Drama

                    The purpose of warm-ups

Prevent injury's

Relax mental and physical tension

Prepare physically and mentally for performance work

Help you be more expressive with your body

The results I found for more drama games!

Moving Name

Difficulty: easy
Age Range: all ages

So this, in my opinion, is the best game to start with when working with a new group. I’ve seen it work with university students as well as with six year olds.

1. Get your group into a circle.
2. Say your name with a matching gesture and vocalisation. Samuel for instance could be signalled with two punches and spoken in a high pitched voice.
3. Once you have performed your name, the whole group mimics you. They must try to copy the way you said your name as well as the physical movement.
4. Continue this around the circle till each person has said their name.

Tip: the more whacky you set the standard the better result you’ll get from the students.
Tip: encourage the students not to think too much, but to jump straight it – looking stupid is mandatory.

Whether you’re a drama teacher, director, or running a course, acting games are a fantastic tool. They help students get comfortable, warmed up and focused. Acting games also develop important skills required for acting and performing. Below is a number of my favourite drama games. For each game or exercise I have given a difficulty rating and a recommended age range. I have split the acting games into six sections to make it easier for you to find the appropriate games for your group/situation.

Moving Name

Difficulty: easy
Age Range: all ages

So this, in my opinion, is the best game to start with when working with a new group. I’ve seen it work with university students as well as with six year olds.

1. Get your group into a circle.
2. Say your name with a matching gesture and vocalisation. Samuel for instance could be signalled with two punches and spoken in a high pitched voice.
3. Once you have performed your name, the whole group mimics you. They must try to copy the way you said your name as well as the physical movement.
4. Continue this around the circle till each person has said their name.

Tip: the more whacky you set the standard the better result you’ll get from the students.
Tip: encourage the students not to think too much, but to jump straight it – looking stupid is mandatory.

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Name and Go

Difficulty: easy
Age Range: 8 and above

I typically use this game after playing Moving Name. Hopefully the students have learnt a few names and it is a good way to solidify names for you and the other students.

1. Get your group into a circle.
2. You must make eye contact with someone in the circle, say their name and move to take there place.
3. The person whose name you called must pick another person in the circle, say there name, and take there place in the circle.
4. Continue this until each student has had a turn.

Tip: encourage students to relax and focus. If they get flustered and panic it disrupts the flow of the game.

Me to You

Difficulty: easy
Age Range: all ages

This is a really simple exercise for a large group which encourages connection and focus. It requires students to be hyperaware and really focus.

1. Get your group into a circle.
2. The person starting must make eye contact with someone else in the circle (working across the circle is best).
3. They then must gesture to themselves and say “me” followed by a gesture at the other person in which they say: “to you”. It should seamless.
4. If you are targeted you then accept the offer and continue in the same way to a new person in the circle.
5. Once this has gone around the circle a few times, lose the words and get your students to simply use gesture and eye contact.
6. If they are successful at this then drop the gesture and simply use eye contact.

Tip: encourage your students to be clear and direct. Also make sure that all the students get a turn.

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Word Association with Clicks

Difficulty: medium
Age Range: late primary/high school

This game is played by professional theatre companies, and can also work really well with late primary and high school kids.

1. Get your group into a circle.
2. Firstly, teach your students the rhythm which they will make with their bodies: thigh slap, clap, then click (right hand), click (left hand)
3. Get the group comfortable with this rhythm.
4. When clicking with the right hand the student whose turn it is must say the persons before them’s word and then a new word that associates with that word when clicking with the left hand.
5. The next person in the circle (work in a clockwise motion) must do the same. They must repeat the last persons word with the right click and then think of a new word when they click with the left hand.
6. The thigh slap and clap gives the game a steady rhythm and stops students panicking.
7. Continue this until you have done a few successful laps around the circle.

Tip: Stress the importance of keeping the rhythm steady. Groups tend to naturally speed up quite quickly. Students often find this game particularly funny, so try to keep them focused.

Tip: If the rhythm is too confusing, try a simple game of word association around the circle instead.

Add a Freeze

Difficulty: easy
Age Range: all ages

This games works as a great warm up for more extensive improvisations.

1. Get the students into pairs.
2. Student A must create a pose (a frozen image with his or her body).
3. Student B must then, without thinking about it too much, create their own pose that compliments Student A’s pose. For example Student A may have posed doing a karate chop, and student B may then freeze in a scared/defensive pose.
4. Student A then unfreezes and creates a new pose that compliments Student B’s pose that they are still holding.
5. This then continues in the same way until you feel the group begin to tire. I have noticed that it works very well with high-school kids and older.

I would want to do more film work in drama and learn how to edit a video to make it more official as a film!