Games, Exercises, & Activities

The following is Part Two of our Mock Audition Exercise, which allows students to practice preparing for and presenting an audition in a safe environment. Click here to read Part One. Outside of...

Theatrical “cold reading” (also known as “sight reading”) is where actors read aloud from a script, scene, or text with little to no advance preparation. Actors are handed a script and expected to...

The following exercise is the first of a two-part class exercise (Part 2 will come later this month), giving students the opportunity to practice audition prep in a safe environment. Although...

Different venues can have a huge effect on a production. They can create beautiful and intriguing staging options for directors and designers, and really surprise and enchant audiences. They can...

“I’ve got so much to say / if only you would listen!” That’s one of my favourite lyrics from School of Rock: The Musical. Students truly wish to be heard, and as teachers, it’s our responsibility...

What Drama Teachers Need to Know (+ A Free Classroom Exercise)Iambic pentameter is a style of poetry, which refers to a certain number of syllables in a line and the emphasis placed on the...

Radio plays are theatrical performances that are purely auditory; they’re meant to be performed on the radio, hence the name! There is no visual aspect, so performers must rely on their vocal...

During the first week of class, it’s imperative to inform students about classroom rules and expectations in order to get started on a positive note. However, how boring is it to just stand and...

The following exercise has lots of variations and ways to adapt it for your classroom. No matter what variation you use, however, the ultimate goal (see what I did there?) of the exercise is to get...

““Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” -Stephen R. Covey” How many times have you been giving instruction in class and when you get to the...

This improvisation game is great for students who are brand-new to improvisation. It focuses on students going with the flow and joining in the scene, rather than trying to one-up another and...

Creating rituals in the drama classroom is a great way to build community and a sense of teamwork – a feeling of “we’re all in this together.” The most easy, basic ritual is starting each class...

One thing that often comes up in student writing is that characters only seem to exist from the first page to the last page. Students don’t think of their characters as having lives outside the...

Are your students feeling stuck or frustrated with their playwriting assignments? This exercise will help get them unstuck by challenging them to explore alternative situations for their scenes and...

So, you’ve decided to do some playwriting with your students. Fantastic! But now comes the hard part – actually sitting down and writing. Whether in a notebook or on a computer screen, that blank...

Scenes from a Bag is one of my most favourite theatre games. It can easily become one of those “takes over the whole class period” games because it’s simple and fun for students. This game is...

Theatre is all about change. Not only do we want to look back and identify origins, but it’s also important to explore theatre history to see how the form evolves. Often that evolution comes from...

If you want students to learn the elements of a theatre history era, there’s no better way than to study a scene from a play that exemplifies that era. For example, look at the principles of the...