Destination Imagination

Grade Level: Elementary (1-5) Destination Imagination Subject: Theater Prepared By: Olivia Fiore and Ryan Tyler Overview & Purpose To introduce general acting techniques (movement, characterization, and accepting given circumstance) to elementary aged students through the use of theater games Teacher Student Objectives To introduce general acting techniques (movement, characterization, and accepting given circumstance) to elementary aged students through the use of theater games Materials Needed Information (Need To Know) Movement- Gets students out of their seats and involved in activities. Allows for kinesthetic awareness, awareness of themselves and of the people around them. -Accepting given circumstances - Although as an actor you may not agree with what is going in a particular scene, the playwright has made the character you are playing agree with what is going on in the context of the play. Furthermore a goal of theater is to make your actions believable to an audience. They must accept the given circumstances and react to it! Much of reacting to a given circumstance is practiced through improvisational theater or Improv. - Characterization- Becoming a character. When teaching theater, it is important for your students to know that they are trying to become the character they were set out to be. Who is the character? What would they walk like? How would they ask What s for breakfast? Do they have a certain way of talking? These are all questions you could ask to develop a stronger character. Same Verification Be able to accomplish games and discuss them Actively participate and show understanding through discussion Other Resources

Activity Overview Additional Notes Change the floor Walk the Walk What are you doing? Scene machine Watermelon Yes! Multiple Intelligences: Kinesthetic and Verbal- Linguistic learning/awareness PROCEDURE: Begin the class with a question- What is acting? Introduce the areas that the class will cover today: MOVEMENT CHARACTERIZATION and ACCEPTING A GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCE. Warm up -- Change the Floor Purpose: To portray a sense of setting and environment through the actor s movement. Description: The actors will walk around the space as they normally do, until the director announces that they are walking through a new location that will change the way they walk. For example: the director may say that they are walking through the bottom of the ocean, which will cause the actors to take slow and heavy steps; they are walking on clouds; on honey; on spikes, etc. Questions- How did your movements change from one circumstance to another? Have you ever walked on the bottom of the ocean before? So how would you know what it feels like? Discussion - These questions lead into a discussion about experience and then we begin to talk about the development of characters, using our imaginations to create how to walk AS IF we have experienced it. -Who are some of your favorite characters in movies or books? -Write down some words that describe the characters. What makes each character distinct? [Activity-follow up to Change the Floor] Walk the Walk Purpose: to get young actors to take into account all actions and movements of their character; mannerisms make the man; circumstance Instructions: This activity can be done with actors already knowing their character or the instructor can give a certain character. The instructor will ask the group to walk around the room as themselves. Then they will be asked to walk around the room as their character. The instructor is then able to incorporate circumstance like walk around the room like your character and there is a big spider in the room (Use this circumstance with switching between self and the character). Actor will have to think how their character would respond to a spider whether to be scared or indifferent or excited, it builds on the believability of the character. Actors have to think of reaction to certain circumstances based on their characters reality not their own. They have to take age into consideration to. An 80 year old walks differently than an 8 year old based on age alone. This activity will start the juices flowing on how they can accurately display the character Discussion What was the difference between your movements as yourself and then as your character? -Now that we talked about individual characters, what about everyone else in the scene? Setting is where a scene takes place and there are many people and things that go into making a scene. Many actions can relate to what is happening in a scene. Point out this is the beginning of accepting a given

