Time: 10-20 minutes
Activity 1 - Santa's Grotto
Set Up: 4 chairs, 1 for Santa
3 for Santa's visitors.
Action
Example Characters:
The Rules:
Notes:
(Variation on “Surprise Guests”)
1. One person volunteers to play Santa. Santa leaves the room.
2. Three performers volunteer to be mystery visitors at Santa's Grotto.
3. Encourage the class to generate creative suggestions as to who they could be; the more outlandish the
better!
4. Within each character must be an idea that they are missing something that Santa could give them for
Christmas.
•
•
•
•
An astronaut without any bones
A cowboy who has lost his horse
A overworked teacher, snowed under by reports
A child who is scared of sweets
1. Once the identity of the visitors have been established, Santa returns and the improv game begins.
2. First, Santa mimes preparing the Grotto. With less experienced students, teacher can go in-role as
Santa's helper elf. Encourage more experienced students to break the 4th wall and engage with the
audience. The first visitor "knocks" on the door. Santa’s elf lets the visitor inside and they begin to
interact. The visitor sits on the chair next to Santa and begins to give clues, in-role, that will help Santa
identify what their character is and what present to give. Santa may be played in a variety of ways, eg:
very genuine sort of way (think Miracle on 34th Street), or as a disgruntled mall Santa (as in A Christmas
Story)
3. Teacher in-role-as-elf brings in a new visitor every minute, so that in a very quick amount of time Santa
will be interacting with three different visitors (and the visitors will also interact with each other.
4. Santa wants to figure out the identity of each of the visitors. Once the visitor has been identified, Santa
moves on to the next person in line.
• In order to make the improv game more dynamic, Santa should feel free to move from his/her chair,
taking the characters to see his workshop, sleigh, or reindeer barn.
• The visitors should offer discreet clues that become more and more obvious as the improv game
continues.
• This isn't just a guessing game, to get the characters as quickly as possible. The main point of the
activity is to generate humor and to develop quirky, unusual characters. Even when Santa knows the
character, more fun can be had by exploring the situation than by guessing out loud immediately.
• Have fun! And remember, this and any other explanation of an improv game is just a blue print. Feel
free to add your own style to make it work best for your drama classroom.
Activity 2 - Christmas is Cancelled
Time: 20-40 minutes
(Variation on “Alibis”)
1.
Set Up:
2.
3.
1.
2.
Action:
3.
4.
5.
Example Questions
Class separates into pairs, with any remainders making groups of 3 or joining the teacher in-role as the police
chief and officers
Students give themselves an elf name and devise an account of their activities between 5pm, when they
finished work last night, and 11pm, when they were counted into bed. Spend no more than 10 minutes
allowing the elf pairs to come up with their stories.
Then create the interrogation room. Students can volunteer to be guards.
The first pair is summoned in by the police chief (teacher or student in role). One of the pair is led out of
earshot by a trusted student in-role as guard. The remaining partner is questioned (no more than 10 questions)
by the class.
When 10 questions have been asked, the guard brings the 2nd elf in and removes the 1st. The second elf is
interrogated with the same questions.
•
•
•
•
•
Where did you go directly after work?
Was your partner wearing gloves?
Did you see Glitter the elf at all, last night?
What transport did you take?
What did you have to eat?
•
Encourage the elves to come up with as much detail as they can about the who/where/what of their alibi.
Teacher can give examples of the type of alibis preferred.
Each questioner is responsible for remembering their own question, as they will be asking the same question to
the other elf when the pair swaps over (asking questions in order around the circle works well). Teacher should
monitor the quality and propriety of the questions, assisting and recording questions where necessary.
The aim is to ask questions which reveal inconsistencies in the elves’ story. Teacher keeps count of how many of
the elves' answers didn't match up.
The teacher can lead the first general questions, asking the elves their names and rough whereabouts last night.
Students can then ask more probing questions.
We hope you enjoy playing these games as much as we do. I have found the groups get better at them and
make creative additions to the drama every year!
•
Notes:
Teacher announces, with gravity, that Christmas has been cancelled this year. (being sensitive to the age and
needs of the class)
There has been a serious incident at The North Pole. One of Father Christmas' worker elves, “Tinsel” was found
this morning, upside-down in a vat of glitter glue. The LAPD (Lapland police) have been called in and are
investigating the crime scene. All the elves are to be questioned.
Because elves are notoriously mischievous, Father Christmas pairs them up to keep an eye on each other. That
way, when one is questioned, their stories can be checked by questioning their partner separately.
•
•
•