Exercise

Free writing can be a great way to get your students into the drama class mindset. They have to pause, focus, and write for a specific amount of time without stopping or getting distracted. For this exercise, the topic is “your ideal future.” If students could have their ultimate dream lives, what would they look like? They’ll describe every detail of this ideal life. You can use the basic part of this activity as a bellwork exercise, a writing warm-up, or an activity to help students with social-emotional life skills like goal setting. Then, you can use the extension exercises found after the main instructions to have your students go deeper into the work. Feel free to adjust the wording of the basic instructions as needed depending on your students and their needs. Set a timer for your chosen time (between 5 and 10 minutes) and give your students time interval announcements as necessary (“Three minutes remaining,” “One minute remaining,” and so on). Free Writing Instructions• You will have five to ten minutes to free write, stream-of-consciousness style. This means to simply write whatever comes to your mind, as quickly as possible. No editing, going back, or second-guessing your thoughts. If it comes into your brain, write it. Write in full sentences, but don’t worry too much about spelling or grammar. Just get your thoughts down on the page. • Write in whatever method is easiest for you — handwriting, typing, talk-to-text, seated, or standing. Just don’t disturb your fellow classmates. • Your topic is your ideal future. If you had your ideal life where all your dreams have come true, what would that life look like? Go into detail. What are you doing? What are you wearing? What’s an average day in your life like? Who do you interact with? What brings you joy? No aspect is too minor. • Write in present tense like you’re already living your ideal life. For example, “I am doing _____ and it’s amazing. I go to _____ every day. I eat _____ for breakfast. I’m wearing _____ and I look fantastic.” • Avoid “I would like to,” “I wish,” or “I want” statements, unless it’s something like, “I go wherever I want, whenever I want” or “Whatever I wish for comes true.” In this ideal future, you’ve got everything you could want or wish for. • Don’t worry about what anyone else is describing in their ideal life. Everyone’s will be unique. Once students have completed the free writing session, have them complete one or more of the following extension exercises: • Focus on one aspect of your ideal future and go deeper. Choose one area and write for an additional five minutes about one of the following topics: your career, love life, physical health and activity, family or home life, social life, spiritual life, or whatever area you’d like to excel in. Tie it back to your initial ideal future writing piece. • Use your notes to create a scene of a moment from your ideal future’s daily life. It can be a monologue, a partner scene, a group scene — whatever you’d like. • Create a fictional character that lives this ideal life and write a scene of a moment from their life. (Some students like this option as it’s less personal.) • Respond to the following exit slip question: What is one small action you could do today to help you on the path to achieving your ideal life? • If you’re currently studying or performing in a show, write out your character’s ideal future where they’re living the life they want and talk about in the show. Don’t worry about whether your character actually achieves this goal at the end of the play. If you need to, you can write it as if they’re imagining living their dream life (still in the present tense). Having this idea in your mind while you’re performing can help to make your character’s desires more urgent, and may help you play your role in a stronger fashion. • If you’re currently working on writing an original play or scene, write out your main character’s ideal future. Then, figure out how to throw a wrench into that plan. This can help you create conflict for your character. Create a mind map that illustrates various aspects of your character’s ideal future — one aspect of awesome per section. Then, write out two to three potential problems that could arise for each aspect. Choose one of these and write a scene in which your main character is foiled, distracted, or delayed from achieving their goal.

It’s easy for students to downplay their accomplishments, brush off compliments, and outright tear themselves down mentally or verbally. Negative self-talk can seriously affect students’ confidence and self-esteem. However, in drama class, we can work on this with our students. Below, you will find a variety of warm-up questions to give to your class to help them think and speak more positively about themselves. Have students choose one of the questions below and respond to it. If they are feeling bad about themselves for any reason, have them choose two or more and respond to them. • Choose three positive words or phrases to describe yourself. Why did you choose them? • What are three things that you like about yourself? • What's something you did recently that made you feel proud of yourself? • Describe something kind you did for someone recently. How did that person react? How did it make you feel? • Think about a compliment, kind word, or uplifting comment you gave to someone recently. Apply it to yourself. If you wish, you can follow up with: • Do you feel any resistance to thinking or saying kind words to/about yourself? If so, why? • Are any negative statements you’re telling yourself true or untrue? How can you determine this? If you think your students are up for a challenge, try this warm-up exercise. Have students write down three negative things they’ve said about themselves in the past, leaving a space in between each sentence. Then, have them cross out the negative thought and replace it with a positive one. It can be a full replacement of the sentence, for example, changing “I can’t do xyz” to “I’m great at abc and I’m proud of how hard I worked to achieve it.” Or, it could be as simple as changing “I can’t do xyz” to “Yes I can” or adding the word “yet,” i.e., “I can’t do xyz yet, but I will keep working at it.” If your students are really struggling with coming up with positive things to say about themselves, have them try the following roleplay mini-exercise. It can also be used as an additional standalone warm-up exercise. Have students pair up. One student will say something kind, positive, or uplifting about their partner, and their partner will say thank you and agree with them. For example, Partner A might say, “(Partner B), you work really hard in drama class and you’re a great actor.” Partner B would respond with, “Thank you, I do work really hard and I think I’m a great actor as well.” Partner B will then give Partner A a compliment and Partner A will respond in kind. Again, check in with your students to see if they’re feeling any resistance towards speaking positively to themselves. At the end of class, have students respond to the questions in the reflection below. You can revisit these warm-ups anytime your students need a pick-me-up, or sprinkle them throughout your usual activities during the term to improve their confidence. You may wish to track when you incorporate these warm-ups into your lessons to see how they affect students’ performances (hopefully they’re improved!).

