by Libby Manly

on to closing hints --->


After the group has spent 10-20 minutes warming-up, move directly into the big activity. You will find that some warm-ups compliment the night's activities better than others. For example, if you do a warm-up that is largely focused on movement or voice development, it makes sense to take that development to the next level with the next agenda item. The activities described below will help a group develop a theatrical piece, whether it is just going to be performed for each other in the larger community. There are also many print resources for developing and performing popular theater activities.

If the group decides they want to focus on a particular theme/conflict, the facilitators should help the group develop that theme into a performance. For example, if the group has a lot of energy around issues of racism, the facilitator should not simply move onto another theme without the group's permission. Instead, help the group further develop their ideas and emotions. Push the group to the next level. If the are just talking around an issue, ask them to act it out. Then ask them to act it out with a different, more positive ending. Help them imagine and experiment with different solutions. From there, help the group refine a performance piece which can be presented to others, either through traditional, street, invisible or forum theater.

Issues confronted in Invisible Theater must be of utmost importance to the group, and something of concern for potential spectators. Improvisational exercises helps the group come up with ideas for invisible theater or street theater. It is often useful to have the group develop a list of their concerns - concerns effecting them as young people, as immigrants, as people of color, etc. or concerns effecting their families and communities.

After a working list is developed, ask the group to try to list some possible solutions to the listed issues. Small groups can be formed of people interested in the same issues. Ask these groups to develop a scene or several scenes addressing their issues, which experiment with different solutions. For example, groups should be encouraged to create a model scene which exemplifies the issue at hand, and then use the model to act out different solutions to the issue. These scenes can be rehearsed for the larger group in order to get suggestions. Modifications should be tried upon suggestions by the larger group. The group (even after a few meetings) can construct a small, simple play which addresses issues of importance to them and their communities.




Examples of Popular Theater Activities



Group Autobiographies (45 minutes)

This exercise introduces a group to new ways of listening to themselves, others, and themselves in connection with others. The group will learn to hear form (how they speak) separate from, yet linked to, content (what they say). Group autobiographies can easily be developed into a script or themes can be incorporated into a performance.

Before beginning this activity, allow the story-tellers to reflect on their life-experiences for 5-10 minutes by playing instrumental music. No talking should occur during this time, but just silent focusing and reflection.

Four people sit facing the rest of the group. The individuals take turns speaking autobiographical about their "real lives." The individuals should be factual. They should tell the group stories, either from their childhood or recent past. They can tell the group what their family was/is like, where they grew up, what their schooling was/is like. Only one person speaks at a time and speaks until interrupted by another story-teller. The interruptions should be erratic, so that the monologues vary in length. In other words, the individuals might interrupt each other very quickly, or might allow, from time to time, someone to speak a bit longer. Imagine a remote control quickly changing channels on a TV and then pausing on another channel for a bit longer. As the individuals describe the conditions or stories of their lives, they should play with the forms of their monologues, change the sounds of their words. Individuals should speak from an attitude or feeling. Story-tellers can continue one story throughout the duration of the activity or can switch from memory to memory, building off the content they hear from other story-tellers. The story-tellers will begin to collaborate, listening and relating through what they hear in timing, tone and attitude. What they hear will affect what they do and what they do affects what they hear. Pieces of their stories intersperse with pieces of others. Affected by what they hear from others in the group, individuals will recast the emotional value of their own autobiographies. Their investment in who they are and what they're talking about changes.


Image Theater (30-45 minutes)

Through movement and sculpting, this exercise helps a group articulate issues of oppression they are facing and move towards an ideal vision.

The technique is very simple. The goal is to arrive at one collective image which shows in a visual form a group's perspective on a given theme. First ask for 1-3 volunteers to act as sculptors and 2-4 group members to volunteer to be sculpted. The sculptors are asked to make a picture of a particular issue. Issues to sculpt are limitless, but some possibilities are: the family, education, male-female relations, immigration, labor and unemployment, violence/crime, poverty, racism, sexuality, etc.

Each sculptor makes a static statue/image with the 2-4 group members bodies. The sculptor cannot speak to the group she/he is trying to sculpt. The sculptor must either show the individuals what positions/expressions she/he wants, or the sculptor must move them into the desired positions/expressions. Each sculptor's image is exhibited to the large group. Group members can disagree with the image if it is not a accurate depiction of reality; if the watching group, collectively or as individuals, does not agree with the image presented, a second sculptor can remake the images differently; if the audience still only partially agrees with the image, other group members can modify the sculpture, complete it, or build another completely different statue. The goal is to arrive at an image which represents a consensus among the participants. When everyone is in agreement, the group has arrived at the real image.

The group members are then asked to construct the ideal image (the image of ideality: the world as it could be), in which the group comes to consensus on a representation of a desired society, in which existing problems will have been overcome.

