “Freeze” and the statues must freeze exactly where they are and hold their position. Instructors will then invite the sculptors to take a quick walk around the room and look at the other statues. Then the students will switch, so the student who was the statue becomes the sculptor and vice versa. Instructors will then give their students a new emotion (impatient, disgusted, brave), and the students must mould their partner into this emotion, they may do this by moving their partner gently, demonstrating or communicating. In 30 seconds the instructors will yell freeze and the statues must freeze. Then the sculptors will be invited to take a quick walk around the room to admire their classmates work. This game was also found in the AQA GCSE DRAMA book on pg. 8. This is a good game for building basic acting skills because it doesn’t put any one student on the spot and it starts out with something very basic, such as creating an emotion. The instructor can point out similarities among all of the statues for the same emotions (example, clenched, tense body for anger).
3) Circle of Characters:
*note, I copied this from the website and only modified it a little bit, because it is a complicated game and I did not want to confuse anyone by trying to paraphrase it*
Each person is given an index card (or any little slip of paper will do, as long as they are all pretty much the same) on which he or she writes the name of a famous person. (Alternatively, you could have them write the name of a literary figure, or the description of a made-up character--you can set any kind of limits or guidelines you like. Make sure they show the instructor what they have written before the instructor takes the card, this is to make sure nothing inappropriate is written down or no obscure character. The instructor then collects the cards and redistributes them, so that no one receives his own. (Actually, to make the game work smoothly, it is necessary to do the distribution very carefully, but not to give away the method to the participants) Each person reads the card given her and thinks about how to "become" that character. The instructor then names a scenario. For example: "A bunch of people are gathered together at a dinner party in honour of someone's birthday. They mingle for a while, and eventually all sit down to dine around this table here, which has precisely the right number of chairs." Or: The world is about to end and these eight people are the only ones left alive. They have a spaceship which will carry them to another galaxy, but there is no guarantee that they will find a habitable planet there. They argue and go back and forth, but eventually decide to get in this rocket ship here, which has precisely the right number of seats, arranged in a circle, since it is a flying saucer." You can make up any scenario you want, but it must end with everyone sitting or standing in a circle. It works best if there is a prescribed physical place in the acting space for this circle, as in the examples above. The object of the game is this: As the actors begin playing out the prescribed scenario improvisationally, each is also searching for the person who is playing the character he or she named. The idea is to end up sitting in a circle so that each person is sitting directly behind (or directly to the right of) the person who is doing that person's character. (This is why the cards must be distributed carefully.) The game is over once everyone is seated, and if the order is wrong at that point, then the team loses, so an actor who thinks someone else has made a mistake and is sitting in the wrong place must resist sitting herself until the problem has been resolved—but she must resist in character, and appropriately to the situation. Once everyone is seated, everyone reveals their characters and it is clear whether the group has won or lost.
Pointers: Distributing the cards must be done carefully, or you may end up with several small circles instead of one big one. I suppose you could create a scenario that would allow this, but as the circles might be as small as two people (what if Bob gets Betty's character and Betty gets Bob's?) it is probably easier just to cook the distribution so that you ensure one single circle. There are lots of ways to do this. Since I know everyone's handwriting, I can recognize whose card is whose, and I just make sure that whoever gets the first card, it is that person's card I hand out second, and whoever gets that card, I hand their card out third, etc. This works, but of course it won't work if I TELL the class I'm doing it, because then everyone will be able to figure out by watching me who gets their card--it's the person I come to right after them! Probably a better way would be to arrange the order ahead of time and make a list—something like "Bob get's Betty's, Betty gets Allen's, Allen gets Marigold's, Marigold gets Eunice's, Eunice gets Arvide's, Arvide gets Bob's." If you are working from such a list (and you should make a new one for each time you play the game) you can hand the cards out in random order and still be ensured of a circle. It doesn't really matter HOW you do it--the point is to make sure you don't get any closed loops inside the circle. I mention the above two methods of ensuring this for those who (like me) tend to be math-impaired.
Scenarios:
A group of people are at an amusement park, chatting while they wait for the carousel to stop. When it does, they each select an animal to ride and get on.
A group of people has just discovered a huge treasure chest filled with gold. They may quarrel over it. As it grows dark, they decide they must guard it against theft, and the only sure way is to sleep in a circle around the chest.
A group of people are on a jury together. They have just been sent into the jury room to deliberate. They discuss the case in a haphazard way until the foreman persuades them that they should all sit down at the table.
