Warm Up

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.

This improv warm-up game helps students think quickly and creatively, listen to their peers, and choose their words with care. It can be done in person in the drama classroom (with physical distancing if necessary), or virtually using an online platform. Materials Needed: • Stopwatch or timer • Item(s) that students have handy (in their bags or rooms, around the classroom, etc.) 1. Select a student to be the Seller. They will choose one item to sell. This item can be anything they have available to them – a hat they’re wearing, a pencil from their backpack, a teddy bear from their room, the chair they’re sitting on, etc. The item should be shown – it’s not a secret or a guessing game. 2. Select three students to be the Buyers. Decide in what order the Buyers will participate (first, second, third). 3. The job of the Seller is to sell their item to each of the Buyers within two minutes. They should show and describe the item. They can demonstrate how to use it, list its attributes, ask questions, and so on, using descriptive words and actions. 4. The job of the Buyer is to listen to and respond to the Seller’s sales pitch. They must reply to the Seller, but there’s a catch – they cannot use certain words when responding. • They cannot use the words YES, NO, or the name/direct description of the item. • For example, if the Seller’s item is a pencil, the Buyer cannot use the word pencil, writing utensil, etc. • The Seller can still use the banned words and in fact, they can try to trip up the Buyer into saying the banned words. 5. The teacher will set a timer for two minutes. Within the two minutes, the Seller must attempt to sell their item to each of the three Buyers in turn. 6. The teacher and the rest of the class will observe and listen for the banned words. If the first Buyer says one of the banned words, they are out and the Seller moves on to the next Buyer. 7. Once the time is up, choose a new Seller. If the second or third Buyer didn’t get to participate (because the first Buyer used up the full two minutes), they will be the Buyers for the new Seller. 8. Have a brief post-game discussion or have students complete a reflection: • What was the easiest part of this game? The most challenging? Why? • How can the Seller angle their sales pitch to try to trip up the Buyer into using the banned words? • How can the Buyer phrase their responses to avoid using the banned words? • How can this exercise help you become a better actor? 9. Extra Challenges: • Choose additional words that the Buyer cannot use. For example, not using the word “I” would be a big challenge! • Have the Seller try to sell to as many Buyers as possible within the two minutes. Hold a class competition to see who can sell to the most Buyers. • If you are studying a play or having a class production, have students sell and buy in character. • Give the Buyers and Sellers each an acting quirk, such as an accent or an ailment (e.g., they can’t stop sneezing or yawning).

Warm-ups are vital for the rehearsal process, to get students’ bodies and minds ready to work. They should include three parts – physical, vocal, and mental. Some students will resist warming up, believing that it’s a waste of time. One of the best ways to get students committed to warming up is to make it fun, and to hand ownership of the warm-up process to your students. As much as possible, include your students in the creation and execution of warm-ups. Among the benefits are increased buy-in and various leadership opportunities, as well as one less thing for you to do! PhysicalThe physical warm-up gets students’ bodies ready for the rehearsal. It helps keep their stamina up while avoiding injuries and strained muscles. It doesn’t matter if the show is a musical or a play – a physical warm-up should be included. I usually allow students to talk quietly during the physical warm-up, as long as they keep moving, so they can get the chattiness out of their systems. However, feel free to take away that privilege if talking gets in the way of the warm-up. • Choose an up-tempo song and dance it out. Have each student sign up for a rehearsal date when they will choose the song and/or lead the warm-up dance. (I always have my students choose two or three songs and submit them for approval a couple days prior to rehearsal, so I can ensure the content is appropriate.) • Alternatively, if students aren’t comfortable dancing or leading a dance, they can do a cardio warm-up such as jumping jacks, jogging in place or in large circles around the room, grapevines, step-hop-claps, and so on. • Next is stretching. The easiest way to ensure each body part is covered is to start from the head/neck and work your way down. It’s important to stretch AFTER the dance party/cardio, so students aren’t trying to stretch cold muscles. • You can also try these fun and physical warm-ups – Shakedown and Numbered Bodies are especially good to get your students moving. VocalIt’s easy to strain your vocal chords, so unless you’re doing a mime show, a vocal warm-up is a necessity. We’ve covered lots of different vocal warm-ups in this post – check out the Vocal Technique & Clarity section in particular. Tongue-twisters, breathing exercises, and precise unison speaking are all good warm-ups to use with your students. Here’s another simple vocal warm-up. As a group, stand in a circle. Have your students breathe in and out as a group a few times to focus and sync themselves together. In unison, students will recite the following sounds out loud: • Me, May, Mah, Mo, Moo (inhale), Tee, Tay, Tah, Tow, Too (inhale), See, Say, Sah, So, Su (inhale), Vee, Vay, Vah, Vo, Voo (inhale)… and so on with whatever consonant sounds you like. Give them the next consonant sound during the inhale. Or, try this one: • Zing zing zaaaah (inhale), Ring ring raaaah (inhale), Ting ting taaaah (inhale), Sing sing saaaah (inhale)… and again, add whatever consonant sounds you like. For a bigger challenge or to save time, try combining your physical and vocal warm-ups. Have your students recite tongue-twisters while they’re stretching, or do the consonant exercises above while jogging in place. Keep the pace slow and steady so students don’t get winded! MentalYour students are likely busy people, with a lot on their minds. Helping students mentally prepare themselves during warm-ups can help them leave their worries and anxieties outside the rehearsal space and focus on the work at hand. It gives them time to calm their active brains and get into a rehearsal mindset. Yoga or tai chi-style movements, mindfulness exercises, journaling, and visualization exercises are all great ways to help students calm their minds and get focused. You can also try one of my favourite relaxation and focus exercises, the Mindful Triangle Exercise, with your students. It’s a great way for them to calm and centre themselves before rehearsals.

Here’s a warm-up game you can try at your next rehearsal: Switching Roles. Students will use an improv game to take on a different part in the play you’re currently working on. It’s a simple enough premise: using the framework of an improvisation game, such as Scenes from a Bag or What’s for Breakfast?, students will improv in character, but as a character they don’t normally play. For example, if you’re currently working on Hamlet, the student who plays Claudius will do their improv in character as Ophelia, one of the Players, the Ghost, Osric, or whichever other character is chosen for them. In terms of determining how the role switches will occur, you have a number of options available: • Assign each student a different role • Let students choose what role they wish to try out • Make it random by drawing a role out of a hat • Partner students up and have them switch roles (either student-selected or teacher-selected partners) Trading roles with an assigned partner is probably the easiest method, as it ensures no roles get overlooked. If possible, try to have students with leading or named roles switch with students in ensemble or chorus roles for a more equal-opportunity experience. Switching roles in a warm-up exercise gives students the chance to explore how they might approach a role in a different manner to the student actually cast in that role. Are they able to switch from the mindset and physicality of their current character to those of a different character? How would they differentiate their performance from the student currently playing the role? On the other hand, what needs to be kept the same? In other words, how can students ensure that it’s clear they’re playing the same role, but keep it interesting and fresh? The exercise also gives students the opportunity to get to know other characters in the show on a deeper level. Many students get so wrapped up in their own character that they don’t think about other characters, unless the other character directly interacts with theirs. They don’t think about how other characters move, think, feel, or interact with other characters – or how their fellow castmates got to that point. This exercise helps students develop a better understanding of and a deeper connection with more than just their own character, which then leads to a better understanding and deeper connection with the show as a whole. Having your students try switching roles is also beneficial for you as a director. It may inspire interesting new acting approaches and theatrical moments that could be adapted or included in the show. It may also give you some insight into future casting options for upcoming shows. Who knew that Ben was great at playing a villain, or that Casey could do that incredibly funny laugh? There are a few challenges with this exercise, however. First, role switches need to be respectful. Students need to ensure they aren’t trying to parody or make fun of the current student’s performance in that role. Second, role switches need to be non-competitive. Students should not attempt to compete with the current casting and try and prove that they should have gotten the role over the current student playing the role. Third, role switches need to be kept in the warm-up and then left behind – meaning, the student currently playing the role should not try to alter their own performance to imitate what another student has done. They were cast into that role for a reason, and need to make sure that another student’s approach doesn’t affect them negatively. This is why it’s important to do improvisations for this activity, rather than actual scenes from the show. This minimizes the chances that students’ feelings will get hurt, as well as reduces comparison and gossip opportunities (“Casey performed that character way better than Ben does; I can’t believe they didn’t get the role in the first place”). Additionally, be sure that this exercise does not affect YOUR perspective of the roles. Avoid directly comparing students’ performances. For example, at your next blocking or notes session, don’t tell Ben to laugh just like Casey did while playing this game. As stated above, Ben and Casey were cast into their roles for a reason. Don’t second-guess your original casting choices. Keep it lighthearted and brief. Remember, this is meant to be a warm-up game – make it fun, and then move forward in your rehearsal!

