Activity: Have You Another Voice?

Photo by Chris Bennion.

In Peter Pan, Peter likes to fool Captain Hook by disguising his voice. This activity from our Drama School's curriculum invites participants to explore using different voices, starting with a vocal warm-up.

Have you another voice?

Have players sit in a circle. Discuss ways that they could change their voice so that no one would know it was them. Some examples include using an accent, or speaking with a deep, high, or raspy voice.

As a group, practice saying the line from Peter Pan, “Have you another voice?” using different voices.

Once players are comfortable with using their voices in a variety of ways, choose one player to be Captain Hook. Captain Hook will close his or her eyes.

Choose one student to be Peter Pan and disguise his voice saying the sentence: “Have you another voice?"

All players should put on their most innocent looking faces – like it could have been any of them.

Have all players say to Captain Hook: “Open your eyes!” Captain Hook uses his power of observation and power of listening to determine who said the line “Have you another voice?” Captain Hook has three tries to figure out who played Peter Pan.

Creating your own post-play discussions

After nearly every performance, SCT artists return to the stage for a post-play discussion with the audience. They ask audience members about elements of the play, like the effect of parts of the musical score or whether they identify with any characters in the play, and also take audience questions. It is a valuable part of the SCT experience as it helps kids, and adults for that matter, make more personal connections to the material.

And the discussion doesn't have to, and dare we say shouldn't, stop when you leave the theatre. This article from the National Endowment for the Arts, which talks about dramatic play for children, offers some great suggestions for discussion points for your family after seeing a play:

- A good story. Theatre for young audiences today is wide-ranging, offering plays on subjects from traditional fairy tales to current events. Whatever the topic, a good production will clarify its subject. Did you learn something new or gain a new insight through the play?

- Credible characters. A “willing suspension of disbelief” is necessary for viewing theatre, but the characters should be plausible. Did actions seem totally out-of-character for someone in the play? If so, did you lose interest in the drama?

- Excellent performance skills (acting, dance, music, and any other skills called for such as juggling, fencing, etc.). Do these skills support the development of character? Are they at a level befitting the expectations of the actors, both in terms of the amateur or professional status of the company, and the actions of the characters?

- Effective visual elements. Do scenery, costumes, and lighting transport you to the place and time of the play? Are they visually engaging? In cases where scenery and lighting are minimal or absent, did the production stimulate your imagination in other effective ways?

- Challenging ideas. A good script can provoke thought, bring new ideas to light, perhaps help you look at a facet of life in a new or different way. Ask your child what he or she got from a performance. Try open-ended questions such as: What did you see on the stage? What was a particular character trying to do? What happened at the very beginning?

- Insight into other cultures. Theater can take us in time and place to other communities and cultures. Did the production help you learn about cultural or ethnic traditions?

- Strong emotional response and involvement in the plot. Were you moved by the action of the play? While emotions can’t always be verbalized, a discussion with your child about his or her feelings about what happened can benefit both of you.


Of course, it doesn't have to be anything so formal. Simple questions like "What did you like about the play?" or "Who was your favorite character?" on the car ride home can get the discussion rolling.

The ability to forge connections between people is one of the great strengths of theatre arts, and with a little encouragement it can start some great conversations with your kids. And that makes for a more enriching experience all the way around.

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."

Activity: Rock, Paper, Scissors

Disparities of power and status are dominant themes in A Tale of Two Cities. The following activity from SCT's Education Department, written for use in a classroom setting but appropriate for any type of group, invites participants to think about power and status, their relative nature, and all of the factors that contribute to status.

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Standard Version

- Establish a gesture or specific body position for the following prompts: egg, chicken, dinosaur.

- Players all begin as eggs. The objective is to raise your status from egg, to chicken, to dinosaur by playing Rock, Paper, Scissors to grow more powerful. You may only play against people with the same status as you.

- The rounds go like so:
Egg vs Egg: winner becomes a chicken, loser stays an egg.
Chicken vs Chicken: winner becomes a dinosaur, loser becomes an egg.
Dinosaur vs Dinosaur: winner gets to stay a dinosaur, loser becomes a chicken.

- Once most players have become dinosaurs, the game is over.


Discussion Prompts

- Discuss status and how it relates to each of the characters above (egg, chicken, dinosaur). Why does an egg have lower status? Why does the dinosaur have higher status? What makes people have high and low status? Money? Education? Strength? Supernatural powers? Social Position?