Variations: As mentioned above, you can set any guidelines you like on the characters people may choose to write down. For example, in an English class you could have everyone write down a character from the current reading. In a History class you could have them choose historical figures you have been studying. An advanced acting class might be asked to write a single adjective or adverb--demented, loudly, frequently, etc.--which might generate some very interesting results, as well as pointing out how vague such words really are.
If you can trust your group not to be unnecessarily cruel, try this one: Have everyone write THEIR OWN NAME on their card. This way, you're looking for the person who is you! This can be extremely telling and fun for a group with the maturity to handle it!
Now I took the instructions directly from the website (childdrama) for this game because it seems like it would be a really fun and beneficial game for acting, however the instructions seem very specific, if they are not followed precisely the game would not work out, so I did not want to mess with the instructions. Being that it is complicated, I think students would have to be in at least grade 7 before attempting this game. Also, when reading through the game, it indicated that it would not work well in groups of more than ten, so if you had a drama class with more than ten, you would probably want to designate one half of the class as the audience for this game, and the other half as the actors, and then switch it up. I thought this game was related to acting because the players must maintain a character of their own while at the same time interacting with other characters and carefully observing other characters around them.
4) Card Status
To play this game you need a deck of cards, you then hand out a card to each student, letting them know they cannot show anybody. Then, you give them a scenario where a group of people gather and interact, for example, a playground, a dance, etc. Then, you tell them they have 5 minutes to try and place themselves in a line from lowest status to highest status based on the card they received (ace being the lowest, king being the highest). However, they cannot tell anybody which card they received or outright say “I have high social status”. How can you convey this acting like a regular day person? I actually played this game in theatre for young audiences, a class I took at the university, Nicholas Hanson taught it to us. I found that it is really educational to students, you really have to think about what to do with your body, your voice and your personality to convey low, medium or high social status. As such, it was interesting that when we did it, certain stereotypes immediately emerged.
5) Story Story:
Group sits in a semi-circle around the acting area. (Any space will do--it doesn’t need to be very big.) Establish an order of play, as in a board game, so everyone will know whose "turn" it is. The first player takes her place in the acting area. The second player begins to tell a story. The first player must act out the story as fully as possible, in whatever seems the best way. This can involve playing more than one character, using props--whatever they think will work best and with whatever limits the leader may choose to impose. When this has gone on for a minute or so, the instructor rings a bell, or says “ding” The first person sits down. The second person enters the acting space. The third person continues the story exactly where the second person left off, and the second person must now act it out. After a minute or so, another bell, and another rotation. Continue until the story concludes or seems to peter out, or until everyone has had several turns as storyteller and as actor. The beauty of the order of play is that each person must be the "actor" immediately after being the "narrator." This tends to prevent people from deliberately inserting difficult or embarrassing details to trip up the actor, since they know they will soon be on the receiving end.
I found this game on the childrama website as well, and I think this would be extremely beneficial because it gives every student a turn to try acting and to try narrating also it helps students to learn how to do smooth transitions between characters and scenes.
6) Greetings
Players are walking around the space. The leader of the game instructs them to meet people. They could say “greet a long lost friend, greet shyly, greet a famous person, greet someone you know a secret about, greet underwater, greet someone on the edge of a mountain, greet as a Martian” or any other idea you think could work.
7) Yes, Lets!
This game is for the whole group. You can do this by either walking around the room, or by standing in a circle. If you are in a circle it could limit movement. One person says, “Lets….” Followed by suggesting an action everyone can do. Everyone in the class responds “YES LETS!” as they all proceed to do the action. After a while, another person says “lets…” and picks another action to do. The aim is for the whole group to commit to the activity. Don’t rush too quickly from activity to activity. This is a good warm-up for improv work.
8) Create a character
On the worksheet that was handed out to you, is the basis for the create a character outline. What we gave to you is a little tid-bit but here is the rest of the worksheet. If you want the full sheet, ask John for it as this is where we got it. It’s great for showing your students the in-depth work a character needs and how you can reach a new plateau of learning and understanding for your character.
9) What are you doing?
Standing in a circle, person A comes in and starts mining an activity. Person B comes in and asks them what they are doing. Person A says something completely different from what they are actually doing. Example: Person A is eating an apple but they say they are playing the piano. Person B now takes on whatever person A said they were doing. Person A steps out of the circle and the next person steps in. This repeats until all students have had a turn.
There should be no repetition and no similar activities. For example if you are miming climbing a ladder you can’t say you are climbing the stairs. You should not also say waving good-bye if you are cleaning a window. They are too similar!