Here’s a choice board exercise that’s all about emotions. You can use this list for students to complete single tasks (just have students select one assignment out of the many advertised below), or have students complete several tasks as a larger cumulative assignment. All the choices are focused on having students portray the selected emotion in different mediums. This can help students to think creatively, explore different ways of portraying emotions, and solve problems through quick thinking. If you wish for students to use these choices as a cumulative exercise, they must select one task from each category (List, Playwriting, Tech, and Performance) to complete and submit. Tasks from the Tech category and a few from the Performance category have the option of working with a partner, but most tasks are for one student to complete. For the Performance category, students must complete one solo task AND one pair/trio task. 1. Start by selecting an emotion for the entire class to study. Use our collection of Emotion Prompts if you’d like options beyond happy, sad, or angry. 2. Use the following categories and lists for students to select their tasks. List Tasks (choose one) • List 10 songs (preferably from musical theatre) that evoke the chosen emotion. • List 10 plays and/or musicals that feature or focus on the selected emotion. Note a specific moment (act and scene) from each play where the emotion is present. • List 10 quotes from plays or musicals in which the character demonstrates the selected emotion. Playwriting Tasks (choose one) • Write a monologue that evokes the chosen emotion. (Length: ½ page minimum) • Write a two-person scene in which one character expresses the selected emotion. (Length: 1 page minimum) • Write a two-person scene in which both characters express the selected emotion, and something happens at the end of the scene to change the mood. (Length: 1 page minimum) • Write a three-person scene in which one character expresses the chosen emotion, and the other characters try to change their mood. (Length: 1 ½ page minimum) Tech Tasks (choose one — can be done with a partner if students wish) • Create a lighting design that evokes the selected emotion. • Create a set model (for example, in a shoebox) that helps maintain the mood of the chosen emotion. • Select a character from a play that expresses the selected emotion, and create a costume design (full-colour sketch or live creation) that develops that emotion further. • Build a prop that would cause a character onstage to feel the selected emotion. Performing Tasks (choose one solo and one pair/trio task) • Solo: Choose and perform a monologue from an existing play that evokes that emotion. (Please submit a copy of the monologue.) • Solo: Write and perform an original monologue that evokes that emotion. (Students must submit their original script as well.) • Pair/Trio: Create a series of three tableau scenes that evokes the selected emotion. • Pair/Trio: Create a mimed scene in which one of the characters expresses the chosen emotion. • Pair/Trio: Choose and perform a scene from an existing play that portrays the emotion. Each student must have lines. 3. After the students have performed, they will submit all written and practical work, as well as an individual reflection response (found below). 4. Bonus: Students may select and complete one additional task from the Tech, Playwriting, or Performance categories for up to five additional bonus points.

This group exercise has layers. It combines planning, teamwork, performance skills, and introductory sound design. Students will create three tableau scenes to tell stories that evoke various emotions onstage, and use music clips to enhance the emotional stories. If your students have never done tableau before, you may want to have them try Numbered Tableaux or Flowing Frozen Pictures to practice. As a reminder, when doing tableau scenes, students must hold their frozen pictures for a minimum of five seconds (but often longer, as you’ll see in this exercise). And because your students will ask, yes, blinking and breathing are allowed. Instruction 1. Have students form small groups of three to five. 2. Determine which emotion you want your students to portray. If you wish, you can use our Tons of Emotion Prompts list for ideas beyond happy, sad, and angry. Decide whether the full class will work on the same emotion, or if each group will portray a different emotion. 3. Groups will create simple stories that can be portrayed through a series of three tableau scenes. The three scenes will represent the beginning, middle, and end of a story that evokes their assigned emotion. For example, if a group was assigned “despair,” they might create a story in which a child is playing with a toy, breaks it, and cries over it. Another group might be assigned “calm” and create a story with characters feeling upset at the beginning but then becoming calm by doing yoga, meditation, or tai chi. It’s up to the students to determine exactly how they will portray the emotion throughout the three scenes, but each scene must make sense with the other two and continue the story. The beginning scene will establish what’s happening, the middle scene will move the story forward, and the third scene will conclude the story. Every group member must be involved in each scene in some way, whether that is as a character, a prop, a piece of scenery or furniture, or another inventive use. They must hold each tableau scene for ten seconds. 4\ Each group will select three music clips (10 seconds per song) that evoke the emotional energy of each of the tableau scenes. The songs can be by any artist and from any genre but the clips must be appropriate for a school setting (i.e., no swearing, awareness of lyrical content). If the music has words, they don’t have to be a literal interpretation of the emotion, but students can incorporate the lyrics into their tableau scenes if they want to. Students will need to create a list of each clip with title and artist, what scene it’s for, and the exact cut of the music. For example, a group whose emotion is “playful” might create a list of clips like this: • Scene 1: “Take On Me” by a-ha (0:54–1:04) • Scene 2: “Physical” by Dua Lipa (2:13–2:23) • Scene 3: “I Feel Like Dancing” by Jason Mraz (3:20–3:30) Each group will need to submit their song clips list to the teacher ahead of performance time, so the teacher can make a playlist of the songs. (You can also assign this task to a student who does not wish to perform, has an interest in technical work, or wants to earn extra credit. It may also be helpful to designate a sound operator during performance time, so you can watch the scenes without having to multitask.) 5. Each group will perform their three scenes for the rest of the class. The teacher (or assigned sound operator) will play the first selected clip for the indicated ten seconds, pause for three seconds for the group to move to the next scene, play the second clip, pause for an additional three seconds, and then play the third clip. 6. Have students respond to the following questions, either as a group discussion or as a group written response (one page): • How did you come up with your story? • Why did you select the three clips you did? • What were some other options for songs that you considered? (Give at least three examples.) 7. Each student will complete and submit an exit slip (found in the giveaway below). Related Exercises:Creating Atmosphere Using Music Tableau Scenes from a Book Tableau Scenes from a Book Come to Life

This exercise was inspired by one of my favourite theatre games, Tableau Scenes from a Book. If you haven’t tried that game with your students yet, do that first! In the original version of the game, students were tasked with re-creating a photograph in tableau (frozen picture) format. In this version of the game, students start with re-creating the image in tableau. Then, they’ll take that a step further and use the tableau image as a jumping-off point to create their own short acting scenes in their small groups, without any previous directions or context from the source of the photograph. What do the students think is going on in the photo? What stories will they bring to life? Let’s find out. What You Need: • A book of photos of people, like a souvenir show program book (my favourite is the annotated script book of Peter and the Starcatcher as it has lots of photos of the original cast) OR A scrapbook album or selection of photographs of groups of people (photos can be black and white or colour, modern or vintage) OR A collection of magazine or catalogue tear-outs with photos of people. • Helpful Hint: You may wish to make copies of the selected images for each group, so they can refer to it without having to keep coming over to you. Directions: 1. Divide the class into small groups. Each group needs to have the same amount of people as in the photograph. 2. Select an image that has the same number of people as students in each group. All groups will use the same photo. If you know the history/background/story of the photo, do not share it with students in advance. 3. Each group will start by replicating the photograph in tableau and hold the pose for five seconds. Then, they will unfreeze and create a scene no longer than two minutes that is inspired by the photograph. The scenes will likely end up being “work in progress” scenes, with a basic outline and some improvised elements during the performance. We aren’t expecting polished scenes, but rather focusing on quick, creative thinking, teamwork, and evidence of effort. 4. Scene requirements: • Each student must have at least one line in the scene. • Students need to make choices about who their character is, and what their relationship is to the other characters. These choices need to be evident somewhere in the scene. • Scenes must have a clear beginning and end. • The beginning of the scene needs to make sense with the starting poses from the image, but from there, it can go in whatever direction the students wish. 5. Groups will have 10 minutes to prepare and rehearse their scene. They will need to work collaboratively to have their scene ready to go in time. If you wish, you can assign one student in each group to be the director. They’ll still participate as a performer in the scene, but will be the deciding vote in decisions if the group can’t come to a consensus. 6. Once the 10 minutes have passed, each group will present their scene to the rest of the class. As with the rehearsal, each group will start in the tableau replica of the image for five seconds, and then move into their scene. Even with the scenes being “work in progress” scenes, students should still remember theatre basics such as clear diction, good volume, and body awareness (cheating out towards the audience, clear character postures and movements, etc.). 7. If you wish, after all the scenes are presented, have a discussion with your class. Some topics you might wish to explore include: • Which presentation intrigued you the most? • Which presentation did you think was the funniest? • Which presentation would you like to see developed into a longer scene or a full-length play? • Which presentation do you think is most related to the content/context of the photograph? • … and WHY? • If you know the history/background/story of the photo, share it with the class now. Which group’s presentation was closest to the real context of the image? • Compare and contrast the portrayals of each character in the image. How were they similar? How were they different? • What was one moment from any of the presentations that surprised you? 8. Optional: Repeat the exercise with a different image. You may also wish to swap out the group members to mix things up. 9. At the end of class, each student will complete and submit an exit slip (found below). Kerry Hishon is a director, actor, writer and stage combatant from London, Ontario, Canada. She blogs at www.kerryhishon.com.

