Improvisational Actor/Actress

7-8 th Grade Core Career Connections
Title:
Improvisational Actor/Actress
Core Subjects: Language Arts
Standards: Strand 5–Speaking. Standard 4080-12; students use process strategies before,
during , and after speaking. Standard 4080-13; students speak in functional, informational, and
literary situations for various purposes and audiences.
Objectives: Strand 5-Speaking. Objective 4080-1201; use strategies to prepare for a speech.
Objective 4080- 1202; use strategies to deliver an effective speech. Objective 4080-1203;
analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of a speech. Objective 4080-1303; demonstrate speaking
competency in Literary performances.
Abstract/Strategy:
Students will learn and use improvisational “improv” acting games to develop strategies such
as tone, pitch, pace of speech, voice, body language, and audience; all necessary in delivering
an effective speech.
Occupational Connection: Improvisational Actor/Actress, Theater Owner
Recommended Resources/Materials:
1. Improv games and explanations worksheet (included with lesson plan).
2. Off Broadway Theatre CD
3. “Quick Wits Instant Comedy.” CD available by calling 355-4628. The CD is not
absolutely necessary for this lesson, but it does add some spice to the introduction and
teaching of improv.
4. Video clips of ABC’s “Whose Line is it Anyway?” TV show on Thursday nights ABC,
7:00 PM MST. Again, not absolutely necessary but it is a great way to introduce improv.
Be certain that these clips are age appropriate.
Time Allotted: Four 45-minute class periods.
Teacher Role:
1. Invite the Work Based Learning Coordinator to schedule a group from a local
improvisational or comic Club or Theatre to visit your class/school.
2. Arrange for a large enough space for students and the improv group to perform.
3. Arrange for sound system for improv group
4. Discuss with improv group their purpose and end result desired; to teach students tone,
pitch, pace, voice, body language, and audience; skills required in speaking. The
improv group could then choose games that will demonstrate tone, pitch, pace of speech,
voice, body language, and audience.
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7-8 th Grade Core Career Connections
5. Students in 8 th grade Language Arts are required to demonstrate speaking competency.
Included in that demonstration must be the use of tone, pitch, pace, voice, body language,
and audience.
6. The use of improv games will help students to learn these speech conventions. The
desired aim of this activity is to transfer skills learned and gained in improv games to
students public speaking.
Pre-Activity:
1. As an introduction to speech skills use Houghton Mifflin Writer’s Inc., A Student
Handbook for Writing and Learning. Sections 514-543 explain the process of preparing
and presenting a speech.
2. Show clips of “Whose Line is it Anyway?”–be certain that these clips are age appropriate.
Not absolutely necessary to lesson plan, just some fun.
3. Play numbers 11 and 13 from the CD from Off Broadway Theatre “Quick Wits.” Again,
not absolutely necessary to lesson plan. Address to obtain CD is included with lesson
plan.
4. Improv group to perform and explain games and how these games would relate to public
speaking. Some specific games to play to teach tone, pitch, pace, voice, body language,
and audience would be Accents, Action Figures, Emotions, and Faces. Other games may
be selected by the improv group to demonstrate these skills.
5. If the improv group cannot visit school the Language Arts teacher, perhaps in conjunction
with the Drama teacher, could easily explain and demonstrate these games. The Drama
classes might want to learn these games and perform for the 8 th grade students if the
improv group could not visit the school. A copy of the games is included with lesson
plan.
Activity:
1. Break class into groups of 2-3 to practice the improv games modeled.
2. Each group performs for class one improv game, game chosen by class/ teacher. Again be
certain to chose games like Accents, Action Figure, Emotions, and Faces as these games
may be some of the best to teach tone, pitch, pace, voice, body language, and audience.
3. Ask each group after their performance to offer feedback on how they did. Discuss what
they would change or how they could do better. How do these games display the
conventions of tone, pitch, pace, voice, body language, and audience necessary in public
speaking? How are they going to use these techniques in their literary speech, or any
public speech? Also elicit feedback from peers and teacher for each group. Sample
rubric included in lesson plan.
Suggested Assessment:
Verbal critique after each group performance as well as rubric critique of each group.
Work-based Learning, Community Connection:
An improvisational actress/actor from a local theatre or comedy club, whose skills would be
used in demonstrating and teaching improv techniques. Community partner will visit
classrooms/schools to introduce and perform improv games. .
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7-8 th Grade Core Career Connections
Literary Connection:
The Young Actors Book of Improvisation; Dramatic Situations from Shakespeare to
Speilburg, ages 12-16, Sandra Caruso and Susan Kosoff, Heinemann Publisher, 1998.
Theater Games for Young Performers: Improvisations and Exercises for Developing Acting
Skills, Maria C. Novelly, Arthur Zapel and Kathy Pijanowski, Meriwether Publisher, 1985.
