Naivety
IF ACTORS ARE PEOPLE WHO LIKE TO GIVE LIFE AND SUB-stance to a story, then improvisers are people who like to give life and substance to their imaginations. They are trying to harness and control an unbelievably active part of their brains in order to discover how people behave through experience rather than through the intellect. These improvisation sessions make continual use of the imagination, so it is important that each session should start with some warm-up games and exercises to clear the mind from the clutter of day-to-day distractions and focus the concentration on the job in hand.
In creating a session it is good to do preparatory work that relates directly to the objectives of the session, so in each chapter I have included appropriate exercises. However, there are a number of other games and exercises that could be used at the start of any session because they have no specific outcomes other than encouraging a suitably creative environment, sharpening the concentration, getting the blood pumping through the veins, bonding the group, and preparing everybody for work.
Stanislavsky talks about four major building blocks for creativity – Naivety, Relaxation, Concentration and Imagination – and I have grouped the games and exercises in this chapter under those headings to encourage and stimulate these parts of the creative process. However, some of the games fulfil the objectives of two or more of these building blocks and could be put under more than one heading.
I have also included some Improvisation Exercises, which are like practising scales on the piano and can be used regularly to release their imaginations and invigorate their instincts.
Naivety
Clapping Around the Circle
Ask the group to stand in a circle. The first person turns to the person on their right, claps their hands and returns to a neutral position. The next person does the same, and so on round the circle. When it is someone’s turn to clap they can clap to the person on their right, on their left, or to someone across the circle, but they must always return to a neutral position. The clapping should always be alert and dynamic.
RATIONALE This exercise promotes group awareness, concentration and alertness.
Zip, Zap, Boing
This is like ‘Clapping Around the Circle’ except that it is done with the words ‘zip’, ‘zap’ and ‘boing’. Ask the group to stand in a circle with each person putting their hands palm to palm at chest level. The first person sweeps their hands to the right saying ‘zip’, and then returns to a neutral position. The next person does the same, and so on round the circle. When it’s someone’s turn, they can ‘zip’ to the people on either side of them. If they want to send it to someone across the circle, they have to say ‘zap’, and use their hands to indicate clearly who they want to send it to. If someone receives a ‘zap’ from across the circle, they can ‘zip’ it to either of the people standing next to them, or ‘zap’ it to someone else across the circle. However, if they send it back to the person who sent it to them they have to make a physical movement as if they are bouncing something off their chest and say ‘boing’. Note: You can’t ‘boing’ a ‘zip’ but you can ‘boing’ a ‘boing’!
RATIONALE This exercise promotes group awareness, concentration and alertness. It is also fun to do and helps warm up the group’s voices.
Pass a Movement Around the Circle
This is like ‘Clapping Around the Circle’ except that the first person does an unusual movement with an accompanying sound, and the next person has to copy both movement and sound and pass it on. At any point someone can send a new movement and sound back round the circle in the other direction. (It’s best not to try to send the movement and sound across the circle because it is difficult to be accurate as to who it is being sent to.)
RATIONALE This exercise promotes group awareness, concentration and alertness. It is also fun to do and helps warm up the group’s voices. It encourages spontaneity and helps them to release their inhibitions.
Back to Back
With the whole group divided into pairs and all the pairs working at the same time, ask each pair to stand back to back and to get to know each other’s backs by moving them around against each other. Then ask them to move around the room with their backs still touching but without talking. They are not allowed to hold on with their arms. Ask them to explore how fast they can move; who leads; the exchange of leadership; whether they can sit on the floor together back to back; whether they can stand up together back to back; what else they can do. The important thing is that they don’t talk and they don’t use their hands or arms to link together or to help with any of the movements. All the communication is made through the feel of each other’s backs.
RATIONALE This exercise promotes trust, complicity and physical awareness. It also sharpens their ability to negotiate and communicate.
Grandmother’s Footsteps
This is a traditional children’s game which can be adapted for actors.
One person (Grandma) stands at one end of the room facing the wall and the rest of the group go to the other end of the room. On the signal to start, the people in the group have to move forward; however, Grandma can turn round at any time ‘she’ likes, at which point everyone has to freeze (stand perfectly still). If anyone is seen to be moving, Grandma sends them back to the end of the room to start again. The game ends when one person in the group manages to tap Grandma on the shoulder without being seen. That person is the winner and it then becomes their turn to be Grandma.
