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Ensemble Building Drama Games. Human Knot. One Word Story. Conducted Story. Walking Blind (Trust Exercise #1) Falling Backward (Trust Exercise #2) Passed Around (Trust Exercise #3) Exploring the Space. “Do You Love Your Neighbor?”.
- Alphabet Animals. This is a game that our son plays in his Saturday morning classes with PQA. It’s very straight forward and great for all ages. Despite it being called Alphabet Animals, you can make it a bit more tricky with something like “Alphabet Musicals” or “Alphabet Singers”.
- Read My Lips. This is perfect for playing over video and is best played with a theme such as “Famous Musicals”. One player puts their microphone on mute and then reads out the name of the musical (or whatever subject is agreed on).
- Fictionary. This is a classic parlour game and really gets the creative juices flowing. The quizmaster either chooses an unusual word from the dictionary OR makes up a crazy word.
- React and Act. A great game for drama groups. Everyone comes up with a scenario and everyone else in the group has to react to it. It’s as simple as that.
Drama games: A resource for teachers. This free resource groups together the most useful drama games for use with Key Stage 3 and above, as suggested by drama teachers. We've included newer games, and old favourites that are popular with students and teachers. Browse the range of drama exercises below, or use the boxes to jump directly to warm ...
Drama Games to Teach Online. 45 drama games and improv activities for online learning. You don’t have to search endlessly to find specific games that work on Zoom and other virtual platforms. We polled hundreds of drama teachers to find the best drama games to lead online. Here are 45 games organized by learning goal:
- For Getting to Know A New Group
- Focus Games
- Improvisation Games
- Advanced Improv Games
- Physical Exercises
- Super Fun Games
- Simple Goodies
- Some Practical Tips
- Are You An Acting Teacher?
Moving Name
Difficulty: Easy Age Range: All ages Learning Outcomes: Confidence, vocal projection, movement work. This, in our opinion, is the best game to start with when working in a new group. 1. Form a circle. 2. Say your name with a matching gesture for each syllable, and a distinct vocalisation. Ruben, for instance, could be signalled with two punches (“Ru!” “Ben!”) and spoken in a high pitched voice. 3. Once you have performed your name, the whole group mimics you. They must try to copy the way you...
Name and Go
Difficulty: Easy Age Range: 8 and above Learning Outcomes: Concentration, listening, ensemble work. It’s best to play this game after Moving Name. Hopefully, participants have learnt at least a few names by this point; Name and Go can help solidify this further. 1. Form a circle. 2. The first person makes eye contact with somebody in the circle, says their name and moves to take their place. 3. The person they spoke to must pick another person in the circle, say their name and continue the pa...
Zombie Tag
Difficulty: Medium Age Range: 7 and above Learning Outcomes:Coordination, teamwork, movement, concentration. This is a popular warm-up game, even for people who know each other’s names and have worked together before! For new groups, Zombie Tagis a great way of incentivising the learning of names: if you want to survive, you better know who everybody is! 1. Have participants walk randomly around the space—evenly spreading themselves across the room. To begin, name a person who will be the fir...
Me to You
Difficulty: Easy Age Range: All ages Learning Outcomes: Concentration, team-building. This is a really simple exercise for a large group which encourages connection and focus. It is a natural exercise to build to after Name and Go. 1. Form a circle. 2. The person starting must make eye contact with someone else (working across the circle is best.) 3. They then gesture to themselves and say “me” followed by a gesture at the other person, to which they say: “you”. It should be seamless. 4. If y...
Word Association with Clicks
Difficulty: Medium Age Range: Ages 13+ Learning Outcomes: Focus, quick thinking, teamwork, rhythm. This game is played by professional theatre companies, but can also work well with late primary and high school kids. 1. Form a circle. 2. Firstly, teach participants a rhythm they will make with body percussion: thigh slap, clap, then click (right hand), click (left hand) Repeat this until everybody is comfortable with it. 3. One person will begin by saying a word on the final click (left hand....
Bang!
Difficulty: Medium Age Range: 8+ Learning Outcomes: Concentration, movement, vocal projection. A warm-up classic! This game is popular with all ages, but you may wish to choose a word other than “bang” if you’re uncomfortable with younger students pretending to shoot guns. (However, they tend to realise it’s only a game.) 1. Form a circle with a ‘sheriff’ in the centre. For the first round, this should be the facilitator. After that, it’s the winner of the subsequent round. 2. Point to a pers...
“Thank You!”
Difficulty: Easy Age Range: All ages Learning Outcomes: Movement, visual storytelling, confidence, writing. This games works as a great warm-up for more extensive improvisations. 1. Form a circle. 2. Invite one person to walk into the circle and form a frozen image with their body. 3. A second person then joins them, creating a complimentary pose that builds on the first. 4. The first person breaks their pose, says “Thank you.” and exits the circle. 5. Another enters and builds on the second...
“What are you doing?”
Difficulty: Easy Age Range: All ages Learning Outcomes:Improvisation, movement, visual storytelling, mime This game is another simple introduction to improv basics, and acts as an excellent ice-breaker for new groups. 1. Form a circle. 2. Invite a person into the centre and have them act out a situation, scenario or task. Unlike “Thank You!”, encourage them to talk and narrate their experience as much as possible. 3. Call a freeze. Then invite a second person into the circle to ask them: “Wha...