In this round-up, we’ve gathered a whole host of useful warm-up games that you can use in your drama classroom that focus on different aspects of communication. Communication isn’t just students talking to each other – it encompasses many different ways of sharing stories, thoughts, ideas, and feelings. Vocal Technique & ClarityWe’re starting with the basics – vocal technique and clarity. If your students are speaking too quickly or garbling their words, the audience won’t be able to understand the story they are trying to communicate. A simple, yet effective warm-up for vocal technique and clarity is to recite the alphabet out loud, as a full group, in a slow, over-enunciated, and exaggerated manner. Have students open their mouths and eyes wide, and really focus on drawing out every single sound from each letter. And yes, you will all look silly together! For an additional challenge, once you have gone through the alphabet once slowly, you can either speed up the tempo of the group alphabet (without losing any clarity), recite the alphabet backwards, or have students do a gesture (such as bending their knees or clapping their hands) on every third letter. Try these warm-ups too: • A Vocal Workout for the Articulators • Tongue Twister Teamwork (and other exercises) • Breath Control for Actors & Singers • Listening / Teamwork Tongue Twister Exercise Active ListeningAre your students listening to understand, or are they just waiting until they get to speak again? Active listening is a huge part of effective communication. There is nothing more frustrating than talking to someone and feeling like you aren’t being listened to. Here’s a fun warm-up game for students to practice active listening while practicing their improvisation skills. Have students sit or stand in a circle. Going around the circle, give each student a number in succession – 3, 5, and 7. Give the students a topic to talk about or a story starter prompt. The first student starts the story with 3 words, the second student continues with 5 words, the third student continues with 7 words, the fourth student continues with 3 words, and so on. It’s up to you to decide whether the story should be silly or serious. For example, here is a story about birds: Student 1: A bird named Student 2: George decided to go to Student 3: South America to visit his friend. So Student 4: he purchased a Student 5: ticket for the train. However, Student 6: once he arrived, he realized he forgot Student 7: his favourite suitcase. Students need to listen to each other to continue the story in a way that makes sense. Feel free to mix up the number of words each student gets to use. Try these warm-ups too: • Listen! Focus! • Three Things in Common • Shakedown / Numbered Bodies / Numbered Tableaux • The End of the Word (and other exercises) Nonverbal CommunicationIt’s not just about what your students say, it’s how they portray it with their bodies and faces. Try this warm-up exercise (which is also great for working on active listening). Narrate a simple, yet descriptive story of a student walking to school. While you are narrating the story, have students move about the space, acting out their interpretations of what you’re describing. For example: “You exit your house and lock the door behind you. You heft your backpack across your back. It’s heavy with textbooks and binders, but it’s a nice sunny day with a slight breeze. You’re feeling good – your homework is done, you’ve packed a lunch, and you’re wearing your favourite shirt. As you’re walking, you notice a strange feeling on your foot. You pause and look at the bottom of your shoe and see that you’ve stepped in a large wad of gum. You don’t want to touch it with your hands, so you try different ways to scrape it off, but it stays stubbornly stuck. While you’re trying to get rid of the gum on your shoe, you notice an odd, wet feeling on your back. You look behind you and notice that your water bottle is leaking through your backpack onto your clothes…” And so on! Make the story as long or short as you need to for the warm-up. Try to leave your descriptions clear enough for students to come up with ideas on the fly, but open enough for students to come up with creative ways of acting out your narration. Try these warm-ups too: • Who’s Knocking? • Silent Line-Up Game • Magic Putty • Nonverbal Emotions (and other exercises)

Student-led warm-up games are a great way for students to demonstrate what they’ve learned in drama class and apply it in a practical setting, as well as to develop their leadership skills. Student-led warm-up games are particularly useful for senior students, who could be assigned to lead warm-ups for grade 9 and 10 drama classes, show rehearsals, or drama club get-togethers, in addition to leading their own peers in class. The following exercise will help teachers to organize a schedule for student-led warm-ups, as well as lead students through the process of preparing, proposing, and presenting their warm-up game. 1. At the beginning of the semester, have students pair up. Each pair will be assigned a date on which they will be responsible for leading the warm-up. If at all possible, give students a class syllabus ahead of time so they are able to tailor their warm-up to the topic being studied that day. 2. Pairs will research and/or devise a warm-up game or activity (they may use an existing warm-up game, or invent their own new game). 3. Students will submit a proposal to the teacher, answering the following questions: • Name of the game/exercise (if it doesn’t have one, make it up!). • Source of the game/exercise (where the pair found the game – a book, online source, or another resource – or whether the pair made it up). • What is the purpose of the game/exercise? • What materials (if any) are needed? • Describe the rules/parameters of the game/exercise in detail. If the exercise is an existing game, students must describe the rules in their own words, rather than simply copying the rules from the source. • How will the game/exercise benefit the drama students? • What theatrical/dramatic skills will be developed/practiced while working on this game/exercise in class • Create one brief Reflection question that students will answer after completing the game/exercise. 4. The teacher will approve the proposals and/or ask for revisions (this also helps to ensure multiple groups are not proposing the same activity). 5. Once all the proposals have been approved, on the assigned date the pair will lead the warm-up activity. The leading pair are responsible for obtaining any materials needed ahead of time, as well as setting up the classroom as needed. 6. The leading pair must clearly explain and/or demonstrate the game/exercise, and then lead the rest of the class in participating in the game. The leading pair must be prepared to explain the purpose of the activity, as well as respond to any questions or issues that arise. Once the activity has been completed, participating students will complete the Reflection question created by the leading pair (as devised for the initial proposal). 7. The leading pair will complete a more in-depth, individual Reflection upon completion of their proposal and their presentation.

