Heidi Ho, The Improv Show!

- Summer Production Camp

Company: Omaha Theatre Company
for Young People
Location: Rose Theater
Curriculum Areas: Drama, Ensemble,
Improvisation,
Instructors: Brian Guehring, Kevin Erhart,
Samuel Card, Autumn Simpson
Dates: June 23rd - July 12th Schedule: 1pm - 4:00pm / Monday - Friday
Age Range: 9-13 Class Size: 10-20
The Omaha Theatre Company for Young People, located at the Rose Theater, is one of the
largest childrens theaters in the nation. This company features 9 main-stage performances each
year, geared toward children of different ages, and sometimes with children in speaking roles.
Audiences for each season exceed 50,000 children and adults. Various year-round and summer
classes, workshops, and performance opportunities are offered at the Rose Theater, for children
ages 4-18 to learn all about acting, playwriting, directing, stagecraft, puppetry, lm making,
improvisation, and more.
Class Description: Do you like making things up on the spot? How would you like to do a play
with lots of rehearsals and no lines to memorize? Join us for three weeks of improv fun as we
build our skills, work together as an ensemble, and practice theater games such as Superheroes,
Questions Only, Hoe-Down and more. The session culminates with three performances of a live
improv show where the lines will be made up on the spot!
Objectives:
1. To introduce students to Scandinavian stories involving trolls through storytelling, acting,
and improvisation.
2. To introduce students to fairy characters through storytelling, acting, and improvisation.
3. To challenge students to create their own fairy or troll character and act out an original
story.
4. To teach acting to the students exploring the body, voice and imagination.
5. To build a close ensemble and improve their teamwork
6. To create a safe environment for the students to learn and play.
Context: This was a three week, two sessions of three hours per day production camp. These
students worked to become a strong ensemble and build their improvisation skills, culminating in
two improv performances at the end of the camp. As part of my summer internship at the Rose
Theater, Autumn Simpson co-directed and co-taught this class with Brian Guehring, Kevin
Erhart, and Samuel Card. Each three-hour session focused on a different skill necessary for
improvisation, whether it be teamwork, vocal skills, physicality, etc. This lesson plan was created
by Autumn for the afternoon session on Monday of the second week, focusing on vocal skills.
Monday Afternoon - Week 2
(2 min) Intro: Gather students into a circle, sitting on the floor. Explain that this
afternoon will focus on vocal improv.
(10 min) Question of the day: If you had your own made up language, what would be the
name of it (in English), and how would you say its name in your language?
(1 min) Transition: Now before we learn any new improv games, we need to warm up our
voices, and practice experimenting with them, so we are ready for the rest of the
day.
Lesson/Activity: Wizar of Oz
(10 min) Warm-Up: Go one by one through each of the different selected Wizard of Oz
characters, telling students the name of the character, what type of voice they
use, and what that characters phrase is:
Dorothy: normal, neutral voice / Run, Toto, run!
Wizard of Oz: deep, chest voice / I am the great and powerful Oz!
Cowardly Lion: low, guttural voice / Put em up! Put em up!
Glinda: high, falsetto voice / Are you a good witch, or a bad witch?
Wicked Witch of the West: nasal voice / Ill get you, my pretty!
After each character, have the students say it back to you, imitating the voice-type
used for that character. Then, add in body poses or movements for each character
(a hand out, fists on hips, fists ready to fight, gestures to each side, pointing at
someone, or your own variations of these). Go through each character and have
students combine the voices with the gestures. Next try jumping between the
different characters, so students have to quickly make large alterations in their
voices. Then let students try leading the group through different characters, until
students feel at-ease doing so.
(1 min) Transition: Now that we have tested out some different ways that we can use our
voices, lets try our own experiments with what all our voices can do.
Lesson/Activity: Sound Ball
(3 min) Set-Up: Remaining in the standing circle the students are currently in, show
students the imaginary energy ball you have, that will be passed around the
circle. To pass the energy ball, a student must make eye contact with someone else
in the circle, mime passing the ball, and then the receiving student must mime
catching the ball, before they pass it to the next person. Emphasize the importance
of eye contact in this exercise.
(7 min) Warm-Up: Once everyone in the circle has had the opportunity to catch and pass
the energy ball, then add the next element. The energy ball now has the power to
cause a person to make a silly sound and movement. The teacher will start with
the energy ball, and do a silly sound and movement, before making eye contact
with a student in the circle and passing the energy ball to them. That student will
then repeat the sound and movement of the teacher, before doing their own, new
sound and movement. They will then make eye contact with another student in the
circle, and pass the ball to them, and the cycle will continue until everyone has
received and passed the energy ball again.