- When did your status change in this game? When, in real life, does a person’s status change? If participants have seen A Tale of Two Cities, can they think of any characters whose status changes?


A Tale of Two Cities Version

- Discuss with players which characters in the play have higher and lower status. Rank three characters in order of their status. Choose which character is the egg, the chicken, the dinosaur and discuss why.

- Our Example:
Egg = Gabelle (low status: low ranking social position, poor, afraid of the Marquis)
Chicken = Lucie (middle status: comfortable life away from violence of France)
Dinosaur = Marquis (high status: noble, life of luxury, makes others do things they don’t want to do)

- Establish a gesture or specific body position for each character.

- Play Rock, Paper, Scissors as before, using the characters from the play

Activity: What's your Pharaoh name?

Another fun activity from the fine folks at SCT's Drama School - Do-It-Yourself Egyptian Names!

Many Egyptian names come from the combination of words, often including a god’s name. Examples include:

Tutankhaten = Tutankh (All life is for) + Aten (one god)
Rameses = Ra (sun god) + meses (to be born from)
Nefertiti = Nefer (Beauty, Happiness) + Titi (To be here)

Using the words below, create your own Egyptian name that describes you!

Gods:
Anubis
Aten (one god)
Bastet (cat)
Hathor
Horus
Isis
Khons (moon)
Ma’at (truth)
Mentu (war)
Nephthys
Sekhmet
Set
Sobet
Thoth
Wadjet (cobra)
Ra (sun)
Tefnut
Shu

Adjectives:
Nefer (beautiful, happy)
Mery (beloved of)
Wa/Qa (strong)
Tep (in front)
Khaf (looks like)
Shepses (noble)
Sekhem (powerful)

Nouns:
Meat (cat)
Ankh (life)
-neb (lord)
Ka (soul)
Henut (woman)
Ip (heart)

Verbs:
Tutankh (Life is for)
-meses (to be born from)
-emhat (to be first)
-titi (to be here)
-hotep (to be pleased)
Djed (to be stable)
Akhen (to be useful)

I've chosen Bastethotep (Cat god + to be pleased), as I spend so much time taking care of my own cats, I often feel like the servant of a demanding feline god. Have some fun with it, and share your name in the comments field.

And remember, you only have two more weeks to discover what secrets lie in the desert - Pharaoh Serket and the Lost Stone of Fire runs through March 7, 2009 in SCT's Charlotte Martin Theatre.

Activity: Who is Pharaoh?

All of the activities we share with you at Behind the Curtain are created by our wonderfully talented Education department, and are written specifically with Drama School classes and education residencies in mind.

When Education sends us a curricula, we tweak the wording just a bit to make them more generally accessible. One aspect we preserve, though, is the discussion questions at the end.

The following game, from the curriculum for Pharaoh Serket and the Lost Stone of Fire, is a great example of a fun activity made all the better for the moment of reflection.


WHO IS PHARAOH?

Objective: Players will use their senses to continue an established pattern while keeping the leader’s identity a secret.

1) Have players sit in a circle (or at desks where students can see everyone). Select one player to leave the room.

2) Choose one student to be the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh’s job is to lead the people in a rhythm (snapping, clapping, pounding the floor); all other players begin making the same rhythm.

3) When all players are creating the same rhythm, have the player outside come back in and stand in the middle of the circle, or at the front of the room.

4) The Pharaoh can change the rhythm at any time (from snapping to clapping to pounding); it is the job of the person in the middle to figure out who is the Pharaoh.

5) The person in the middle gets 3 guesses and if they cannot guess, the Pharaoh will reveal himself or herself.

6) Encourage players not to look directly at the Pharaoh.

REFLECTION

For the guesser: How did you know who the Pharaoh was? What did the people do that let you know? What made it hard to guess? What did the Pharaoh do well? What tactics did you use?

For the Pharaoh: What did you do so the guesser wouldn’t know who you were?

For the people: What made this hard? What made it easy? What can we all do to hide the Pharaoh from the guesser?


Maybe it's just because I so love games, but this is what makes playing anything a community experience - the stories you tell afterward, the dissection of strategy, the opportunity for insight into the people with whom you share time and space.

And if all that isn't your bag, it's still just a pretty fun game. Give 'er a whirl.