The group must express themselves rapidly (so that they don't think with words and then try to translate their words into concrete representations); the aim is for group members to think with their own images, to speak with their hands. Then, the statues themselves are asked to change the reality, in slow motion, or in a series of freeze-frames.


Actor as Subject (30-45 minutes)

This exercise can be used to talk about the power and privilege of those who control meaning and society.

One actor gets in the middle of a circle, surrounded by other group members. She starts by lying or sitting on the floor and then beginning a movement. Everyone else in the group must help her complete the movement. For example, if she lifts her foot, someone immediately places themselves under this foot so that the actor is standing on them. The protagonist does whatever she likes, and others help her raise herself up, roll on her back, stretch out her side, climb into the air, etc. by inserting themselves into the relevant spaces. The protagonist must always move slowly to allow the others (who must move quickly) time to discover her intentions, which should not be spelt out. To make it easier to discern these intentions, the actors must all try to touch any part of the protagonist's body and translate her intentions from her movements. The most important thing is to avoid manipulating the protagonist ‹ it is up to her to decide her movements. The exercise ends, and a new protagonist is chosen, when the subject returns to the ground.

The facilitator might ask the group how it feels to be in the role of the subject, who is allowed to be a subject in U.S. society, how it feels to serve the protagonist, etc.


What Are You Doing? (30-45 minutes)

Group organizes into a circle. One person enters the center of the circle (the stage) and begins "acting out" an activity, such as brushing her teeth, dancing, washing a car, lifting something. The activity can be very specific or very general. The group silently tries to identify the activity of the person in the center. Then, one person enters the stage and asks the actor, "What are you doing?" The actor replies with a different activity than what she was doing, something that she thinks would be challenging to the new actor. For example: if the actor was washing windows, she might tell the next actor to play basketball. There is no connection between one action to the next. The game continues with each person improvising an activity on stage and then giving the next actor an activity to enact. The actor does not decide his/her own action, but each preceding actor chooses an improvisation for the following, and so on.

This exercise can be done with an overarching theme that all activities must somehow relate to (i.e., school, violence, racism, immigration, families, etc.) When performed with a theme, discussion should follow about what the actors saw, what the did, and why.


Semi-Structured Improvisation (1 hour)

Small groups of actors are given a scene to perform with a specific goal. For example a group of three actors might be asked to do a skit about school, where one actor must successfully persuade two others to not skip class. This goal of the scenes are rarely accomplished perfectly, but it gives actors practice with being convincing, persuasive. The groups are given approximately 5 minutes to discuss options for the action of the play, and are encouraged to be experimental. Actors should not try to script the action of the scene, but simply discuss how the goal might be accomplished. Each group performs a short scene for the large group without any explanation of the scene. Time for discussion and questions should be given following each scene, or at the end of all of the scenes.


FREEZE!: Tag-Team Improvisation (30-45 minutes)

If the group is larger than 20 people, it is useful to split into 2 groups. Organize group into a circle. Two people enter the center of the circle (the stage) and begin acting. Note: generally the first two actors have a difficult time coming up with a scene, but they should be encouraged to improvise, to react and respond to the other actor. After about a minute, someone from the group says, "Freeze." The two actors stop in the middle of their action. The spectator then enters the stage and tags one of the actors, who then rejoins the group. The spectator then assumes the exact expression and position of the actor he/she tagged-out of the action. Based on the positions and expressions the actors are in, a completely new scene is improvised. Spectators will learn to freeze the improvisation when the actors are in difficult, compromising, and telling positions, in order imagine the next possible scene. This continues until everyone in the group has acted at least once or twice. This exercise encourages spectators to be actors, and to invent improvised scenes based on what they see.


Walking to Music and the Five Centers (30 minutes)

This exercise develops movement techniques.

Play upbeat music of the team's choice. Have the group begin walking at their own pace around the perimeter of the room, without interacting with anyone else. Switch directions. Now, have them walk in slow motion, paying close attention to the way that their muscle are working, and the positioning of their bodies. The body should always be in motion, never stopped. Return to normal pace and then have them interact with one another without ever stopping.

Explain and demonstrate the five centers of the body: the head, the chest, the stomach, the pelvis, and the butt. Talk about how each person has a center that they prefer moving with, but that we all use multiple centers depending on the circumstance. Do runway-walking to music and have the group identify each personšs center. Or, have groups of two runway walk exemplifying a particular center. Then allow the group to assess what they saw. Each individual should get to experiment with each center for a moment.

This exercise can be made more tangible if the facilitator explains how they way we walk and how we center ourselves depends on the circumstances that we are in. For example, if your teacher is yelling at you, you movement is different than if you are walking down the street at night. The group could talk about and demonstrate how oppression effects their physical bodies, etc.


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