Games & Exercises

Here’s a quick and easy improv exercise you can use when you have a few minutes of time to fill in class, or whenever you want to spread a little kindness with your students. You’ll need a timer...

When you can improvise a scene about anything, why not focus on kindness? Incorporating kindness into drama class activities helps students develop the ensemble mindset and creates a more positive,...

Abstract theatre focuses on representing themes, ideas, situations, and emotions in a visual, stylized, symbolic way, rather than acting them out realistically. Using stylized physicality, students...

If you’ve got a large group of drama students but not a lot of time, try these two quick full-class tableau exercises. Students will work together to create full-class tableau scenes as fast as...

In our previous Middle School Miming article, students explored using their hands and arms to maneuver invisible objects of various sizes around a circle. Now, we’re adding moving throughout the...

Students new to mime will often just start moving their hands haphazardly, like an item magically appeared in their hand out of thin air. But one of the ways a mimed object is made “real” is by...

Switching up the genre of an existing play can be a lot of fun. Take Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet — there have been lots of theatrical and film adaptations of that play, such as West Side Story...

If you need something fast and simple to fill those final 10 minutes of drama class, we’ve got you covered! Try these 10 time-filler activities to keep your students occupied until the bell rings....

If students are feeling stressed or anxious, it can be helpful to share some techniques and exercises to help them calm down, regulate themselves, and re-centre, so they can go about the rest of...

If you’ve ever wished that there were a musical about your favourite topics or random ideas, then this time-filler activity will be right up your alley. You can structure this activity in a variety...

Are you curious to know what your students know about a particular topic? Or do you wonder about what they actually retained from your last lesson? The following activity is a good way to find out...

Sometimes you have a few minutes at the end of class where you need to keep your students occupied, but you don’t want to start a new exercise or let the class devolve into mindless chatter. Enter...

This storytelling exercise is based on a classic campfire game. Students will work together to tell a story, but who tells the story and where they start and pick up again is up to chance. This...

There are some days when your students are just not feeling their best. They’re tired, they’re dragging, they’re feeling “off.” So how do you combat these low energy times? Try these 10 warm-up...

In Part 1 of our How to Use a Small Cast Play in Your Drama Classroom article, we shared two different analysis-based exercises that focus specifically on small cast shows. Now we’re going to focus...

Many drama teachers look for large cast plays with huge ensembles so they can include every student who wants to participate. But sometimes you don’t need something that big. Maybe you have a new...

It’s fascinating how many people can observe the same moment and have wildly different experiences, thoughts, opinions, and memories about what happened. In this exercise, students will write four...

Taylor Swift famously described categorizing her songs as having "fountain pen," "quill pen," or "glitter gel pen" lyrics, referring to how the songs were written and the feelings they were meant...