Activity: Hot & Cold

In Tomás and the Library Lady, Tomás is struggling to learn English. He is frustrated when his teacher doesn’t understand him, and when he can’t understand his teacher.

This activity helps participants think about what it might be like to be misunderstood because of language barriers.

Hot & Cold

Objective: Players will work as a team to give instructions without using English.

YOUNGER PLAYERS
- Have one player (Player A) step out of the room or cover their ears
- The rest of the players will choose a simple but specific objective for Player A to achieve. This can include sitting down on a specific chair, touching a specific item in the room, etc.
- When Player A returns to the room, the other playerss will help them reach their objective by telling them “hot” when they are on the right path, and “cold” when they are off the path.

OLDER PLAYERS
- Have one player (Player A) step out of the room or cover their ears
- The rest of the players will choose a simple but specific objective for Player A to achieve. This can include sitting down on a specific chair, touching a specific item in the room, etc.
- When the Player A returns to the room, the other students will help them reach their objective by simply saying “beep” when Player A is on the right path. Students can vary their volume and intensity to let Player A know when they are close.
- When comfortable with this exercise, change the communication to “beep” means on track, and silence means off the path. Players cannot use volume change.


REFLECTION
- For the player walking the path: Was this activity hard or easy? What was hard and what was easy? Was it frustrating only hearing “hot,” “cold,” or “beep?” Was it hard not knowing exactly where to go or what to do?
- For the students leading: Was this activity hard or easy? Was it difficult not being able to say more than “hot,” “cold,” or “beep?”
- Discuss what it would be like if you couldn’t understand what people were saying to you.

If you and your group try this activity, we’d love to hear how it goes! Drop us a note in the comments field.

Tomás and the Library Lady runs through March 1, 2009 in SCT's Eve Alvord Theatre.

Activity: Oz Words

The following activity was prepared by our Education department as part of their curriculum for The Wizard of Oz. You can easily substitute the provided words lists with words the reflect your desired lesson, or the context of the activity.

Oz Words

The objective of this activity is to physically activate words from The Wizard of Oz while exploring nouns and adjectives, verbs and adverbs. Oz Words can be done in a large group, small groups or pairs.

- Display the word list below (or one of your choosing) for all players. Have one person in each group choose a noun to depict with his/her body (without words). The other players will try to guess which noun the person is portraying. (You can also ask players to experiment with choosing adjectives that do and don't make sense with the noun).

- Once they have correctly guessed the noun, have another participant choose an adjective to modify the noun and portray that adjective with their body. The other players should try to guess what the adjective is. You could also choose to add a layer by allowing participants to choose more than one adjective to portray at a time.

Oz Word List
Nouns: Slippers, Monkeys, Poppies, Broom, Wizard, Road, Lion, Cowardly, Woodsman, Forest, Dog, Witch
Adjectives: Ruby, Flying, Poisonous, Enchanted, Wonderful, Yellow Brick, Cowardly, Tin, Wild, Little, Wicked

- For a variation, or to take the activity to another level, try using verbs and adverbs. Have players choose a verb and act it out, then have them layer on one or more adverbs.

- Take some time to discuss the differences between similar adverbs (e.g., creepily and spookily, or bravely and fiercely).

Oz Word List
Verbs: Flying, Skipping, Picking, Stealing, Running away, Chopping, Pouncing, Floating, Hiding, Waiting, Celebrating, Dancing, Grabbing, Chopping, Chasing, Clunking
Adverbs: Bravely, Neatly, Fiercely, Softly, Cowardly, Stiffly, Innocently, Creepily, Menacingly, Spookily, Gracefully, Loosely, Neatly, Quickly, Cleanly, Wildly

As always, we'd love to hear your comments if you try this activity with your group.

Activity: Pirate Wants a Ship

As part of every production, our Drama School develops a number of games and activities related to the show for use in workshops and residencies. Many of them are very specific to creative drama classes, but others work in any setting, and some of those we post here for you to enjoy.

As part of our Bluenose curriculum, we have this variant on musical chairs with a pirate theme.

Pirate Wants a Ship

Have players sit in chairs in a circle, with one chair-less person, the Pirate, in the middle. The object of the Pirate is to get a chair, the Ship; the objective of everyone else is to not let this happen, while frequently switching chairs with other people.

