Open Forum

I love what I call the Alphabet Game:  call out a letter and count down from five.  By the time you reach one, all the students must be posed in a way that represents something that starts with that letter.  Randomly call on some and ask what they are and if anyone else is the same thing, they are out.  For example, the letter C and someone is a cat.  If there are any other students who are cats, then all of them are out.  You don't have to call on all students each time either.

Spotlight is one of the most popular for my group.  It's similar to a riff off from the Pitch Perfect movies.  You can do it in a large circle and people step to the center or you can do it with students seated and they stand up.  Either way, start a song like "Don't Stop Believing....hold on to that feeling..." or another they would know.  Students can join in and sing along if they like.  That song continues until someone else either steps to the center or stands up.  Everyone stops and the new person starts a song that has a word in common with the one they interrupted.  Like "Stop, in the name of love" or "Do you believe in life after love" or any other song that has a word in common with the one they stopped.  It just continues like that.  You get a random mix of show tunes and pop songs.  We typically have some silly ones like "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands" or other childhood favorites.

------------------------------
Amy MacCord
Musical Theatre Teacher
Hawthorne FL
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-02-2019 11:22
From: Joe Jackson
Subject: Large Group Games/Improv?

Hello All,

What are your favorite theatre games or improv for large groups? (Like over 20)

Thanks!

Joe Jackson | Director of Theater Arts

Sewickley Academy | 315 Academy Ave. Sewickley, PA 15143

[phone] 412.741.2230 x3357 [fax] 412.741.1411

web | blog | facebook | twitter | pinterest

Original Message------

I love what I call the Alphabet Game:  call out a letter and count down from five.  By the time you reach one, all the students must be posed in a way that represents something that starts with that letter.  Randomly call on some and ask what they are and if anyone else is the same thing, they are out.  For example, the letter C and someone is a cat.  If there are any other students who are cats, then all of them are out.  You don't have to call on all students each time either.

Spotlight is one of the most popular for my group.  It's similar to a riff off from the Pitch Perfect movies.  You can do it in a large circle and people step to the center or you can do it with students seated and they stand up.  Either way, start a song like "Don't Stop Believing....hold on to that feeling..." or another they would know.  Students can join in and sing along if they like.  That song continues until someone else either steps to the center or stands up.  Everyone stops and the new person starts a song that has a word in common with the one they interrupted.  Like "Stop, in the name of love" or "Do you believe in life after love" or any other song that has a word in common with the one they stopped.  It just continues like that.  You get a random mix of show tunes and pop songs.  We typically have some silly ones like "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands" or other childhood favorites.

------------------------------
Amy MacCord
Musical Theatre Teacher
Hawthorne FL
------------------------------

A favorite at NHS is YEEEEEEHAW!

Gather students in a circle. This is a game that passes energy around the circle & forces students to think on the fly. The first student makes a fist & swings their arm in front of them while bent and says "Yee-haw!" to pass the energy to the person next to them on the side that the first moves towards. The next person passes the energy in the same way (continuing the energy in the same direction). If someone wants to change the direction of the energy, they say "Hoe Down" and put their hands together & press down while bending their knees. That will send the yeehaw back to the direction it came from. To skip a person, an actor can say "Hay Barn" while putting their hands together straight above them, making a triangle (like the roof of a barn). This skips the person next to them.  This is a great warmup game, or you can play for elimination as well...mistakes get the actor out. There are other variations out there or other things to add; a quick google search would find these.

Also, YouTube is a great place to search for theatre warmups games like this because you can usually see them being played, which I think is something easier than reading a description of the game.

------------------------------
Susan Nieten
Theatre Teacher, Spring Play Director,
& Thespian Troupe Director
at Noblesville High School (Noblesville, IN)

Twitter: @mrsnieten
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-02-2019 11:22
From: Joe Jackson
Subject: Large Group Games/Improv?

Hello All,

What are your favorite theatre games or improv for large groups? (Like over 20)

Thanks!