10) Rock, Paper, Anything
Students are standing in a circle. One by one the teacher picks 2 students to face off against one another in a game of Rock Paper Anything. The 2 students playing say “Rock, Paper...” and person A makes up anything they want to be as long as they can act it out. Person B does the same. Example: Person A could be acting out a butterfly by flying around the room, and person B could be acting out a slow-motion tackle on the football field. Once both students have acted out their ideas, the students remaining in the circle decide who the winner is.
Games:
1) Character, Conflict-Action!
Steps: 1. Separate into groups of three or four
2. Choose who will be the director and who will be the actor’s
3. Director will choose one character relationship and give each actor an action verb
4. The actors then improvise a scene as these characters using this
tactic
5. The Director can then change the relationship or the action and
observe
how these changes affect the scene
6. Then switch roles so that eventually everyone gets the opportunity to direct
* To make activity more difficult the director could also give the actor’s intensions (something the character wants/needs from the other character) and see how the different tactics or relations affect how the character gets what they want. *
Objective: gives students the opportunity to sit in the director’s chair, gives students an understanding of the affect that relationships and tactics have on a scene, allows students to demonstrate creativity, helps to develop vocalization skills, and develops students spontaneity.
Possible character and verb lists
Characters Verb
Siblings Doctor and Patient Threaten Charm
Friends Teacher & Student Confront Placate
Strangers Bully & Victim Intimidate Coax
Enemies Salesperson & Customer Bargain Defend
Husband & Wife Monarch & Subject Undermine Attack
Girlfriend & Boyfriend Kidnapper & Hostage Plead Flatter
Parent & Child Police Officer & Protester Make fun of Demand
Grandparent & Grandchild Player & Referee Promise Ask for forgiveness
Boss & Employee Neighbors Negotiate Belittle
2) Modeling Clay – modified
Steps: 1. Choose partners
2. Select one person to be the clay and one person to be the sculptor
3. The sculptor will begin by touching the “clay” student and molding them
into whatever they would like. The “clay” student must be relaxed and allow the sculptor to move them freely. They are not to move themselves.
4. Once the sculptor is comfortable with this they must mold the “clay” student
using only their voice (no touching or demonstration!)
Ex. Move your heels together with your toes pointing outward, place your arms next to your side and raise your hands only so your palms are parallel with the floor, jut your chin forward…you are a penguin!
5. Switch roles so that each partner gets to be the sculptor
Objective: First part of the activity breaks down physical barriers, demonstrates student creativity, and helps students construct ideas through visualization. The second part develops communication skills and the ability to give oral instructions, also develops listening skills.
3) Director’s Coming
Steps: 1. Assign one person to be the “Director”. The role of the Director is to call out the actions and dismiss the players who don’t do the actions quick enough or break from character.
2. Once the Director calls an action, each player had 3-4 seconds to start performing the action. If they don’t find a group fast enough or perform the right action, they are out of the game.
Actions:
Director’s Coming- Everyone stands in a straight line with one hand out in a giving gesture
Stage-left- Everyone runs to the left side of the room
Stage-right- Everyone runs to the right side of the room
Upstage- Everyone runs to the back of the room
Downstage- Everyone moves to the front of the room
Director’s Chair- One person must kneel on one knee and another person must sit on that person’s knee
Lights- Spin in a circle with hands alternating from fists to wide fingers resembling blinkers
Levels- Everyone needs to find a different body level then the one you were previously at
¬¬__#_¬_ Man Tableau- Need to create a tableau involving the number people that is announced
(ex. 3 man tableau is a frozen picture that involves 3 people)
Freeze- Everyone must freeze exactly where they are
Diva- Everyone must jut one hip out, put one hand on their other hip, raise the over hand to the sky, and say “I love my audience”
Objective: Gets the students active and moving, teaches students stage directions, develops listening and communication skills, allows students to demonstrate control, creativity and spontaneity.
4) Private Images
Steps: 1. Students each find own space and lie on the floor in relaxed position with eyes close.
2. Teacher asks the students to imagine a group of people out in a field having a picnic on a warm, summers day.
3. Teacher tells the students that you are going to call out some emotions and that they should imagine the effects of these emotions on the people in their private images. Stress that they are looking at these picture from a distance and cannot see faces.