circumstance. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow for a scene to work out! What are you doing?! Purpose: To give specific movement to a specific suggestion; pantomime Instruction: This is an improvisation-style game. One person starts off by doing an action either prompted by the teacher or thought of on their own. Someone steps in and asks, What are you doing? The person doing the action then responds with an action they are clearly not doing. For example, if a person is clearly shoveling, they would say something like I m surfing. The person then who asked has to do what the other person said they were doing, so in our example the second person would start acting out surfing but say something else when asked what s/he is doing. This would repeat until all have gone at least once. This activity puts a very specific action with a very specific task. It will help with pantomiming skills as well as getting actors used to matching their actions to what is being said; it also helps young actors include their bodies and nonverbal communication in telling a character s story. Now let s build a scene. Talk about the parts of a scene- Setting, props, and characters. Have students in groups of 3-4 choose a setting and characters, either from fairytales or their own original creations. Make a tableau or a still picture of the scene. Have each group present their picture and have the others guess what is going on. Discuss how the physical helps tell a character s story. If there is time, students can do a series of still pictures. Scene Machine Purpose: Improvisation; encouraging things that fit naturally into a scene. Instructions: You are building a scene in this activity. One person starts out by jumping into the scene and being an object. For example I could lie on the floor and say I m a towel. From here the rest of the group jumps in as other objects to create a scene. The towel could start a bathroom scene, a beach scene, or even a yoga room; the students will add on creating a backdrop with new items that would belong in the scene. When everyone is in, the instructor says scene come alive and any object that requires movement will move. This game keeps students on their toes. Although the original object may have a certain idea of what they want the scene to be, it can and will become completely different as people join. Students have to think of what objects or concepts are appropriate for the backdrop. Side Coaching: Add emotion and voice! Discuss how the group determined the scene and how the original intent may have changed from the final product. Watermelon Purpose: Work on reacting to a given circumstance. Put meaning to words, this game is the epitome of the saying, it s not what you say, it s how you say it. Instruction: Students will start in a circle. One person will turn to their neighbor and say the word Water in a certain way (puzzled, sad, angry, excited etc.) and the neighbor will have to react appropriately with the word Melon. For example if someone screams water at you can respond melon in a scared tone, an angry tone, a concerned tone: whatever is an appropriate reaction to the initial call. This continues around the circle with Water acting as the initial call and Melon being the reaction. Watermelon by itself has no pressing meaning, but once given some inflection, the meaningless word has substance. By reacting appropriately to how Water is presented, students are creating given circumstances. This activity will help students notice how important it is to work with the action given rather than just reciting the words. You can start off with just using an emotion with the words water and melon. Finally make a scene. Give the students a setting and characters and let them improv a scene using movement, characterization and circumstance!

Yes! Purpose: To roll with whatever situation a director will give to a particular scene. Description: The actors will begin with a predetermined improve scene (e.g. Actor #1 trying to ask a parent for lunch money). As they go along with the scene, the director will announce a change to the scene (Actor #2 has broken Actor #1 s bike), to which the actors will respond with Yes and continue the scene with this new change. The director can change as much as s/he likes, but should give the actors time to work with each individual change before proceeding to the next one. Wrap up with a discussion of their scenes and what they liked and didn t like doing as there character. Review the importance of movement, characterization, and accepting a given circumstance! Wrap Up Talk about the skills learned in relation to DI activities and how they can be incorporated into what they will be doing for DI.

Grade Level: Middle School (6-8) Destination Imagination Subject: Theatre Prepared By: Brooke Snow, Alyssa Guida, Kim D Agnese Overview & Purpose Students will learn basic theatre skills through theatre and improvisational games and activities. Teacher Student Objectives The students will have an understanding and appreciation for theatre. They will realize that theatre is can be fun through the use of theatre and improvisational games. Students will engage in basic theatrical skills by learning new games and activities. Materials Needed - Four chairs - Pencils - Paper Information (Need To Know) What theatre is How to teach and play the games What Are You Doing?, Hitchhiker, Fill the Space What theatre is Basic knowledge of a few fairytales Verification The students are understanding the games and activities being presented. Ability to play games and understand why the games would help with theatrical skills Other Resources Activity Overview -Warm up game- What Are You Doing? -Fill the Space exercise -Improv game: Hitchhiker (play as many times as you would like) -Writing a script for fairytale -Performing the fairytale SAME

Additional Notes Multiple Intelligences: Linguistic, Bodily- Kinesthetic, Spatial PROCEDURE: - Start with a welcome. Introduce yourself. Ask the students what they think theatre and acting are. - Get in a circle and introduce the game What Are You Doing? This game allows the students to think on their feet, which is a very important aspect of theatre. It also teaches the students to focus on whoever s turn it is. In this game, you start with one person. That person does some sort of body movement, and the person next to them simply asks, what are you doing? The original person says something that they are clearly not doing. For example: If the original student is jumping up and down, they could say I m washing my dog or I m brushing my teeth. The person who asked what are you doing would have to embody whatever the original player said they were doing. This continues around the circle until everyone has gone. Keep in mind, that it is best if students go fairly quickly on this game. It s just a warm-up. - The next activity is the Fill the Space exercise. In this activity, the students will be asked to spread out across the space evenly. They will walk around and try keep the space covered evenly (i.e. No big clumps of bodies). The facilitator will say to the group things like, Walk around like you re happy, Walk around like you re sad etc. Once the students seem like they know what they re doing, start incorporating characters into the activity. The facilitator could say something like Walk around like you are the wicked witch or walk around like you are Prince Charming. - Next, you will play the long-form improvisation game Hitchhiker. This game is for four people. You need four chairs, as well. Have the students set the chairs up like a four person car. You start out with one of the students playing the driver. The driver is a neutral character. The other three players all choose an emotion to play. For example: One could be sad, one could be energetic and one could be paranoid. The sad person will then enter the car and take up conversation with the driver using their emotion. The driver will also take on the sad emotion. Next, the energetic person will enter the car, and everyone in the car will take on that emotion. Then, the paranoid person will enter the car and everyone will take on that emotion. After a few minutes of conversation between all of the paranoid people, the original paranoid person will find a reason to leave the car. Everyone in the car will then take up the previous emotion until only the driver is left. The point of this game is to tap into basic human emotion and to learn about improvisation. - Begin by dividing the students into groups. Assign each student a fairy tale (previously decided by the instructor). The students must then decide who the most important characters and what the most important parts of the story are. Then, the students will adapt the story to one that would occur in modern day. They will write an outline for a 5 minute improvised skit that they will perform for the other groups. The lines will be mostly improvised, but the students can discuss and write down their basic ideas and plan for scene. - To wrap up, talk about the skills learned in relation to DI activities and how they can be incorporated into what they will be doing for DI.

