Resource: Tons of Animal-Related Prompts!

Here at Theatrefolk, we love a good prompt collection! We’ve got outdoor prompts, job/occupation prompts, location prompts, and this collection is all about food! Don’t worry — all of these prompts are school-appropriate, and diet culture-free. Use the following fifty prompts for improv scenes or playwriting exercises, and you’ll find fifty more prompts in the giveaway at the bottom of this page. Have fun! 1. Making/eating breakfast 2. Making/eating breakfast in bed 3. Making/eating lunch 4. Making/eating dinner 5. Feeding a newborn 6. Feeding a toddler 7. Eating with a fork and knife 8. Eating with chopsticks 9. Eating with your hands 10. Baking a pie 11. Participating in a pie-eating contest 12. Cooking on a barbecue 13. Cooking over a fire 14. Trying to cook without a recipe 15. Eating something spicy 16. Eating something extremely sour 17. Eating something that hurts your teeth 18. Ate too much and feeling stuffed 19. Waiting impatiently for a meal at a restaurant 20. Twirling spaghetti noodle 21. Tossing a pizza 22. Decorating cupcakes 23. Serving a formal tea 24. Overfilling a plate at a buffet 25. Having a picnic 26. Having a food fight 27. Eating while doing something else and spilling on yourself 28. Trying to eat something that is precariously balanced on your lap 29. Snacking while watching a movie 30. Getting an ice cream headache 31. Participating in a toddler cake smash photoshoot 32. Running a lemonade stand 33. Running a bake sale 34. Chewing gum and blowing bubbles 35. Nervously chopping vegetables with an extremely sharp knife 36. Appearing on a cooking competition show 37. Going grocery shopping 38. Going grocery shopping without your list and trying to remember what you need 39. Eating a meal and noticing something gross in it (like a hair) 40. Crying while chopping onions 41. Working as a singing waiter in a restaurant 42. Trying to get a food stain (ketchup, chocolate, etc.) out of a favourite piece of clothing 43. Giving someone a box of chocolates or candy for Valentine’s Day 44. Eating something while blindfolded and guessing what it is 45. Having an allergic reaction to a food you ate 46. Ordering a meal using an app 47. Making a holiday meal with someone you’re in an argument with 48. At a restaurant, discovering everything on the menu is extremely expensive 49. Eating ice cream while crying over a breakup 50. Eating popcorn at the movies Bonus: Check out our character development game, What’s For Breakfast?

Sometimes you need a prompt that’s a bit more than just a word or two. “Oddly specific” prompts are great for improv, devising, and playwriting because they instantly spark students’ imaginations and lower performance pressure. For example, if you tell a student “you’re a pirate,” they have to invent everything from scratch. But if you tell them “you’re a pirate who’s allergic to treasure,” the idea is already partially formed. It’s a clear starting point that helps students jump into character without overthinking. Here are 50 gender-neutral, oddly specific character prompts for your students to explore, with 50 more in the giveaway below. 1. A hairstylist with an injured left shoulder. 2. A drama teacher with stage fright. 3. A professional golfer with an extremely bad temper. 4. A sad clown, but they just got a donut from their friend. 5. A math teacher who just dropped their coffee down their front. 6. A computer technician who wishes they were at home with their pet. 7. An executive trying to come up with the newest, coolest trendy toy for children. 8. The person who names different shades of nail polish. 9. A toddler who ate one too many pieces of birthday cake. 10. Your grandparent who thinks they know best (but do they?). 11. The person who has a crush on you... but they just got an upset stomach. 12. The newly appointed royal taste tester… but they just got an upset stomach. 13. A yoga instructor midway through their class… but they just got an upset stomach. 14. A dog-walker who overbooked themselves, again. 15. A TikTok influencer who can't stop advertising things, even offline. 16. A younger sibling on their way to annoy their older sibling. 17. An older sibling whose younger sibling is literally stuck to their leg. 18. A massage therapist who is secretly a germaphobe. 19. A writer with an URGENT deadline. 20. A personal trainer who chose the wrong shorts to wear to the gym today. 21. A student who is trying very hard to learn a new instrument. It's not going well. 22. A young child who is trying very hard to be patient while waiting to open their birthday presents. 23. A dog that is trying very hard to be patient while waiting to be taken for a walk. 24. A parent who is trying very hard to listen to their child who is going on and on about their current obsession. 25. A preschool teacher with a very bad headache. 26. A tiny mouse with a tiny, delicious bowl of soup. 27. A video game hero who wants to try being the bad guy for a while. 28. A vampire who faints when they see blood. 29. A children’s book author who is looking to branch into different genres. 30. A playwright whose characters keep coming to life and commenting on the playwright’s choices. 31. A baker or chef who mistakes random items (books, pencils, backpacks, etc.) for ingredients. 32. A store manager who is unwilling to bend the return policy, no matter what. 33. A garden gnome with aspirations of being a gardener. 34. A child’s stuffed animal that is feeling “hugged out.” 35. A therapist for horror movie villains. 36. A horror movie villain who feels misunderstood. 37. A parent who’s gotten caught red-handed eating their child’s Halloween candy. 38. A person who’s pretending to be a pair of twins. 39. A talk show host who is trying to hide the fact that they know nothing about their special guest. 40. An ASMRtist who can’t stop tapping on things, even when they aren’t filming a video. 41. An office worker who keeps sneakily stealing office supplies. 42. An office manager who can’t figure out why the office supplies keep disappearing. 43. A professional ear cleaner who is ready to help everyone. 44. A bird that has just discovered that running into a window hurts, a lot. 45. A sea creature that has just discovered “human stuff.” 46. A professional mover who has gotten stuck behind a large piece of furniture. 47. A scientist who has accidentally rendered themself invisible. 48. A student wizard whose wand turns everything into glitter. 49. A professional pillow tester who is really good at their job. 50. A student named Kristin, but everyone keeps calling them Kristina.

Sometimes you need to brighten up your playwriting and scene work with a splash of colour. Try assigning small groups of students each a colour and seeing how many of those prompts they can include in their scene, or focus on just the animal, mineral, or vegetable prompts for each colour. You could also use the colour prompts in a Family Feud-style game to see what objects your students associate with each colour. You’ll find 50 prompts below, and 50 additional prompts in the giveaway at the bottom of the page. Red 1. Strawberry 2. Stop sign 3. Poppy 4. Fire truck 5. Ghost pepper 6. Rubies 7. Maple leaf 8. Clifford the Big Red Dog 9. Lava 10. Paprika Orange 1. Carrot 2. Construction vest 3. Goldfish 4. Traffic cone 5. Pumpkin 6. Orange juice 7. Garfield the cat 8. Marigold flower 9. Monarch butterfly 10. Marmalade Yellow 1. Banana 2. Tennis ball 3. Lemonade 4. Sunshine 5. Pineapple 6. Taxi 7. Egg yolk 8. Chick 9. Caution tape 10. Mustard Green 1. Lime 2. Granny Smith apple 3. Grass 4. Lettuce 5. Emeralds 6. Avocado 7. Broccoli 8. Football field 9. Frog 10. Pickles Blue 1. Blueberries 2. The sky on a beautiful day 3. The ocean 4. Denim jeans 5. Blue jay 6. Blue tang (like Dory from Finding Nemo) 7. Robin's eggs 8. The Blue Man Group 9. Cartoon dogs (Huckleberry Hound, Blue from Blue's Clues, Bluey Heeler) 10. Sapphires Kerry Hishon is a director, actor, writer and stage combatant from London, Ontario, Canada. She blogs at www.kerryhishon.com.