4. Call out various emotions,
Possible emotions
Disgust Nervousness Depression Jealousy
Happiness Compassion Hatred
Ecstasy Love Excitement
Sadness Anxiety Fear
Anger Embarrassment Boredom
Objective: Demonstrates students’ uses of compositional methods of emphasis to convey emotion, develops listening skills, allows students to explore their creativity, calms and centers students
Theme Tableaux
• Listening
• Co-operation
• Trust
This game focuses on listening, working as a group and being able to create an overall picture to express a theme to the audience.
1. Inform students that they will be using tableaux's to convey a theme to an audience
2. Split the class into groups of 4-5 depending on class size
3. Each student will take turns being the director, actor and audience
4. Director will receive a theme from the teacher for example jealously and will create a picture using their actors to convey that message to the audience.
5. The audience member in the group will give constructive criticism to the director about their picture and what it conveys.
6. Students rotate and receive a new theme each time
7. Differentiation: Create more than one tableaux with the same theme to work on creating a variety of stage pictures.
Gorilla Theatre
• Listening
• Co-operation
This game focuses students side coaching and leading their actors in a positive direction to create a scene that has a beginning, middle and end. The emphasis should be on the directing choices and effectiveness and not the acting.
1. Separate the class into groups of 3-4max.
2. One student will be the director and the rest will be actors within the scene.
3. The director begins by choosing a setting or game that they would like their actors to perform. Students can self generate settings/games or they can be provided by the teacher.
4. As the scene progresses the director directs the scene, gives the players side-coaching, can interrupt the scene at any time, introduce tilts or make the players repeat (part of) the scene in order to accomplish the vision the director had in mind.
5. The director must pay close attention to their actors to determine where they need to advance the scene to and the actors must listen to director's coaching and follow through with instructions.
6. This format can be played with or without attributes and props.
7. This is a fairly advanced format, as the players not only need to play well, they also need enough insight to effectively direct scenes. This is also a rather nice format, as players are not rewarded; 2 players playing well together generate a banana for the director, and this way the format prevents competition between the players.
8. Rotate through groups so everybody has a chance to act and direct.
9. Differentiation: Have students pick actions, relationships or verbs from a hat that they need their actors to accomplish during the scene.
Director’s Cut
• Listening
• Cooperation
• Accepting
1. Separate into groups of 3 or 4.
2. One person will be the director in the scene.
3. The group is given a movie title or genre to begin.
4. The group then begins improving the scene.
5. At any point the director may stop the actors and have them redo the scene. The director could alter the genre at this point, or give the characters an emotion or intention.
6. The director can do this many times throughout the scene.
Objective: a good introduction to acting. Allows students to experiment in a fun way. Shows the benefits behind taking risks.
Blind Voice
• Listening
• Cooperation
• Communication
1. This game is played with four people.
2. Two will be the actors, and two will be the voices.
3. The two actors will act out a scene while the other two people act as their voices.
4. The voices will not be able to see the actors. They will close their eyes or hide offstage where they cannot see the actors.
5. The group will be given a situation or setting.
6. The voices carry out a conversation as the actors portray it onstage.
Objective: The actors must listen closely to what is being said in order to correctly portray what is being said onstage.
Theme Line
• Spontaneity
• Listening
• Cooperation
1. All of the players form a line onstage.
2. They are given suggestions like love, hate, first dates or other broad concepts.
3. The players must simply say the first thing that comes to their mind.
4. To make this game slightly more difficult have the students say the opposite of the suggestion.
Objective: students release their inhibitions. Puts them into a state of mind to take risks and make connections they might not normally.
Character Obstacle Course
• Raising the stakes
• Team work
• Story
1. This game can be played with any number of people.
2. One player will be given a character and a task to achieve.
3. This player will begin a scene.
4. As the character moves toward their objective obstacles will be thrown in their path. These obstacles can be in the form of people, objects or circumstances, i.e. a car breaking down.
5. The character must find a way to overcome these obstacles to meet their objective.
6. The other members of the class may enter the scene at any time to offer help or hinderence.
*Modification: to use this when directing a scene simply have the student play the game as their character from their scene or script.
Objective: students must justify their choices, much like they must do as actors. It allows students to work as a team to solve problems
References
Boal, Augusto, translated Adrian Jackson. Games For Actors and Non-Actors. Routledge. London. 1992.
Games For Actors and Non-Actors: This book is a great resource for finding drama activities. The beginning of the book just talks about theatre of the oppressed which unless you are teaching it will not be as valuable. The middle of the book contains all the activities. It breaks the activities into different sections: what we touch, what we hear, what we sense, what we see, and what we remember. These sections are broken down further into specific target areas such as walks, rhythm, integration etc. Each section provides a brief explanation of the section and its importance/objective. The instructions are easy to follow and many of the activities could be modified to meet any of your needs.
