Bus Station

Set up chairs to suggest a bus station. Place a desk in one corner for the ticket seller. Choose 12 students who will be taking the bus. They are to create an improvisation based on a character and an objective (see examples below). Either take the group out of the room and whisper privately to each actor giving them a character and objective or have them select a card with the information written on it. They are not to share the information with their fellow actors. By the way they create their characters, their ages and objectives should become obvious. All the characters are waiting to get on a bus and go somewhere except for characters 7 and 11. However, 11 must buy a ticket to protect his cover. Notice that there is no driver!

After the actors have received characters and objectives, determine their order of entry into the scene. Then select two more students in the class to be part of the scene. One will serve as a ticket seller (objective: to sell tickets) and one as security guard (objective: to maintain law and order). The actors must maintain their character and objective throughout the scene. The scene should not end until you stop it. Actors must avoid any action that might force an early conclusion.

Character and Objective

1. Teenage girl- to meet her boyfriend in New York

2. A cool guy- to make people think he's rich

3. A nervous woman- to leave her husband

4. A middle-aged woman- to start a new life

5. An old man- to talk about his grandchildren

6. A weird man- to convince people that the end of the world is near

7. An upset man- to convince his wife (character #3 above) to come home

8. A young woman- to find someone to talk to

9. A nervous man- to skip town before he's arrested

10. A weird woman- to avoid contact with others

11. Undercover agent- to identify and arrest a suspect

12. 8-year-old girl- to wait for her mother

Before you begin the scene, urge the actors to concentrate on their objectives and try to play them as realistically as possible—no stereotypes. The scene opens with the ticket seller, security guard, and little girl in the playing area. The little girl should be seated on a chair waiting for her mother. Call ‘Places’ and then ‘Curtain’ to initiate the improvisation.

As the scene develops, be alert for overacting or lack of concentration. If necessary, freeze the action to call attention to such faults. This type of large-group improvisation can be a marvelous success, a dismal failure, or any number of things in between. Allow a good scene to run for ten to fifteen minutes; a poor one should be cut short. If the scene is progressing satisfactorily, don't hesitate to send in other actors. The little girl's mother, a shoeshine boy, a panhandler, and the teenager's mother and/or father are obvious possibilities.

Following the improvisation, have actors state their individual objectives and any approaches used to achieve that objective.

If you feel your class is ready, I have included a very simple Student Evaluation Form (see December 1 blog post). This helps those students who are not involved pay attention and become a part of the whole process. Students have to begin having a critical eye when observing fellow actors.  The downfall is that they become overly critical or very generous. Criticism is so helpful and much needed in the arts but learning how to do it takes practice (as well as accept it) and this may be a good way to start. 

The following large group exercises continue using teamwork. Remind your students of what makes an interesting group picture--body positions, gestures and facial expression. Be sure that when you divide the class into groups that there are new groups each time there is a new activity.

Frozen Pictures

In advance, make up a list of children’s stories. Write each on an index card and keep them in that 3X5 index card box mentioned in Blog 12—so they can be used over and over (see below).

Next, divide your class into new groups of 4-6, depending on the size of the class.  Give each group a different card and allow them 5 minutes to decide on 3 frozen pictures that tell the whole story. (You may need to side coach—telling each group to be quiet so no on else in the other groups can hear what they are doing.)  Every student is to participate in at least 2 of the three pictures.  They can be people, chairs, trees, or what have you. Then as each group ‘performs,’ the rest of the class has to figure out the story they are portraying.  Then, give each group a new card and they then have to tell the story in 2 frozen pictures. Again, allow 5 minutes to work and then each group ‘performs’. 

Now to add more difficulty, give each group another card, but this time you have selected Nursery Rhymes (which of course you have written on cards in advance).  Everyone in the group is to be involved but they can only do one frozen picture.  Again, give them 5 minutes to create their pictures and then ‘perform’. 

Children’s Stories

-3 Blind Mice

-Beauty & The Beast

-The Tortoise & the Hare

-Anything from Dr. Seuss

-Emperor’s New Clothes

-Pinocchio

-Goldilocks

-Cinderella

-Snow White

-The Three Little Pigs

-Red Riding Hood

-Sleeping Beauty

Nursery Rhymes

-Hickory Dickery Dock

-Humpty Dumpty

-Jack and Jill

-Little Bo Peep

-Little Miss Muffet

-London Bridge is Falling Down

-Ring-A-Round the Rosie

-There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe

-Three Blind Mice

-Three Little Pigs

Portraits

One player is chosen as a host, and 4-10 players, depending on your class size, are selected to act as photo subjects. The host chooses a subject written on the 3 X 5 card and the group is given up to a minute (or more if you think they need it) to figure out what they will do. You might mention that there can be several types of portraits -- the one that hangs over the mantle, the one with 1 flaw or the one with many flaws. The host ‘clicks’ to view the picture, the group freezes in their portrait and the host then narrates what the portrait is about. 

Examples:

-Family reunion

-Birthday party

-Vacation (summer or winter)

-Wedding

-Funeral

-Graduation (high school or college)