Destination Imagination Grade Level: High School (9 to 12) Subject: Theatre Prepared By: Lauren Barton, Rachel Vilandre, and Kelsie Sawyer Overview &Purpose Students will become comfortable with bodily communication, rather than strictly vocal, by participating in improvisational and reactionary exercises. Teacher Student Objectives Information (Need To Know) Verification To give students the skills to communicate physically, improvise effectively, and develop character through several acting activities. -Party quirks -Actor's neutral -Reactionary Movement -Lessac Body Energies -Completion of activities -Discussions and questions To learn the exercises and become comfortable with communicating through body language. Learn to act on instincts. Work and communicate with others. -Actor's neutral -Completion of activities -Understanding the activities/why they are used -Discussions and questions Materials Needed -Scrap paper -Pencils -Print out of AB scenes Other Resources http://www.classicga mesandpuzzles.com/p arty-quirks.html Activity Overview Additional Notes -Warm up: Party quirks (10 mins) -Activity: Melting statues (no more than 10 mins) -AB Scenes (20-25 mins) -Reactionary movement (5-8 mins) -Warm down: Body energies (10 mins) N/A Same N/A Multiple Intelligences: -Visual/spatial -Verbal/linguistic

-Bodily/kinesthetic -Intrapersonal PROCEDURE: Party Quirks: Four students will participate at a time. One will be the party host and three will be the guests. The three guests will be taken aside and each given a piece of paper with a unique quirk on it that they will have to portray (e.g. facial tick, honks randomly, etc). The scene begins with the party host getting ready for their guests. When the doorbell rings or there is a knock on the door, the host answers. The guest is invited into the house and begins portraying their quirk. Thirty seconds later the next guest arrives and portrays their quirk. As each guest enters, the group improvises lines as if they are at a party. The host is allowed to guess what the guests' quirks are after the second person has arrived, but they have to stay in character while they do so. Thirty seconds later the third guest arrives. Once a guest's quirk is guessed, they must leave the stage. When all the quirks are guessed, the game is over. Discuss how the nonverbal physical cues helped the host guess correct quirks. Was there anything verbal that helped the host know the quirks? Melting Statues: The students should be placed in pairs in a circle and assigned either A or B. In pairs, students will form a random pose. These poses should not be related to each other in any way or have any context (i.e. pointing, expression, and other non-verbal communication). The instructor should ask students to create two or three poses before saying go. On go each pair should improvise a 20-30 second scene together until the instructor signals them to stop; all poses should be incorporated into the scene. After the scene concludes, B s will rotate to the next A and repeat the same procedure. The activity should continue until each A works with every B. Discuss how the body positions helped inform the context of the scene. AB Scenes: In pairs, students will add context to a contentless script (possible scenes attached). Using each scene, the actors should create who the characters are, what their relationship is, where they are, and what is happening in the scene in their final performance. If you have all groups do the same scenes, you can point out light and dark tones to the scenes, depending on whether they try to make it funny or serious. This can lead to a discussion about evaluating how light or dark a scene is supposed to be and how nonverbal and verbal actions contribute to whether it is perceived as light or dark. Reactionary Movement: Students will be told to assume actor s neutral (Feet shoulder width apart, firmly planted on the ground; arms and hands are relaxed by body s side; no tension in shoulders or neck; string coming from crown of the head; easy breathing). Students will then be read a series of individual words and for every word will, without thinking, allow their bodies to form whatever positions or gestures they instinctually find. This is a strictly physical, not vocal, exercise. (Earth, wind, fire, water, love, life, hate, joy, defeat, courage, fear, faith, jealousy, & hope) The purpose of this activity is to allow students to have physical rather than mental reactions. A good character doesn t live in her/his head. This teaches to react to the moment. It also teaches body communication (what does a character s body communicate to the audience?) (Warm Down) Body Energies: Students will be introduced and led through the Lessac body energies as a way to not only warm down but to also use energies as a way of getting into character. The three energies are as follows: Radiancy - radiant energy throughout the body; two kinds: child-like excitement and alert surprise (one quick and spastic and the other high tension but slower movements until the jerk) Buoyancy - buoyant energy throughout the body; a cloud-like floating, lightness in the body, slow movements Potency - potent energy throughout the body; a stretching in the body, strong movements (in extreme: grasping at air in front of you, in realistic: think royal behavior) Have students move through the space while instructor calls out different energies.