Joe Jackson | Director of Theater Arts

Sewickley Academy | 315 Academy Ave. Sewickley, PA 15143

[phone] 412.741.2230 x3357 [fax] 412.741.1411

web | blog | facebook | twitter | pinterest

Adding on to the Yee Haw Game
GUNSLINGER: point finger (like a gun) at anyone across the circle sends the action across to them
THERE'S A SNAKE IN MY BOOT!: Walk toward someone like there is a snake in your boot and trade places in the circle with them...the person they walked toward continues the action in their new spot
Toy Train: All in circle clap hands in a circular motion above their heads saying..."Ahhhhhh"
SALOON DOORS: Again hold up a gun finger and point to someone.  The two players on either side of that pointed at a person make with their hands a swinging door in front of that player.  That player comes out from the saloon doors and "Gunslingers" someone.
THERE'S GOLD IN THEM THAR HILLS!: All the students run around and find a new spot in the circle

Another Game we love is called I'm A...
Everyone circles up
1 person steps into the center and states what they are (I'm a tree) which they indicate physically by looking like a tree
2nd person joins them who builds off the initial suggestion and adds an object (I'm an apple)
3rd person joins adding on...(I'm the dirt around the tree)
The first person says who stays out (either the apple or the dirt)
The person who stays repeats what they are...(I'm an apple) and 2 more people build on that.
Keep going...The students get really creative with this game.

------------------------------
Michaela Moore
Juneau AK
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-03-2019 15:54
From: Susan Nieten
Subject: Large Group Games/Improv?

A favorite at NHS is YEEEEEEHAW!

Gather students in a circle. This is a game that passes energy around the circle & forces students to think on the fly. The first student makes a fist & swings their arm in front of them while bent and says "Yee-haw!" to pass the energy to the person next to them on the side that the first moves towards. The next person passes the energy in the same way (continuing the energy in the same direction). If someone wants to change the direction of the energy, they say "Hoe Down" and put their hands together & press down while bending their knees. That will send the yeehaw back to the direction it came from. To skip a person, an actor can say "Hay Barn" while putting their hands together straight above them, making a triangle (like the roof of a barn). This skips the person next to them.  This is a great warmup game, or you can play for elimination as well...mistakes get the actor out. There are other variations out there or other things to add; a quick google search would find these.

Also, YouTube is a great place to search for theatre warmups games like this because you can usually see them being played, which I think is something easier than reading a description of the game.

------------------------------
Susan Nieten
Theatre Teacher, Spring Play Director,
& Thespian Troupe Director
at Noblesville High School (Noblesville, IN)

Twitter: @mrsnieten

Original Message:
Sent: 10-02-2019 11:22
From: Joe Jackson
Subject: Large Group Games/Improv?

Hello All,

What are your favorite theatre games or improv for large groups? (Like over 20)

Thanks!

Joe Jackson | Director of Theater Arts

Sewickley Academy | 315 Academy Ave. Sewickley, PA 15143

[phone] 412.741.2230 x3357 [fax] 412.741.1411

web | blog | facebook | twitter | pinterest

Original Message------

Adding on to the Yee Haw Game
GUNSLINGER: point finger (like a gun) at anyone across the circle sends the action across to them
THERE'S A SNAKE IN MY BOOT!: Walk toward someone like there is a snake in your boot and trade places in the circle with them...the person they walked toward continues the action in their new spot
Toy Train: All in circle clap hands in a circular motion above their heads saying..."Ahhhhhh"
SALOON DOORS: Again hold up a gun finger and point to someone.  The two players on either side of that pointed at a person make with their hands a swinging door in front of that player.  That player comes out from the saloon doors and "Gunslingers" someone.
THERE'S GOLD IN THEM THAR HILLS!: All the students run around and find a new spot in the circle

Another Game we love is called I'm A...
Everyone circles up
1 person steps into the center and states what they are (I'm a tree) which they indicate physically by looking like a tree
2nd person joins them who builds off the initial suggestion and adds an object (I'm an apple)
3rd person joins adding on...(I'm the dirt around the tree)
The first person says who stays out (either the apple or the dirt)
The person who stays repeats what they are...(I'm an apple) and 2 more people build on that.
Keep going...The students get really creative with this game.

