Nov 16 2022 Theatre Games

1. Attendance (as emailed). TA's to take attendance. Can be done manually or in the theatre office - teacher computer. TA's have my codes. 

2. Remind students of space rules and regs.

*No touching or playing with ANY props or costumes EVER unless directed.

*No entry to the audio/lighting mini room unless invited to do so by a teacher or TA.

*No entry to backrooms or upstairs area unless invited to do so by a teacher or TA.

*No sitting on couches (only on the floor please) until further notice. 

*No phones EVER in the space.

*No filming or taking photos in the space unless invited to do so by a teacher or TA and with permission provided to you by the person you wish to film/take a photo of.

*The drama room is a safe space. We all must work to ensure it remains as such. Therefore all rules as noted above must be adhered to at all times. 

3. TA's - please lead a warm up - circle stretch with students. Head to toes.

4. Teacher Instructions Re: Today's Suggested Theatre Games. 

Theatre Games Day!

1. One Word Story.

*Students sit in a circle on the floor. 

*Reminder for students - appropriate words and sentences. 

This can be played in a small group or large group. The teacher starts the story with one sentence (i.e., “Once upon a time, there was a princess who dreamed of being an astronaut”). Moving clockwise around the circle, each student adds one word to the story. The circle is repeated as many times as the teacher deems necessary until they feel that the story is finished. You can play this 1-3 times based on how the teacher feels that this activity is going. 

2. Greetings Your Majesty:

The teacher selects one student to sit in a chair and face away from the rest of the group. Ask the student in the chair to close their eyes. Select three students from the remaining group and have each one take a turn standing behind the chair and saying, “Greetings, your majesty” in whatever voice they like. Once all three students have gone, the student in the chair must guess who each one was.

3. Gravekeeper 

The teacher selects one person (suggest TA to start with) to be a gravekeeper, and they stand off to the side. The other students lie on their backs on the ground with their eyes open. They must stay completely still, with a straight face. The gravekeeper’s job is to go around and try to make each person laugh or speak using only acting. They are not allowed to touch the person on the ground. Anyone they succeed at making laugh is alive again and joins the gravekeeper in going around and trying to make the other students laugh or speak.

If Time: Re-play of game from last day:

Category Die.

The exercise forces you to be spontaneous and it also helps you practice being a good sport when you mess up in front of people; especially during the "Die" part. One player is the conductor.

4 or 5 people get lined up shoulder to shoulder (it could be more up to 10-12).

The conductor asks the audience (or any remaining players) for a category i.e. vegetables or brands of cars. Then the conductor starts pointing to the people that are lined up. When the conductor points to them they have to say something that is in that category; so for the brands of cars, it would be: Porsche, Toyota; Ferrari and so on and so forth.

If the player pointed at makes a mistake then the rest of the group or the audience is going to yell "Die" and eliminates them from the game.

A mistake would be:

• if the player says something that is not in that category: i.e. segway,
• If the player says something that has been already said: Porsche,
• or if the player hesitates, says ah or hmm or nothing at all

The conductor then gets a suggestion for the next category, for example, monsters. And then the conductor starts pointing at the players and they go: "KingKong", "Frankenstein", "Nessie", "your mom". And that is when all get to yell "Die" again. If the player gets a "Die", what he/she is coached to do is to smile, to stay happy, enjoy the failure and let the audience know they are fine and let everybody else know they are fine.

So it's ok, to laugh at them and have fun. If the players get eliminated from the game, they do have a seat on the side. Then another round starts until one player is left who will be the winner of "Category Die".

The game can go terribly wrong if people have the wrong attitude. This is about that fundamental essence of the improv attitude that makes it fun to watch people whether they are new players or experienced players. It is that they are really good sports and willing to try anything.