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 different ways of moving their bodies. They have to think quickly, imaginatively, and outside the box. This game could even be the inspiration for a new theatrical creation! Who knows? What You’ll Need: • Whiteboard and pen, or computer – for brainstorming • Plain paper • A written list of all the students’ names • Scissors • Three paper bags (or hats) How to Play: Step 1: Brainstorm the WHAT and the HOWFirst, have students brainstorm a list of topics that involve rules, lessons, or “how tos.” This is WHAT your students will be performing. Anything goes! Here are some ideas to get you started: • Theatre etiquette rules or audience etiquette rules • Table manners • Rules of the road (walking, cycling, driving) • Rules for a sport (baseball, hockey, curling, gymnastics…) • How to behave in a public place (school, grocery store, shopping mall, at a wedding) • “Netiquette” or social media rules and guidelines Second, brainstorm a list of different theatrical performance styles that you have studied in drama class (or would like to explore more!). This is HOW your students will perform their pieces. Here are some examples: • Comedy • Tragedy • Absurdist • Radio play/radio drama • Musical theatre • Pantomime • Mime • Tableau • Puppetry • Improvisation • Technical theatre (sounds/lights/tech only) • Dance/movement piece • Newscast • Documentary • Infomercial • Theatre for young audiences/children’s theatre • Mask • Clown Step 2: Prep the Game ElementsTranscribe both lists onto paper and cut each item onto its own slip of paper. Put all the WHAT slips into one bag, and all the HOW slips into a second bag. Lastly, take the list of names of your class and cut that into slips as well – those slips go into the third bag, the WHO bag. (It’s almost like a theatrical version of the game Clue!) Step 3: Roll up and Choose Your Fate!Depending on the number of students, draw three to four names out of the WHO bag to make up small groups. Draw one WHAT slip – this is the topic that each group will focus on for their scene. Each group in turn will then draw a HOW slip. From there, they will have five minutes to create a brief scene (one-two minutes) on the overall WHAT topic drawn by the teacher, in the HOW genre they selected. For example: • Theatre etiquette rules taught in a comedic style • How to behave at a wedding through mime • Teaching the rules of baseball in a children’s theatre style • Tragic table manners Enforce the five-minute preparation rule – this game is not meant to be for creating a brilliant, polished performance. It’s meant to challenge students to work quickly, come up with an idea (any idea!), and go with it. Have students quickly narrow down their topic to one rule. For example, if students have the prompt “table manners,” they could narrow their scene down to using their napkin properly, not talking while eating, the proper way to set a table, or how to use the correct cutlery. Once they’ve decided on their narrowed focus, students will prepare a brief scene (one-two minutes) in the style they’ve chosen. Alternative: This game can easily be reversed, with the whole class preparing different rule/how-to scenes in the same way (for example, each different lesson is taught through musical theatre). Bonus Idea: If students truly don’t know an actual rule to share (let’s say one group was given “how to behave at a wedding” and the group members have never attended a wedding before), have them make up their best guess at what a rule might be! Step 4: Share Your Lesson, Rinse and RepeatAfter five minutes have passed, each small group will present their brief scene to the class. Once each group has presented their scene, repeat the process two more times, selecting a new WHAT topic for the full class and HOW slip for each small group both times. Step 5: Discussion and/or ReflectionDon't miss the link at the end of this article for a free reflection each student can submit (which can also be used for a class discussion as well). Extension: Use this exercise as a jumping-off point for devising a series of scenes or one-act plays used to teach an idea, a concept, or a set of rules. Who might benefit from such a production? In what style would this creation be most effective? How could you make the ideas appealing to an audience? How can students combine the educational with the entertaining? Distance Learning Adaptation 1: Virtual Classroom EtiquetteYou can use this exercise to help students learn and practice virtual classroom rules. Brainstorm with your students what rules and etiquette they think are important for the digital classroom. Some ideas might include: • Arrive on time for virtual class • Keep your microphone muted when you aren’t speaking • Keep your video screens on • Keep the written chat area for class-related chat only Divide students into pairs. Assign each pair a rule and a theatrical performance style (comedy, mime, musical theatre, newscast, documentary, infomercial, etc.) and have them improvise a brief scene either demonstrating the benefits of the rule, or the consequences of breaking the rule. Alternatively, send them into a separate online breakout room to have five minutes to discuss and prepare a quick scene, then bring everyone back together to present their works-in-progress. How can students make their scenes entertaining and informative at the same time? Distance Learning Adaptation 2: Prepared VideoThis adaptation will take longer to do and will involve some homework for your students. Assign students the WHO, WHAT, and HOW portions of the assignment. You can select each element for the groups, or if you wish to keep things random, write each element on slips of paper and draw slips out of a bag or a hat yourself. You could also use a random generator such as Wheel Decide to assign elements to your students. Have groups work together to write a brief scene (1 minute or less) demonstrating the rule using the assigned theatrical performance style, rehearse it, film it, and edit it together using software such as Windows Movie Maker or iMovie. Alternatively, if your students do not have access to video editing software or do not know how to use it, they can film their footage and then send it to you, along with their scripts, to edit together. You may also wish for your students to prepare a storyboard illustrating how they want their footage to be edited. Once the scenes have been edited, present them to the rest of the class to watch as a group.

Creating rituals in the drama classroom is a great way to build community and a sense of teamwork – a feeling of “we’re all in this together.” The most easy, basic ritual is starting each class with a group warmup, to get students’ bodies moving and energized after they have been sitting for hours in other classes. The following exercise starts out really simple, then turns the tables on students by having them lead the warmup. Basic Daily WarmupSometimes a simple warmup can be the most effective. I always start my classes with a body warmup and stretch-out, especially if my students have been sitting down for long periods of time before drama class. This can be as basic as putting on an upbeat song and leading students in warming up their bodies by running in place or doing jumping jacks. Follow this with stretching, starting from the top of the head and neck, then going down to the legs and feet. You can also include a vocal warmup and breathing exercises. If you are short on time, here’s an easy body-and-voice warmup exercise: As a group, have students shake the 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 extremely short on time, count back from 5 to 1. Guaranteed to get your students warmed up in a jiffy! You might also start with some games. Here are some great ideas to get you started! • 3 Fun Physical Warmups • 5 Collaboration Games for the Drama Classroom Once students are in the habit of doing a daily warmup, turn the tables on them and try this… Student-Led WarmupsGet a calendar and assign each student a date where he or she is responsible for leading the class in the warmup routine, exercise, or game. One week before their date, students must submit a planning handout that describes their warmup and how it will benefit the class. Students can create an original warmup exercise or game, or they can adapt a warmup exercise or game that they’ve done in class. If they use an existing exercise, they need to put their own spin on it. Ideas could include “theming” a warmup to an upcoming school event or holiday, or basing their warmup on a topic you’ve been studying in class (Greek playwright tongue-twisters?). Students don’t need to reinvent the wheel here; the point of the exercise is to practice leadership skills and to think creatively. It also gives each student the chance to lead their classmates and take ownership of their portion of the class. And since everyone in the class gets a chance to lead, it encourages students to support each other. It also gives students the chance to get to know each other better by seeing the different spin that each student puts on their warmup!

