Theatre Games

Word Ball
great for: concentration
number of students: 10-20
age group: 8 & up

This word-association game is a great focusing exercise, to get your students to think, listen and pay attention.

Students stand up in a circle. The first student holds an imaginary ball in her hands. She tosses the "ball" to another student in the circle, while saying the first word that comes to mind… for example, "flower." The student who "catches" the ball then says the first word that comes to mind, for example, "garden." The students continue, tossing the ball and making word associations. Make sure to have new beginning words on hand incase students get off track or confused, it's ok to say a new word when the word becomes to difficult.

What Are You Doing?
great for: energy
number of students: 10-20
age group: 8 & up

This particular game is a silly one that students will love to participate in. The students stand in a circle. The first student begins by miming an action or activity, such as playing golf. The student to his right asks, "What are you doing?" and the first student replies with something random, such as "I'm shaving." The second student must then adopt that action (in this case, shaving) while the third student asks, "What are you doing?" and then that student answers with something random, such as, "Dancing the hula." The game continues until you get back around to the first student. The objective is to get the energy flowing in the room, or to let out some sillyness.

The Mirror Game
great for: mimicking, miming
number of students: any, but in pairs of 2
age group: 8 and up

This staple of drama classes is often overlooked in favor of newer games, but for your new drama students, this classic acting game can be fresh and fun.

Divide your class into pairs. Choose one person in each pair to lead; the other will follow. Students sit facing each other, and the leader begins large, slow movements that the follower will imitate, as if the leader is their own reflection in a mirror. After a minute or two, switch.

Music Box
great for: teamwork, energy
number of students: 5-15
age group: 10 and up

This game can be a fun addition to your vocal warmups, as well as a way to focus your students.
Students sit or stand in a circle, heads down, eyes closed. One person begins by making a repetitive sound, such as "dum, dum, dum, dum." The student continues making the sound, as students chime in at random, adding their own sounds, humming, vocalizing, whistling, etc. until the room is filled with sound. When the music box reaches its peak, the first person winds down and stops, with the rest of the students following, until it is silent once again.


ANYTHING FABRIC
great for: creativy, improvisation, imagination
Number of students: 5-20
age group: 5 and up
Materials: A piece of fabric, about a yard square, solid color or pattern

This game stimulates imagination by encouraging multiple answers for the same question.

Participants stand in a circle. The leader shows the fabric to the participants, saying "What could this piece of fabric be? We’re going to pass it around the circle and each of you will show us something that it could become." The leader demonstrates, turning the fabric into something (for suggestions, see list below) and stating what it is. The fabric is passed from person to person, with each participant sharing an idea. If an idea is repeated, such as "a hat", the leader asks the participant to be more specific (a turban, a bonnet), thereby making the participant come up with their own idea. If the number of participants is small enough, the fabric can travel around the circle twice. A variation on this game is to limit the ideas to a category such as clothing, or things that are the color of the fabric.
Notes: Here are some of the answers to the question, although the possibilities are endless.
A Superman cape
A Diaper
A Magic carpet
A Flag
A Picnic blanket
A Dog’s leash
A Toga ("One of those things they wore in Greece" was the original description)
A Leg cast
A Wig


BLOB (SIMPLE)
great for: teamwork
number of students: 5-30, depending on space, but works better with more people
age group: 7 and up
Materials: Enough enclosed space to accommodate the number of participants

*The blob tries to assimilate everyone, and everyone tries to avoid assimilation.

Participants spread out in an enclosed area and the Blob is chosen. At the leader’s signal, the Blob begins trying to tag another participant. When the Blob succeeds in tagging a participant, that person latches on to the Blob, becoming part of the Blob. The Blob continues to try to tag others, and as they get tagged, they also join the Blob. Eventually, everyone is the Blob, and there is no one left to be tagged. Encourage both groups of participants as they try to avoid or assimilate, and remember that the last person to be tagged by the Blob is not the "winner" and the first person to be tagged is not the "loser". The objectives for the Blob and the non-blobs should prevent the participants from thinking of this. The group will probably ask to play again, and because this is a fairly short game, there should be time to repeat the game. The second time, encourage the Blob to work together to find better ways to tag people, and the non-blobs to discover original ways to avoid the Blob.

Notes: Make sure that any obstacles that could cause a fall are removed before playing this game.


EMOTION PARTY
great for: Improvisation
number of students: 5-15
age group: 10 and up

Explanation: The host of a party and the guests acquire the emotional state of whoever enters the party.

One person begins, as the host, with a neutral emotion. The first guest knocks or rings the bell (saying "knock-knock" or "ding-dong"), and enters in highly charged emotional state. Emotions that work well with this exercise include, excitement, fear, anger, jealousy, joy, sadness, etc. As soon as the host picks up on the emotion, she "catches" it, and interacts with the guest. The next guest enters with a different emotion, and the host and guest "catch" it. Things get more chaotic as more guests enter, as each new guest causes a different emotion to permeate the party. Once the first guest has entered, the participants can interact with different people until they notice a change in the emotion, and then they must adapt that emotion. The participants should not watch the new guests for the emotional state, rather, they should let the emotion "travel" to them as it will. To make things really tricky, two guests could enter at the same time with different emotions. The participants will be really wired after this game, so plan accordingly to use that energy.


PARK BENCH
great for: Improvisation
Number of students: 2, can have multiple scenes
age group: 10 and up
Materials: A Bench

Explanation: In this game, one person decides the character for both participants. The other participant has to react to this while trying to determine their character.