Frozen Circle
Difficulty: Medium Age Range: All ages Learning Outcomes: Vocal projection, movement, confidence, storytelling. This is a great improvisation game. It is similar to the well known “Space Jump”, but a little easier to explain. 1. Form a circle. 2. A person enters the circle and begins a solo improvisation. Get the group to help come up with a scenario. 3. Then say freeze at an appropriate moment. 4. Some else from the group gets into the circle and starts a new improvisation, inspired by the o...
Once you have played a few basic games you might want to up the difficulty level with your group and explore some longer form improvisational games. These are best played with ages fifteen years and up, beginner adult groups or experienced actors looking to work their craft in a different way.
DVD Game
Difficulty: easy Age Range: all ages Learning Outcomes: movement, teamwork, storytelling I have seen this game work really well with all ages. With large groups, getting students to go away and create something and then come back and perform is really effective. This game encourages creativity and physical expression. 1. Split your group up into three. It doesn’t matter the size of each group. 2. Instruct each group to come up with three poses or “statues” which portray a story. 3. The three...
Four Corners
Difficulty: easy Age Range: all ages Learning Outcomes: movement, listening, concentration This is a really easy physical game for all ages. I often use it to start a lesson as it’s simple to explain and gets the students moving. 1. Name or number the four corners of the room. If you have a themed lesson you can name each corner something that suits the theme. 2. Choose a student to stand in the middle of the room. You then make the student close their eyes whilst you count down from 10. They...
Changing Character
Difficulty: easy Age Range: all ages Learning Outcomes: acting, movement, characterisation This is often a great way to get a class going. It is not really an acting game, but just playing with characters. 1. Get the students to walk around the space. 2. If you have a class theme choose some character appropriate to that theme and get the students to walk in that manner. For example walk like a King, Queen, Clown. 3. You can also do this exercise with animals. Getting the students to graduall...
Stuck in the Mud
Difficulty: easy Age Range: all ages Learning Outcomes: movement, concentration, teamwork This is a quite a well known game that isn’t necessarily related to acting; however, it is a lot of fun and gets students moving and in a good mood. 1. Choose one person to be “tagger” or “up” (the person who tags people). If you have a large group 20+ get two or three people to be the taggers. 2. If you are tagged you must stay still and outstretch your legs and arms, like in a star jump. 3. The goal is...
Build the Robot
Difficulty: easy Age Range: all ages Learning Outcomes: movement, teamwork, creativity This is a really easy game that can be fun for all ages. It encourages team work and creativity. 1. One person from the group must stand on stage and make a repetitive gesture. You can also have students add a sound to their movement. 2. Another student jumps up and does a different repetitive gesture. 3. Continue this until all the students have added to the “robot” 4. The students must maintain their orig...
Expert Double Figures
Difficulty: easy Age Range: late primary/early high school Learning Outcomes: movement, teamwork A fun little performance game. 1. Choose four students to take part. 2. Two students must then sit on stage in two chairs. It should be set up like an interview. 3. They must then put their hands behind their backs. The other two students must hide behind the chairs and slip their hands through the seated student’s so that it gives the impression they are the seated students arms. 4. You then name...
Telephone
Difficulty: easy Age Range: all ages Learning Outcomes: teamwork Everyone knows this game, but it is fantastic and really useful, especially with younger children. It encourages good diction and listening skills. 1. Get your group into a circle, either seated or standing. 2. Start by whispering a short sentence into the ear of the person next to you. 3. Let the sentence travel around the circle in this same manner and see if it comes back to you the same as it started. 4. The goal is to get i...
1-2-3
Difficulty: easy Age Range: primary Learning Outcomes: vocal projection, teamwork, acting, movement A really silly and easy game that can help relax students. 1. Get your group into a circle. 2. Walk around the circle and number off the students 1,2 or 3 3. Then simply come up with fun things for the students to act. For example: 1’s are wild animals etc. 4. Continue until each number has had a few goes.
Greetings Your Majesty
Difficulty: easy Age Range: All Ages (primary ideal) Learning Outcomes: acting, vocal projection A really simple game to burn some time at the end of a class. 1. Get the students to sit in a line. 2. Place a chair facing away from the students. 3. One student is chosen to sit in the chair. He/She must then shut their eyes. 4. Students are then picked from the line to sneak up behind the student in the chair, and in a weird or different voice, they say: Greetings Your Majesty. 5. This student...
Try to keep the atmosphere fun and creative. Encourage bold choices and at all cost avoid creating an intimidating or fearful environment. Though a number of games have winners and rely on competit...Give the more difficult students greater responsibility. Often those students who get easily bored or try to disturb the group thrive when given responsibility or focus.For getting the group into a circle, count down from five and tell the students they must form a circle in that time.If a game flops, find a natural ending and move straight onto something else.We have developed an incredible resource for students looking to learn more about the industry, improve their acting and get feedback on the work they submit from industry professionals, actors, casting directors, agents etc. If you have any students or you yourself are looking to get some more coaching about the industry, come and check out StageM...
Nov 2, 2023 · 1. Lines From a Hat. This iconic improv game is great for building communication and on-the-spot thinking skills. Allow your audience to write down sentences on pieces of paper before placing them in a hat. Your actors then have to tell a coherent story that incorporates the phrases into their scenes.
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Example of a drama warm-up: Jenga. (A tableau game where everyone can play…inspired by the block game Jenga.) Players will use their bodies in their own spaces to create one virtual tableau. Begin by choosing a STARTER and a DESTROYER. The STARTER begins by making an offer. “I am a___” and then taking the shape of that thing with their body.
