Ultimate Drama Activities for the Classroom

Joanne Watkinson

• Publisher: Salamander Street Ltd.
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781914228131
• eBook ISBN: 9781914228148
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Performance Art
• Index: Literature

Packed full of games, activities and exercises, this book is designed to be a drama teacher's best friend. Written by a drama teacher with over twenty years' experience which includes heading up a performing arts faculty in a secondary school, GCSE and A-Level examining and presiding as the principal of a successful theatre school, as well as being a published playwright and having her work featured in the 2019 LAMDA Acting Anthology.

As well as featuring drama games to use in the classroom, this book contains thorough instructions, valuable advice and useful activities to use in the teaching of improvisation and devising for small and large groups and working with script.

WORKING WITH SCRIPT

Attention to Detail

I use this exercise to demonstrate the importance of focus and attention to detail when putting on a play or working with script. However, I only tell them the purpose of the exercise at the end of the task, and only after asking them what they think it was about.

Performers are asked to take a walk around the room, touching each of the four walls. They are asked to think about:

a. How they walk, the style and speed.

b. How they touch the wall, softly, aggressively etc.

c. Which part of the wall they touch.

d. Who they walk past.

e. Whether they have any eye contact with anyone on their short journey, and if so, how do they react.

f. What order they arrive back at their starting point.

After the performers complete their journey, they are asked to describe it. Then they are asked to repeat the journey exactly as they had done before with attention to detail. On their return, the differences are discussed.

They are asked to repeat the journey one more time giving greater attention to the subtleties of their journey. This is then discussed in relation to the importance of focus and detail when portraying a character in a play; be it in relation to characterisation or following stage direction.

I would use this exercise before blocking a scene for the first time.

Animating Characters

The following extracts are taken from the play Little Bo Peep and the Report of the Missing Sheep.

These extracts can be used for character work in class, including work on caricatures, stereotypes and exaggeration. They also make useful audition pieces for the play.

Task:

Choose from an extract below and decide which character to play. Walk around the room in role. Teacher can use a scale from one to ten (five being natural) to allow performers to feel the change in their physicality during this exercise.

Performers greet each other in character. At first with just one word, then two, three, and so on - including larger than life gestures.

Explore status. Performers introduce themselves in character, then stand in a line in order of status, from lowest to highest. Discuss why they have chosen that position in the line and how they can show their status on stage. Does their stage status ever change?

Run scenes using physicality only. Can we understand the characters feelings through movement, gesture and facial expressions alone?

Performers rehearse and perform the scene; considering physicality, vocal qualities, levels of exaggeration and status.

The following short extracts have been selected with pre-teens in mind. However, the play is suitable for early teens as well. They are not the full scenes and are not necessarily in the order of the play.

Extract One

QUEEN OF HEARTS: Do not touch my tarts!!

(To audience.) Do you hear me?! They are for someone very special...

KNAVE OF HEARTS: Who, Your Majesty?

QUEEN OF HEARTS: Me!

KNAVE OF HEARTS: Would you mind if I tasted one? I’ve heard great things about your jam tart recipe.

QUEEN OF HEARTS: From whom? I have never shared my recipe with anyone!!

KNAVE OF HEARTS: From you.

QUEEN OF HEARTS: Ah yes, it’s true my recipe is the best in the land.

Extract Two

BO: Hello, Humpty.

HUMPTY: Oh hi, Bo, how are you this fine day?

BO: I’m ever so worried Humpty, it’s not like my Baabra and Baartie to wander off like that. Baabra doesn’t like the cold and she will be so frightened, and Bartholomew is afraid of the dark. They must be found before the sun goes down. I thought you might be able to see them from your wall.

HUMPTY: Sorry, Bo. I haven’t seen them I’m af...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Warm Up Games
• Improvisation And Devising
• Improvisation For Large Groups
• Working With Script