Cassady, Marsh.(1993). Acting Games: improvisations and exercises. Colorado Springs, CO: Meriwether Publishing Ltd.
This book had some interesting activities. The book is broken down into four parts. There are some useful activities in this book but the reader will have to look for them. There is a lot of exposition. If you have the time this book can be very useful, but if is not a quick reference for games.
Dean, Alexander and Lawrence Carra. Fundamentals of Play Directing. Revised Edition. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1965.
This book is a helpful resource because it is referenced in our curriculum support for senior high drama for the directing unit in drama 30. The book is referenced for it's exercises that work on specific objectives required for Drama 30 directing. The chapters are broken into Introduction, The Actor, The Five Fundamentals of Play Directing, Central Staging, and Production Producer. The book is a long read but each chapter is broken down into it's sub categories so you can easily find the topic you want to read.
This book is a wonderful resource for teaching directing because it has exercises in the book after each topic that explains how to successfully teach and learn what you just read about. The long readings are justified with examples of how to implement the readings.
Johnson, Margaret. The Drama Teacher’s Survival Guide: a complete tool kit for theatre arts. Colorado Springs, CO: Meriwether Publishing Ltd.
The Drama Teacher’s Survival Guide is a great resource. It breaks down all of the elements included in creating a production. It has very realistic ideas about creating theatre in high schools. It has many simple suggestions for working on a small budget. There are also forms in the back of the book including checklists, character analysis and many more that the author has given permission to reproduce.
Mitchell, Katie. The Director’s Craft: A Handbook for the Theatre. Routledge. New York. 2009.
The Director’s Craft: This book is a great resource for understanding the role of a director and the process a director goes through from interpreting the script, to how to run rehearsals, to preparing for opening night. There is a lot of author commentary and sometimes it is difficult to find the key points. It’s not a hard read but it may be a lot for a high school student to read independently. Every section does have great summaries that could be useful for educating students though. It gives a great overview of all aspects of directing.
Wilson, Edwin. The Theatre Experience. Eighth Edition. Montreal: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 2001.
This book is a helpful resource for drama teachers because it provides an in depth look into the audience, performers and directors, types of theatre, dramatic structure, dramatic characters, and design. It is a good read that will brush you up on your theatre history knowledge and contains everything you will need to teach drama. It is a long read with a lot of information but breaks it up using pictures with a rationale for each and summaries at the end of each chapter that includes resources to search theatre on the internet. This book is referenced in the curriculum
One feature that is handy are the appendices that review technical terms, major theatrical forms and movements and a historical outline. As a teacher you will have every definition possible on hand for when it is needed in the classroom.
Speech
Games
1. “Pass the Hah”: Divide the class in half. Have the groups stand on opposite sides of the classroom, facing each other. One student will start by projecting the word “hah” using their diaphragm. The person across from them (on the other side of the room) will catch their “hah” and send one back to the other side of the room. This will continue until everyone has had the chance to receive and send a “hah”.
Objective: The aim of the game is to use your diaphragm to project your voice. It teaches proper breathing techniques the skill of voice projection.
2. “Speak in Synch”: Students will each find a partner. They will stand or sit facing their partner and they will begin to speak. The goal is to have the two people speaking at the same time saying the same thing without designating a leader.
Objective: Students will practice speaking in unison (choral speech). They will also demonstrate teamwork and the importance of eye contact.
3. “Emotional Characters”: Students are put into groups of two and given an excerpt from a script. Each partner will be assigned a different emotion (ie. happy, sad, angry). The partners will read through the script together (no acting), each portraying their emotion through their voice alone. A variation could include the partners each drawing an emotion from a hat and not telling the other person. After reading their script each student will guess what their partner’s emotion was.
Objective: The aim of the game is to teach students how to portray different or varying emotions through the use of their voice.
4. “Tongue Twisters”: By having students repeat or read tongue twisters aloud they are effectively warming up their vocal cords and practicing enunciation and articulation. To make this more difficult, students can start off slow and gradually increase the pace of the tongue twisters. Variation: make up your own tongue twisters using your name or the first letter of your name (could be good as a name game).
Objective: This exercise warms up the vocal cords, and helps with enunciation and articulation skills.
5. “Random Sound Story”: Students are divided into small groups. Each person of group will randomly select a sound out of a hat. Each person will then perform their sound effect to their group members. The sequence they performed their sound effects will be the sequence they use to create a story. The story must contain all sound effects and the sound effects must only be used in that same sequence. Once each sound effect is used in the story the students can either keep adding sentences to their story (using the sound effects in the same sequence) or they can act their story out.