------------------------------
Michaela Moore
Juneau AK
------------------------------

Original Message------

Adding on to the Yee Haw Game
GUNSLINGER: point finger (like a gun) at anyone across the circle sends the action across to them
THERE'S A SNAKE IN MY BOOT!: Walk toward someone like there is a snake in your boot and trade places in the circle with them...the person they walked toward continues the action in their new spot
Toy Train: All in circle clap hands in a circular motion above their heads saying..."Ahhhhhh"
SALOON DOORS: Again hold up a gun finger and point to someone.  The two players on either side of that pointed at a person make with their hands a swinging door in front of that player.  That player comes out from the saloon doors and "Gunslingers" someone.
THERE'S GOLD IN THEM THAR HILLS!: All the students run around and find a new spot in the circle

Another Game we love is called I'm A...
Everyone circles up
1 person steps into the center and states what they are (I'm a tree) which they indicate physically by looking like a tree
2nd person joins them who builds off the initial suggestion and adds an object (I'm an apple)
3rd person joins adding on...(I'm the dirt around the tree)
The first person says who stays out (either the apple or the dirt)
The person who stays repeats what they are...(I'm an apple) and 2 more people build on that.
Keep going...The students get really creative with this game.

------------------------------
Michaela Moore
Juneau AK
------------------------------

Original Message------

Thanks Michaela!

I saw the "I am" game at the EdTA conf, and I think my students will also like it. Thank for helping me out!

Joe

Sent from my iPad

Here is one my students really like to do over and over

Slide Show

• Set up two chairs downstage stage right
• Invite two students up to sit and host the slide show
• Five or six students join them on stage. They will be the slides.
• For the two hosts, get the suggestion of a Relationship (ie. exes), a location suggestion - (be specific

with your question, don't just say "give us a location) "A place you wouldn't expect two exes to go?

(ie. Singles Cruise). Then thank the audience member (even if it's a fellow student) for the suggestion of

"Two exes on a Singles Cruise" and explain the rest of the game.

• The two hosts or "exes" will show us slides from their recent vacation together with the use of an old

school slide projector. After they've set up a slide, they will say "Click!" (and use their imaginary clicker)

at which all five or six people on stage will run forward and create the slide just described via tableaux.

• The two hosts then describe the slide, justifying each person's position while "yes anding" the narrative

they set up. Remind students to identify themselves in the slide.

• When they're done describing the slide, they'll give either a verbal cue to let the improvisers know the

scene is over or swipe the scene with their hands before going on to the next slide.

• Repeat the procedure. Two hosts set up the slide, say "click" and the performers create that slide visually.
• In the classroom, I do a maximum of 5 slides but on stage or in a competition you may only have time for 3 or 4.

------------------------------
Michaela Moore
Juneau AK
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-04-2019 11:44
From: Michael Bergman
Subject: Large Group Games/Improv?

My kids like playing a game that we call "Oi"

Participants stand in a circle. Someone starts by turning to the person to their left and yelling "Oi!" (that's "Oi!" like a Scotsman, not like a Jewish grandmother)

This can continue clockwise with repeated "Oi!" -or-

A participant could turn back to the person who just "Oi"'d them and yell- "Get Out Me Pub!" which now sends the "Oi!" back in the other direction.  -or-

A participant could say "To be or not to be", at which point, the entire group responds, emphatically, with "Shut up, Hamlet!"  The person who said "To be..." then continues with "Oi!" -or-

A participant could say, "Richard, I'm moving out!", and everyone must change places. The person who said "Richard..."continues with "Oi!"  -or-

A Participant could say "Clean your room!", to which the whole group replies "You're not my mother!" and the participant starts "Oi!" -or-

A Participant could say "Nice earrings", and all would respond by wiggling their bodies and chanting "Jingle Jangle'.   

This game can get pretty wild, and the pace should be quick and the volume loud.  My students, who often use this as an energy warm-up, have added variations of their own. It's really fun and engaging and no one doesn't look silly!

Original Message------

Thanks Michaela!

I saw the "I am" game at the EdTA conf, and I think my students will also like it. Thank for helping me out!

Joe

Sent from my iPad

I love starting with sociometry and the focus game called zip zap zop. 
With larger groups, it is also good to pair them up and ask them to play the museum tour game where one of them is taking the other on a tour around the room but they have to give unusual history to normal objects. This exercise in unfamiliarizing the familiar is very useful as a group and is quite enjoyed by all.

------------------------------
Lisa Coy
New York NY
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-02-2019 11:22
From: Joe Jackson
Subject: Large Group Games/Improv?

Hello All,

What are your favorite theatre games or improv for large groups? (Like over 20)

Thanks!

Joe Jackson | Director of Theater Arts

Sewickley Academy | 315 Academy Ave. Sewickley, PA 15143

[phone] 412.741.2230 x3357 [fax] 412.741.1411

web | blog | facebook | twitter | pinterest