Warm-ups are a great way to get students’ bodies and minds ready for drama class, especially if they have been sitting in other classes all day. Warm-ups get students into the creative mindset necessary for experimentation, risk-taking, and artistic play. Here are three warm-up games that will get your students moving. They’re also great to use in a rehearsal setting before transitioning to blocking, choreography, and character development! 1. ShakedownThis warm-up gets students moving while helping them to learn each other’s names. When you introduce yourself to a new person, you would usually say hello and shake hands. In Shakedown, you introduce yourself, but don’t shake hands. Choose a Caller (could be the teacher or one of the students) and have your students spread out around the room. The Caller announces a way of moving around the room (creeping, tiptoeing, dancing, leaping, shuffling, crawling, etc.). Have the students move around the room in the manner that the Caller specifies. When the Caller yells “SHAKEDOWN!” have the students quickly get into pairs with whoever is closest to them at that moment. Have the Caller yell out the name of a body part. The student pairs will introduce themselves to each other (“Hi, I’m Amy.” “Hi, I’m Jonathon.”), then shake the body part announced by the caller and say “Nice to meet you!” It’s going to be hard to keep the giggles at bay when students shake each other by the shoulder, calf, toe, or thumb! Play multiple rounds. With each round, make sure to move in a different way around the room each time and have the Caller yell out the name of a different body part for the students to shake. 2. Numbered BodiesYou may know this warm up as That Atom Game or Mixer. Numbered Bodies starts the same way as Shakedown–assign a Caller who announces a method of moving around the room. Have the students move around the room in the manner that the caller specifies. Have the Caller yell out a number and a body part–for example, “THREE ELBOWS!” Students then need to assemble in groups with the correct quantity of body parts touching each other as quickly as possible–in this case, three elbows. But wait! There are two different methods of assembling body parts. The first way, “The Creative Method,” allows a variety of assembling. For example, for “THREE ELBOWS” you could have three students touch one elbow each; OR you could have two students assemble, with one student using one elbow and the other student using two. The second way, “The Elimination Method,” is stricter. It allows the exact number of people, each one using just one body part. This method is useful if you want to make the warm-up a competition. This game is played in multiple rounds, with different ways of moving around the room, and various numbers and body parts being assembled–four pinkies, five knees, seven heels, three shoulders, etc. You are only limited by the number of students in your class! Warning! Be sure that students are not launching themselves at each other when assembling, and do use caution with body parts chosen. (NOTE: This is the reason why I avoid calling “heads” in my classroom, because it always leads to clunked noggins.) 3. Numbered TableauxNumbered Tableaux starts the same way as Shakedown and Numbered Bodies. Assign a Caller who announces a method of moving around the room. All the students move around the room in the manner that the Caller specifies. The Caller calls out a number, and students must assemble themselves into groups of that number with whoever is closest to them. The Caller then announces a simple tableau scene that the students must create within three seconds. Once each tableau is complete, have the students freeze in that position for at least 10 seconds. Next, have the Caller announce a new way of moving around the room and start again with a new number and tableau scene. Suggestions for simple tableau scenes: • Scenes from the show your class is currently studying or producing (students get to play all the parts they normally don’t play) • Scenes from fairy tales and nursery rhymes • Scenes from famous movies • Scenes from school (taking a test, playing a sport, doing a science experiment that goes wrong) • Scenes from life (shopping, going to the beach, running a race, playing with a pet) Each of these warm-ups suggests students move around the room in a specific way. Download our action verb sheet, cut the words up into slips, toss them in a bag or hat, and pull out a slip at random to determine how students will move.

Ontario teachers Claire Broome, Colin Oliver, and Carmelina Martin put together this awesome exercise that gets students to create their own vocal workout. Thank you so much for letting us share it here! What is an Articulator?Articulation is the act of vocal expression. Making sound, the volume of that sound, pronouncing words. The tone, quality, and pitch of those words. To speak articulately is to speak clearly. Articulators include the lips, teeth, tongue, jaw and palate. Fixed articulators remain still during speech- for example, the teeth. Active articulators move to produce sound- for example, the tongue. There are other factors to speaking clearly, such as posture. Good posture increases breath capacity and sustainability, both of which are needed to make sound. Exercise: Articulator Warm-Up Having a clear voice is important for any actor. If an audience is to understand a play, they need to understand the actor. Warming up the voice by exercising the articulators will help actors to speak clearly. In this exercise, students will create their own articulator warm-up. They will put together a song using lines that exercise different articulators. Remind students that articulation is not just about making sound- they must think about their volume, the variety of sound (loud, soft), the clarity of their speech, and good posture. Performance Tasks1. Choose 2 or 3 lines from each category below and arrange the lines into a simple jingle or song that everyone can sing. (Note: Camp songs work well.) 2. You can repeat the lines as many times as you need to. For example, if your song has a chorus, your lines will be repeated. 3. Write out a copy of your song. 4. Memorize the song. 5. You will perform the memorized articulation warm-up for an evaluation. CategoriesLip Exercises • Bubble, babble, pebble • Rub-a-dub-dub • A big brown bear • Hip hop, tip top, tip top, popcorn • Puh-tuh-kuh-buh-duh-huh • Plum pie • Lonely man in the moon • Roo-roe-rah-ray-ree Tongue and Teeth Exercises • Five fifths • Give gifts • Vicious villain • Tay tee tie toe too • Day dee die do doo • Loo low law lah lie lay lee • Thigh thin thick thud thumb thank • Though thou thy they there • See say sigh sew soo • Zoo zone zest zinc zeal • Ooh ohy ahy ayj eej • Ooth ohth ahth ayth eeth • Oosth ohsth ahsth aysth eesth • Oosths ohsths ahsths aysths eesths Palate Exercises • Cut cubes in quarters • Ook ohk ahk ayk eek • Going ga-ga at the go-go • Kay key kar kur koo • Going out, coming in, yell ye, young men Tongue Twisters • A bitter, British blizzard • Dimpled dolly dwelt with dappled deer • The frothing filly frisketh frantically • Six gray geese grazing on green grass • Horace’s horse was hampered by the hillock • Jolly Jimmy Jupiter jumpin in the gym • Cather cooked coffee in the coffee pot • Loitering along a long lonely lane • Peter picked pickled peppers • Tom peeped through three thick trees Sample Articulator Warm-Up Song (Sung to the tune of “If you’re happy and you know it”) Bubble, babble, pebble, rub a dub dub (clap, clap) Bubble, babble, pebble, rub a dub dub (clap, clap) Lonely man in the moon, five fifths, give gifts, Loitering along a long lonely lane (clap, clap)

Want to get your students working together as an ensemble? Are you looking for a great vocal warm up that will improve their listening skills? Use rounds! A round is a short musical piece in which multiple voices sing the same melody but start the song at different times. When each singer gets to the end of the song, they return to the beginning and start again. Though simple, rounds have a beautiful cyclical sound that requires concentration and focus from your students. It’s easy to get caught up in another singer’s track! Instructions:• Divide your group into three or more sections. • Section One will start the round. • At the end of the first line of the verse, have Section Two start their track. • When they get to the end of the first line of the verse, have Section Three start their track. • Instruct students that when they get to the end of the song they need to go back to the beginning and start again. • Also instruct students to look for your signal to end the round. This means they not only have to listen to each other, but focus on you to know when to finish. RoundsRounds are simple melodies and usually four lines of verse. Don’t be fooled by their simplicity! It’s their simple nature that makes them work when repeated in the staggered fashion. Aside from being a great warm up, consider using rounds to end your rehearsals. The tone, the act of working together, and the ringing melody as the voices die out make this a lovely exercise. Click the title on each round to go to a recording. 1. Row, Row, Row, Your Boat Row, row, row your boat Gently down the stream Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily Life is but a dream 2. Fire’s Burning Fire’s burning, fire’s burning Draw nearer, draw nearer In the gloaming, in the gloaming Come sing and be merry (Note: Third line can also be sung as: “In the glowing, in the glowing.”) 3. Three Blind Mice Three blind mice, three blind mice See how they run, see how they run They all ran after the farmer’s wife Who cut off their tails with a carving knife Have you ever seen such a sight in your life As three blind mice 4. Frere Jacques (Brother John) Frere Jacques, Frere Jacques Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous? Sonnez les matines, Sonnez les matines. Ding, dang, dong. Ding, dang, dong. Are you sleeping, are you sleeping Brother John? Brother John? Morning bells are ringing, morning bells are ringing. Ding, dang dong. Ding, dang, dong. 5. Make New Friends Make new friends, but keep the old One is silver and the other’s gold. 6. White Coral Bells White coral bells, upon a silver stalk Lilies of the Valley deck my garden walk Oh don’t you wish that you could hear them ring That can only happen when the fairies sing 7. Kookabura Kookabura sit in the old gum tree Merry merry king of the bush is he Laugh Kookabura, laugh Kookabura Great your life must be 8. I Like The Flowers I like the flowers, I like the daffodils I like the mountains, I like the rolling hills I like the fireside, when the lights are low Boom-dee-ah-da, Boom-dee-ah-da Boom-dee-ah-da, Boom-dee-ah-da 8. Ah Poor Bird Ah, poor bird Take your flight High above the sorrows Of this sad night. 10. Rose Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose Will I ever see thee wed I will marry at thy will, sir, At thy will. (another version- a little darker!) Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose Will I ever see thee wed. Aye sir, I will marry When I am dead. Bonus!You can sing these three different rounds together for more of a challenge • Oh Poor Bird • Rose • AND Hey, Ho, Nobody Home Hey, ho nobody home Meat nor drink Nor money have I none Still I will be very merry Hey, ho nobody home Have students write their own! Follow this criteria: • A simple melody. You could have them write new lyrics to an existing melody like Row Row Row Your Boat. • Four lines of verse. Have students study existing rounds, how do they use rhyme? How do they use repetition?

