Just like athletes warm up before a game, actors warm up before performing. But they don’t just warm up their bodies—they warm up their voices, too. It’s very important that the audience understand every word an actor says so they can follow the plot (story) that is being told onstage. Practice speaking loud and clear and enunciating every word. “Enunciating” means pronouncing or clearly saying every syllable and consonant.
This chapter is full of fun warm-ups—some for your body, some for your voice, and some for both!
You can try out Tongue Twisters with your friends or parents. Practice them and see how fast you can say them. Then warm up by shaking it all out with Father Abraham, a song that uses the body as well as the voice.
Energy Ball is an especially good transition game for those times when you need a fun, quiet thing to do. You can pass the energy ball around while waiting in the doctor’s office or backstage before your show begins.
Mirrors is a focus activity that gets players concentrating. The Number Game is a focusing and listening game. It’s a challenging game for people of all ages.
Warming up and concentrating on one part of the body at a time is called “isolation.” The Isolations activity is a great way to stretch out and relax from head to toe. Actors warm up their bodies so that they will be ready to make their bodies become different characters or move freely—whatever a script demands.
Echo helps you learn about projection, which means to speak loudly. This is an important skill for the theater, because the audience always needs to be able to hear and understand you.
Character of the Space is a way to get used to the space you’re working in and help you get focused at the same time. In this game, you’ll explore your environment while concentrating on different ways to move your body.
Space Walk, Silent Disco Dance Party, Attention!, Little Sally Walker, and Show Us How to Get Down! let kids express themselves through their own kind of dance. Great Minds will show how wonderful it is when “great minds think alike.
Once you warm up with a few of these activities, you’ll be ready to get down to the serious work—and fun—of acting.
For stretching out your mouth and getting ready to speak in front of an audience, actors use tongue twisters to warm up. Try the tongue twisters in this activity. As you get better at them, try saying them faster and faster. Think of some tongue twisters of your own.
Start by saying this phrase ten times in a row:
You can find a lot of great tongue twisters in Dr. Seuss books, such as Oh Say Can You Say and Dr. Seuss’s ABC.
Unique New York
Repeat this phrase five times (be sure to pronounce the consonants like the d sound in “red,” the p sound in “copper,” and the t sound in “kettle,” “brittle,” and “brattle”):
Red leather, yellow leather, copper kettle, brittle brattle, scadadilly dee (clap), scadadilly doo (clap).
Repeat this one five times. Then repeat it five more times while snapping your fingers along with the rhythm.
A knapsack strap, the strap of a knapsack
Try repeating this one five times:
The big black bug bit the big brown bear and the big brown bear bled blood.
Here’s a new twist on an old favorite. Be sure to enunciate every p.
Peter Piper, the pickled-pepper picker, picked a peck of pickled peppers
A peck of pickled peppers did Peter Piper, the pickled-pepper picker, pick
If Peter Piper, the pickled-pepper picker, picked a peck of pickled peppers
Then where is the peck of pickled peppers that Peter Piper, the pickled-pepper picker, picked?
The following sentence is for practicing projection. Take a deep breath and hold each o sound. Pretend you’re talking to someone across the sea, but don’t strain your voice. Support it with your breath.
Try repeating this one ten times:
Aluminum linoleum
For the next phrase, overenunciate each word, exercising the part of the mouth you are talking about:
The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue
Be sure to say “whether” and “weather” differently in this one:
Whether the weather is cold
Whether the weather is hot
We’ll weather the weather, whatever the weather
Whether we like it or not
Once you get good at this one, try bouncing a ball as you say it:
A skunk sat on a stump
The skunk thought the stump stunk
The stump thought the skunk stunk
Which stunk, the skunk or the stump?
Singing is a great way to warm up your voice. This song also warms up your body. That’s why it’s the perfect warm-up for just before a performance. Be sure to sing loud and clear and move your body, too.
The song “Father Abraham” is based on a story in the Bible.
Father Abraham had seven sons, and
Seven sons had Father Abraham.
And they never laughed, and they never cried.
All they did was go like this
With a left.
Shake your left hand. Keep shaking it while continuing to sing.
Father Abraham had seven sons, and
Seven sons had Father Abraham.
