Artist Toolbox: Activities for your final class

It's the end of the year and your classes have been together for a whole bucket of time. They know each other well by now and all that rapport you built up among them in the early days has paid off. But it's coming to an end. Next year will be a new cohort, a new dynamic to build all over again.

So here's a nice little class to sum things up with a couple of simple activities. The first, I found on dramaresource.com and is an Augusto Boal exercise called There Is Only One Liar:

A psychological but fun group dynamics game from Augusto Boal. There should be no talking until the exercise is over. The group sits or stands in a circle and closes their eyes. The leader tells them that one person will be selected by a tap on the shoulder. The leader walks around the whole circle, then asks the group to open their eyes. The group members must look around and try to guess who was chosen. They are asked to remember who they decided upon but not to reveal it at this point.

The game is repeated. When everybody has finished looking round, the leader asks them, on the count of three, without talking, to point at the person they thought was chosen the first time. Everybody points. Now, they do the same again for the second time.

Afterwards, members are asked what it was that led them to choose a particular person, for example, the facial expression that person had. Then, on a signal, they are asked to put up their hands if they were touched the first time. They discover that no one was touched the first time. They are asked to do the same for the second time. The group discover that they were all touched the second time. There is only one liar – the workshop leader!

It's a great activity for challenging assumptions, even (or especially) after a year of working together.

Following this, give each student two small pieces of paper. Ask them to write a fact about themselves on each piece. The facts could be things they think many classmates would know, or something they'd be less aware of. Fold the paper, stick it in a bowl and then one-by-one the leader reads out facts. The class must then vote for who they think the fact is about by pointing their finger. If the fact is about you then you can bluff by pointing elsewhere. Anyone who gets it right is awarded a point, which they keep track of by counting on their fingers.

It tests students' knowledge of each other and reminds them that there is much they still don't know. It's both a way to summarise the year and teach them a valuable lesson. In your last few lessons before the holiday, why not give this a try?!

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Artist Toolbox: The Queen's Rules

A quick improv game to add to your toolbox. This one was taught to me by a student and I love it! But the students love it even more!!

It's a great warmup and helps with getting students out of their shells.

The Queen's Rules

How to play:

One student sits on a chair or 'throne' in the middle of the stage, as the Queen or King. Leave half of the class in the audience to watch and then the rest line up next to the stage. These participants are the Queen's servants. To stay in the game they must do her biding without making a mistake.

As the first servant enters the stage, the Queen announces "You are dead, because you didn't (do something)." 

e.g. "You are dead, because you didn't bow to me when you entered."

or

"You are dead, because you didn't present me with cake."

The servant then leaves the stage and joins the back of the line. The next servant must remember to complete the Queen's task (bow/give cake, etc). Once they have done this, the Queen announces to this servant the next rule, e.g. "You are dead, because you didn't fly in on a broomstick before you bowed." They leave the stage and the next one enters. (note: the Queen needs to be quite specific about her instructions. She must specify when in the order the new rule happens. She can increase the difficulty by adding rules into the middle of the routine sometimes, instead of always at the end of the list.)

Now the new servant must now fly in on a broomstick and then bow. They are killed and a new rule is added. The rules can involve telling jokes, completing elaborate series of actions, acting like a complete buffoon; whatever the Queen wishes. However, if a servant forgets a step of the pattern they are eliminated from the game.

Keep playing until you're down to the last surviving servant or until is time to switch the audience for the actors and start all over again with a new Queen or King.

Fantastic fun!

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Mr. Moneybags is dead. (Drama Teacher Bonus)

If you haven't already read them, go back and see my posts about the modern world of board games here and here.

Now, here are some great board games that you can use in drama class:

For Quick Thinking Improvisation And Role Playing
Snake Oil - one player each turn takes on the role of a customer (anything from a cheerleader to a caveman to Santa Claus) and then the other players have to sell them an item created out of their hand of cards. For example, player A is a Police Officer and B tries to sell them a cage-wallet while C tries to sell them some candy-handcuffs. Hilarious and quick. The kids love this one!

For Starting Discussions And Improving Non-Verbal Communication
Concept -  In this game the goal is to guess words through the association of icons. A player chooses a word or phrase that the other players need to guess, from the placement of pieces on a board full of icons. A little difficult to understand from this description but a fascinating game and great for launching into devising!

For Bluffing, Role Playing And Deduction
One Night Ultimate Werewolf- This re-imagines the much loved Werewolf or Mafia and condenses it into an incredibly tense and exciting 10 minutes. Ideal for introducing students to keeping a straight face while bluffing, as the werewolf team will need to persuade everyone in the group that they are in fact human. Hilarious, addictive and quick to play, you can slot this in at the beginning or end of a class, no problem. Also perfect for taking on trips!

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Mr. Moneybags is dead. (Part 1)

As well as being a drama teacher, I am also a massive geek and one of my main geekeries is Board Games!!!!

