Drama activities
Becoming character
Statues
Staying in character can be difficult for young actors, especially when they are first learning
about acting and don't necessarily understand characterization. This game may seem like a
fun, competitive game, but it teaches students the importance of taking on a character and not
"breaking" it.
1. Have the students choose a spot on stage. They should be facing the audience area, as
this is an important lesson to learn in acting overall.
2. Tell the students to assume the pose of a statue. They can be a noble statue, a silly
statue, or whatever type of statue they want. They must stay standing with their eyes
open (allowing for blinking, of course).
3. When everyone is in place, they must freeze as statues. It now becomes a challenge to
see who is the last person to move. As the teacher, you walk around the stage, looking
for people who break character by moving or adjusting. When you catch someone
moving, they go sit in the audience. The last person standing as a statue is the winner.
If you find that the game is taking a little longer than you thought, you can start making silly
faces or doing other things to try to make the kids break character.
Concentration/cooling down
Guard the keys:
One student sits in the centre with a blind fold on. Put a set of keys with the
student.
The student needs to guard the keys, while the other students one by one try to
steal the keys without being heard. If the person hears them they have to turn back.
Energy
Doctor's Surgery
There's only one spare seat in the waiting room and nobody wants you to sit in it! A great
energy game promoting teamwork.
Students will need chairs and be sat in a circle.
The idea is that we are all in a ‘Doctor’s surgery’ sat in the waiting lounge on our chairs.
Place one student in the middle so there is one spare chair.
The student in the middle wants to sit down but the students on their chairs won’t let them.
As soon as the student in the middle tries to sit down the person next to the chair sits on it,
and the new empty chair is filled by the student next to them and so on (all one way.)
Seated students can only fill the chair next to them in a sequence.
Boss chair
There's a team of people who have to follow the instructions of the boss. The boss will try to
sit down. The others will try to prevent this by moving the chair around. If the time’s up and
the boss doesn’t sit down than the others have won the game.
Follow the leader
Ask everyone to stand and arrange the group into a circle, facing inwards. Do a practice
round where everyone starts doing a movement and when the teacher changes the
movement everyone must follow.
Ask one person to leave the room for a minute. This person will be the guesser for the
round. While he or she is gone, the group decides who should be the “leader.” The leader
will be the one who sets the movements for that round. When this person is chosen, invite
the guesser to come back. The guesser stands in the very center of the circle.
When the round begins, everyone starts swinging their arms up and down. The leader will
eventually begin to do other movements, and everyone else mimics the leader’s actions,
without being too obvious to reveal who the leader is. The leader can do just about anything
he or she wants, such as:
(Clapping, making a kicking motion with his or her leg, jumping up and down, singing a line
from a song, patting his or her own head, a dance move)
Imagination
ANIMAL SCENES
Players find a partner; partners separate and run around. The leader calls out a phrase and
the players must find their partner and depict the scene. The last pair to depict the scene is
out.
Examples:
•Frog on a log: One student gets down on all fours (log) and the frog sits gently on their
back.
•Bird on a perch: One student gets down on one knee (perch) and the bird sits on the
perch.
•Lion in a den: One person stands with their feet a part (den) and the lion lies down on the
floor.
Lifter or bus
The lifter: One student sits in a car. The other students are lifters. When a student enters
the car all the people in the car take over the character of the one student until everyone
has entered and exited the car.
Variation: car becomes a bus and whole class is in the bus.
Projection games
Bean Bags
Use bean bags to illustrate the importance of voice projection to students. Have the students
sit next to each other in a horizontal row. Walk 15 feet in front of the row and place a bean
bag on the floor. Place the next one 25 feet away and the third one 45 feet away. Direct each
child to take a turn stating his name and the name of his favorite food while looking at the
first bean bag. Repeat the exercise while they each look at the second and the third bean bag.
Children naturally raise their voices when speaking to objects placed farther away. When
finished, tell them they just played a part to the second, fourth and seventh row of a theater
audience. Discuss the importance of projecting voices to be sure everyone in the theater will
be able to hear them.
Sentences
Practice diction by having students play the funny sentence game. The first child stands and
is told to repeat the sentence, "My puppy jumped into the hole and I had to pull him out!"
Have the second child stand and repeat the sentence but tell him he must use a different
voice, while remaining understandable. Each child in the class stands and repeats the
sentence using a different voice, pitch and volume. This game illustrates the importance of
diction as they work to be understood even though they are using different tones, voices and
volumes.
Changing
One at a time, each student stands in front of the class with his back turned to the students.