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 year, they can help get the class out of rehearsal ruts, energizing both the students and the teacher. These are 5 of our favourite collaboration games. Each post comes with a PDF download so you can walk into class the next day, ready to play the game with your students! 1. Three Things in Common The point of this game is for students to not just talk to each other, but to go beyond surface connections. Great for the first week of the term! 2. The Marshmallow Challenge It works because it’s so simple. Groups of four are given 18 minutes to build the tallest freestanding building they can with 20 sticks of uncooked spaghetti, one yard of masking tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. 3. The Negotiation This game will give your students practice negotiating, not just following one or two leaders. 4. The Human Knot Students must not only achieve the knot, but they must also work together to undo it. This game will challenge students to communicate with each other without resorting to commands. It will also boost their negotiation skills. 5. Big, Tiny, Twisted This exercise is a great last warm-up before transitioning into classwork or rehearsal.

Here’s a great warm up that also works as a communication exercise. Magic Putty. Instructions:1. Everyone stands in a circle, including the teacher. The teacher cups his/her hands and says, “I’m holding something amazing in my hands. It’s magic putty. I can use it to make any kind of toy that I want. For example…” 2. The teacher mimes shaping the putty into a toy (e.g. a Barbie doll, a tennis racket, etc.), plays with said toy for a few seconds and then shapes the toy back into the ball of magic putty. Be specific with each step. Take the putty, shape it into the toy, play with the toy and then re-shape it back into putty. Make each step clean and defined. 3. The putty is passed to the next person and the game continues around the circle. This is a great game for beginners because it doesn’t ask students to play a role, to be funny, to be impressive. It just asks them to think of a toy and communicate what that toy is through mime. Some tips:• Don’t worry about the amount of putty you start with and don’t worry about being realistic. A handful can make an entire baseball stadium if you so desire. It’s magic! • Encourage physicality. Coach the students to make toys that use the whole body (e.g. a bicycle). • Do the steps. Coach students to follow each step cleanly – accept the putty, shape the putty into a toy, play with the toy, shape it back into putty. • Take the word “toy” loosely. It doesn’t need to be a traditional toy. It can be any object that you interact with in a physical way. Variations:Charades: Interact with the toy until someone is able to guess what it is. Share your toy: Instead of collapsing the toy after playing with it, it gets handed to the next person in the circle, who also plays with it for a few seconds, then collapses it to make a new toy. Speed round: Do a round as quickly as possible, keeping the movements/steps as clean and clear as possible.

“Communication: the means of connection between people; the imparting or exchange of information, thoughts, opinions.” Communication is vital to a successful theatrical experience. A play is a two way street – what is sent from the stage gets an immediate response from the audience. There is an exchange that doesn’t happen in the movie-going experience or the reading experience. It is an actor’s job to communicate to the audience and they will answer back. Communication might be the most important 21st century skill students can learn in the drama classroom. We communicate with each other in the real world every day, in a variety of ways: verbal, nonverbal, physical. We often have to navigate the minefield of miscommunication with mixed messages or people who refuse to listen. A student may resist creative thought or creative action – “I can’t do that, I’m not creative. I can’t act. I can’t be in a play.” But every single human being benefits from learning how to communicate. We need communication skills in family life, in relationships, in the workplace, and in the school hallway. How can you practice communication in the drama classroom?Define: Define communication with your students. Find out how they communicate with each other and why they communicate the way they do. Explore: With 21st century students, it’s all about texts and snapchats. It’s much less about face to face interaction. Have students lead an improv game where they have to provide the instructions via snapchat. Observe what happens. Do students engage, because this is a form of communication they’re drawn to? Or is this an example of how in-person communication is still valuable? Explore: Over the course of a month, every student has to teach a warm up game at the beginning of class. Communication is a different experience when you’re the leader. What’s it like to be in charge? Do your fellow classmates listen? Why or why not? Did you communicate the game effectively? Why or why not? How would you change your instruction to communicate more effectively? Discussion and Theatricalization: Click below for a PDF downloadable Communication Quotes page. Divide your students into groups, have each group discuss a quote. What does it mean? Why is the statement being said? Do you agree or disagree? Then have each group theatricalize their quote. If they were going to turn the quote into a scene, how would they do it? Give each group 15 minutes to come up with a 1 minute scene to present. Reflection: Theatre is an act of communication. Reflect on this statement. What comes to mind when you read it? Why might theatre be an act of communication? Do you agree or disagree? If you disagree, why isn’t theatre an act of communication?

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. This game encourages students to think as a group. One to Twenty GameWith One to Twenty, you want everybody to be in a circle. You want them to be in a close circle, not quite touching each other but almost. If you have a really good ensemble of actors who trust each other and enjoy working with each other, have them get in close and maybe even be touching shoulder to shoulder. You want your students focused and quiet. Encourage students to inhale and exhale and just focus on their breathing. You may even tell the group, “Everybody, inhale and exhale,” and they’ll all breathe together as one unit. One to Twenty works like this. The group is going to count from one to twenty together. However, there is no order in which they are going to say the numbers. There is no gimmick with which they will say the numbers. Somebody needs to say a number and, when the space is open for the next person to say a number – it could be immediately, it could be five minutes – but when there is a space to say the next number with quiet and attention, the next person will say “two,” “three,” “four.” If two people say the same number at the same time or speak at the same time, you have to stop and go back to one. The purpose of the game is to listen to the silence and the quality of the silence and find out when it is your turn or where there is an opening where no one else is going to speak in order to say the next number. Students want to win. Actors want to win. They want to get gimmicky with this. Somebody will say “one” and somebody thinks they’re clever and they want to get to twenty and will come right in on the heels of the person who says “one” and go “two.” Technically, that’s right, but they’re trying to win and not listen for when it is their opportunity to speak. One of the ways you can bring the group together to listen to each other is, before you begin playing, have them take three or four easy, gentle breaths together. Then encourage them to just be quiet and listen to the quality of the silence. I know this sounds ooky spooky but go with me on this – you can actually feel the silence. It’s just a subtle thing. We can hear the breath or the inhale from when somebody wants to then talk. We can sense all of these subtle nuances in physical behavior before we engage in action. We want to get the students used to listening to those subtle little nuances of our partner’s bodies and physicality before they can speak. The goal of the game really is to listen and to take your time and not be in a rush to get to twenty. After they’ve taken some breaths and you’ve asked them just to listen, tell them to begin. If there’s a particularly long silence, tell them that it’s good that they’re just listening. If you can sense people trying to rush in or gimmick the game, tell them to just relax and breathe and listen for their opportunity to speak. This is a really good game for building ensemble and for building outward focus and outward awareness of what’s going on around them. All too often, as actors, we think we must be doing something constantly on-stage. We feel the need to make something happen, or to be dramatic or worth watching. Sometimes, the doing that we need to do is just to be quiet and focus and listen rather than planning or loading what we’re going to say to our partners or how we’re going to react to our partners. Listen to what they do and then react off of what they’ve done by really listening to them. It’s a very small, quiet game that can be a little frustrating for some students because they want to win. They want to get to the end. They want to succeed. It may take a couple of times in your rehearsal for this to start to click with the students. Even if it’s not 100 percent successful when you do it, that’s okay; the students are learning to listen. The actors are learning to pay attention. So you, as the teacher, also need to take your time and just listen and allow things to be and accept the reality of how the game is going.

