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STRIKE A POSE 1. Form a circle. Each person chooses one other person in the circle to secretly watch. 2. Everyone closes their eyes and strikes a pose. 3. On "GO" -- everyone opens their eyes and begins to copy the person they chose to watch. (In posture, pose, stance, etc.) Watch as the whole team morphs into the same pose! BEAN BAG 'VOICE PROJECTION' This exercise demonstrate to children how important it is to project their voices . Place three bean bags in front of a row of children . One about 10 feet away from them - the second about 20 feet away, the third about 35-40 feet away (this can obviously be changed to suit the physical environment of the class). 1. Ask each child to look directly at the first bean bag, say their name and the name of their favorite animal. 2. Instruct them to say the exact same things to the second bean bag. 3. Would they speak with the same volume? Of course not - the "person" is further away. 4. When asked to address the third bean bag, they obviously should be projecting their voices as loud as they can. 5. After the entire group has addressed the bean bags, let them know they were really acting in a play just then - reaching the first three rows, the middle rows, and the back rows of the theatre READ AN EASY STORY THAT CAN BE DRAMATIZED.. Choose children to participate and have them recreate the story. They can make up the lines or you can reread or tell it as they act it out. A variation is to divide the students into small groups . Have each group pick a story and provide time for them to read it, choose parts and practice acting it out. Then have each group perform their story for the rest of the class and/or for children in younger grades.

'SENSORY' DRAMA PLAY ACTIVITIES RELAXATION-STIMULATION Ask children to relax and explore their five senses by PRETENDING to: TOUCH A hot stove Icicles Sharp tacks Velvet

TASTE A sour lemon Their favorite candy Spinach HEAR... A gentle wind Underwater sounds A whistle SEE A car coming far away and towards you A giant An ant A big black spider SMELL... Freshly baked bread A skunk Perfume Onions

MYSTERY BAG Blindfold children and have them use their senses to identify objects . TOUCH: feather, balloon, shell, sandpaper, fur, money. SMELL: coffee, perfume, onion. TASTE: raisins, cornflakes, coconut, crackers, marshmallows, chocolate IMAGING TASTE (Older Youth) This activity is about making other peoples mouths water. Have each player in turn describe something to eat; encourage members to use as much detail a possible and wildly exaggerate the smells, tastes and textures of the food. Next, have the group talk about the actual eating of the food. Example: Talk about how ice-cream melts on your tongue or how peanut butter sticks to the roof of your mouth before swallowing it. Variation: Describe a single aspect of food, for example, the juice of a peach at its peak of ripeness.

_____________________ I CAN'T STAND_____! (Older Youth) Have each player in turn describe a food that they cannot stand to eat. Encourage as much detail as possible so that the other group members are disgusted by the food, too. _________________ BOTTLE OF WHAT (Young children) Before the meeting, gather several empty plastic bottles with caps. Fill each bottle with a different material-such as dried peas, pebbles, marbles, sand, and birdseed. Put the caps back on and cover the bottles with construction paper so the materials inside are hidden. Ask group members to listen to the sound each bottle makes and guess what is inside it. A simple phrase- Said 3 or 4 different ways. Example: "Open the door." Or Hello and a name. A simple phrase- Said 3 or 4 different ways. Example: "Open the door." Or Hello and a name. _________ Carry on a "conversation" with another person using only that person's name. See the range of meaning you can communicate through voice inflection, facial expression and gestures. _________ Trust Walk/Blindfold Walk. __________ Mirroring. __________ In a pair or group-shake hands quickly, slowly, gently, angrily, sadly, tenderly. Group Improv: Give a simple idea to act outSetting up a camp in the woods. Form two lines facing each other. The first two people in each line begin a conversation . At any point, the person next to a speaker- can tap him/her on the

shoulder. That speaker then goes to the end of the line and the conversation continues between the new speakers at exactly the point it was interrupted. One person goes to the front and begins a non-verbal activity. Others enter once they figure out what the first person is doing. Form a scene without words and let it play out.