A common acting exercise for students is to imagine what their character is doing next when they exit a scene, and what they’re doing when they aren’t onstage. We’re turning that exercise into a playwriting prompt — writing the next scene for an exiting character. Where did they go? What are they doing? Why did they leave? Let’s figure it out! Instructions 1. Select a play, and have students each choose a moment where a character exits within the scene (preferably not the lead character). Students need to identify the character’s name as it appears in the script, write a one-sentence summary of what caused them to exit, and note the exact line that is spoken or sung to make them exit. Be sure to also note the act and scene number (if identified), as well as the page number of the script. 2. Write a scene immediately following their exit. Their first line is the last line they say before they exit (or the line of the character who causes them to exit). Where is the character going? What are they doing? Who are they meeting with? What are they talking about? How is the character feeling? For example, in The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, the character Clarisse is magically drenched by toilet water when she corners Percy in the camp bathroom. Her exiting line is, “You’re worm meat, Jackson… WORM MEAT!” What does she do when she leaves the bathroom? Does she grab her fellow Ares cabin mates and start plotting revenge? Does she go to the lake and cry in secret? Does she set fire to Percy’s bed? Here’s another example. What does Courtney, the snooty salesgirl in the opening number of Legally Blonde: The Musical, do after Elle calls her out for showing her a dress from last year? The line that causes Courtney to exit is her manager singing “Elle Woods! Sorry, our mistake, Courtney take your break! Just ignore her, she hasn’t been well.” Does Courtney sneak out the back of the store? Does she write a letter of resignation and enrol in college? Does she steal her manager’s car? It’s up to you! 3. From here, students can be as inventive as they want for their scene. It can be the same tone or genre as the established play, or go in a totally different direction. Perhaps a character from a play exits and bursts into song in their scene, or a character in a tragedy starts cracking jokes. Perhaps a seemingly happy-go-lucky character reveals a hidden dark side. Students can invent new characters for their scene or use established characters who are not currently appearing onstage in the play. They need to develop their focus character’s personality beyond their currently scripted lines in the play. Give the character a proper name if they don't already have one (for example, in Heathers: The Musical, some of the characters include Beleaguered Geek, Hipster Dork, and New Wave Girl — they need proper names). Include the new setting at the top of the scene as well. It doesn’t matter if this scene follows the established plot of the show or not. Students are welcome to tie it back to the original play if they wish, but they don’t have to. It can be a side journey, or take the play in a whole new direction. Who knows — perhaps this writing exercise will inspire a sequel or spin-off production! 4. If you wish to add a performance aspect to this writing exercise, have students read the scenes aloud, or create a staged reading series of all the new scenes. If the scenes are all from the same play, arrange them in order of where they occur within the established script. 5. Have students complete an exit slip responding to one of the following questions: • How does this exercise make you a better writer? • What is the purpose of this exercise? • How could you use this scene or this exercise process for future work in class? Kerry Hishon is a director, actor, writer and stage combatant from London, Ontario, Canada. She blogs at www.kerryhishon.com.

The following exercise challenges students to explore character movement by focusing on the speed of movements. This exercise is mental and physical — students will brainstorm a list of characters that move fast and a list of characters that move slow. Then, students will get up as a group and act out the different characters. 1. In small groups, students will write out a list of characters that move slowly, for example, an elderly person, a baby who is just learning to walk, a person with a foot or leg injury, a snail, or tortoise. Each group must come up with at least 10 ideas. 2. Next, students will brainstorm a list of characters that move quickly, for example, an Olympic sprinter, a horror movie victim being chased by a villain, a cheetah, a busy personal assistant, or a superhero with super speed. Again, come up with at least 10 ideas per group. 3. Collect all the idea lists. 4. Have students stand up in the middle of the playing space. Using the brainstormed character lists, the teacher will call out one of the fast or slow characters. Students will move around the room like that character, using different postures, gestures, and facial expressions to enhance their characters. Encourage students to really work with varying speeds — make slow characters very slow and fast characters very fast. With fast characters, students need to ensure they are aware of their surroundings (not bumping into each other) and that their movements are clear enough that an audience member would understand what they’re doing. 5. Repeat with at least three fast characters and three slow characters. 6. Now we do some switching up. This requires some quick thinking on the part of the teacher. Call out a fast or slow character, and at some point while the students are moving around the room as the character, add a prompt that causes a fast character to move slowly or a slow character to move quickly. For example, an elderly person trying to catch a bus, a sprinter with an ankle injury, a cheetah stalking a newly discovered prey, or a snail on a skateboard. How does this affect how the students portray the character? 7. For an additional challenge, have students try entering and exiting the playing space in character, or doing a mini scene change by moving an item such as a rehearsal box, chair, or bench while in character. 8. At the end of the class, have students respond to the exit slip question (found below in the giveaway). Related Articles: • Thinking of Your Character as an Animal • 3 Fun, Physical Warm-Ups to Get Your Students Moving • Elephant Walk