It’s easy to get caught in a rhythm during the rehearsal process. Lines must be memorized, blocking must be learned, it’s the same rhythm over and over again. Before you know it, it’s opening night and you’re asking yourself, “Where did the time go? What did we do?” Sometimes you find yourself late in the rehearsal period with students who have lost their passion and energy for the piece. Maybe you’ve lost your passion and energy for the piece. You’ve become stuck in rehearsal rut. Rut: A habit or pattern that becomes dull but is hard to change. Shake up your rehearsal to keep students engaged in the process. Break away from the script with some character development. Do an out-of-context line exercise. Have a Q&A session. Have some fun! These exercises not only break the rhythm, they also show your actors (and you) what they know and what needs work. Provide a focus and a drive as you head toward opening night. Change Your Warm-UpsThere is something comforting about doing the same warm-ups repeatedly. It provides structure: this is how rehearsals start. Structure can give you a valuable transition from the “outside” world to rehearsal world. But a great way to shake up rehearsals is to change the warm-up. Instead of warming up as actors, have your students warm-up in character. • Students are spread around the room. Explain that they are now in character and that every choice they make for this warm-up should be in character. Think about how your character acts, reacts, moves and speaks differently than you do. • Emphasize these differences by directing students to stretch in character. Reach up as your character, think about how old you are, how far you can stretch your arms. Reach out to the side, always staying in character. Do the ragdoll (reach up and then flop forward from the waist) and roll up vertebrae by vertebrae, continually coaching students to stay in character. • Direct students to move about the room in character. Think about your character’s pace and speed. Do they walk always in a straight line? Do they wobble? Do they make a lot of sudden changes in direction? Stay focused, stay in character. If you make eye contact with anyone, you can say hello – in character. If your character doesn’t like another character, make it clear. • Have students come to a halt. Coach them to stand so that they are not making eye contact with anyone else. Make sure everyone stands as their character would. How does your character stand? Remember, you are different than your character. Make your stance different. Where do you hold your hands? Where are your shoulders? Make this pose the most defined and expressive stance for your character. • Direct students to think about the problems their characters face in the play. What are your problems? Think about the issues that make you really tense. Where do you (the characters, not the actors) hold tension? Is it in the shoulders? Do you get stomachaches? Headaches? Exaggerate the tension you feel right now. Hold on to the area where you feel that tension. • Direct students to walk around the room, maintaining the tension in their bodies. Think about the tension you feel right now. Think about what problems you have to face. Make that tension so intense you can barely walk. It’s so bad you have to come up with a way to get rid of it. How do you get rid of that tension? What do you do to get that tension out? Do you sing? Jump up and down? Run around the room? Do you scream? Come up with an action and a sound that you, the character, does to get rid of tension. Make it big and make it loud – that’s the only way to get rid of the tension. • Direct students that on the count of three everyone is going to do their sound and their action at the same time. Coach them to release that tension. Reiterate that they should make it big and loud. One, two, three go! • Direct students now to move about the space tension-free, in character. You’ve got rid of the tension and you’re feeling good about yourself. How do you walk? How do your shoulders move? Do you bounce? Are you grounded? • Once the students are moving with purpose about the space, tell them they are going to start greeting the other characters in the play. Pretend you’re walking down the street. When I say, “Go,” greet the first person you come in eye contact with, in character. Make sure you’re reacting to them based on your relationship in the play. Are you close? Friends? Enemies? Maybe you don’t know them, that’s ok. Talk to this person. Tell them where you’re going and why you’re walking down the street. Go! • Coach students to leave that first person and find another person to greet. • Once they’ve completed three sets of greetings, coach students to come to a neutral standing position and shake the character out of them. Coach them to exaggerate the shake. Out of Context Line ExercisesLearning lines comes easy to some, and not so easy to others. A common problem student actors have is they learn their lines solely within the context of the play – they associate each line with a specific piece of blocking. They get into a specific rhythm with the line because they’ve learnt it by rote. They get into a line rut. But what if another actor blanks? Or changes the blocking? Or says the wrong line from three pages ahead? Dependence on a certain rhythm or with everything going perfectly is a recipe for disaster. Use these exercises to get actors out of their line ruts. 1. Speed Round: Students spread out around the space. Ask them to close their eyes and think about their lines. On the count of three, have everyone start at the top of the play and say their lines, all at the same time. Coach them to keep their eyes closed, so no one can see them and they can’t see anyone. Coach them to say their lines as fast as they can without stopping. They don’t have to act the lines, just say them. After a couple of minutes, call out stop. Question the actors about the exercise: • • Did anyone have trouble saying the lines without acting? Ask them to reflect on why that happened. What are they relying on to help them with their lines? • Did anyone get stuck? Where did they get stuck? Have those actors pull out their scripts and circle the lines – this is where they need to do some homework. 2. Shout Out Game: Go through the script and pull out ten individual lines. Take them from the middle of monologues, from the beginning of the play, from the end. Create a list of these ten lines. Make sure the list is not in chronological order. Gather the cast and call out each line one at a time. Who knows where the line comes from? Who says it? What’s the next line? What’s the previous line? Coach your students to shout out the answers! This will give you a clear indication of who really knows the play. 3. The Situation: Go through each scene in the play and ask your students to write a one sentence description of what happens. It doesn’t matter if they’re in the scene or not – what happens in scene 2? Then have everyone write a one sentence on why each scene is important. What’s going on? Why is it important? Everyone on stage should know what’s supposed to happen and why. That way they can help each other when things go wrong. 4. All dried up: Students need to learn what to do when a scene goes off the rails. More often than not, if a line is missed, or someone speaks out of place, students will look around for someone else to solve the problem. Run through a scene with your actors. Tell them that at some point, one person in the scene has been given the directive to “dry up.” They’re going to forget a line on purpose. (You can do this by handing out slips of paper to the actors and if they get a slip of paper with an X on it, they’re the one who dries.) When that happens everyone else must carry on. They have move the scene forward, in the correct direction, in character. No one can call out “line,” no one can break character, and the person who has “dried up” is not allowed to help. 5. What line defines you? This exercise allows the actors to think about the lines outside the world of the play. Each actor should know his or her lines well enough that they can choose the one line which defines their character. They should know their character well enough to be able to experiment and explore their lines outside their context. NOTE: Make sure actors don’t choose a full monologue or a long chunk of dialogue. It should be one or two sentences. Ask your students the following: • What is the most important line for your character in the play? • Why does that line define you? If you have actors without lines or they don’t have any character-driven lines, ask them to pick the moment in the play rather than a line. Have these students write out this moment in one sentence. That will be their “line” for the purposes of this exercise. Ask students to say the line out loud. All at the same time. Ask them to say the line with different styles and emotions: Say it slow. Say it fast. Yell it. Whisper it. Laugh it. Be angry with the line. Be depressed with it. Ask the actors to walk around the room. When they make eye contact with someone, they will say their line to each other. Coach students to say the line in a specific way – it could be in the style or emotion they use in the play, but it doesn’t have to be. Have students repeat this with three other people. Ask students to pause and get in their own space. Direct them to say the line aloud again. Students are now going to come up with a physical action for their line. If you couldn’t speak, what physical action would define this line? Be creative – do you roll into a ball? Do you skip? Do you flail? Do you reach up to the sky? Do yoga? Kick? Remind students this is not just some random action, this is an action that represents this line which defines their character. Is the emotion of your line coming out in the action? Direct students to do their action with their line. Everyone does this at the same time. Have them repeat this three times. Then, have students complete the action without the line. Just the action, no sound. Repeat the action three times. Now, instead of saying the line, instead of saying words, come up with a sound. Again, choose a sound that represents the line which defines the character. Is it a yell? A note? A hum? A grunt? A groan? Coach students not to use any words with this sound. It is a noise. Ask students: What’s the emotional quality of the line? What sound matches that emotional quality? Say the line again. Now do just the sound. No action. Do it again. Direct students to do the sound and action together. Coach students: Put your heart into it. Commit to it. This is the line or the moment that defines you. Bring that line to life through this sound and action. Ask for a couple of volunteers to present their sound and action to the group. See if the rest of the group can figure out what line is represented with the sound and action. Finally, ask students to reflect on the connection between the line, the sound and the action. Why did they choose that specific sound or action? If you’re doing this play as a class project have students write it down in their journals. If it’s a production, have students write this reflection in their script. This way, they can refer to it later. And ask them to do just that – Think about that sound and that action that defines you. How can you incorporate that into a moment on stage? Character ProfilesThe more an actor knows about their character, the more depth they can play. It’s important for actors to think about their characters outside of the confines of the story. It’s so easy to get caught up in lines and blocking that character development goes by the wayside. This exercise is a great way to get out of a rut and to bring character development to the forefront. A Character Profile is made up of any number of details. Characters come to life in the details. This exercise will also help your actors with small roles flesh out their characters. You’ll find a short Character Profile at the end of this guide. Give the actors a maximum of 15 minutes to answer these questions – make it an instinct exercise. Use it to shake up your rehearsal, but don’t let it be a time suck. Here are some guidelines: Full Name: If the character’s full name isn’t given (or if they have no name at all) the actor should come up with it. What’s their middle name? Family: What is the character’s family situation? Does the character come from a large or small family? Does the character live with both parents? Is the family situation happy? Tense? What makes you laugh / angry: Pretty self-explanatory. Once actors define this, identify parts in the script that trigger these emotions. When does the character laugh in the play? When does the character express anger? Favourite / Least Favourite Food: Everyone has likes and dislikes. So should your character. Childhood memory: Many people are defined by childhood events. What does your character remember from childhood? Describe Your Bedroom: Is it neat? Messy? Designed? Plain? Does your character hide secrets in their room? What does the room say about the character? Character QuestionsIn addition to the Character Profile , provide a character-specific question for your actors. Each character gets their own question, which only they can answer. It takes some effort on your part, but it’s a worthwhile exercise. First, it’s something specific for every actor and that makes them feel important. Second, the right question can allow actors to think about their characters in a way they might not have previously. For example, here are a number of questions I came up for the actors rehearsing my play The Bright Blue Mailbox Suicide Note. • JAKE : Why has your friendship with Ken lasted? How long have you and Karen been dating? • KAREN : You say, “I believe in marriage.” Do you believe you have a future with Jake? Is this a secret, or something you’ve talked about with Jake? • JOAN : You don’t treat Ken ‘funny’ after his revelation. Why? What is your relationship with Ken? • BEE BEE : Why is it so important to you to present the persona of “flaky Beebee” to your friends? Does it bother you that Karen, Lisa and Joan don’t know where you work? Why? How long have you known them? • DENNIS : You talk about what your dad is like. What is your mom like? Describe your relationship with her. As you can see, the questions are VERY specific! Small, specific work like this takes characters (and your rehearsals) to the next level. What can students do with these questions? In my Bright Blue example, the actress playing Karen was really excited by her question. She decided that Karen was definitely the type of character who thought about being married. She went so far as to say that Karen was one of those girls who had planned their wedding from the time she was a little girl. In the play, Karen finds her boyfriend pushing her away. The actress came up with a moment where she held her hands as if holding flowers in the traditional wedding pose. As Jake turns away from her, she dropped her hands, as if dropping the flowers. You can present these questions as part of the Character Profile or present them as part of an Interview Hot Seat Exercise. Interview Hot Seat: Each actor sits in front of the group and answers questions in character. It could be the questions you’ve come up with, or you can ask everyone in the cast to write down a question for the character. This is a great opportunity for you to see what your characters think about the other characters in the show. Scene StudyShake up your rehearsal rut by going through one scene in detail. Invite everyone who’s not in the scene to participate in this scene study. There’s a lot you can learn by watching specific scene work. Line by LineStart by running through the scene normally once. Then go through the scene line by line. Ask actors questions about the content of the scene. Ask about why their character makes any decisions or why they say a certain line. Ask them about background information that comes up in the scene. Are they clear about the relationships in the scene? Answering “I don’t know” is a red flag. Play TimeAfter the line reading, go through the scene again and play with it. Give students alternative blocking. Place the scene in a different location entirely. If the scene is a drama, run it as a comedy or viceversa. You’re trying to break your cast out of a rut, so change things up. For example, when I had the students rehearsing Bright Blue do this scene study I chose a scene where all the characters read a suicide note for the first time. In the play, the characters aren’t sure if the note is real or fake. I had them do the scene and play “keep away” with the note. This brought an energy and a game atmosphere to the scene that wasn’t there before. Why’d you move?Next, run through the scene but stop every time someone moves. Ask that actor “Why’d you move?” There should be a character-driven reason for every move. “Because you told me to” is not an acceptable answer. Push your students to come up with a reason why their character decided to sit or stand or move across the room. What is their subtext? Are they uncomfortable and want to get away from someone? Are they interested and want to get close to someone? You can get rid of Rehearsal Rut! Sometimes there isn’t enough time to get your production to its best possible performance level. But there should always be time to incorporate even one of these exercises into your rehearsals. Your students will be more aware of their characters, more confident with their lines, and they’ll maintain that vital connection to their passion. We can’t ask for anything more for our students, can we? Character ProfileActor: Character Name: Family: What makes you laugh? What makes you angry? Favourite / Least Favourite Food? Describe a childhood memory. Describe Your Bedroom.