And they never laughed, and they never cried.
All they did was go like this.
With a left,
Shake your left hand.
And a right.
Shake your right hand. Continue shaking both hands while continuing to sing.
Father Abraham had seven sons and
Seven sons had Father Abraham.
And they never laughed, and they never cried.
All they did was go like this.
With a left,
Shake your left hand.
And a right.
Shake your right hand.
And a left.
Shake your left foot. Keep shaking both hands and your left foot while continuing to sing.
Father Abraham had seven sons, and
Seven sons had Father Abraham.
And they never laughed, and they never cried.
All they did was go like this.
With a left,
And a right.
Shake your right hand.
And a left.
Shake your left foot.
And a right.
Shake your right foot. Keep shaking both hands and feet* while continuing to sing.
Father Abraham had seven sons,
and Seven sons had Father Abraham.
And they never laughed, and they never cried.
All they did was go like that.
The curtain will go up in five minutes. You’re backstage in costume and makeup, ready to go on. You’re nervous and excited, but you have to be quiet because you don’t want the audience to hear you. You can focus all that energy by playing this game using an imaginary ball of energy.
Hold your hands up in front of you with your palms out. When you have the energy ball, your fingers must tingle and move quickly, like you are waving to someone. But your hands should look like they are holding a ball while you do this.
Then look at someone else. Make eye contact with him and toss the energy ball to him. It should look just like you are tossing a real ball. Now his fingers are tingling and moving quickly around the ball until he tosses it to someone else.
Toss the energy ball around and see if you can always tell who has it. When you get good at it, try tossing two energy balls around. When you get really good at it, you can even play energy volleyball.
Even some professional actors get stage fright before performing. Warming up is a good way to calm your nerves.
Start the game with everyone making a circle, eyes closed, stretching out their hands, tingling their fingers all together, and creating a big imaginary energy ball in the center. Think of sending all of your energy into the ball. Then someone picks up the imaginary ball and begins tossing it around.
Play Break a Leg Energy Ball. Concentrate on sending good wishes into the ball, like the wish that everyone has a great show. Then, as the ball is tossed around, think of it as if it is carrying this “good luck” message to each person.
Mirrors is a focus warm-up. It is a quiet game that requires a great deal of concentration.
Everyone chooses a partner. Each pair needs to decide who is player A and who is player B. Stand facing each other, about two feet apart, and make eye contact. Begin with player A as the mover and player B as the mirror. Player A should make slow movements with his arms, legs, torso, and face. While keeping constant eye contact with player A, player B acts like his reflection in a mirror, doing exactly what he does at the exact same time. But player B can’t look at the body part of player A that is moving—players must maintain eye contact throughout this exercise.
After a few minutes, player A says, “Switch.” Without stopping, player B takes over as the leader of the movement and player A becomes the mirror. After a few minutes, the new leader A can say, “Switch,” and the roles are reversed once again. Do this back and forth a few times, giving each player a chance to be the mirror.
In productions of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, the magic mirror is often played by someone speaking offstage.
Play Guess Who’s the Mirror. Someone goes out of the room while players choose who is player A and who is player B. Begin mirroring. When the person sent out of the room reenters, she will guess which player is the mover and which is the mirror. Even when you say “Switch,” the change should be so smooth that it is very hard for anyone to guess.
Listening is an important skill for actors. They must hear what the other actors are saying in order to respond naturally, and they must listen to their director. It’s easy to get distracted and start to think about other things. The Number Game helps actors develop their listening skills and helps them stay focused. Because you improve at this game the more you play, you may want to consistently start your rehearsals with this game. You may also want to put a time limit on how long you play, because once you get started, it’s hard to stop.
Everyone stands in a circle and counts off, remembering their number. The last person always begins, so if there are six people, number six begins by saying someone else’s number (“Four,” for example). Number four then calls out someone else’s number (“Two,” for example). Number two calls out another number, and so on. When you hear your number, say someone else’s number.