This exercise is inspired by the theatre game The Machine, where students work together to create parts of a factory machine with repeated movements and sound. In The 20-Step Process, we take this a step further by making a simple task comically complicated. This exercise challenges small groups of students to think critically, problem solve, and create and execute a plan. It’s also a creative challenge — students can present their process in a variety of performance styles. Instructions: 1. Divide students into small groups of 3–4. 2. Assign each group an everyday task, such as making a peanut butter sandwich, brushing their teeth, or filling up the car with gasoline. If you need some help with tasks, our outdoor prompt and food-related prompt lists are full of action ideas. 3. In their groups, have students write out a list of 20 steps — no more and no less — to complete the task. For example, making a peanut butter sandwich isn’t simply opening a jar of peanut butter and using a knife to spread it on bread. It might involve locating a magical pig to sniff out a peanut plant, digging up the peanuts, selecting only the peanuts with a particular set of measurements, washing the peanuts with special soap, extracting the peanuts from their shells, crushing the peanuts into a paste, adding salt to the paste, heating the mixture over a fire that is exactly 348 degrees… and so on for 20 steps, with the 20th step being the completion of the sandwich. The steps can be as silly and fanciful as the students wish, as long as there are 20 steps — no more, no less. If students have difficulty figuring out the steps, they might want to try working backwards from the final step, or breaking down each part of the task into ridiculously small micro-tasks. 4. Once they have created the list, students will figure out a way to present it as a performance. Some ideas might include: • Create a series of 20 tableau scenes (one for each step). • Mime the 20 steps. • Do an interpretive dance of the 20 steps while a narrator describes the action. • Present the list in the style of a step-by-step instructional video. • Turn the list into a poem or song. • Create a comedy scene in which a teacher shows their students how to do the task using the 20 steps, or a group tries to follow the instructions written on a piece of paper for the first time. Students may also pitch their own ideas on how they’d present their group’s list. All the movements and voices (as applicable) should be big and exaggerated. 5. Give students time in class to plan and rehearse their performances. If you want this exercise to be a larger project, you may assign part of the task as homework and have students practice at home and present the next day. 6. Students will present their scenes for the rest of the class. 7. After each group presents, students will complete and submit an individual reflection.

The following exercise gives students the opportunity to explore different ways of approaching and performing a two-person scene, using two different levels of volume: only whispering and shouting. It challenges students to act outside their comfort zones, employ safe vocal projection techniques, and analyze a character’s lines. Note: You may want to warn any teachers whose classrooms are near to yours ahead of time that you’re doing this exercise with your students — it can get noisy! Additionally, be aware if you have any students with sensory concerns who may find this exercise overwhelming — you might want to give them a quiet place to do the analysis in Prompt E and excuse them from the rehearsal process. Materials Needed: • A copy of a short, two-person scene for each student (such as a section from “The Big Lie” from Ten/Two) • A pencil for each student (to make notes on the script paper) • Water • Optional: a whistle or noisemaker to get students’ attention between rehearsal prompts, in case they’re all shouting at once Instructions: 1. Start with a vocal warm-up. Try one of the warm-up exercises found in our article Fun Rehearsal Warm-Ups to Get Everyone Ready. 2. Divide students into pairs. 3. Give each pair a short scene to analyze and rehearse. Students will play the same character in the scene for the entire class. 4. Over the course of the class, each pair will analyze and rehearse the scene six different ways (the prompts are described below). In between prompt rehearsals, select a pair of students to present the scene in front of the rest of the class using the prompt they’re currently working on. Depending on the amount of class time you have, it’s likely that all students will not be able to perform each version of the scene. However, if you know your students and their strengths/weaknesses well, select student performers who will be challenged by the prompts (for example, choose a quieter student to shout and an outgoing or chatty student to whisper). Encourage students to drink lots of water throughout the process. 5. Rehearse and present (on book) the six prompts in the following order: • Both characters whisper (while still ensuring the audience hears them). • Both characters shout (while protecting their voices). • Character A shouts all their lines; Character B whispers all their lines. • Reverse the shouting/whispering (Character B shouts; Character A whispers). • Analyze line by line: Characters can ONLY whisper or shout. Choose what you think is most appropriate for each line. Mark it on your script with a W for whisper or an S for shout. • Reverse the shouting/whispering from Prompt E. 6. After each prompt performance, discuss: • What was your initial impression of the presentation? • What worked well? • What didn’t work so well? • After Prompt E: What lines, if any, would you have changed from a whisper to a shout or vice versa? Why? 7. After all the prompts have been performed, discuss: • How does your voice feel? (Have them drink more water at this point.) • Which prompt worked the best overall? Why? • Name something funny or memorable that happened during today’s performances. • What was the most challenging aspect of only being able to whisper or shout? • How can this exercise help you to become a better actor? 8. Students will complete and submit an exit slip (link below). Additional Resources:• 3 Tips for Keeping Your Voice Healthy and 3 More Tips for Keeping Your Voice Healthy • Rehearsal Exercise: Turn Up the Volume • Can You Hear Me Now? A Peer-Led Volume Exercise • Why Isn’t My Actor Projecting Their Voice? • How Do You Promote Vocal Safety?

Can you tell a great story in six minutes? How about in six seconds? You definitely can. Prior to TikTok, there was Vine — a short-form video hosting app where users created and shared six-second-long looping videos. Even within the limit of six seconds, creators were able to make fascinating and funny content to entertain and educate their viewers. The following exercise challenges students to make a scene and tell a story in only six seconds. They have to make quick, precise decisions and get to the point right away. And of course, they have to be clear and easily understood by the audience. Your students can choose to either create and perform a live six-second scene, or create, film, and edit a six-second video. Whichever medium they choose must be exactly six seconds — no more, no less — and it will be timed. Materials Needed: • Timing device • Paper and writing utensils for brainstorming, scripting, and storyboarding • Smartphone and editing software (if students are making a video) Time Frame: • 4–5 classes (1 class for introduction/planning, 1 class for scripting, 1–2 classes for rehearsal/filming, 1 class for presentations) Instructions: 1. Divide students into small groups (3–4 students per group). 2. Using a timer, demonstrate exactly how long six seconds is. You can do a lot in six seconds! Have your students try some simple actions, such as writing a sentence or tying their shoe, and see if they can do them in six seconds. 3. Groups will plan and write an outline for their six-second scene, answering the questions below. Their scene can be about anything they wish. It can be funny, tragic, educational, moody, thought-provoking — it just has to fit within the time frame exactly. • What is the story of the scene? Describe it in one sentence. Be precise and specific. • What is the mood of the scene? • Will the scene be performed live or on video? • What is each person’s role in the scene? (Each student must participate onstage/onscreen somehow as well as contribute to the script, staging, mise en scene, etc.) • What physically happens in the scene? Describe it sentence by sentence. (For example: John enters stage right. He picks up a banana and eats it. He throws the peel on the ground. Rosa enters and slips on the banana peel.) • Where is the scene set? • What costumes and props are needed for the scene? • Note any additional details. 4. Groups will submit their outlines for approval. 5. Once each group’s outline has been approved, groups will write their scripts and rehearse their scenes (and films, as necessary). Groups must use a timer to ensure that their creations are exactly six seconds long. Check in with each group to ensure that they aren’t speaking too quickly in order to cram more content in. 6. Each group will present their live scene or video. 7. Each group member will submit a one-page reflection response to the following questions: • How were you an effective group member throughout this process? • What was one thing you learned doing this exercise? • How would your scene have been different if you had chosen the other medium for presentation? (I.e., if you did a live performance, how would your scene have been different if you had done a video and vice versa.)