Now, I'm sorry to break it to you. I know you loved it when you Passed Go and received 200 big ones!! OK, I know it was usually a pain when you went to jail but it felt so good to roll doubles and get out finally, yeah? I know you loved seeing Mr. Moneybags on that crinkly paper money, clasped in your tiny fist, even if you hated giving it to your little sister. It wasn't a waste of your time at all.

That time spent playing Monopoly with your family, falling out over property, waiting ages for your turn, moaning about taxes, getting bad luck in the Chance cards; well that was time well spent! Right?

In many ways it probably was; playing board games with friends and family is a wonderful way to spend free-time. But what if I told you that it could be time better spent? What if I told you that, like an episode of Game of Thrones, Mr. Moneybags has been killed off and there are now arequired in board games? What if I told you that out there in the world of play there are so many better games?!

But before I get stuck into some board game talk, please let me give you my credentials in this field...

The first games I ever remember playing were the perennial ones... (side note: that's the first time I've ever used perennial in a sentence I think!)

 

Back when I was a kid, I was a master of Kerplunk and Draughts, a dab hand at Operation, a shark in Scrabble and Monopoly, but my family never played that often. Perhaps because only particular people in our family were good in particular games or because all to often games would divulge into distraction or argument between us kids. And yet I always had in the back of my mind a desire to play games. Play in its different forms has remained important to me as I have grown older and I love taking the opportunities to play when they present themselves. 

And then about three years ago, just around the time I moved to Brussels, I fell back into gaming. It was Monopoly that brought me back in actually. My fiancee and I had some time on our hands and so we decided to pick up a copy of Monopoly. I think we played it once. Because shortly after that i stumbled upon a website called BoardGameGeek. (Upon first impressions, it's a quite confusing and very unsightly site to go to on your first visit. For first time people, I think The Dice Tower does a much better job.) But through BGG, I started to discover this world that I never knew existed. I really thought that the only board games that were out there were the ones that you could find in Argos or WHSmith, or Walmart. 

Who knew that there were literally thousands of new games being released each year? Who knew that these games had solved all those problems of excessive chance, imbalance, long down-times, boring themes, complex rules or over-simplicity from the games of yore? Who knew that there was a legion of podcasters, video reviewers, conventions and gaming groups all willing and eager to play and talk about games?

-Not me, that's for sure.

Since that point three years ago, I have accumulated a decent collection of modern ('designer' as they are known) board games; ranging from hilarious party games to games that are perfect with two, from light but exciting games to thrilling, epic strategy games. I play games with my fiancee, with students in a game group at school, with colleagues in social events, with my family when ever I'm home and with my friends pretty much every time we meet up. The games are funny, rich in theme and stories, challenging and tense. 

So, if you've made it this far and you're still interested then perhaps you'd like to know how you too can get involved in this wonderful world of fun?! What games should you start with....?

Well, the most famous designer board game out there is The Settlers of Catan or Catan it's known now. 

 

Catan is the hobby's flagship. It's been out for 20 years now and is pretty well known, even outside of the hobby. I've only ever played it on my iPhone and I think there are actually better and more fun games out there now, but if you want to start where many other people have then watch this:

One of the best games to get started with is Ticket To Ride. It's what is called in the hobby as a 'gateway game'- perfect for getting started in modern board gaming; easy to learn, great for families, simple rules but yet challenging and fun.

In Part 2, I'll outline some of the games I would suggest you should try. In the meantime, these guys do a great job of reviewing games and have some suggestions of their own:

Game on!!!

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Artist Toolbox: The Rock Off

Favourite whole group activity- ‘The Rock Off’

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to the 296th annual Rock-Off World Championships! I know all of you have been training day-in day-out, practicing Rock, Paper, Scissors with your friends, mum, dad and even dog in the run up to this event but today there can only be one winner! First though, let’s remind ourselves of the rules…

The Rock-Off, is a great way to warm up voices and team spirit and the larger the group the better. Basically it’s a Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament. Before you start, clarify the calling order you will use, for example “Rock, Paper, Scissors, SHOOT,” for when to reveal your weapon. Then everyone finds a partner in the room to be their first opponent. They play the best of three rounds of the game to decide the winner. 

Next is the key bit as the loser of the battle then becomes the winner’s cheer squad, chanting their name and supporting them in their next battle. The pair then finds another ready pair and the two winners (flanked by their loud and supportive cheer persons) then go head-to-head in another three rounds. The losing pair then joins the cheer squad of the winner and the four set off to find another four.

And so on and so on until you have just two competitors left each with large cheer squads. Keep an eye out for this moment and pause the proceedings just before this happens. Get the cheer squads on opposite sides of the room with the competitors in the middle. Build up some hype with some more ‘announcer voice’ talk, get the squads to cheer the loudest for their competitor etc, then let the battle commence. After the best of three rounds give a huge final cheer for the runner-up and then the winner is crowned ‘The 296th Rock-Off World Champion’.

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