Games, Exercises, & Activities

Use this exercise for the first week of class, especially if you have a group of students who don’t know each other very well. The point of the game is to get students to not just talk to each...

The mirror game is a great stand-by in the theatre class. Students are grouped in pairs and face each other. One acts as the leader, moving their arms, legs, head, face, in a slow steady pattern so...

One of the keys to Classroom Management is getting students to work well together. Group work is tricky if students don’t know one another. Why should I share something with this guy who doesn’t...

Todd Espeland, instructor of the Drama Teacher Academy course Serious Play: Theatre Games and Warm Ups for Rehearsal and Ensemble Building, includes the game One To Twenty as among his favourite....

“Go, counsellor: Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.” Juliet, Act III, scene v There are more relationships in Romeo and Juliet than just the one between Romeo and Juliet. We have...

Need a quick creative exercise? Have your students analyze titles, write titles, and come up with titles based on descriptions. A title is an important part of an artistic product. It acts as a...

Students often get hung up on the notion that in the theatre, sets, costumes, and props all have to meet the standard of the movies. The world of the play has to be three-dimensional and real. A...

Here’s one of my favourite acting exercises.You start with a list of descriptive characters. Here are some examples: • A firefighter looking for occupants. • A jealous significant other. • A spy on...

How do you take a monologue (meant for one person to deliver) and act it out as a group? How do you create an Ensemble Monologue? Analyze the MonologueHere’s a monologue from my play Funhouse....

Fear is such a wonderful motivator for characters – with both positive and negative connotations. How many of us know someone who won’t do something because of fear? Who won’t get on stage, or get...

Sometimes you just come across something that is Wicked Cool. That’s right, I capitalized both words and they weren’t at the beginning of a sentence. I did it, I own it. That’s how cool I think...

Breath Control and Projection are critical skills for an actor, but they’re just as critical for drama teachers. The trick is to speak loudly and project without yelling. We often tell our students...

Do your student playwrights struggle with getting started? Sometimes the hardest part is coming up with that first line, because there’s nothing more daunting to a new writer than the blank page....

Ideas can come from anything and everything. But it’s always a good idea to give students a jumping off point. Picture Prompts are a great tool in a playwright’s arsenal to inspire creative...

Subtext is a glorious medium. It adds depth to a scene. There’s the conversation that two characters are having, and there’s the conversation underneath the conversation the two characters are...

““I’m just one hundred and one, five months and a day.” “I can’t believe that!” said Alice. “Can’t you?” the Queen said in a pitying tone. “Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.” Alice...

What makes a good monologue? What criteria do you give to your students? Before students start writing their own monologue, it’s important for them to be able to identify and assess the elements of...

Who is the most interesting person you know? Who is the most interesting person your dad knows? Who is the most interesting person your boss knows? It could be a specific story, a whole history or...