A choice board is a visual tool that teachers can use in their classrooms to allow students to… make choices! Choice boards consist of two or more options of activities for students to complete. The teacher specifies what choices are available, and the student selects what activity (or activities) they’ll do. Some choice boards are simple — choose one of two options listed. Some choice boards are more complex; for example, nine options are displayed in a grid and students will select and complete three of them. Choice boards are great because they give students the opportunity to choose how they engage with the material they’ve been studying and demonstrate what they’ve learned in their own way. Students can choose an activity that allows them to play to their own strengths or an option that’s new and challenging. They might wish to study a favourite topic in depth or explore a new topic. Choice boards are also great for accommodating different learning styles. For example, students may have more success submitting journal entries or reflections if they can choose whether to complete a written entry, a video entry, or an audio recorded entry. For a homework assignment, you might provide links to a written article, a video, and a podcast (all on a similar topic), have students read/watch/listen to one of them, and create a response to or answer questions about the content. Choice boards give students freedom within their learning, which also requires them to take responsibility for their choices. Letting students choose their own activities allows them to pick options that are interesting to them, or that they can connect to on a deeper level, which leads to more meaningful learning. Choice boards can be as simple as two options listed on a whiteboard or as fancy as grids, bingo cards, photos, pictures, or objects. They can be useful for remote or asynchronous learning, as they allow students to work at their own pace (within the allotted time frame). You can post choice boards in whatever digital classroom your school uses, and students can select and submit their assignments virtually, by the indicated deadline. Here are two sample choice board activities. (For other examples and activities, see the downloads at the bottom of this article!) For a performance-based choice board: • Students will select and rehearse a 30-second monologue of their choice. Students may either perform their monologue live in class on Friday or record a video of their performance and submit it by Thursday at 7 pm. Please submit the title of the monologue and your choice of performance style to Ms. Smith by the end of Tuesday’s class. For a playwriting choice board (choose one of the following): • Write a half-page monologue where the main character expresses a strong emotion. • Write a one-page scene where the main character interacts with one other family member. • Write a one-page scene where the main character does something for the first time with a group of people. • Write a one-page scene where two other characters talk about the main character. The following exercises also feature activities that you could use for choice boards: • Superhero Series: Final Performance • Playwriting Exercise: Advertisement Prompt • Costume Challenge: Modernizing a Classic Character’s Ensemble

This warm-up exercise is simple, but sometimes that’s just what you need — a simple yet fun warm-up that gets your students up and moving around. This exercise is also quiet — no speaking allowed! It’s a great way for students to practice individual mime and tableau skills in a low-pressure environment, since the whole group is moving at the same time. Elephant Walk is great for students at any skill level. You’ll find some adaptation ideas below for more advanced learners. It’s also useful for helping your students loosen up and be silly together, as well as helping you get to know your students better. You’ll be able to gauge their base effort and risk-taking abilities. How far are they willing to push themselves out of their comfort zone? Give it a try and find out. Instructions: • Have students spread out around the room, standing in a neutral position (feet flat on the floor, hands by sides). On your cue, students will walk around the room at a medium to slow pace. • Call out an animal for students to portray through their movements as they travel around the room. When they hear the animal, they are to immediately (and silently) move how they think that animal would. Choose an animal that has the potential for different levels and/or speeds of movement, such as an elephant, giraffe, snake, crab, lion, gazelle, peacock, parrot — whatever you think will challenge your students! Encourage students to use their entire bodies and facial expressions to portray the animal. • Call out “freeze!” Each student must freeze in place in a solo tableau until you call out the next animal. At that moment, students will start moving around the room as the new animal until you call “freeze” again. • Repeat as many times as you wish with different animals. • Discuss: What was the easiest part of this warm-up exercise? What was the most difficult? What animal did you enjoy portraying the most? Why? Alternative: Have students move around the room as if they’re engaged various sports activities, such as skiing, skating, rowing, swimming (there are many different varieties), dancing (again, there are many varieties to choose from), bobsledding, triple-jumping, or power-walking. Just ensure that all movement is “non contact,” in case you use football as a prompt! For advanced drama students: Have students walk around the room in an upright “human” style, but using the animal/sports prompt as a guide to inform their human character. They might plod like an elephant, or glide like they’re a snake. How can they make their movements more subtle and nuanced, but still different from how they normally walk? You can also use the article Why You Need to Rehearse in Your Character’s Shoes as inspiration for an alternative version of this exercise. Have students walk around the room in the footwear they’re currently wearing (or have them take their shoes off if they’re willing) but call out various shoe prompts such as sneakers, high heels, flip-flops, ballet slippers, scuba flippers, cowboy boots, or tap shoes. How can students portray a different style of shoe through their movements? How does the shoe prompt inform the rest of their body movements?

“What did you do on your summer/winter holidays?” is over. “What are your plans for the weekend?” is boring. You need some new and fresh icebreaker questions to get your students conversing. Not only will these questions help your students get to know each other, but they’ll give you deeper insight into their lives and personalities as well. The following questions are open-ended, so students can share more than just yes/no or one-word responses. They’re also meant to be inclusive, so students can participate without feeling “less than.” For example, asking students what they did over the holidays can be great if they went on a fancy vacation, but not so great if they had to stay home and babysit their siblings or work a part-time job. Some of the questions are funny, some are serious, some are more personal. Be aware of your students’ dynamics and what questions might be uncomfortable for them, and adjust or omit questions as necessary. You can use these questions for the traditional “pair up and interview your partner” exercise, as full-class group discussion questions, or as written journal prompts. 1. What television show, movie, novel, or comic book do you think would make a great theatrical stage production? Why? 2. If you got to set the drama curriculum for the semester, what lessons/topics would you teach? 3. What do you think drama teachers do when they’re not in class? 4. What is your dream job? How could the skills you learn in drama class help you to get that job? 5. What are three traits a great drama teacher should possess? 6. What is something you’re interested in? Why does it interest you? 7. Name a person you respect or admire. What is it about that person that you like? 8. What is a great piece of advice you have received? Or, what advice would you share with others? 9. If you could write a play or musical about any topic or featuring any music, what would you create? 10. Describe a favourite taste or smell with as many expressive words or phrases as you can. 11. If you could donate a million dollars to any charity or cause, what would you donate the money to? Why? 12. If the drama classroom could talk, what do you think it would say? 13. If you could have any talent, what talent would you want and why? 14. What place — real or fictional — would you like to visit and why? 15. If you had a time machine, would you rather visit the past or the future? Why? 16. What do you want to be remembered for? 17. If someone wrote a book about your life, what would the title be? Who would star in the movie adaptation? 18. Describe how you’d arrange and decorate your ideal drama classroom. 19. What three words would you use to describe yourself? What are three words you think others would use to describe you? 20. What is something that always makes you laugh?