At the start of the game, the Pirate approaches any player and says "Pirate wants a ship." That player has the choice of two replies:
1) "Go ask my neighbor!" Then the Pirate must move on and ask someone else.
2) "Aaaargh!" At this, everyone gets up and switches places, and the Pirate tries to steal a seat.

While this is happening, anyone can switch chairs at any time. The players seated in the circle try to make eye contact with each other and silently agree to switch without being caught by the Pirate.

If the Pirate steals a chair during the switch, the player left standing without a chair becomes the new Pirate.

Once you've played this way for a bit, you can add these options to make the game a little trickier. Give the Pirate three more options for what they can choose to say:
1) "The wind blows right!" All players must try to move on seat to their right.
2) "The wind blows left!" All players must try to move on seat to their left.
3) "Tidal wave!" All players must run to the middle of the circle like a wave, and then must find a seat.

Activity: Heroes!

In The Hundred Dresses, Maddie wants to be a hero. In her fantasies, she is a superhero, while in her everyday life she struggles to make the heroic choices. In the end, Maddie learns what it means, and what it takes, to be an everyday hero.

This activity, designed by our Drama School, gives participants a way to think about different kinds of heroes, as well as working on listening, imagination, and decision-making skills

Heroes

Gather all of your participants into a group. If you have a large enough group, you may ask half to do the task while the other half observes, and then switch.

Ask participants to create a frozen picture of a superhero. Gives them about 5 seconds to accomplish the task. The activity leader should reflect on the frozen picture he or she sees – noting shape, level, image, facial expression etc.

Add a layer: ask the participants to think of one word that superhero might say. Tap a few superhero frozen pictures on the shoulder and hear what they say. Try saying the word all together.

Add another layer: ask the participants to think of what power the superhero might use to help people. Tap a few superhero frozen pictures on the shoulder and hear what they say.

Then ask participants to create a frozen picture of an everyday hero (i.e. firefighters, police officers, soldiers, doctors, teachers, parents.) Give them 5 seconds to accomplish the task.

Again, reflect on the frozen picture he or she sees – noting shape, level, image, facial expression etc.

Add a layer: ask the participants to think of one word that the everyday hero might say. Tap a few everyday hero frozen pictures on the shoulder and hear what they say.

This activity works as a great springboard into discussion about different kinds of heroes. Reflect on what qualities make a real life hero. What are the choices, qualities, or characteristics, or personality qualification for a real life hero?


The Hundred Dresses runs through April 6, 2008 at Seattle Children's Theatre.

Activity: Storytelling Variations

Theatre is, at its most basic, a storytelling art. Its strength is its versatility, the way it can, in the hands of a talented director and cast, bring so many forces to bear on the story - music, movement, voices, shifts in time, shifts in space.

It is interesting to note the way our audiences evolve and become more sophisticated "readers" of theatre - our productions for younger audiences tend to be more linear, to follow a straightforward arc, and as the recommended age moves upward, the narratives become less linear, the transitions more allusive. Our older audiences have a better understanding of story structure, giving our artists the freedom to tweak that structure in service to the story.

Below are three storytelling exercises suitable for kids 8 or 9 and up that develop listening skils and imagination, and that encourage participants to become more familiar with story structure. And, really, they are fun and suitable for adults as well.


Story Orchestra

Choose one participant to be the story conductor, and arrange other participants in a line shoulder-to-shoulder. The conductor chooses a story the group knows (maybe The Neverending Story) or a general prompt (perhaps a fantastic journey). When the conductor points at an individual participant, he or she tells a part of the story and when the conductor stops pointing, that participant stops. The next participant who is pointed at must pick up the story where the previous person left off. The conductor should pick participants at random and point at them for a variety of different lengths of time.


7 Sentence Story

Arrange all of the participants in a circle. One at a time, they share the prompt (list below) and then add onto the story so that it all logically connects.

Once upon a time...
Until one day...
And because of that...
And because of that...
And because of that...
Until finally...
And ever since then...

Variation: Assign a leader to read off each prompt, and then participants physically express what happens next in the story using only movement. The leader says, "Once upon a time..." and the particiapnts create a frozen picture, rather than saying it loud, or what happened "once upon a time."


Beaded Story

This activity builds on the previous two; it demands a basic knowledge of story structure. If you try these activities with children, we recommend you start with one of the above before trying the Beaded Story.

