Theatre Game of the Week #8
The holidays are coming soon so I play this game with theatre students around this time of year to talk about festivals from around the world. It uses drama to talk about my favorite part of the season. Epic holiday disasters!
Game Name: Holiday Throwdown
Items needed: An empty space
Students needed: 10-20
Time needed: 40 min+
This game is in steps. You can remove a step if you wish in case your class is shorter than 40 minutes.
Step 1: Talk about holidays in general. Get them to list out holidays on the board or out loud. What are their favorites? Why? If they are very small kids or you want to make this game last the whole class you can have them draw their favorite holiday.
Step 2: Pick the top 5. Make sure you pick a really creative one like "Guy Fox Day" or "Ching Ming Festival" to throw them off their games. Then split them into small groups. 4 or 5 people per group works best. In their group they must find 3 facts about this holiday and say them to the class to teach us about the holiday.
Step 3: Create a still picture of the holiday. 5 minutes to make it and then you'll need about 5 minutes to see everyone's pictures. Talk about why some are good and some need improvement.
Step 4: Add movement and character to the picture, and make it one minute long as a silent movie.
Step 5: Have the class pick an "Epic Disaster" to happen in each scene. The group now has ten minutes to solve the problem and create a short 3 minute drama with fully formed dialogue. It must have a beginning, middle and ending. Everyone can't die at the end. You'll need about about 20 minutes for the drama preps and performances.
Step 6: Post performance discussion and candy (because it's the holidays and candy is mandatory).
In the end: Students will have used holiday vocabulary, will have practiced and performed fully formed dramas with beginnings/middles/endings and have worked on solving some epic holiday disasters!
Comments
Brit
Guy Fawkes Night for goodness sake!!
25 November 2012