How To Teach Drama To Kids by HowExpert

Author:HowExpert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: teaching drama, kids drama, drama for kids, how to teach drama to kids, teach drama to kids

The advanced stage: the court jester is in a rage, the police officer is terrified.

As a characterization exercise with Group Threes, hats

and even lampshades (on left) can be introduced, with a

limitless variety of creative ideas.

The next step is to ask each person, with each hat they try on,

to show with gesture or a few words, three to five different

characters that might be found wearing their particular style of hat.

Character Exercise: Photograph or Painting of “Who I Am”

Note: Exercise “At My Party” can also be used for Characterization exercise – see it under Improv Chapter.

Collect from magazines, old coffee table books, or the internet, many photographs of intriguing faces, and/or scenes with three or four characters appearing to be doing something interesting. In a pinch I have used Norman Rockwell paintings, but sometimes these are so obviously characterful already that the student doesn’t have to do much “work” (thinking) on their own. Have each teen write a paragraph about what their designated character is like, and what they are doing at the moment the photo is taken. Collect these sheets and scan them, making any suggestions, or asking more thought-provoking questions of them. Then each teen goes to the front and tells In Character, In First Person, the audience of their Past History (not what they just wrote on their pages!).In other words, psychologically why they are the way they are. After this preamble, the audience are allowed to ask questions of them, which they must then answer in character.

The last part of this exercise is to put the class in groups of three to five students. Each person must act In Character throughout a short scene that they can

a) improvize from scratch

b) improvize from cards you give them with scene ideas (eg. below)

c) improvize from the photographs (if you gave them scene photos)

Or

d) read from a short scene already prepared (copy from play books, scenes from drama texts, or download from the internet).

Examples of Scenes for Cards

A taxi driver who is hard of hearing takes a father and son, strangers in a big city and with little money, to the YWCA instead of the YMCA and drives away before they realize.

Two women in a war-torn country fight over whether the tiny infant skeleton found is their own missing child. A warden comes along to try and mediate.

Four people are at a small valley-town community meeting and are constantly bickering over whether the town should be bought off by the government to flood for a dam. Though they are offered a great deal of money for their homes, many do not wish to see this happen. A fifth person could be the chairman.

A dog in a park has bitten a small child. The dog was on his leash, and the child had run up and hugged the dog. The owner, the child’s mother and a witness are arguing over whether the dog pound should be called to put the dog to sleep.

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Note: much has already been stated about accents at the bottom of the chapter on Voice.

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