(1 min) Transition: Now that we have experimented with creating our own ways to
change our voices, we can now try out different levels of sound changes.
Lesson/Activity: Exaggeration Pass
(5 min) Set-Up: Explain to students the three main aspects of your voice that you can
change: the pitch, the duration, and the volume. Show students examples of how
you can alter each of these, and have them imitate your examples.
(15 min) Act Out: Now explain that for this activity, one person will do a silly sound and
movement (like in the warm-up they just did), however, they will make their
sound and movement very small. Next, the person to the right will copy their
sound and movement, but exaggerating it a little bit, in either the pitch, duration,
or volume. Then the next student in the circle will exaggerate the same sound and
movement a little more, and so so on, until it reaches the person who started the
sound and movement. Try this out a few times, with the teacher starting, and
students trying to exaggerate the movement around the circle. Once they feel
comfortable with this, let the student to the right of the teacher begin a movement,
that the rest of the circle will exaggerate. Go around the circle until every student
has been able to start the sound and movement.
(1 min) Transition: Now that we have experimented with how you can alter your voice
through pitch, duration, and volume, we can begin looking at other types of vocal
improv. We will now work on rhyming.
Lesson/Activity: Pass the Rhyme
(7 min) Set-Up: Sit students in a circle, and have two teachers provide examples of
setting up and executing a rhyme. Then go around the circle, giving students the
opportunity to try rhyming, themselves. Have the teacher set up a rhyme, and then
then student to the right of them rhyme with it. That same student will then set up
their own rhyme, which the student to the right of them will rhyme with. This will
continue around the circle until everyone has had the chance to rhyme.
(10 min) Act Out: Now divide students into small circles of about 5, and have them
continue this pattern of rhyming around the circle. Students should keep rhyming
around the circle, gaining confidence and speed throughout the exercise.
(1 min) Transition: Now that we have experimented with how you can alter your voice
through pitch, duration, and volume, we can begin looking at other types of vocal
improv. We will now work on rhyming.
BREAK (15 min) At this point, students will go on a break to use the restroom and eat a snack.
Lesson/Activity: Little Voices
(7 min) Set-Up: Sit students against the wall, facing the teacher. Explain that in this game,
two students will act out an improv scene, while two other students will stand to
the side, and at some point enter the scene with their voices, pretending to be
the voices of two very tiny things. For example, one of those students may
pretend to be the voice of an ant, and the other a quarter, or an eyelash and a grain
of sand, etc. Get more examples of little voices from the students, to get them
using their own imaginations for what small things they could be. Then call up
two students to do a scene with two teachers (one teacher acting in the scene, the
other teacher being one of the little voices), as an example for the class.
(30 min) Act Out: Now let the students come up in groups of four to do a Little Voices
scene. Provide each group with a scenario (an environment and/or relationship for
the two characters in the scene). Let the little voices students come up with their
little voice on their own. Help guide students to let the two students in the scene
create a beginning of the scene before the little voices join the scene. After each
group finishes their scene, have other students provide positive feedback about
what they liked in the scene. The teacher should provide constructive criticism if
needed.
Lesson/Activity: Rhyming Only
(3 min) Set-Up: Stand students in one line, all facing the same direction. Explain that this
game will focus on rhyming, like the activity from earlier. For this game, the two
students in the front of the line will face each other. Student A will set up a rhyme,
and Student B will rhyme with it. Then Student B will set up a new rhyme, and
Student A will rhyme with it.
(15 min) Act Out: Now that they have the structure, a more competitive level can be
added. Whenever one of the students takes too long to rhyme, or does not
complete the rhyme, they must go to the back of the line. Then, a new student
steps forward, and sets up a new rhyme for student who did not just get out. This
pattern continues all the way through the line, working one students speed and
skill with rhyming. In this activity, the students must also say their rhymes as lines
in a scene. Their characters and situations they create by themselves, and every
time a new student steps forward, that student is responsible for beginning a new
scene.
(2 min) Hook: Today we worked a lot on how we can use our voices in improv scenes.
Tomorrow we will look begin working on improv games that require more
technical elements.
Reflection Questions: (remaining time)
1) What are other types of tiny characters your little voice could be?
2) What other sound effects could you add into your scene?
3) How all could you change your voice for different characters?
(pitch, speed, quirks, accents, slang, etc.)
4) How could pantomiming help your scene?
5) What other types of conflicts could be in your scene?
6) How can you end your scene with a clear resolution to your conflict?