Use your bodies to build a house. Some people become the furniture, telephones, and tables. Others live in the house. Then huff and puff and blow the house down. _________ Two partners share one pillow. Experiment with different ways of giving and taking the pillow. Make it something very valuable and precious. Make it something vile and distasteful. Make it very heavy. Make it light. Make it prickly. Pretend that it's a ticking bomb, an injured cat, a hot plate. __________ Pair up. Look carefully at each other. One person closes his eyes while the other changes something, such as untying a shoelace. His partner opens his eyes and tries to identify the change. Reverse. _________ Pretend to fight in slow motion . Imagine that you are under water or in space. Imagine that you are wearing heavy armor. Use an imaginary long sword. PASSING THE FACE Apart from a drama activity, this can also be used by actors just prior to a performance, in the green room. It enables the participants to overcome their fears, and become more relaxed and at ease with themselves. The whole group should stand in a circle, holding hands. One person in the circle begins by turning to the person on his/her right and making a face it could be an emotional face or a funny face. The next person then makes another face and passes it to the person next to him/her, and so on. The expressions should not be copied, but variations of a theme to be explored-- such as each one thinking of a different emotional or funny face. HUMAN PROPS

 a table.

Ask one player to start doing an activity that somehow broadly defines a location. Example: When someone starts typing she/he might be in a home or office. The other players then become the other objects in the environment. If the first player recognizes the objects, he/she can start using the props built by other players in the environment. Tell players to go for the obvious: in just about any room you could be a plant, a door or Extension: When done, ask the first player to name any `object` built in the environment. You can use this as a handle for a performance. When a player is asked to sit down, and there are no chairs on the scene, another player can become the chair for the first player to sit on.

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Other examples are ticking clocks in haunted houses, cabinets and closets. Ideas are

PANTOMIME TUG OF WAR Divide the group into 2 groups and have them mime a Tug-o-war fight. See that the mimed rope does not stretch or shrink and Remember Chivalry---somebody wins and one group graciously looses. Variation: Do 2 per 2. Played in pairs. One player holds his/her hand open with fingers upward--about 2-3 inches from their partners face. The leader then starts moving their hand about slowly, while the partner attempts to keep their face at exactly the same distance from the hand. Without touching, it should seem as if the hand is pulling or pushing the face about. Switch sides and partners after a minute or two. Variation: Use both hands. BODY TALK GAME With bodies and expression (no words) have children take turns acting out the below commands. One at a time, each takes a piece of paper from a container. As youth pantomime it, the group or Team guesses the action. Hooray! I'm sorry. I didn't do it! Shame on you. I didn't mean to do it.

What did you say? I don't know. Come here, quick! Good job! Oh No! and so onMIMING TIPS! 1. As a teaching tool--Can you show a Video or DVD of Pantomime greats such as Red Skelton, Vaudeville Stars, or Mr. Bean? (The 2007 movie- Mr. Beans Holiday) 2. When working with pretend objects give it space. Even the smallest objects have space. 3. Believable actions: have one student come forward and demonstrate brushing teeth. Most likely, the student will brush their cheek or down their throat. Show that for it to be believable, it must be pantomimed the way they really do it. Youth need to practice and observe themselves and the way they do things. Tell them to be conscious of all their actions. 4. Tell group that when we do a pantomime you need to face the audience . To show an example, set up a kitchen with chairs or blocks. Demonstrate that some things are in front and some in back. Demonstrate how easy it is to turn your back on the audience. Now rearrange the kitchen so your face can be seen by the audience no matter what appliance or counter you are working at. 5. Start out simple: Perform a pantomime of doing a household chore (making a cake or doing dishes, etc.) Give it 1 or 2 minutes and no story. Starting out with the familiar is good. ALIEN, COW AND TIGER (To prevent confusion-write directions for characters on a whiteboard) Everyone is in a circle. There are 3 things a player can be: An Alien : hold you index fingers up next to your head, as little antennas and say `Bleeb bleeb`, bending inwards into the circle. A Cow: bend forward, hold your right hand on your tummy and go `Moooo`

 A Tiger: push your right hand forward, imitating a claw and roar. On your signal, each player decides to become one of the three. The idea is for everyone to become the same, which obviously wont be the case, the first time. Re-do this until everyone is in sync.