One participant, let's call him/her A, steps forward and shares the middle sentence of a story. (Note: Advise everyone to keep sentences short, as they will be repeated.) The next participant, B, stands to the right of A and adds the sentence that comes after the middle sentence in the story. Then A and B share what they have so far. The next participant, C, stands to the left of A and adds a sentence describing what happened before the middle sentence of the story. After each participant adds a sentence, repeat what sentences you have so far, from left to right. Then have another participant, D, stand on the right of B and add a sentence that comes after B's. Continue adding participants to alternating sides, adding sentences that come before or after what had already been told, repeating everything you have so far each time, from left to right. Play until the end of the story is reached or all participants have been added.

All sentences should be logically reflect what has happened before or after in the story. All the before action should be on the left side of the first participant and all the after action should be to the right side of the first participant.


Give them a try! And share the results - we'll publish the best of any stories sent to our blog moderator on Behind the Curtain.

Activity: The Book Expert

Bastian, the young hero of The Neverending Story, is a true lover of books. They provide him a way to escape from his ordinary life and the cruelty of his peers, and one particularly powerful book connects him to the magical world of Fantastica.

Our Education department has developed an exercise that a book expert like Bastian would enjoy, entitled, not coincidentally, The Book Expert. This activity was originally designed for the classroom, but works for any group of perhaps five or more.

The Book Expert

Assemble your participants and tell them that you have some special guests eager to meet them. These people are so smart that they have two heads. And they are experts at books; they know everything there is to know about reading books and writing books, and they just love anything that has to do with books!

Ask two participants to come to the front of the group and become the two-headed book expert. (Have some fun with it if you like - have them sit together with one's head over the other's shoulder, or squeeze them into a giant oversized sweater.)

Choose one member of the group who has a question for the wise book expert, and ask him/her to share it with the group. All together in one voice, the group asks the question of the book expert. The question should always begin with "Oh, Great Book Expert..." and then into the question. For example, "Oh Great Book Expert, what does it take to be a fast reader?"

The Book Expert has to answer the question one word at a time, one person at a time. If the Expert knows the real answer, then they should answer with that, otherwise they must make it up.

You can mix it up by adding more heads to the Expert, and can get everyone involved by swapping out whichever Book Expert "head" slips up in their answer.


This is a great activity for building cooperation, imagination and spontaneity.

Activity: I'm not the giant you think I am

This activity was originally designed by the fine folks in our Education department for classrooms, but it is appropriate to any fairly large group (you probably want at least six to eight participants to make the activity work).

I'M NOT THE GIANT YOU THINK I AM

In The Big Friendly Giant, several actors play multiple roles, and they change their voices to show that they have become a different character. Try your hand, or rather mouth, at becoming a different person by changing your voice.

1. As a warm up, sit in a circle and talk about vocal disguises - ways to disguise yourself by changing your voice. Each participant should try experimenting with different voices before you begin.

2. Once everyone has warmed up and stretched out their voices, choose one participant to be the guesser and have them sit in a chair facing away from the rest of the group.

3. Choose one participant to disguise his/her voice and say the sentence "I'm not the ginat you think I am!"

4. Have all of the participants say to the guesser, "Come on back!" The guesser then rejoins the group and has three tries to guess who the disguised speaker was.


This activity helps develop listening, focus and concentration skills, and encourages vocal participation. For those interested in performance, the activity helps to teach them to make strong and specific vocal choices.

Activity: The Dream Jar

In The Big Friendly Giant, the BFG has an interesting hobby: he collects pleasant dreams in jars to deliver to sleeping children. SCT's Education department has developed the following activity, The Dream Jar, based on The BFG and his favorite pastime - perfect for family game night.

The Dream Jar

Part 1 - Create a Dream Jar

Take a clean, empty jar and decorate it in a way that reminds you of a dream

Write the following words on small slips of paper and put them in your dream jar. Some of these words might seem a little out of the ordinary, but they are the BFG's favorites.

friendship
scuddling
giant
hero
snozzcumbers
dream
moonbeam
yodelling
twinkling
frobscottle
adventure
escape

Then, add some words of your own!


Part 2 - Create a Story

Roll a die. The number that you roll is the number of words that you should pull out of your jar.

Create a story using the words from your jar and some of your own words. For a different challenge, act your story out or write it down. Be sure to include all the words you drew from the dream jar!


If you'd like, you can download a pdf of this activity.