A I wouldn t go in there if I were you. A I wouldn t go in there if I were you. B How long has she been like that? B How long has she been like that? A Her dress still has the holes. A Her dress still has the holes. B Has he left yet? B Has he left yet? A I heard a door slam hours ago. A I heard a door slam hours ago. B But I m sure the blue car is his. B But I m sure the blue car is his. A I wouldn t go in there if I were you. A I wouldn t go in there if I were you. B How long has she been like that? B How long has she been like that? A Her dress still has the holes. A Her dress still has the holes. B Has he left yet? B Has he left yet? A I heard a door slam hours ago. A I heard a door slam hours ago. B But I m sure the blue car is his. B But I m sure the blue car is his. A I wouldn t go in there if I were you. A I wouldn t go in there if I were you. B How long has she been like that? B How long has she been like that? A Her dress still has the holes. A Her dress still has the holes. B Has he left yet? B Has he left yet? A I heard a door slam hours ago. A I heard a door slam hours ago. B But I m sure the blue car is his. B But I m sure the blue car is his. A I wouldn t go in there if I were you. A I wouldn t go in there if I were you. B How long has she been like that? B How long has she been like that? A Her dress still has the holes. A Her dress still has the holes. B Has he left yet? B Has he left yet? A I heard a door slam hours ago. A I heard a door slam hours ago. B But I m sure the blue car is his. B But I m sure the blue car is his.

A: What did you do last night? A What did you do last night? B: What do you mean? B What do you mean? A: What did you do last night? A What did you do last night? B: Nothing. B Nothing. A: Nothing? A Nothing? B: I said, nothing! B I said nothing! A: I m sorry I asked. A I m sorry I asked. B: That s all right. B That s all right. A: What did you do last night? A What did you do last night? B: What do you mean? B What do you mean? A: What did you do last night? A What did you do last night? B: Nothing. B Nothing. A: Nothing? A Nothing? B: I said, nothing! B I said nothing! A: I m sorry I asked. A I m sorry I asked. B: That s all right. B That s all right. A: What did you do last night? A What did you do last night? B: What do you mean? B What do you mean? A: What did you do last night? A What did you do last night? B: Nothing. B Nothing. A: Nothing? A Nothing? B: I said, nothing! B I said nothing! A: I m sorry I asked. A I m sorry I asked. B: That s all right. B That s all right.

A: It s been a long time. A It s been a long time. B: Yes. B Yes. A: Any luck these days? A Any luck these days? B: With what? B With what? A: Uh, you know A Uh, you know. B: Oh. Yes. B Oh. Yes. A: I wish I knew you. A I wish I knew you. A: It s been a long time. A It s been a long time. B: Yes. B Yes. A: Any luck these days? A Any luck these days? B: With what? B With what? A: Uh, you know A Uh, you know. B: Oh. Yes. B Oh. Yes. A: I wish I knew you. A I wish I knew you. A: It s been a long time. A It s been a long time. B: Yes. B Yes. A: Any luck these days? A Any luck these days? B: With what? B With what? A: Uh, you know A Uh, you know. B: Oh. Yes. B Oh. Yes. A: I wish I knew you. A I wish I knew you. A: It s been a long time. A It s been a long time. B: Yes. B Yes. A: Any luck these days? A Any luck these days? B: With what? B With what? A: Uh, you know A Uh, you know. B: Oh. Yes. B Oh. Yes. A: I wish I knew you. A I wish I knew you.

A He must have heard something when the door opened. A He must have heard something when the door opened A He must have heard something when the door opened. A He must have heard something when the door opened A He must have heard something when the door opened. A He must have heard something when the door opened A He must have heard something when the door opened. A He must have heard something when the door opened