Objectives: Students will practice using their voice to create different sounds. They will work together to create a story.
6. “Location Mystery”: Students are divided into small groups. Each group thinks of a location (ie. jungle, beach, city street, mountains, a hospital, a school, etc.) and does not let any other group know what they have chosen. They will have time to think of and practice making sounds that will work together to give clues to the other groups as to where their chosen location is. Some students may chose to have more than one individual making the same sound.
Objective: The aim of the game is to use individual voices as well as group voices to create new sounds.
7. “Relax and Tense”: Students will lay on the floor in their own personal space. Starting from their feet, up to the head the student will tense and release each part of their body (isolated) as prompted by the teacher. This is done until the muscles in the whole body and face have been tensed.
Objective: This helps the students to feel and understand the difference between being in a tense state and a relaxed state and how the body and voice work together to produce speech.
8. “Sound Pictures”: The leader or one member of the class acts as conductor, while the rest of the group are the “orchestra”. Using their voices (and body percussion if appropriate), the group paints a sound picture of a particular theme (ie. the seaside, a city, a jungle). The leader controls the shape of the piece by raising their hand to increase the volume or bringing it to touch the floor for silence. One way to do this is to allow everybody to choose their own sound (discuss what types of sound might be appropriate before you start). Or, if it is a very large group, or very lively, you can divide the participants into sections, giving a particular sound for each section, then conduct them accordingly. The group should bear in mind contrasting and complementary sounds and try to be aware of natural peaks and troughs in the piece – or the conductor can try to create these. Sound pictures can easily be used as part of an improvisation or performance.
Objective: The aim of the game is to teach students how to make sound effects using their voice. If conducting groups of people making the same sound it focuses on speaking in unison (choral speaking) and teamwork.
9. “Haha Game”: *Easiest with groups of four*. Students will be divided into groups. Students will all lie down on the floor in a circle. Each student will have their head on the stomach of the person beside them. The first person will start by saying “Ha” pushing the word from their diaphragm. The next person will say “Ha ha”, next “ha ha ha”. This will carry on, each person adding one “ha”. If the group begins to laugh the game will have to start over.
Objectives: This game focuses on the importance of the use of your diaphragm to project sound.
10. “Story Theatre Exercise”: Students will begin sitting in a large circle. The game will start with one student in the middle narrating their own actions. The other students will slowly join (not all at once) narrating their actions as well until all students are a part of the ongoing story. It is important that students work together to create one fluid story.
Objectives: This activity focuses on the use of storytelling and speaking in turn. The students will work on rhythm and timing of their voice among the voices of their peers. It is also an activity in teamwork.
Annotated Bibliography
This website provides games in all areas, and we were able to find great games that related to sound and speech including storytelling games. The website also has links to lesson plans for elementary, Jr. High, and high school. The website was also really simple to navigate your way through.
2. Harris, Susan J. (1979). Drama In The Secondary School: Radio Play. Calgary, Alberta: Technical Production Printing Services.
This resource is a complete Radio Play unit that includes lesson plans, activities, and radio scripts. The resource has lots of good notes on how to make sound effects and character voices. The resource is easy to read and navigate through. The whole unit is broken down into lessons that build upon each other. Each lesson clearly outlines the objectives, materials needed, and has additional comments at the end that would be helpful if teaching the lesson.
3. Shepard, Aaron. (1993). Stories On Stage: Scripts for Reader's Theatre. The H.W. Wilson Company.
This is a good resource for finding scripts that you can use when teaching a Reader’s Theatre unit. The book does not go into detail about the scripts or how to use them in your class however there are twenty two scripts to choose from in the book. Each script is broken down in the table of contents to tell reader the genre, culture, theme, grade level, number of roles, and timing of the script.
4. Linklater, Kristin. (1976). Freeing the Natural Voice. Hollywood, California: Drama Publishers.
This book is a technical voice resource book. It includes a series of exercises to develop and strengthen the voice. Is a good resource for students as well as teachers. The book is long but is an easy read as most of the book outlines exercises. Each chapter has a theme and the exercises are examples of that topic.
5. Games and Activities for Student Storytellers. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.sbac.edu/~media/storytelling_games.htm
This website provides games and activities for student story tellers. The organization of the website wasn’t great and the instructions were vague. The website has a variety of games for different drama disciplines. Some games could be used for elementary, some for Jr. High, and some for high school.
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