Activity: Late for Class, or Out Too Late

Another great activity from SCT's Drama School, Late for Class is a basic game structure onto which we have built themes from I Was a Rat!


Late for Class, or Out Too Late (the I Was a Rat! version)

Choose one player to be Roger, the rat-boy. Roger is being interrogated by the Police Man (activity leader) about why he is out late with no parents. The Police Man says that if Roger explains himself, he will take Roger back to Bob and Joan. If not, he will take Roger and all the Rat Children to the Sterminator! The rest of the players are the Rat Children who try to help Roger.

Roger leaves the room while the leader and the rest of the class decide an outrageous story that is Roger’s excuse for being out late (for example: a space ship took him away, etc.).

Roger returns to the room and the Police Man demands his story. The rest of the group, standing or seated behind the Police Man, mimes or gives other clues to Roger about what he/she should say to the Police Man. If the Police Man turns around, the group must immediately start doing their “work” and not get caught signaling to Roger.

Once Roger has figured out the story, try again with new actors and a new story.

NOTE: The first couple of times you do this, keep it pretty simple. As the players refine their miming skills and understand the exercise better, add more details to the story.


Added layer: Moving Around the Room

Moving Around the Room is a warm-up activity we use to help students get used to using their voices and bodies. Students walk around the room slowly and silently, and when the group leader gives them one of the following prompts, they respond with the corresponding gesture and words.

Prompt / Gesture / Phrase

Pencil / Mime eating a pencil / Delicious!

Bread and Milk / Mime sticking face in bowl / Sluurrrrp

Wash up! / Rub face like a rat cleaning / Rub-a-dub

Make your bed / Students circle and curl up / Snore

Spoon / Hold an imaginary spoon / Spoom!

To incorporate Moving Around the Room into Out Too Late, have the Rat Children stay where they are (actually moving around the room will just make it hard for Roger to follow the Rat Children's hints). Whenever the Police Man turns around to try to catch them signaling Roger, he/she should use a sentence with one of these prompts (e.g. "Children, pull out your pencils!" or "You children are grubby - wash up!"), and the Rat Children should respond with the corresponding gesture and phrase as their "work."