Adaptations are super fun to perform. It’s really cool to see a favourite book, film, or even board game come to life before your eyes onstage. On top of that, you can put many different spins on an adaptation. Some adaptations are modernized, some are set in a different location, and some are turned completely on their head! Theatrefolk has over 50 different adaptations in our play catalogue — be sure to check them out. There are many different types of adaptations. Some are direct “page-to-stage” adaptations of famous stories such as Alice in Wonderland, Anne of Green Gables, The Wizard of Oz, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and more. There are also adaptations that put an interesting spin on the source material. The play Puffs is a humorous adaptation of the Harry Potter series, focused on the less-featured Hufflepuff House at Hogwarts. The Broadway musical Mean Girls is an adaptation of the movie starring Lindsay Lohan, which itself was adapted by Tina Fey from a nonfiction self-help book called Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman. When students are exploring what source material to adapt, they’ll have to consider some of the following ideas: 1. What are the most important moments of the story to adapt? You can’t adapt everything, so some moments may need to be changed or omitted for length and pacing. Action** :** Choose a story that you’d like to adapt and create a timeline of the most important moments in the original story. Why are those moments important? Do they drive the action forward? If not, are they really necessary? 2. How many characters are in the story, and which are the most important? Are these characters interesting? Would you want to play them onstage? Do they drive the action of the story forward, and how? If there are too many characters, could some of them be combined or omitted? Alternatively, if there are too few characters, could you add an ensemble? Action** :** Create a list of characters that appear in the story. How many are there? Are there too many or too few? (Hint: There isn’t a wrong answer to this question — it’s your adaptation!) Describe each character in two sentences: who they are, and how they contribute to the overall story. 3. How will you make the story theatrical? There are scenes in every story that are challenging to bring to life onstage. For example, in the musical James and the Giant Peach, directors must figure out how to create characters who are insects onstage (such as Spider, Grasshopper, and Earthworm), as well as stage the giant peach itself, which floats in water, is attacked by missiles, and squashes James’ aunts! Action** :** Choose a scene from the story and describe in detail how, as a playwright, you might bring it to life onstage. If you wish, brainstorm as a class some scenes from books, movies, or television and how you’d adapt them. For example, if you were adapting Aladdin, how would you make the Genie appear from the magic lamp, or how might you make the magic carpet fly? If you were adapting The Hunger Games, how would you stage Katniss shooting her bow and arrow? For a bigger challenge, describe two ways you could make the action appear onstage — one high-tech version and one low-tech version.

Teachers, you work so hard to make amazing virtual lesson plans for your students. And for that, we applaud you all — you are awesome! But we know, the burnout is real. If that time comes, when that time comes, and your brain just feels too full, use one of these three activities with your students. Keep it light and simple, and have fun. Activity #1: Takin’ It Easy PropsThe improv game “Props” is a perennial favourite in the drama classroom. It’s easy and fun. Grab a random item from the classroom, and each student will interact with the object to make it into something it’s not. The item will then be passed from student to student, each one using the object as a new, different object. For example, a broom might become a baseball bat, then a tightrope, then a limbo pole, and then a canoe paddle. It’s a little more challenging when students are doing distance learning in separate places, but not impossible! The trick is to choose items from home that are more common and accessible to as many students as possible. Here’s a list of suggestions for items that could work for most households: • A pen or pencil, a shirt, a shoe, a backpack, shopping bag, or purse, a cord for a device (such as a cell phone charger cord), a roll of toilet paper, a blanket or towel, a pillow, a kitchen utensil, or a book You can have students all use the same item (similar to how you’d play in the classroom, passing the item from person to person), or have students select their own item and use it in a few different ways before the next student takes their turn. Activity #2: Make ‘Em LaughThis is a fun activity for students to loosen up and be silly. We can all use a bit of that sometimes! This activity can be done with just microphones on, just cameras on, or both on. You will need a timer or stopwatch. Choose one student to be “It.” Their job is to make the rest of the class laugh within one minute, while the goal of the rest of the class is to keep a straight face. Students must keep their humour clean — no swearing, lewdness, or other offensive material — but other than that, it all comes down to creativity and quick thinking. As this is an improvised challenge, students may not take time to prepare, but may employ techniques and strategies including physical humour, mime, or (safe!) slapstick, wordplay, puns, impressions, singing and dancing, or even props or costumes if they’re handy. Students who have both their mic and camera on will have the easiest time, but having just mics or just video on is definitely possible — it gives students a bit more of a challenge. You might choose to have students select one or the other, and afterwards discuss what students found easier. The student who is “It” gains a point for each student they are able to make laugh within the one-minute time limit. Tally up the points at the end and identify the winner! Activity #3: Word at a Time StoryAnother fun game that gets students working together and thinking quickly, the Word at a Time Story, is told — you guessed it — one word at a time. The teacher chooses a title, such as “Trouble at the Playground” or “A Great Day at the Beach.” In a live classroom, students would sit in a circle and pass the story. When working virtually, the teacher will have to assign a running order for students in advance — perhaps alphabetically. Students must work together to make sure sentences make sense — they’re not just throwing a random word in to make their friends laugh. The nice thing about this exercise is that it works even if students don’t have mics or video screens on — they can use the chat box. As an alternative challenge, you can assign a word pattern. The first student will use one word, the second student will use two words, and the third student will use three words. Then the pattern repeats, with the fourth student using one word, and so on. This forces students to pay attention even more closely — how many words do they have to use? You can mix up the numbers of words your students may use (perhaps a 1-3-5 pattern, or something random like 4-2-7), or make it a competition by striking students out if they use the wrong number of words. Don’t forget that Theatrefolk has a whole page devoted to distance learning activities and exercises. Activities like Virtual Mirrors, Puppet Dance Party, and the Framing Exercise are great go-tos when you just can’t think. You can also go back to basics with A Simple Breath Control Exercise for Actors & Singers — time spent reviewing the basics is never wasted. Have students reflect on their experiences playing these games by answering an exit slip question: “How can you apply this exercise to the real world?”