Variations:
The group moves down the room with physical expressions of:
1. |
Murderous intent, freezing in frightening positions |
2. |
Love and adoration, freezing in romantic, loving positions |
3. |
Indifference, freezing as if they don’t even know Grandma is there |
4. |
Clowns, freezing in funny positions |
5. |
Giants, freezing as if they were enormous |
RATIONALE This exercise promotes a sense of fun, physical control, awareness and concentration.
Blind Dracula
For this game everyone, including Dracula, has their eyes shut for the whole time. No cheating.
Ask the group to stand in a circle shoulder to shoulder with their eyes shut. Then walk around the outside of the circle and tap one person on their shoulders. This person becomes Dracula but no one else knows who it is. Having done this, ask the whole group, including Dracula, to disperse round the room still without opening their eyes. And then everyone, including Dracula, should feel their way carefully around the room with their hands out in front of them. When Dracula touches another person, he has to put his hands firmly on their shoulders, either from the front or from behind. At which point that person has to let out a blood-curdling scream and then they become a Dracula too. So now there are two Draculas feeling their way around. As the game continues there will be more and more Draculas. If two Draculas put their hands on each other’s shoulders at the same time they both have to laugh in a mad, maniacal manner. The game finishes when everyone is a Dracula.
RATIONALE This exercise promotes a sense of fun, trust and sensory awareness. Also relaxation.
Relaxation
Down, Down, Baby
Ask everyone to stand in a circle and hold their left hand out to the side, palm down and their right hand to the other side, palm up. By moving their hands up and down everyone can then clap on the hands of the people either side. Ask them to do it at a steady rhythm and then slowly teach them the following sequence of words and actions. If you use four handclaps per line to start with, you will be going at the right speed. The actions are on the capitalised words and when there are no actions they should continue to clap the rhythm on each other’s hands.
‘Down, Down, Baby,
Down, Down the ROLLER COASTER.’ (Make a ‘roller coaster’ movement with your hands from up right to down left, palms together.)
‘Sweet, Sweet, Baby,
I’ll never LET you GO.’ (Right hand to left shoulder on ‘let’, left hand to right shoulder on ‘go’. Like a hug.)
‘Gimme, gimme Coco Pop,
Gimme, gimme ROCK.’ (Turn to the left, bend knees and thrust hips forward and elbows back.)
‘Gimme, gimme Coco Pop,
Gimme, gimme ROCK.’ (Turn to the right, bend knees and thrust hips forward and elbows back)
‘Grandma, Grandma,
Sick in bed,
She sent for the doctor,
The DOCTOR SAID . . .’ (Shake index finger to the middle of the circle like telling someone off.)
‘Let’s get the rhythm in the head,
DING DONG.’ (Tilt head to the right on ‘ding’, and to the left on ‘dong’.)
‘Let’s get the rhythm in the head,
DING DONG.’ (As above, tilt head from right to left.) ‘Let’s get the rhythm in the hands.’
(Clap, Clap.)
‘Let’s get the rhythm in the hands.’
(Clap, Clap.)
‘Let’s get the rhythm in the feet.’
(Stamp, Stamp.)
‘Let’s get the rhythm in the feet.’
(Stamp, Stamp.)
‘Let’s get the rhythm in the HO . . . O – OT DOG.’ (Bend knees and rotate hips.)
‘Let’s get the rhythm in the HO . . . O – OT DOG.’ (Bend knees and rotate hips.)
‘Put it all together and what have you got?
DING DONG.’ (Tilt head from right to left.) (Clap, Clap.)
(Stamp, Stamp.)
‘HO . . . O – OT DOG.’ (Bend knees and rotate hips.) ‘Put it all backwards and what have you got?
HO . . . O – OT DOG.’ (Bend knees and rotate hips.) (Stamp, Stamp.)
(Clap, Clap.)
‘DONG DING.’ (Tilt head from left to right.) (Note: the ‘Ding Dong’ is reversed in the last line and so is the tilting of the head.)
RATIONALE Although this is complicated to explain, it is great fun to do. Once a group has learned it, it is a quick way to warm them up. It sharpens their attention, gets them physically moving and bonds the group.
Persecutor/Protector
Ask everyone to walk around the room, in and out of each other, heading towards the emptier parts of the room as much as they can. While they are doing this, ask each person to think of someone in the room and, without letting it be obvious, try to keep as far away from that person as they can. Once everyone is moving around trying to avoid their ‘persecutors’, ask them to think of someone else (preferably someone up the other end of the room), and try to get as close to this second person as they can, while, at the same time, they are still trying to avoid the first person. They can move as quickly as they like, but they must never make it obvious to either person that they have chosen them.