Sound easy? Wait, here are the rules:
“I’ll probably come out onstage, take one look at those three-eyed TV monsters and faint dead away.” —Judy Garland, describing her stage fright for her first television appearance in 1955
Here’s an example. Let’s say six people are playing: Lisa (one), Danny (two), Stephanie (three), Joe (four), Susie (five), and Brian (six). The game begins with Brian calling out, “Number two.” Danny quickly calls out, “Number two.” Danny gets out because when Brian called his number, he quickly called out his own number. So he moves to the end of the circle and becomes number six. Stephanie, Joe, Susie, and Brian move up one number (because they were behind Danny), but Lisa keeps the same number (because she was in front of Danny). The new order is: Lisa (one), Stephanie (two), Joe (three), Susie (four), Brian (five) and Danny (six). The game begins again with Danny calling out, “Number four.”
When you get good at playing The Number Game, it’s time to add on. You can add on just about any kind of thing you like, such as ice-cream flavors. Everyone chooses a different ice-cream flavor, says it out loud, and remembers it. Now start the game again, only this time you can say someone else’s number or ice-cream flavor. For example, you may be number three and rocky road. If anyone calls out, “Rocky road,” you say someone else’s ice-cream flavor or number. But you must do it quickly, and you can’t say your own! When someone gets out, she still becomes the last number, and the people who were after that player move up in number but keep the same ice-cream flavor. Flavors don’t change. So now you might be number two, but you are still rocky road.
Next, you can add on something else in order, such as days of the week. Number one becomes Monday, number two is Tuesday, and so on. Now you have a number, an ice-cream flavor, and a day of the week. You can call out any one of these things, but don’t call out your own! If you get out, numbers and days of the week change, but ice-cream flavors don’t change. You can continue to add on—switching off between things that stay the same and things that have an order—and change when someone gets out.
When an actor becomes a character, her entire body changes. For example, if you are playing a sad person, your body might be slouched to show how sad you are; if you are playing a peacock, your body might be proud, and you would move like a bird. When you “isolate” a part of your body, you move only that part. Try to keep the rest of your body as still as possible. Isolations warm up your body and help you prepare to become different characters.
One person reads through this exercise while the other players follow the instructions.
Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Relax and let it out slowly. Now you are ready to do isolations.
Isolate your head. Drop your head down so your chin touches your chest. Roll your head slowly to the left so your left ear touches your left shoulder, then to the right. Repeat three times.
Isolate your shoulders. Roll them up to your ears, then back, then down, then front. Reverse the direction so you are rolling them up to your ears, then front, then down, then back. Repeat three times. For a challenge, try rolling one backward and one forward at the same time!
Isolate your arms. Shake them out. With your arms outstretched to the side, make five little circles forward with your arms, then five little circles backward. Make five big circles forward, then five big circles backward.
Isolate your hands. With your arms outstretched in front of you, shake your hands away from you and say, “Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye.” Shake them toward you and say, “Come here, come here, come here.” Repeat five times, getting faster each time.
Isolate your rib cage, right above your waist where your ribs are. Put your hands on your hips to help with this isolation movement. Move your rib cage from side to side without moving the rest of your body.
Isolate your hips. Make big circles by rotating your hips one way in a circular motion, then the other. Repeat three times. Now make little circles with your hips one way, then the other. Repeat three times.
Isolate your knees. Bend your knees and move your right knee side to side, then your left knee, without moving the top part of your body. Try moving both knees at the same time. Do this three times.
Last but not least, isolate your feet. Shake them out really good, one at a time. Wiggle your toes; then rotate your ankles. Do this three times for each side.
Take another deep breath, and let it out slowly.
To warm up your voice and body at the same time, add a sound effect for each movement.
In theater, “Break a leg” means good luck. Some superstitious actors think it’s bad luck to say “Good luck” before a show, so they say “Break a leg.”
This game works best in a theater or large room. The running in this game warms up the body and gives you energy; the speaking helps with projection; and the repeating teaches listening.
If you’re in a theater, everyone needs to go to the back of the house (where the audience sits) and line up in the last row. If you’re in a room, everyone lines up in the back of the room. The first person in line chooses a sentence. It can be any sentence you like, but it should be easy for everyone to remember, such as, “Jack jumped over the candlestick.” The first person in line runs onstage (or to the front of the room), stops center stage, faces the audience, and says the sentence loudly and clearly so everyone else, in the back of the room, can hear “Jack jumped over the candlestick!” If everyone heard and understood the sentence, they repeat it the exact same way. Everyone should also copy the posture and movements of the speaker. If someone cannot hear or understand the first person’s sentence, they yell, “What?” and the person tries again. Once this person repeats the sentence, they run to the end of the line while the second person in line runs up onstage or to the front of the room for her turn. The activity continues until everyone has had a turn. Then you can change the sentence and start over.