It’s not unusual to feel slightly disconnected from students while teaching virtually (and we don’t mean when the internet stops working!). Drama classes are all about human connection and trust, and that can be hard to develop when you’re not physically together with your students. It’s not impossible though — it just takes some time. Try these warm-up exercises in your distance learning drama classes to help build trust, both between you and your students, and between your students. Boring FactsAt the beginning of a new term of drama classes, it’s common for teachers to try to get to know their students by asking them to introduce themselves and share an interesting fact about themselves. However, students often stress about having to figure out an interesting fact, and put pressure on themselves to choose something impressive. Next time, try asking students to share a boring fact about themselves. Anything from “I like cheese” to “I’m also taking math this term” to “I have one sister” works just fine! A boring fact is easy to think of quickly, will give students a chuckle, and can lead to students being more willing to answer follow-up questions (“What kind of cheese is your favourite?” “What’s your opinion of melted cheese on vegetables?” “Ever try one of those fancy bleu cheeses?”). Read My LipsStudents are more likely to loosen up and take risks when they see that their teacher is willing to take risks and look silly as well. When doing exercises, be willing to demonstrate the task so students can see what to expect. As well, try the following simple warm-up: Mute your camera and say a sentence out loud in front of the camera. Speak slowly and exaggerate your enunciation. Students must guess what you are saying by reading your lips. They can respond orally or in the chat box. Encourage students to try the exercise as well! This is a great way for students to practice enunciation and diction, so they can be heard clearly while performing. Full Class Warm-upsDoing full class warm-up exercises takes the pressure off of students. Everyone is working together, which means they’re all on equal footing, and nobody has to worry about looking silly, because you’re all looking silly together! Here are some fast and easy full class warm-ups: • As a group, have students shake their right hand vigorously while counting out loud, backwards from 10. Then shake the left hand and count back, the right foot and count back, and the left foot and count back. Start again with the right hand and count back from 9, and keep repeating the exercise until you get down to 1-1-1-1 (right hand, left hand, right foot, left foot). If you’re short on time, count back from 5 to 1. (This is from our post Community-Building Warm-ups for the Drama Classroom.) • Have a Puppet Dance Party with found objects. Have students suggest songs to dance to. • Rapid Fire Thumbs: As quickly as you can, ask students a number of yes/no questions on a topic, such as favourite foods, music genres, actors, or hobbies. For example: “I’m going to quickly list some fruits and you’ll respond as fast as you can with thumbs up if you like it and thumbs down if you don’t… three, two, one: Apples! Oranges! Bananas! Strawberries! Grapefruit!” and so on. You can add an extra layer of two thumbs up for something they really like, and two thumbs down for something they really dislike. To make it more active, you could have students stand up for things they like and sit down for things they don’t like, or change up the gestures (nodding/shaking head, applause/booing, smiling/frowning). You can also try throwing in something that doesn’t fit into the topic and see how students respond. For example: “Apples! Oranges! Bananas! Popcorn!” Did they notice? Did they try to call you out? How did they feel when you tried to trick them?

The mirror game is one of the most common exercises in the drama classroom. Students are grouped into pairs, facing each other. One student is the leader and moves their face and body in slow movements, and their partner is their mirror image and copies the movements as precisely as they can. It’s a great game to work on focus, details, and teamwork. Ideally, students want to be so precise that the teacher can’t guess who is the leader and who is the mirror. Virtual Mirrors is an adaptation of this drama game for virtual platforms like Zoom. This exercise is done as a full class. 1. Assign one student to be the leader. 2. The leader will start moving their face and body slowly. The rest of the group must copy the leader’s movements exactly. (Allow some flexibility for camera lag.) No talking or coaching is allowed between students. 3. Most students will likely have their device’s camera set up as a medium close-up (framing their head and shoulders in the camera) but they don’t need to limit themselves to staying in one spot. They can lean in and out of frame, come up close or move far away from the camera. Play with the medium. Students playing the followers should adjust their positioning in front of the camera to mirror the leader exactly. Think of a television display in a store, in which many TVs show the same image at the same time. 4. Some devices will mirror the screen automatically – you’ll know if yours does this if when you take a photo, any writing visible on the screen is backwards. Students might have to think about this when doing the mirror exercise and adjust their movements accordingly – raising their right hand instead of their left to accommodate, for example. Isn’t technology fun? 5. Have students focus on smaller details, particularly with their faces, like raising an eyebrow, tilting their head, or wrinkling their nose or forehead. Also, make students aware of unintentional movements, such as fixing their hair, yawning, scratching their faces, or sighing. Adaptation 1: Lip Reading • The leader will silently mouth a short sentence, exaggerating the words and syllables. The rest of the class will copy the movements and try to guess what the sentence is. *Adaptation 2: Copycats * • Group students into pairs and have them mirror their partners, all moving at the same time. See if students are able to focus only on their partner and not copy the other pairs. Adaptation 3: Pass the Leadership • One student will start as the leader. At various points, the teacher will call out another student’s name. That student will assume leadership without stopping the original movement – the transition should be smooth. This challenges students to focus on the leader, listen in anticipation of their name being called, and have an idea for continuing the movement in the back of their minds. Adaptation 4: Add Music • Play a piece of music in the background. Encourage the leader to interpret the music or lyrics with their movements.

This warm-up exercise is perfect for days when your students are feeling stressed, frustrated, or unfocused. You can use it at the start of class to help students clear their brains, or mid-class as a way to interrupt any feelings of negativity. If you are working on any sort of dramatic writing, this activity can help students practice sitting down and writing, even when they are having a tough time doing so. It’s also a technique you can use yourself if you are feeling stressed or upset. This low-tech activity can be done in-person or via distance learning. Materials Needed:• Writing implement (pen, pencil, marker, crayon – for this activity, it doesn’t matter) • Scrap paper (can be lined or unlined, or “g.o.o.s.” paper – good on one side) • Timer or stopwatch (teacher only) • Recycling bin or garbage can 1. Have each student grab a writing implement and piece of paper. 2. Set a timer for five minutes (or whatever time you prefer). 3. For those five minutes, students will free write about everything that’s on their minds. For example: • What is something that recently upset you or made you angry? • What’s something that’s currently stressing you out? • Describe a sound that annoys you. • What is something you’d like to say to someone but feel like you can’t? • See below for a list of more writing prompts. This isn’t a time for perfect writing or self-censoring. Students should not stress about spelling, grammar, or perfect penmanship. They should not feel that they need to come up with a reason, justification, or solution to the topic at hand if they can’t or don’t want to. If students are having trouble thinking of what to write, have them write “I don’t know what to write” over and over until the timer goes off. If they are really struggling with words, have them draw or scribble how they’re feeling. Just encourage them to keep the pen to the page for the full five minutes. 4. When the time is up, have students put their writing implements away. At the same time, they will all take a deep breath. When you give a signal, they will take their papers and scrunch them up, making lots of noise. They can vocalize if they want to while they’re scrunching – it can be a great release of stress and tension. 5. One by one, students will take their scrunched up paper and dramatically throw it into the recycling bin (preferred) or garbage can. Students can stomp on and chuck the paper, toss it into the bin like a basketball, rip it into confetti and let it float down, or pick it up with a pincer grasp like it’s something smelly and fling it. Again, they can vocalize when they throw out their paper if they feel so inclined. Note: If you are in an in-person classroom, once all the students have thrown out their papers, take the bin and make a show of disposing of the papers. This is both a symbolic gesture and a practical one – you are removing those negative thoughts from the room, while ensuring that the papers are not found later (in case someone has written something about another student, for example). 6. Ask students: How do you feel now? It’s best for students to respond verbally if they’re comfortable, either as a full class or in small groups, as their hands might be sore from writing! The goal is for students to experience catharsis. Some students may have a different reaction – see if those feelings are shared with other students. 7. If you wish, have students complete this exercise at a different time, as homework. Have them submit a brief written reflection (a few sentences is plenty) describing how they felt afterwards, and whether the experience was helpful or not.

