The Theatre Classroom -- Second Semester

Many of you will be starting a new semester.  Let me digress for a moment. One of the things that I feel strongly about is that no matter whether you are teaching teenagers, adults, directing a play, or involved in a community theatre production, you need to start out with at least one group activity so everyone can be introduced to one other.  We don’t get to know people by osmosis.  You will be working with each other for the span of 6-8 weeks when doing a play, or 9-36 weeks if we are teaching. Even if you are teaching the same students it would not be a bad idea to take time to play one of these games when you review your class rules again.  You will only get to know your students better.

We all remember the, “What I did last summer” or “What I did during Christmas Vacation” essay — boring!  It does tell us something about our summer/winter activities and also how we use grammar, but it does not get the “who we are” factor. Yes, I know, you may not be a drama teacher but you still want to know your students, whether you are a language arts teacher in junior high or a senior AP teacher. And yes, we have our subject to teach and need all the time we can to give those students every advantage when it comes to No Child Left Behind. However, before all that learning can take place, the students need to feel comfortable in the classroom and comfortable with their fellow students. When that is accomplished, who knows how far students can go and achieve.   

In my August 5 blog, I introduced two games I played at the beginning of the school year, Picnic and Clap Hands.  Refresh your memory by looking them over.  Another easy get-to-know-you game I have played is to divide the class into four groups by the following designations:

- Astrological signs

- Favorite season

- First Name

- First Name spelled backwards

I need to thank Justine Jones for suggesting these.  Do check out her two improvisation books, Improv Ideas and Drama Games and Improvs.

Another fun introduction game is to have the students introduce themselves — with a twist.  In advance, have prepared two introduction sheets on two different colors of paper.  (See Introduction Worksheet Group 1 and Introduction Worksheet Group 2) Have on hand a picture frame. I did not have one so I bought a large mat. 

Pass out the introduction sheets so half the class has one color and the other half has the other color. Then the students are to pair off, one with each color.  Give them three to four minutes to read each other’s sheet. The point is that they are going to introduce their partner, not themselves. They are only to cover three things on the sheet plus the person’s name. The person being introduced holds the frame in front of their face as their partner introduces them.

Next time I am going to talk a bit about play choice and then I want to share some of my character work I did with my beginning students.