Play Name Echo. For a first rehearsal or a first class, you can use this exercise to learn each other’s names by making your sentence “Hello, my name is_____.” Then you follow the rest of the rules to Echo.
Play Favorite Line Echo. If you’re working on a play, each player says his favorite line from the play.
Play Character Echo. Keep the same sentence but call out different kinds of characters. All players must then say the line the way they think the character might say it, including characteristic body movements and voice changes.
Try Emotions Echo. Keep the same sentence but call out different emotions, such as happy, sad, angry, or scared. Players then say the same line but with the selected emotion.
An actor should always be familiar with the space in which he or she is acting. This activity helps you get to know your space, warm up your body, and practice using your body in different ways.
Walk around the space you’re in. It can be a theater, a classroom, a living room, or any open space. Keep walking; only now pretend you’re walking through pudding. Think about what it feels like and how your body would move through pudding. For example, you might move more slowly because pudding is thicker than air. After a while, pretend the space has turned into clouds. Think about what that feels like, and how you might walk through clouds.
The space can turn into all sorts of things. Someone is appointed the caller, and whenever she calls out a new type of space, change the way you move.
In Mary Poppins and Peter Pan, young performers have to act like they are flying in the air. How might you convey the image of flying?
Space Walk is just like Character of the Space. It doesn’t involve walking in outer space; it means you are exploring the space you are in.
Space walks are a great tool that can be used for hundreds of different theater and creative exercises. Here are two examples of what a leader might say as he or she leads the space walk.
“As you are walking around the space, hold an imaginary blob of shapeable material, such as clay or dough. Play with it as you walk. Explore it. See what it can do. How does it smell? How does it taste? What color is it? Make a new discovery about it, something you didn’t notice before. Continue to play with it. See what it can do. How heavy is it? What does it feel like in your hands? Make another new discovery about it.
“Now find a partner and combine your two blobs together into one. Play with the new blob together. Explore what it’s like now. Imagine how it has changed. Is it bigger? Is it heavier? Make discoveries about it together. Know how it smells now and what color it is.”
After about a minute say, “Now find another pair and put your blobs together. Play with it together and see what it can do now. How big has it become? How has it changed? Be playful and explore it together.”
Continue the exercise until the entire group has combined into one huge blob. End with all of them working together to throw it out of the room.
“Walk around the space as if you are happy. See how you walk when you are happy and how your body moves. Imagine that, on a scale of one to ten, you are currently a five of happy. Now bring that up to a six. Heighten the happiness just a bit. Show it in the way you walk around the space. Now bring it up to an eight. Exaggerate the happiness. Show it in your walk and on your face. Now bring it all the way up to a ten. You are the very happiest you can possibly be. Observe how it has changed the way you move. “Now bring happy back down to a five. You are the average amount of happy. Now go down to a three. You are less happy. Are you walking slower? How has your expression changed? Now go all the way down to a one. You are the complete opposite of happy. How do you walk now? What is your expression like? How do you feel?”
Repeat the exercise with different emotions, including scared and angry.
Here is a fun twist on space walks. It is a space walk on its head—literally if you’d like. It’s a party where anything can happen.
One player is the leader and keeps the rhythm during the game. You can use half of an old cymbal or a hand drum, or you can clap your hands—any beat will do.
The leader says, “Silence! It is time for a silent disco dance party. Everybody dance! It’s a party, so go crazy … silently.”
Then, after a few moments, the leader says, “Stop!” The leader stops the beat, and all the players freeze.
The leader then gives a creative direction, such as, “You’re dancing on an iceberg. Go!” All players continue the dance party as if they are on an iceberg. The leader can encourage the dancing by saying things like, “Feel the chill,” “Slide down the ice,” and “Party with the penguins.”
