DRAMA SPACES - Youth Arts Programme

dramaspaces6 18/8/05 4:25 PM Page 20• Create a group mime. Divide them into small groups.Tell them that you are going to call out somethingand that they have to create it in 30 seconds using everyone in the group and without talking. I tendto get them to create a bowl of Spaghetti Bolognese among other things – like the Eiffel Tower and theHa’penny Bridge.• Play ‘Machines.’Tell the group that you want them to create a machine. It is an old fashioned machinewith cogs and wheels.Ask one person to start with a machine-like movement. One by one, the othersjoin in, each one becoming part of the machine by a physical gesture and sound. Encourage them tolink in with each other as parts of the machine. Once each person has become a part of the movingmachine, you can speed the machine up or slow it down.This is a starting point from which you canmake a variety of machines, such as a ‘love machine’.• Play ‘Person to Person’. Everyone walks around.Someone shouts ‘Now’and grabs the person nearest tothem.A nominated person in a group says ‘Cheek to cheek’and the pair have to act it.They then separate, only to form another pair when you signal. Commands can be ‘knee to knee’or ‘head to elbow’–anything physical – and each pair has to act it.The group needs to be comfortable with each other. It isalso a good idea to plan out what combinations you are going to say before you play it to preventembarrassing situations.• Ask the group to visualise a box and to leave all of their hassles in it and put a lid on it.Take thesethings out of the box and put things in during the workshop.• Play ‘Blind Offers’or ‘What are you doing?’Invite the group to form a circle. Go around the circle once.Each person has to mime an action.The person to their right has to ask them ‘What are you doing?’They answer truthfully.The second time around the circle, the person is miming an action but whenasked what they are doing says something different.That suggestion has to be mimed by the personasking the question.When they are asked ‘What are you doing?’they must answer with anothersuggestion, and so on.A list of game books is included in the References appendix at the back of this book.20