Warm-up games are never a throwaway activity; they transition students from the outside world to rehearsal world. They can be used to encourage ensemble building in your group and help students work on technical skills. Whether you’re rehearsing Shakespeare or devising an original work, there’s a warm-up just for you. So… what should you look for? Devised WorkIn an original devised play, everyone has to work together to create, and not everything they create is going to be successful the first time. Pick warm-ups that help students get used to making mistakes and celebrating those mistakes. FarceWarm-ups that create energy. You want your students awake and moving! Get students used to making exaggerated physical choices. Ensemble-based WorkYou want your ensemble to operate as one. As a team. Look for warm-ups that emphasize teamwork. Absurd or AbstractIn the absurd or abstract play nothing is naturalistic or realistic. Look for warm-ups that explore this concept. Non-realistic plays can be hard for students to connect to. Choose fun warm-ups to help break down the barrier. Issue Based DramaWarm-ups that create an environment of support. Issue-based dramas can open a can of worms for students. It’s important that your rehearsal environment is supportive when any unexpected emotions flood to the surface. ShakespeareShakespeare is a mouthful, so prepare the mouth to move! Start rehearsals with warm-ups that focus on vocal articulation. ComedyActive physical warm-ups that get students laughing. Get your students in the right frame of mind for the work to come. DramaListening exercises. Get students used to listening and reacting so that when these moments come up in the drama they will present as genuine. The key to acting in a serious moment is to listen and react and not just say lines by rote. Student DirectorsStudent directors need to create an environment of command. Even though they’re working with their peers, they’re still in charge. Look for warm-ups where the cast has to follow instructions. Get the cast used to listening and taking direction.