He is given a card with a famous quote written on it. Direct him to speak the quote on his
card in a normal volume voice using the clearest diction possible. Seated students write down
what they believe they heard and give their answers to the teacher. The speaking student gets
one point for each student who correctly heard and wrote the quote down. All students get a
chance at the front of the class. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins
a prize.
Vocal elements
High and low pitch
Tell a story with a lot of different voices. All the students stand on a line and listen. If you
use a high pitched voice the students in the high line have to catch the low line. And vice
versa. When a child is caught he has to change lines.
Warming up
7 up
In a circle, everyone counts to 7 while waving one arm up and down to the same
rhythm as the counting. When the group reaches 7, do the same thing with the
other arm, both legs, head and ankles (or whatever part of the body you want to
warm up – make sure if you do the head, it is carefully). After the group has finished
their sets of 7, do them all again, counting up to 6, then 5 and so on until the set is
down to 1, 1, 1, 1, 1.
Alien Tiger Cow
In a circle, teach and practice 3 actions/sounds
ALIEN: index fingers on head (like antenna’s) and say “bleep bleep” TIGER: right hand
forward making a clawing action and “roar” COW: hands on stomach with 2 fingers
pointing out (like an udder), leaning forward and saying “moo”
On the teacher’s cue, each student decides to become 1 of the 3 (either an alien, tiger or
cow). The group with the least number of students is out and must sit in the middle of the
circle (e.g. 10 aliens, 7 tigers and 5 cows – the cows would be out).
Variation: Also in a circle, the objective is for everyone to become the same thing at the
same time. On the teacher’s cue, students become either an alien, tiger or cow. Keep
practicing until everyone is in sync – this won’t happen straight away.
Trust – Working together
MINEFIELD (BLINDFOLDED LEAD ACTIVITY)
A trust building activity that also helps students with listening to and giving ‘stage directions’
Teacher sets up a minefield by scattering objects over the floor (books, bags, pencils,
scrunched up paper etc... nothing dangerous of course). Students may like to help setting up
the obstacle course. You can call the objects “mines”.
In pairs, students will direct their blindfolded partner around the minefield using “stage
directions” (so voices only). They should try to get from one side of the room to another
without touching any mines. If there are too many students to do this at the same time, split
the class into groups and have the others form an audience. Ask students to listen for “good
stage directions”.
Alternative: The whole class directs one blindfolded student through the obstacle course,
taking it in turns to say one command each.
Teacher may need to prompt students with example commands:
Take 4 small steps forward Take 1 large step to your right
Extension: Students have to sit down if they step on something.
Body Awareness
Mirror Dance
This game also needs students to find a single partner. Partners should face each other and
establish a boundary line between them. That boundary serves as the surface plane of the
mirror. At your signal, students should do their best to exactly match the movement of the
other in the mirror. Have one student (student A) start leading and then, after a few minutes,
switch leadership to student B. Switch back and forth a few times with diminishing periods
and eventually let them share leadership. As with Fork and Knife, this game is best played
without talking.
Insider Tips:
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If you find students having trouble keeping up with their partners, strongly suggest
that they slow down—the point is to move in synch with each other, as images in a
mirror would.
Encourage students to experiment. What happens if they vary their facial expressions
as well as their gestures? What if they move away from the mirror? Or get down on
the ground?
Playing music in the background can help set the mood and get the kids more into a
non-verbal space. Experiment with types of music: more meditative, soothing tones
will slow the group down, more energetic and upbeat rhythms may call out bolder
configurations.
Space Walk
This super-adaptable exercise gets kids moving and thinking with their bodies. It also makes
a great warm-up for writing. Clear out a good-sized open space in which everyone can move
around. Invite students to walk comfortably through the space paying attention to their own
experience: they can notice their breathing, their feet hitting the floor, their pace and so on.
Let them know you’ll give instructions as they keep moving in a random pattern through the
available space.From there, suggest different modes of “walking.” Walk as if the floor is
covered with jello, glue, peanut butter, or sand. Walk as if they were wading through ankledeep, knee-deep, or chest-deep water. Move as if they were on ice. Or try different types of
“clothes.” Walk as if you had on boots or Mercury’s winged shoes or wheelies. Try different
ages, from toddler to geezer, or different emotions, from eager or anxious to dreary or
jealous. What happens if they try different ways of making contact with each other? Or if
they use different statuses as they approach? What happens if they freeze and unfreeze? The
possibilities are endless.
Insider Tips:
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Suggest that students mix up how they’re moving around. If they’re tending toward
the outside, head to the center. If they’re walking clockwise, try counter-clockwise.
Folks should stay in motion: look for a space that needs filling and go there.
Every now and then, go back to a neutral, “normal” walk—the contrast can prove
insightful.