RATIONALE This game creates a strange and unexpected flow of movement around the room. They have to concentrate on two different people at the same time and respond accordingly. They have to deal with the problem of their persecutor and their protector both standing next to each other. Sometimes they find themselves trying to avoid the person that wants to get close to them; sometimes they are trying to get close to a person that keeps running away. It’s very exciting as they are forced to run, stop, walk, watch and respond.
Zombies
Ask everyone to walk around the room, in and out of each other, and be zombies (the living dead). They must develop a slow but relentless zombie walk and a death-like zombie sound – a howl or a groan. Then ask them all to be versions of Frankenstein’s monster in the same way. Then ‘The Mummy’. But each time they have to create a different slow, but relentless walk and a death-like sound.
RATIONALE This is an exercise in control and creativity, but I really use it as a preparation for ‘Chair Rush’ (see below), because I want them to get used to the concept of a slow and relentless way of walking.
First of all, practise ‘Zombies’ with everyone.
Then ask each person to place one chair somewhere in the room so that all the chairs are haphazardly scattered about. When they have done that, each person should sit on their chair. Then ask one person to leave their chair and go to the far end of the room. That person then has to walk towards the empty chair like a zombie and try to sit on it. They can’t run; they have to do a slow relentless zombie walk and make a death-like sound. Everyone else has to prevent the zombie sitting on the empty chair. One of them can do this by getting up, moving as fast as they like, towards the empty chair and sitting on it. However, once they move they will leave behind another empty chair that the zombie can now walk towards and try to sit on, so someone else has to move onto that chair, leaving behind their empty chair which the zombie can now walk towards . . . etc. Several people will often leave their chairs at the same time. When this happens the zombie can head towards any of the empty chairs. Once someone has left their chair, they can’t go back to it. When the zombie eventually manages to sit on an empty chair, the game is over, and someone else becomes the zombie. I usually choose the person who seems to be responsible for letting the zombie win.
RATIONALE As they play this game, they realise that they have to work as a team otherwise it is too easy for the zombie. Once the teamwork is happening, the game creates a flow of movement around the room that becomes very difficult for the zombie to handle until someone makes a mistake.
Anyone Who . . .
Ask everyone to get a chair and sit in a circle except one person who stands in the middle of the circle. There are no spare chairs. The person in the middle then says something true about themselves, starting with the phrase ‘Anyone who . . . ’, such as: ‘Anyone who had tea for breakfast this morning,’ or ‘Anyone who likes The Beatles,’ or ‘Anyone who is wearing trainers.’ If that is true for anyone else in the circle then they have to get up and move to another chair. The person in the middle has to try to get in an empty chair while everyone is moving around. Whoever can’t find an empty chair now stands in the middle and we start again.
Rules:
1. |
Whatever the person in the middle says has to be true about them. |
2. |
If it’s true of anyone in the circle, they have to move to a different chair. |
3. |
Once someone stands up, they can’t go back to the chair they were in before. |
RATIONALE This game is very bonding for the group as they realise that they have similar likes and dislikes. It’s also fun to think up embarrassing things like: ‘Anyone who was a Spice Girls fan when they were thirteen.’ Or ‘Anyone who likes to sort out jelly beans according to their colour.’
Wink Murder
Ask everyone to stand in a circle shoulder to shoulder with their eyes shut. Then walk around the circle and tap one person on their shoulder. That person then becomes the murderer without anyone else knowing who it is. Having done that, ask everyone to open their eyes and walk around the room weaving in and out of each other. The murderer ‘kills’ people by surreptitiously winking at them. When a person is winked at, they have to count slowly and silently to five as they continue to walk and then they have to perform a ‘death’. It’s important that they count slowly to five before dying so the murderer can move away from the scene of the crime. After someone has ‘died’ they have to go to the side of the room and watch. The object of the game is for everyone to guess the murderer before they are all ‘killed’. Anyone can accuse anyone at any time but the game only stops when everyone who is left agrees who they think the murderer is. (Except the accused of course.) However, the murderer should never give themselves up until everyone is accusing him or her. The murderer can lie and cheat and accuse other people of being the murderer, and, in fact, do anything to put people off the scent.
Once everyone has decided to accuse one person, then the murderer has to own up. If the murderer is the person they have all accused, then the group have won. If the murderer is someone else, then the murderer has won.
