Wednesday 30 July 2008

Injury tag

Everybody spreads out in the room
This is a simple game of tag but where ever the person is tagged they must hold that part of their body (as if it is injured)while trying to tag people.
The person on it can tag someone in more than one place so that that person is then on it having to hold on to two areas of their body

Person to Person body parts

Instruct the group to find a space in the room
The leader calls out two body parts.
The group must find a partner and put those body parts together. i.e. "Elbow to Head"
You can make things more interesting by adding the command "Stick" So that the pair stay together for the next command.

Name tag hug

This essentially is a name game and a good way to break down inibitions quickly.
One person is on it and everyone else must avoid from being tagged by that person.
However if te person on it calls out someones name then that person must stand still.
The person on it must now try and run to that person to tag him/her.
If two people are able to hug the person standing still then they are safe and cannot be tagged.
This game requires a certain amount of team play and watching out for one another

Tag and safety in twos

Everyone spreads out in the room and one person is chosen to be on it.
Instruct the rest of the group that they are only safe if they are hugging another person.
You are only allowed to hug for 3 seconds.
If someone is tagged then that person is on it.

Fear and Desire

Group stand randomly spaced out in the room
Instruct them to pick someone they are scared of and someone they are attracted to
On the command "Go!" they must try to get as close to the person they are attracted to, whilst also avoiding the person they are scared of.

Variation.
You can instruct the group to try and use the person they are attracted to as a shield
This is a good exercise to create a big ensemble picture.

Friday 18 July 2008

Touch Tag Drama

Pick two people from the group to play the tag game
label them A and B
Both A and B put their hand on their back so their palm is facing outwards.
The aim is to tag the others palm with their other hand.
At any point a mediator can call out freeze.
The mediator asks the group: Who are they? What is going on?
The group answer according to what they see. Encourage them to speak out whatever comes into their head. - A night club scene, A lover looking on at a wedding etc

Nb Theatre is made up of wants and desires, I want what you want or I want something different. That is the aim of this game.

With the rest of the group build a picture around the two in the middle. i.e show disapproving uncle at the wedding, What are they saying? etc
With other members of the group create a scene of what happened before. i.e In the bedroom. What is in the room? What happened? or even after this wedding scene.
Illicit questions from the group to create even more scenes and design a piece of theatre.

Thursday 3 July 2008

Voice warm up 1

Relaxation:
Breathe in and on the out breath roll down slowly from head until your hands are dangling by your toes. (Do this with a slightly bent back) and you are fully exhaled
Breathe in and roll up, straightening your legs first and then each vertebrae of your back.
Repeat above exercise but this time add arms. As you beathe in lift your arms above your head and on the exhale drop down quickly (but don't neglect to roll and with slightly bent legs)
Then on inhaling roll your body back up to standing straight

Head isolation's: Rotate head left and right slowly through centre. When head is rotated bring head down and up slowly.

Breathing:
With a partner label yourselves A and B
B stands behind A and gently places their hands on A's rib cage.
A inhales and exhales gently.
You are encouraging A to breathe using their intercostal muscles, which should cause sideways lateral expansion of the rib cage, so pushing B's hand out.
B can place their thumbs on A's spine to encourage the back part of the rib cage to also be filled with air and to ensure that their is more sideways motion that backward
Change over roles.

Stand with your back against a wall with knees slightly bent.
Breathe in and out pushing back of rib cage into wall
Again you should notice that sideways motion is more than backward.
Place back of hands on rib cage to assess sideways movement.

Voice:
Open and close mouth with loose jaw and floppy mouth
Open mouth wide as in a yawn to stretch back of mouth
Breathe in and out with open mouth and make an O sound. Repeat then with other vowel sounds, a, e, i, o, u.

Out of the chair

Someone from the group sits in a chair which is placed in the middle of the room.
The group's aim is to convince the person sitting on the chair to get out of it.
The person in the chair must accept whatever is suggested to them and is not allowed to dismiss their offer.
For Example:
Someone may say "There is a bomb under your seat." The person in the chair could reply: "Yes I know, my life is too much for me I want to end it all now."
They are not allowed to block the offer by saying "No there isn't"
The person who successfully ousters someone from the chair then goes and sits in the chair and the game continues.

Variation:
You can send more then one person in
You can create a scenario using a number of people, rather than just having one chair.
Scenarios, images that work particularly well could be used to progress the improvisation into a scene or produce a story.

Wednesday 2 July 2008

Leadership Game

In a circle everyone closes their eyes.
One person is secretly picked to be the leader. (Maybe tap someone on their shoulder while everyones eyes are closed).
Open eyes and everyone must workout who is the leader.
Instruct leader not to obviously do anything
Show it in your eyes, shoulders, posture, breath.
Ask the group who they think the leader is.
Once the leader is established ask the group to say how could they tell/not tell who was the leader.

Progression:
You can have more than one leader
You can make everyone the leader
Don't make anyone the leader