I am a huge fan of tongue twisters in the theatre classroom. They have so many uses. They get a group focused & relaxed, they help warm up the voice, they get the lips and tongue limber and ready to enunciate, they get the brain fired up, they get a class working as a team. And they’re also a whole lot of fun. We asked our Facebook fans for their favourite tongue twister and, judging by the number of responses we got, it seems that theatre teachers love tongue twisters too! Thanks to them (and mostly to Douglas Fox) this document has over 600 awesome tongue twisters. Learn your favourites as a group and use them as vocal warm-ups. Here are some other activities that use tongue twisters. Teamwork Activity• Have the class sit in circle. Choose one of the tongue twisters and teach it to the class. Choose one person to start. They say the first word of the tongue twister, the person to their right says the next word, and so on. Start slowly then gradually increase speed. Writing Activity• Choose a tongue twister. Write a monologue or scene that begins with it. Write a monologue or scene that ends with it. Aim to make the words of the tongue twister organically fit the scene or monologue. • Choose one of the nonsensical tongue twisters. Write a scene around it that gives it meaning. Singing Warm-ups• Match a singing warm-up with a tongue twister that has the same number of syllables. Set Design• Choose one of the longer story-oriented tongue twisters and design a set for it. Acting• If you’re working on a play, speak the tongue twisters like your character would speak them. • If you’re not working on a play, write a Character Profile for someone who would say this tongue twister as part of their normal speech pattern. Improvisation• Do an improv where the tongue twister is the first line of a scene. • Do an improv where the tongue twister is the last line of a scene. • Play Sentences. This is a two person improv game. Write several tongue twisters on strips of paper. Each player puts half the strips of paper in their pocket. The players improvise a scene and every so often they pull out strips of paper and inject the tongue twister into the scene.

This post is the second of three posts about preparing for the typical high school competition. Part One looked at the most important question when choosing your competition piece, and in Part Two we’re going to look at the most common performance issues and how to fix them in rehearsal. Believe it or not, it’s not as daunting as it sounds to adjudicate 22 plays in a 2 day period. It is a lot of work, and it does definitely max out my brain power. It’s not daunting for two reasons, one positive and one negative. On the positive side, you get to see wonderful flashes of theatricality and sincere moments of pure joy on stage. Those moments make the experience absolutely worthwhile. On the negative side, you find yourself repeating the same comments over and over again, because they keep cropping up over and over again: Watch your diction. There’s a difference between telling a story and having a character share a story. Physicalize your character. In your blocking think in terms of shapes, not lines. What drives the play? The pace peters out at the end. Over and over again. Here are the top three performance issues and a rehearsal strategy to solve them. 1. Vocal IssuesThe big trio of articulation, diction and projection. Not having a handle on one, two or all three are by far the biggest performance issues I saw in competition. You can act till you’re blue in the face, if your judges can’t hear or understand what you’re saying, you will not advance. Rehearsal Strategy: There are two ways to solve this. One, make vocal drills the first thing you do at every rehearsal. Make it a habit. Don’t wait till performance day. The only way to improve your vocal quality is to get in the habit of speaking clearly. Use tongue twisters. Get in the habit of speaking in full voice, even when the scene demands quiet. And remember projection doesn’t mean yelling. If you push the voice you’ll hurt yourself. Projecting is about communicating to the back row. Practice scenes in which actors have to “communicate” a quiet situation across a large space. Practice the difference between speaking fully and yelling. Always ask yourself, how am I communicating my lines to the audience? Record a rehearsal so that every actor can hear how their voice sounds to an audience. It’s amazing what the difference can be between how we think we sound compared to reality. The second way to solve vocal issues is through character. One of the most common causes of poor vocal quality is actors who don’t understand why they’re speaking. Who haven’t clarified their character’s goals. All they’re doing is just trying to get through their lines, so they rush like a freight train. They speak without any connection or inflection. In rehearsal determine what each character wants, and how each line accomplishes or detracts from that want. What is the investment of each line? Knowing who you are and what your drive is, will naturally allow an actor to determine how to communicate a line. This is the same for a comedy or a drama – in a comedy the wants might be more exaggerated, but there is still something for characters to drive toward. Have actors finish the sentence “I want to say this line because….” for each line they have. Every line has a purpose – it may be something as simple as “I want to say this line to communicate a piece of information to the audience.” 2. PhysicalizationIt’s easy to get wrapped up in learning the lines, figuring out entrances and exits, and just getting from the beginning to the end of the play. What ends up happening is that every character looks exactly the same on stage – very vertical, up and down with no thought paid to how a character stands, moves, gestures. When an audience takes in a performance it’s 60% visual, 30% aural and 10% text. That means if you as an actor aren’t spending 60% of your time on thinking how to physicalize your character you’re missing out on a prime connection to your audience. Rehearsal Strategy: Rehearse a scene where all the actors are animals. What kind of animal would each character be? Because animals naturally take up space differently than humans, it’s a great way to find different shapes for your characters on stage. Then when you go back to being human, think about how to retain some of those shapes as you move through the play. Think about specific body parts – shoulders, for example, and determine how each character lives in that body part. Are their shoulders relaxed? Tight to the ears? Thrust back or rounded forward? Something as easy as defining a dominant body part for each character can go a long way in physicalization. Another exercise is to do scenes without any dialogue. Can those watching determine what’s happening? What the emotional stakes are simply by seeing the action and not hearing any lines? 3. CharacterizationTwo specific types of plays commonly have characterization issues: Plays that switch between ensemble speaking and monologue, and plays with narration. Over and over in competition I saw a real lack of attention paid to pushing students to create individual characters in each of these scenarios. The ensemble work would be precise and on point, the unison speaking would be crisp and clear…..but individual monologues would be flat without any defining detail. When actors acted as narrators they wouldn’t invest at all in their words – perhaps because they felt that if there’s no character attached to the lines, they don’t need to create one? But the fact is, if an actor doesn’t invest in a story, why should an audience? Communicate to the audience. There is a difference between telling a story and sharing a story. Rehearsal Strategy: Narrators need to be people too. If the play doesn’t create a full character for them, then it’s up to the actors. Create a character profile. Profiles are all about coming up with the small details that make a character three-dimensional, human. Think of the small details that make up you as a human being: name, age, family make up, likes dislikes, secrets, pet peeves, dream jobs, and so on. It’s amazing how fully a character can be brought to life by creating a few simple personality traits. Have actors, especially narrators, answer the question: “Why am I speaking?” Is it to share? To reveal? To force? To impose? By answering the question you create a reason for speaking. And that can make all the difference. In Part Three we’ll discuss some do’s and don’ts for performance day.