RATIONALE This game is very bonding for the group and it stimulates their observation skills. It is also great fun for them to do and is one of the most popular warm-up games.
Stuck in the Mud
This is like ‘Tag’. One person chases the rest of the group round the room. When they touch someone, that person has to stand with their legs apart and their arms stretched upwards like an X, shout ‘Stuck in the mud,’ and stay in that position. Anyone from the rest of the group can release a person who is ‘stuck in the mud’ by crawling between their legs. It’s quite good to get two people to chase, or to keep changing the chaser because it is a very exhausting game!
RATIONALE This game is a great physical warm-up for the group and it promotes a strong sense of co-operation.
Concentration
1, 2, 3
Two people face each other. The first person says ‘one’, the second: ‘two’, the first: ‘three’, the second says ‘one’, the first: ‘two’, etc. They keep counting to three taking it in turns to say the numbers. Once they’ve done that, they think up a gesture and a sound that they can both use to replace the word ‘two’. For instance, they could replace it with a jump and a ‘ha!’ so it would now go ‘one’, jump-‘ha!’, ‘three’, ‘one’, jump-‘ha!’, ‘three’, etc. When they have mastered that, ask them to keep their replacement for the word ‘two’, and find a completely different replacement for the word ‘three’. Again, let them practise. Then ask them to find a third sound and gesture to replace the word ‘one’, so there are no numbers being said at all; just sounds and gestures.
RATIONALE This exercise sharpens their concentration and ability to work together. It also helps them learn how to negotiate their creative ideas.
How Far Can We Count?
Everyone stands in a circle. With one person at a time saying a number, the group counts from ‘one’ to as high as they can. Anyone in the circle can say whichever number comes next, but if two or more people say it at the same time, they have to stop and start at ‘one’ again.
RATIONALE This exercise promotes group awareness, concentration and sensitivity to their surroundings.
Noises in a Circle
Everyone stands in a circle with their eyes shut and makes a repeatable noise. While making their own noise, each person should listen to the two noises on either side of them and try to get to know them. Still keeping their eyes shut, ask everyone to spread out into the room carefully, and start making their noises again. The object is to try to reform the circle just by listening to the sounds that everyone is making.
RATIONALE This exercise promotes trust and sensory awareness. It is also fun to do, and gives them a great sense of delight when the circle is successfully reformed.
Ballerina/Bouncer
The group stands in a circle with one person in the middle. The person in the middle has to point at someone and say ‘Ballerina’ or ‘Bouncer’, or any of the other words in the list below. (They all begin with the letter B.) At that point the person being pointed to, together with the two people on either side, have to mime the action specified and make the appropriate noises:
Word |
‘Ballerina’ |
Pointed-at person |
Does a pirouette and sings ‘The Sugar Plum Fairy’. |
People either side |
Stretch one leg back and the opposite arm forward. |
Word |
‘Bouncer’ |
Pointed-at person |
Steps forward, folds arms and says, ‘What choo want?’ |
People either side |
Step forward behind the centre person and say, ‘Yeah!’ |
Word |
‘Boxer’ |
Pointed-at person |
Falls to the floor as if knocked out. |
People either side |
Count like referees, saying, ‘A-one, A-two, A-three.’ |
Word |
‘Bond’ |
Pointed-at person |
Puts gun to cheek. Says ‘The name’s Bond. James Bond.’ |
People either side |
Drape themselves on Bond like sexy ‘Bond girls’. Squeal. |
Word |
‘ Bat’ |
Pointed-at person |
Uses first fingers to make teeth. Makes high-pitched ‘eeks’. |
People either side |
Flap their arms and say ‘Frrr . . .Frrr . . . Frrr’. |
Word |
‘Banana’ |
Pointed-at person |
Puts arms above their head. Bends body into banana shape. |
People either side |
Unpeels the ‘banana’ like monkeys. Making monkey noises. |
Word |
‘Biggles’ |
Pointed-at person |
Makes goggles with fingers. Hums ‘Dam Busters March’. |
Person to left |
Uses arms like wings of a plane and makes flying movement. |
Person to right |
Uses arms to create Biggles’ scarf blowing in the wind. |
Word |
‘Baby’ |
Pointed-at person |
Rocks baby in arms. Sings ‘Rock-a-Bye Baby’. |
People either side |
Rub knuckles into their eyes. Cry like babies. |
Word |
‘Bimbo’ |
Pointed-at person |
Stands like Marilyn Monroe holding skirt from blowing up. |
People either side |
Giggle, bend knees and shake shoulders. |
Word |
‘Bicycle’ |
Pointed-at person |
Puts hands on handlebars, says, ‘Ding Ding’. |
Person to left |
Moves feet as though pedalling. |
Person to right |
Makes a wheel shape with arm. |
As soon as anyone makes a mistake, or hesitates for too long, they have to go into the centre.