Writers Inc. A Student Handbook for Writing and Learning. Houghton Mifflin Company,
1996. Speaking and Thinking Sections 514 to 543. Ten out of Ten: Ten Winning Plays
Selected from the Young Playwrights Festival, 1982-1991. Wendy Lamb, editor. Delacorte
Press, 1992. Fiction. Break A Leg, Betsy Maybe! Lee Kingman. Wiliam Morrow/Beech
Tree Books. 1993. Fiction.
Internet Connection:
SLCStage.com A listing of all theatres in Salt Lake Valley as well as from St. George to
Logan. Great links into other sites as well. Improvisational drama.com-nation-wide site for
improv materials/groups. Improvisational acting.com-nation-wide site for materials/groups.
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7-8 th Grade Core Career Connections
Group Members
“Improv” Game
To what extent did
group:
Vary tone
Extensively Somewhat Minimally
Vary pitch
Vary pace of speech
Use voice to support
meaning
Use body language to
support meaning
Adjust to audience
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7-8 th Grade Core Career Connections
Improv games and explanations
(Please remember, these titles are those used by “Quick Wits” and the same game may go by another
name somewhere else).
A to Z – 2 player
The object of this game is that each player begins his/her line with an agreed upon letter of the alphabet
and then the next player begins their line with the next letter and so on. You can begin with any letter and
you may also do it one word at a time as well.
Accents – 2 player
The object of this game is to put the players in a conversational situation like a date or shopping. They
begin in regular accents and then have to change their accents as the MC calls them out. It’s good for the
audience too, because they can give suggestions for the accents.
Action Figures – 2 player and 2 audience member
Two players are brought out onstage and they stand frozen. Two audience members are called up to stand
behind the players. The players are only allowed to move as the audience members pose them. They
have to carry on a scene while being posed like Barbie dolls.
Between the Lines – 3 player
Two of the players are given some kind of books to read from. (The easiest are scene books although we
have used anything from dictionaries to fix it books)! They can only read lines from a page picked at
random from their books. The person in the middle speaks normally and has to “glue” it together and
they all make a scene that makes sense.
Crocodile Hunter – 3 player
This is a new game we have come up with based on the popular cable show. One person (with a
convincing Australian accent) is the Crocodile guy and one plays his wife, Terry. They are on a mission
to go into the wildlife and capture a….That’s where the third guy comes in. He plays whatever the
audience says they should capture. But he isn’t an animal he is an everyday guy like a librarian or a
Teacher or Doctor, etc. So the two hunters capture him and show us all in the audience how it’s done.
Dating Game – 4 player
Three of the players are dating game contestants and one is looking for a date. The dateless one is sent
from the room and the audience chooses something crazy for the three contestants to be like drunk, an ex
husband, a circus clown etc. When they have chosen, the dateless guy comes back in and must guess who
they are with the dating game questions he asks.
Emotions – 2 player
Two players are put into an everyday occurrence like returning something to a store. They start of
normally and then they must act out different emotions as the MC calls them out.
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7-8 th Grade Core Career Connections
Enter/Exit – 5 player
The players are brought out to the front of the stage and the audience assigns one a color, one a number,
one an animal, one a shape and one a food. One person starts the scene on stage and as the players hear
their word they either enter or exit depending on where they are. The scene ends when they are all
eventually off the stage.
Expert Slides – 4 player
Two players are the hosts of a talk show. They are experts on some kind of animal picked by the
audience. The other two players are the slides. As the hosts click on a slide the two “Slide” people form
a ridiculous pose and the hosts have to comment on it like they were looking at slides of the animal they
are experts on. You can add things like “This is a video” or “Hey this one is in upside down!”.
Faces – 4 player
The players are brought on stage and the audience gives each of them an emotion such as happy or
shocked and the player must make a face to go along with that emotion and hold it for the remainder of
the skit. The MC chooses an every day event and the scene goes from there with everyone keeping their
frozen faces and playing out the scene.
Occupations – 2 player
This game is similar to emotions but instead of the MC calling out different emotions he calls out
different occupations. When the players hear the next occupation they freeze in whatever pose they were
in for the previous one and must start the next occupation from there, the humor coming from them
having to explain their way out of that certain pose.
Pieces of Paper – 2 player
Several pieces of paper are spread out on the ground before the 2 players. These pieces of paper have
little sayings on them. They could be pre written or you could send the players out and have the audience
come up with the sayings on the spot. The players are put into a scene and must each in turn read one of
the papers as a line in their scene. The game is over when all of the papers have been read.
Missing Shakespeare – 2 to 3 player
The players are given an every day occurrence to play out like a trip to 7-11 or a camping trip and the
players must play out a scene using Shakespearean dialogue and phrasing.
Stand Up, Sit Down, Bend Over – 3 player
The players are given a scene and someone must be standing, someone must be sitting and someone must
be bent over at all times. They play out the scene and move all around, every one changing their positions
every once in a while.
I hope these games will get you started and if you need any more ideas or instruction, please come on
down and see us in person!!
Melissa Porter
Off Broadway Theatre
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