One participant sits on a bench. The setting is a park, and the person on the bench has no character until the second participant enters. The second participant has decided who she is, and who the person sitting on the park bench is. For example, the person entering could decide, "The person on the bench is a famous author, and I am a great fan of their work." In this situation, the actor would recognize the person on the bench, react to seeing their favorite author in person, ask for an autograph, and tell the author about which books she likes best. The actor on the bench, meanwhile, has to adapt to the situation, developing their character bit by bit. The improvisation ends when one actor exits, hopefully after everyone figures out who they are.
Notes: With younger or less experienced actors, the leader may want to supply the person entering with characters, so that there is no worry about clear characters.


Alliterations
great for: concentration
number of students: 5-20
age group: 10 and up

Begin with everyone sitting or standing in a circle. You give one person the ball, and ask him to name as many words as possible that start with a `P` (or any other letter), in the time it takes for the ball to get passed along the circle. Tell players not to watch the ball go round when they're it - they'll just panic and freeze. Tell them to try this with closed eyes.

*Variations: Pair up the players and use a stopwatch. Ask the players on the left to name as many words as possible starting with a `t`, and ask their partners to count, for 15 or 20 seconds. Then switch.


Exaggeration Circle
great for: building energy, gestures
number of students: 10-20
age group: 10 and up
All players begin in a circle, or a long line. One player starts a little gesture, with or without a little sound.. The next player takes it over and makes it bigger. The last player does the whole thing to the extreme.
*Make sure the players stick to the original gesture/sound, and don`t just do their own thing. We should be able to see the movement grow organically.

Samurai
great for: concentration, energy
number of students: 10-20
age group: 13 and up

This is an excellent physical warm up. All players stand in a circle. One player is the Samurai - he/she starts by lifting her Katana (sword), making a Japanese- sounding grunt. She keeps her sword up in the air, and her 2 neighbors "slaughter" her, by swinging their swords into her sides, again grunting enthusiastically and in pseudo-japanese. When the neighbors retract their swords, the Samurai lowers her sword; while doing this she makes eye contact with another player, when then becomes Samurai, and everything starts all over again.
*Start slowly, and then increase the tempo

Sound Circle
great for: concentration, gestures
number of students 5-20
age group: 8 and up

Everyone stands in a big circle. One player starts the game by making a gesture and a sound to his right neighbor. The neighbor immediately imitates gesture and sound, then turns to his right neighbor and makes a totally different gesture and sound. Tell players not to preconceive, ask them to throw themselves into this exercise.

*Variations - Instead of passing the sound/gesture to your neighbor, players can pass it to any player in the circle.
Try the game without imitating the sound/gesture received; just have players turn around and throw a new gesture/sound to their neighbors as fast as possible.

Hitch Hiker
great for: scene work, improv, mimicking
number of students:6-10
age group: 13 and up

Use 4 chairs to build the interior of a car. One player starts driving the car, and another player becomes a hitch hiker, hiking a ride. The hitch hiker character has a particular character tick or particular emotion, which the driver takes over.
Other hitch hikers join in, each with their own characteristics or emotions, taken over by the driver and the passengers in the car as the hiker joins. When the car is full, one of the players leaves the car to make room for the new guest.
***Don`t forget to justify leaving the car.


Front Desk
great for: improv
number of students: 5-8
age group: 13 and up
Students improvise a scene, set in the lobby of a hotel. One or more players play the receptionist(s) and the others play guests arriving or checking out, bell boys, repairmen, you name it.
Players construct the environment together - as soon as a door, a plant, a desk or whatever is `placed` by any player, all other players should respect it. *Note, you might want to throw in some conflicts as the scene progresses.

Funeral Service
great for: improv
number of students 5-10
age group: 13 and up

The stage is set up as a funeral, or a viewing the night before the funeral. One player is the deceased, bang in the middle and very visible in or on e.g. a table or a couple of chairs representing the casket.

Audience suggests an odd or peculiar way to die, and then the death is played. Perhaps characters present during the funeral service were there at the time of death. After death, the dead gets back into her coffin and we return to the service.

Then, taking turns, guests at the funeral service step up and present, in a monologue, their experience with the deceased. After each monologue what was described is played, like a flash-back. *Note, you might want to tell students before hand their relationship with the "dead" character


Supernova
great for: energy builder
number of students: any
age group: 13 and up

All players dispersed around the room, have everyone stand up comfortably, feet apart, eyes closed. Ask your players to imagine they`ve got a ball of energy hiding in their chests, radiating warm light. Ask them to imagine this light and energy starts filling their chest, their arms and legs, their hands and feet, their head, their whole body. Then ask the players to imaging this light starts shining out of their bodies, through their eyes, their fingers and toes, filling the whole room. Then imagine the light starts filling the whole building, the street, the city, the country, the whole world. Finally, imagine this warm light starts reaching into the skies, up to the moon, overpowering the sun, filling the whole of the universe. End the exercise by asking the players to open their eyes.


Emotional Mirror
great for: miming, improv
number of students: any, pairs of 2
age group: 10 and up

Players are in pairs, facing each other. One starts talking in gibberish, with a specific emotion (angry, happy, in love, you name it). The other instantly copies the emotion of the first player, and speaks in his own gibberish. No need to try and copy the other player`s gibberish, and both players keep talking, no pauzing allowed. After about 10 seconds, the second player changes emotion, and the first one immediately follows her.