Games

Need a quick win for your drama class?

Explore easy, classroom-tested theatre games for middle and high school students. From warm-ups to improv to ensemble builders, these low-prep activities boost energy, creativity, and collaboration fast.

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Acting

Onstage “Awareness” Improv Game: Sit, Stand, Kneel

Being aware of your surroundings is a vital part of being an actor. Students must know what’s going on around them at all times. This is important from a theatrical standpoint – unless otherwise...

Classroom Exercise

Theatre Game: Tableau Scenes from a Book

This is one of my absolute favourite theatre games. I always use it in my early drama classes because, not only is it a fun way to approach the basics of tableau, it’s a good way for students to...

Acting

Theatre Game: Dramatic Rules

This classroom exercise is a mash-up of two of my most favourite theatre games: Scenes from a Bag and Act It Out. This game works as a warm-up activity. It’s great for getting students to explore...

Acting

The “What If” Game

Last semester, one of my classes consisted of a group of students who had little theatrical experience. Most of these particular students had never performed onstage before. They were eager and...

Classroom Exercise

Three “Get to Know You” Games

One of the most common activities that occurs during a first drama class or rehearsal is some form of a “Get to Know You” game. Starting with games is not just a nice break for students who may...

Classroom Management

Learning the Rules: “Act It Out” Game

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...

Classroom Exercise

“Improv Community” Game for Drama Students

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...

Acting

Practicing the Basics: 3 Games to Help Students Play to the Audience

What is THE most important part of an actor’s job? To tell a story to an audience! No matter what, the audience needs to be able to experience what’s going on during the performance. Actors must...

Classroom Exercise

5 Collaboration or Warm Up Games for the Drama Classroom

Collaboration games are a great go-to exercise throughout the entire school year. At the start of the school year, they work for ‘get to know you’, and warm up activities. Later on in the school...

Classroom Exercise

Collaboration Games: The Human Knot

Sometimes it’s the simple games and the ones we’ve played over and over again that can offer the most learning. Take The Human Knot. It’s a game that’s been played in playgrounds, camps, and drama...

Classroom Exercise

Collaboration Games: The Marshmallow Challenge

How do you get students to work together in a creation? Try this pre-exercise to have students practice collaborating to make a finished product. It’s an exercise that has been around for years but...

Classroom Exercise

Collaboration Games: The Negotiation

If you want your students to devise a theatre piece in class, it’s important to practice the act of collaboration as much as possible. Ideally, you should use the month beforehand getting students...

Classroom Exercise

Collaboration Games: Big, Tiny, Twisted

Todd Espeland, instructor of the Drama Teacher Academy course Serious Play: Theatre Games and Warm Ups for Rehearsal and Ensemble Building, uses Big, Tiny, Twisted as the last warm up before moving...

Games

Improv Game: Job Interview

Jennine Profeta, instructor of the Drama Teacher Academy course Yes… And How to Teach Improv always uses the game Job Interview in her classes. In this game, one student has more knowledge than the...

Classroom Exercise

Improv Games for Collaboration

Here are some great improv games to work on collaboration skills. Word at a Time StoryStudents sit in a circle. Give them a title for a story. “The Best Birthday Ever.” The story is told one word...

Classroom Exercise

Collaboration Games: Three Things in Common

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...

Acting

Mirror Game: Modified!

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...

Classroom Exercise

Collaboration Games: One To Twenty

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....