RATIONALE This exercise promotes alertness and spontaneity. It is also a splendid physical and vocal warm-up, great fun to do and is very popular.
Imagination
Coil of Rope
Everyone stands in a circle with their arms around each other’s shoulders. Then they have to imagine that they are standing at the top of a tower made from an enormous coil of rope. The coil of rope is rather unsteady, so they have to keep their balance, and be extremely careful as they move. They then have two minutes to rearrange themselves in the order of the first letter of their first names without falling off the tower of rope.
RATIONALE This exercise stimulates their imaginations. It is also excellent for encouraging physical contact and complicity.
This is a traditional parlour game and is played in Act Two of Noël Coward’s play, Hay Fever.
Everyone sits in a circle. One person leaves the room and the rest decide on an adverb. (Usually a word with ‘ . . . ly’ at the end as in ‘quickly’ or ‘passionately’ or ‘mysteriously’.) Once the group have decided on a word, the other person comes back into the room and stands in the middle of the circle. He or she then has to ask people to perform actions ‘in the manner of the word,’ as in: ‘Dance in the manner of the word.’ ‘Make a cup of tea in the manner of the word.’ ‘Recite a poem in the manner of the word.’ ‘Ask the person next to you to lend you some money in the manner of the word.’ The person in the middle can either give the instructions one at a time around the circle, or ask anyone in any order. It depends how integrated the group is. The questioner is allowed three guesses and can make their guesses at any time.
RATIONALE This exercise promotes observation, creativity and mental stimulation.
Ball Games Without a Ball
Creating an Imaginary Ball
With everyone working at the same time but each person working on their own, ask everyone to imagine they have a tennis ball. They should bounce it and see how high it bounces; throw it at the wall and try to catch it; feel how soft the surface is; feel how spongy it is; feel its weight. They need to get to know everything about the ball until they can confidently imagine they have it in their hands. Then ask them to do the same sort of things with a football. Then the same sort of things with a table-tennis ball. A squash ball. A beach ball. A foam rubber ball. And so on. Then ask each person to choose any kind of ball they like and start exploring it and using it like before. Ultimately, they need to find the best way to play with their imaginary ball, whether it’s to bounce it or kick it or throw it in the air or whatever.
(This is a continuation of ‘Creating an Imaginary Ball’.) When everyone has discovered the best way to play with their imaginary ball, they should now stick with that, whether it’s a bounce or a kick or a toss in the air. They should then find someone to pair up with. Still playing with their imaginary balls, each person should watch the other and get to know how they play with theirs. When they are ready, they should mime swapping the imaginary balls and then go off playing with their new ball. Then they should find someone else to pair up with, examine what the new person is doing, and mime swapping again. This can continue until everyone has swapped about four or five times. Now they have to try to find their original ball by negotiating and swapping with the others in the room. (I have played this game lots of times and there are always two or three people who never get their ball back!)
Imaginary Volleyball
Another ball game without a ball is simply having four people play beach volleyball, or handball. It’s worth mentioning to them that acting having lost a point is just as interesting as acting having won a point, since it isn’t a real game, and there is no actual ball. There is a danger that they all want to win, so they mime returning every single shot and the point goes on for ever!
RATIONALE These exercises stimulate imaginations, sharpen their observation and negotiation skills, and help refine their visual memory.
Improvisation Exercises
Story Around the Circle, a Word at a Time
Ask the group to stand in a circle and make up a story which progresses round the circle with each person adding one word when it comes to their turn.
After they have practised for a bit, they should be encouraged to say the first word that comes into their heads, rather than trying to think up clever and witty words.
RATIONALE This exercise is to stop people censoring their own imaginations. They have to try to stop being in control and allow their instinct to take over. They have to learn to ‘feel the force’.
Story Around and Across the Circle
This is the same as ‘Story Around the Circle, a Word at a Time’, except it works like ‘Zip, Zap, Boing’.
Standing in a neutral position with the hands palm to palm at the level of their chests, the first person sweeps their hands towards the person on the right saying the first word of the story. Then, when it’s their turn, each person can ‘send’ their word in either direction or across the circle indicating who they want to go next by the direction in which they point their hands. And so on.