Whenever the leader says, “Stop!” everyone freezes and awaits the new direction. Any direction is fair game. The crazier, the better.
The silliness of the suggestions is counterbalanced by the seriousness with which they are presented. Remember it’s a silent disco dance party. Have fun … silently!
Play Shoe Character of the Space. Pretend you have on different kinds of shoes. Whenever a new shoe is called, change the way you move.
Play Color Character of the Space. Imagine what it would be like if you could walk through colors. Think about what each color means to you and how it makes you feel. Whenever a different color is called, see how it changes the way you move. For example, red might make you feel hot. Move your body to show that you are very hot.
This is an “exploring the space” exercise with a playful twist. It also works as an icebreaker or a get-to-know-you game, because you get to share personal information, such as your favorite things.
All players walk around the space until the leader calls, “Attention!” Then all players quickly assemble into a straight line. The leader then asks a question like, “What is your favorite movie?” Starting with the first person in line, everyone quickly answers the question. It’s OK if two people choose the same movie. After everyone has said his or her favorite movie, the leader gives the following direction: “Explore the space as if you are in that movie.” All the players walk around the space, imagining they are in a scene from their favorite movie. Then the leader calls, “Attention!” and again they line up for a new question and a new direction.
Here’s a give-and-take warm-up game where you create your own dance moves while chanting a fun song.
The words are:
Little Sally Walker walking down the street.
She didn’t know what to do, so she walked up to me.
I said,
Hey girl, do your dance, do your dance switch.
Hey girl, do your dance, do your dance switch.
Everyone stands in a circle. One player is chosen to be the first Little Sally Walker. “Sally” stands in the middle of the circle during the first line of the song. Sally approaches another player in the circle and stands directly in front of him for the second line of the song. Sally does her own dance moves for the third line of the song, and the player she is facing mirrors her. On the word “switch,” the two players switch places. They do the same dance one more time together on the last line of the song. Then the new player in the middle of the circle becomes the new “Sally” and continues the game.
This is a call-and-response game that lets all the players do their own thing.
Choose one player to stand in the middle, such as Jack. Then recite the following:
PLAYERS:
Hey Jack!
JACK:
Hey what?
PLAYERS:
Hey Jack!
JACK:
Hey what?
PLAYERS:
Show us how to get down!
JACK:
No way.
PLAYERS:
Show us how to get down!
JACK:
OK.
ALL (as Jack dances in his own way):
D-O-W-N, and that’s the way to get down!
ALL (repeating Jack’s dance):
D-O-W-N, and that’s the way to get down!
It’s great for scene partners and groups to be able to think alike. This game is played until two great minds think exactly alike.
Everyone sits in a circle. Two players who are next to each other look at each other, count to three, and say any word at the same time. For example one player says “pizza” at the same time another player says “fireworks.”
Next, the person who was on the left turns to the person on his left. They have to try to find a connection between pizza and fireworks. They count to three together and say out loud a word they can think of to connect “pizza” and “fireworks.” For example, one may say “America” and the other “carnival.” The person on the left of that pair turns to the person on her left in the circle. They now have to try to find a word to connect “America” and “carnival.” They count to three and say their word at the same time, such as “park” and “ride.” This game continues until the same word is said at the same time.
Here’s an example of how to play: Mike, Diego, Josh, and Rachel are sitting in a circle.
| MIKE AND DIEGO: | One, two, three. |
| MIKE: | Fireworks. |
| DIEGO: | Pizza. |
The words to connect are “fireworks” and “pizza.”
| DIEGO AND JOSH: | One, two, three. |
| DIEGO: | America |
| JOSH: | Carnival. |
Now the words to connect are “America” and “carnival.”
| JOSH AND RACHEL: | One, two, three. |
| JOSH: | Park. |
| RACHEL: | Ride. |
Now the words to connect are “park” and “ride.”
| RACHEL AND MIKE: | One, two, three. |
| RACHEL AND MIKE: | Slide. |
The game is over because their two great minds thought alike and both said “slide.”
* To shake both feet without falling down, switch off feet—shake your left foot, hop on your left foot to shake your right foot, hop on your right foot to shake your left foot, and so on. Do it quickly to get the best warm-up.