In this multi-part exercise, students will write monologues based on the concept of an “I want/I wish” song, which is used by a character to share their heart’s desire. It is primarily a written exercise, but students can also read aloud or perform their written pieces for the rest of the class if you wish. This exercise can be completed in live, in-person classes, via distance learning, or assigned as homework. Step 1: Identifying “I want.”One of the traditional song themes in musicals is the “I want” or “I wish” song. A character wants something so badly that they break into song to express their feelings, hopes, dreams, or goals. They show their vulnerable side, and the journey towards achieving their heart’s desire is what pushes the story forward. For example, in Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Ariel’s song “Part of Your World” demonstrates how much she wants to join the human world. In Hamilton, the song “My Shot” shares Alexander Hamilton’s wish to make a name for himself and take his place in history (even if it means dying for it). Step 1: Brainstorm a list of “I want/I wish” songs, identifying the musical the song comes from, the character who sings the song, the character’s want or wish, and how it drives the action. Songs can be from musical theatre productions or musical movies. Step 2: Baby steps.“I want” songs can be thought of as monologues that are sung with music. Let’s take that idea of expressing your heart’s desire, and apply it to writing a monologue. The goal is to be authentic, honest, and vulnerable. This can be hard, because we often worry about what others will think of us if we express what is truly in our hearts. We worry about the consequences, the whys, the hows. But do you know who doesn’t think about those things? Five-year-old kids. Little kids think nothing about wishing to be a ninja ballerina princess, have a pet velociraptor, or eat fifteen ice cream cones. The sky’s the limit when it comes to their heart’s desire, and they have no problem expressing it and even directly asking for it. Let’s take baby steps and practice asking for our younger self’s desires. Step 2: Write a “Santa letter.” Think back to when you were younger, around five years old. Write a letter to Santa Claus asking for the one present you want most in the world. Describe the item in detail. Explain why you want it. Write about some of the good things you did that year to deserve the gift. Describe how happy you would be if you got it. If you wish, have students read their letter aloud to the rest of the class and reflect on these questions: How did it feel to share your letter? Was it easy or hard? Did you feel vulnerable asking for what you wanted? Why or why not? Step 3: Answering the hard questions.Now that students have practiced asking for their younger selves desires, it’s time to step it up and think about something big they want now. It could be something they want to possess, like a physical object or a pet. Maybe there’s something they want to share, but they’re not sure how to do it or what people would think of them. It could be the desire to travel somewhere, the hope that someone will fall in love with them, the acceptance of someone they admire, a dream job, or world peace. It can be challenging for students to be vulnerable and express what they want. Encourage them to be open and authentic. This doesn’t mean being weak or spineless, but it does involve some risk. Step 3 Action: Answer the following questions: • What is something you currently want badly? • Why do you want it? • How would getting what you want make you feel? • How will your life be better if you get it? • What challenges are standing in the way of you getting what you want? • What would you be willing to do to get what you want? • What would happen if/when you got what you wanted? • What would happen if you didn’t get what you wanted? Step 4: Make it theatrical.Now that students have the bones of the monologue, it’s time to flesh it out and make it theatrical. Just reading the answers to the questions isn’t very interesting. Have students think about what style or format they’d like their monologue to be in. How can they make it interesting to read and perform? They could recite it as though they were speaking to someone important, write a letter or journal entry, make it into a poem or song, or come up with another interesting way of presenting the material. Step 4: Write your monologue, using the answers from Step 3 as a basis for your work. Monologues should be approximately one page. If you wish, students can rehearse and perform their monologues once they are finished writing. The most important thing is to be honest and authentic. It’s not easy for students to be vulnerable. Commend your students for their bravery in sharing their wishes. It may even help students to go forward and work towards actually getting their heart’s desire outside of the drama classroom.

The purpose of this group exercise is to see how technical effects can change the mood and atmosphere of a performed scene. Students will have the opportunity to perform and observe others, while figuring out two simple yet creative technical effects using only resources available in the drama classroom. They are also challenged to keep their acting consistent between the two presentations of the scene, without letting the change in technical effects change their performance. Instructions:1. Students will form small groups and each will prepare a short scene (1-2 pages). Scenes can be performed with script in hand or memorized, as time permits/teacher wishes. You can find some great two-person scenes and group scenes on our Free Resources page. 2. Each group must use a simple yet clear technical effect in their scene, using resources available in the classroom. Some examples might include: • • Dimming the classroom lights • Background music played on someone’s smartphone • A few simple props from around the room or their own personal items • Having one group member make live sound effects using found objects 3. Each group will present the scene for the rest of the class. 4. Each group will then present the scene again, without changing any blocking, acting choices, voice volume, and so on. This time, however, they must create an entirely different effect while using the same equipment (lights, music, props). Using the above examples: • • Dimming the classroom lights > performing with very bright lights, or entirely in the dark • Background music > performing with no music, or with music of a totally different genre (classical vs. disco vs. EDM vs. rap) • Using a few simple props > miming props • Having one group member make sound effects > no sound effects, or exaggerated sound effects, or sound effects at different times (a “boing” sound when someone stands up, for example) 5. After all the students have presented twice, they will discuss and/or write a reflection on the following questions: • • For the students performing: How did the group decide what technical effect to use in their scene? How did changing the effect between the two performances change the scene? Was it easy or difficult to keep the scene consistent with the change in technical effects? • For the students observing: How did the scene change with the change in technical effect? How was the mood or atmosphere different? Did the effect add to the scene, or distract from it? Which technical choice worked better for the scene? What might they have done differently?