RATIONALE As above, this exercise is teaching them to be instinctive, but it also sharpens their concentration because they have no idea when they will be the next person to add a word.
Story Anywhere at Any Time
Ask the group to stand in a circle with one person in the middle. As above, the story progresses one word at a time, but for this exercise, the person in the middle points to anyone in the circle at any time for the next word. They can even point to the same person two times in a row.
RATIONALE Again, this exercise is really just a variation of the above exercises. It teaches them to be instinctive, it sharpens their concentration and they have absolutely no idea whether they will be the next person required to add a word.
Story Around the Circle, a Phrase at a Time
Ask the group to stand in a circle and make up a story which progresses round the circle with each person adding a phrase when it comes to their turn. The phrase doesn’t have to be a whole sentence, but it should be a completed thought. It is best if the story is told in the third person, as in:
‘A little boy called David was walking down the road . . . ’
‘He saw a ginger cat . . . ’
‘The ginger cat was called Tom . . . ’
‘David hated cats . . . ’
‘But he liked Tom . . . ’
RATIONALE This is a progression from the previous two exercises, and it encourages them to use their instincts to add whole ideas to a story, rather than contributing to a given idea with just a single word.
‘Story Around and Across the Circle’ and ‘Story Anywhere at Any Time’ can both be played using a whole phrase instead of a single word.
Fortunately/Unfortunately
This is similar to the ‘Story Around the Circle, a Phrase at a Time’ but in this case they should start their phrase with, alternately, the word ‘Fortunately’ or ‘Unfortunately,’ as in:
‘A little boy called David was walking down the road . . . ’
‘Fortunately it was a sunny day . . . ’
‘Unfortunately he tripped over a piece of wood and grazed his knee . . . ’
‘Fortunately he had a handkerchief to tie round the injury . . . ’
‘Unfortunately the handkerchief was dirty . . . ’
RATIONALE This exercise is a variation on the previous exercises and is purely to add variety to a session, so they feel they are doing something a bit different.
Two People Talking at the Same Time
Divide the group into pairs and ask all the pairs to work at the same time. This is rather like ‘Mirrors’ (see Chapter 13: Releasing the Imagination) except it is done with words rather than actions. Two people face each other, and as one person speaks slowly, the other has to try to say exactly the same words at the same time. Then they reverse roles. After they have practised that, explain that from now on, neither of them is the leader. They must do the same exercise and continually swap the lead. When one person starts to say a phrase, the other can take over and continue it quite differently, and even before it’s finished, the first person can take control again and lead it in a new direction. All the time they are both trying to speak simultaneously. When that is working, ask each pair – talking as one person – to try to have a conversation with another pair, who will also be talking as one person.
RATIONALE This is an exercise in complicity and concentration, but since it uses words rather than movement, it helps them to work together in the creation of ideas.
Gobbledegook
Gobbledegook is simply the use of meaningless made-up words that sound like a foreign language. It’s quite hard for some people to do. The easiest way into this is for them to practise repeating explosive consonants with changing vowel sounds as in: ‘Pa, pa, pa, pa. Po, po, po, po. Boo, boo, boo, boo.’ They can use ‘t’, ‘k’, ‘rrr’, ‘v’, ‘m’, even ‘sh’, ‘l’, or ‘w’. Anything, as long as they follow it with changing vowel sounds. Then they can start stringing them together like ‘Pi . . . li . . . ko . . . sham . . . si . . . tuk. Fi . . . ka . . . pa . . . too. So . . . ti . . . mi . . . no . . . sa . . . tub.’ And pretty soon they are talking gobbledegook. It’s fun for two people to have a conversation speaking in gobbledegook because they immediately sound like a couple of very passionate Eastern Europeans.
RATIONALE Using gobbledegook instead of a real language means they have to use their voices and their physicality in a more expressive manner in order to communicate their ideas and thoughts.
So there we have a handful of useful games and exercises. There are, of course, countless books of games and exercises that are helpful in structuring classes and I have to acknowledge that very few of the games in this last chapter are my own invention. I have plundered the ideas of Anna Scher, Augusto Boal, Clive Barker, Keith Johnstone and many others, and I expect other people will plunder my ideas in the same way. There is a pool of acting warm-ups that have become part of the arsenal of games and exercises used by drama teachers and workshop leaders all over the world, and it is good to tap into that common knowledge and even add to it.