I spent a lot of time last year at PACE Youth Theatre in Paisley, Scotland. They had some fantastic warm-up activities. What really stood out to me was that the activities not only energized students, increased their level of focus, and brought them together as an ensemble; they also were specifically set-up to help them develop their characters in the show. For example, they were doing
The Monstrum, a one-act play which took place in the brutal winters of an Eastern European country. So they played a game called Ice-Rat-Wolf (which could be adapted for any production) in which they chose one particular category and then every member of the ensemble needed to physicalize that category. So, for instance, Actor A chooses "wolf." Actor A physicalizes "wolf," and every member of the ensemble needs to do the same. Actor A then passes the energy to Actor B who chooses "rat" and the game repeats. (You see find video footage of this game
here.) This was advantageous because, in the actual production, all of the ensemble members needed to portray wolves during a dance number, rats during various transition sequences, and needed to be freezing . . . well, pretty much all the time. So this really helped them hone in on their physicality.
I wrote an entire blog entry about PACE's methodology
here. They were under the direction of Mhairi Gilbert at the time who's absolutely amazing. Highly recommend checking out her work.
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Victoria Chatfield
Executive Director
National Theatre for Student Artists
www.nationalstudenttheatre.orgvchatfield@nationalstudenttheatre.org------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 01-03-2018 11:54
From: Sarah Gerling
Subject: Warm Up Activities
As we begin the new semester, I am on the hunt for some new warm up activities or ensemble-building activities for my students. There are lots that I have done with my students in the past, but I feel like I need to inject my repertoire with some new ones. Optimally, these would be exercises to get students engaged and energized at the beginning of class or rehearsal. These are some that we do routinely:
1. Zip Zap Zop
2. Kitty Wants a Corner
3. Big Booty
4. Do You Love Your Neighbor?
5. Honey, If You Love Me
6. Fast Numbers
7. Name 5 Things
8. The Animal Game
9. Yee-Haw
10. Splat
11. Hands
12. Claps
13. Wah
I'm also happy to provide descriptions of any of the above if someone is interested.
Thanks for your help!
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Sarah Gerling
Theatre Teacher and Director
Columbia MO
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