Games
Here is a summary of the visual theatre games that we played last week. I'm sure I'm going to
miss a few:
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"0" or NEUTRAL: All theatre/dance begins in a neutral position. The actor stands
straight, hands and arms relaxed and to the side with feet space at shoulder width. This
technique is also a good classroom management technique. Begin each game or each
activity in a circle in neutral position or "0."
NAME GAME: Each person gives their name and their name sign. The group practices
the name signs. Once everyone knows each other's name sign, a volunteer goes into the
center. The center person approaches someone in the circle and tries to tag the person
before they give another person's name sign. Here are the rules for going into the
middle: tap the person; the person gives their own name sign; the person gives the
name sign of the person in the middle, the person bungles a name sign.
BIG/LITTLE: See the Quest MATI materials for this description. There are many variations
that you can do with this game.
EMOTIONS GAME: Students physicalize emotions presented to them on flash cards (also
fingerspelled and signed)
EMOTIONAL SYMPHONY: One person is the conductor. Other people phsyicalize given
emotions and follow the conductor to express the degree of their emotion
ENVIRONMENTS: Give the participants an environment and they must move in that
environment until the instructor signs "freeze." (See MATI materials for details.)
ENVIRONMENTS VARIATION: Play Big/Little. For big, the students become trees. One
person becomes the environmental stiumulus - sun, hot sun, rain, pouring rain, snow,
snow storm, etc. The trees must respond appropriately. (See MATI materials for details.)
GREETINGS/EMOTIONS: Each person is given an emotion and greets others with that
emotion. Others must respond appropriately based on their given emotion
TABLEAUS 1-2-3: See the MATI materials for instructions
MASK: Make a mask with your face. Show the mask. Find someone. Throw the mask
with your face. The person you are looking at must catch the mask with their face. They
then remove the mask and repeat the process. (See MATI materials for details.)
POINT IN SPACE: Participants are given an magical invisible dot. They can place the dot
anywhere and then remove their hand, look at the spot, move around, pick the dot up,
put it in another spot and repeat the process. [NOTE: The "arrest" or stop is very
important in this exercise.]
POINTS IN SPACE VARIATION: The magical dots can tear apart to make 2 dots, 3 dots, 4
dots, etc. The participants repeat the process above, but now using the multiple dots.
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After the participants practice 2 dots, ask them to create an object that is a line. After
the participants have played with placing 3 dots, ask them to make a triangle. With 4
dots, they can create things that are square or things that are rectangular.
FUN WITH FABRIC - OBJECT TRANSFORMATION: With a piece of fabric, ask the students
to take turns to create things, animals, or characters with the fabric.
FUN WTH FABRIC - CHARACTERS: Each student has a piece of fabric. Each student must
create two characters using the characters. After a few minutes, the students do a
character parade. They go through the parade twice presenting each character. Ask
them to chose one of the characters. Divide them into groups, if you have a large
enough class. Give them a situation that they must act out without signs or speaking and
where they must use their characters in the scene.
FUN WITH FABRIC - ABSTRACT MOVEMENT: Students divide into pairs. Each pair
explores ways to move the fabric. They should not talk or sign, but pay attention to each
other to create the movement. Each group should share their work with others.
Depending on how many students you have, have them start working in larger groups
with additional fabric.
FUN WITH FABRIC - MAKING THINGS: Using fabric, the students create a tree, house,
car, etc. Have the students step out to see their creation or take a photo of their
creation.
TELEPHONE TAG: Students stand in a line. One is facing the presenter, the others are
facing away. The presenter gives a series of gestures to the first person in line. That
person turns taps the next person in line and shares the gesture sequence to the next
person. Repeat the process until the end.
FABLES TABLEAUS: See the MATI guide for instructions
PICTURE TABLEAUS: Using a picture as a starting point, the participants must create a
tableau depicting that picture.
NURSERY RYHMS -STYLIZED: Once the students have created a piece, they can play with
it by asking them to perform it in different styles: Western, opera, jazz, etc
HITCHHIKER: You can use a 2 person or 4 person version for this game. Set up chairs for
the "car." The driver picks up a hitchhiker. The hitchhiker is given a specific emotion. The
driver and other passengers must adapt to the hitchhiker's emotion. Everyone must
attend to how the driver drives the car. Repeat the process with new hitchhikers and
new emotions.
ELECTRICITY: The students stand in a circle and hold hands. The teacher squeezes the
hand of the person next to her or him. That person must squeeze the next person's
hand until the "pulse" returns to the teacher. There are many variations of this game. A
double pump of the hand reverses the direction. You could have two pulses going at the
same time. "Yes/No" is another way to play the game. Yes, goes one way. No reverses it
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until someone says Yes. You can use balls to pass the pulse. For young children,
everyone can sit on the ground in a circle with their legs extended. Their feet should
touch to make an enclosed circle. The students roll the ball to each taking care that the
ball is sent and received. Another variation is similar to what Shelby did in her lesson.
The participants stand in circle and randomly count off creating a sequence. You can
pass the ball or gesture through this sequence, but must stop and start over if the
sequence falls apart. "Zip/Zap/Zop" is a very high level variation of ELECTRICITY. We can
play that some time for fun.
MACHINE: One person starts by creating a movement. One by one, participants join
"connecting" to the previous person's movement while creating their own. Speed up
and slow down the machine. Give the machine an age and an emotion. You can also ask
the students to create "real" machines or objects.
NEGATIVE SPACE: One person creates a shape with their body. A second person must
"connect" to a negative space created by the first person. The first person "melts" out of
the connection, studies the second person's shape and connects to their negative space.
Repeat the process. You can expand this process until you include the whole class.
Feedback
The feedback process is critical to arts education and critical to linking the arts
integration activities to the curriculum. It is important for the students who have just
shared/performed to stand before their peers to receive their critique. It is very important that
the performers only listen and do not respond. The critiques should be positive and specific.
Responders should use both arts terms and content terms in their comments. "I liked it," is not
an acceptable critique. "I liked it because the group used levels very well. The focus was clear.
They clearly depicted the suffering during the 'Trail of Tears'." Using the feedback process helps
the students develop a critical eye, gives them practice in providing concise, appropriate
feedback. It also helps students listen to and accept criticism.