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Introduction to Drama

Drama:

Introductory Scheme of Work

Focus:

Responding to instructions
Working effectively as a group
Building confidence
Introducing new drama skills:

limiting abstract freeze -
dialogue drama frames
facial use of a basic settings
expression script addressing
body language mime & the
gesture audience
group work
dramatic
use of levels
sculpting
status

Contents:
1. Lesson 1 Conversation lesson and extension activity
Conversation for photocopying
2. Lesson 2 Addressing the audience (exam. theme)
3. Lesson 3 Universal gestures
4. Lesson 4 Physical theatre/Mime work, showing emotions
5. Lessons 5 & 6 Status levels (2 lessons with extension activities)
6. Lessons 7 & 8 Fireworks drama (2 lessons)
7. Lessons 9 & 10 Persuasion (2 lessons)
8. Lessons 11 & 12 Script work (2 lessons with extension activity)

© 2004 www.teachit.co.uk dramaessentials-120518073000-phpapp02.docx
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Lesson 1 – Conversation lesson

Aim of lesson: to develop simple sketch & show effect of dialogue & how it can be
overrated!

Warm–up:

From circle, arrange selves in:

Height order
Order of eye colour, darkest to lightest
Birthday order
Alphabetical by first name

Divide into teams to form letters, numbers, shapes

Come back into circle.

Brainstorm important things to remember in Drama.
Select best 5 & discuss.
Task:

Hand out conversation sheets. Read in pairs. Hear some.

Now act out, see some.

Develop scene in pairs with time limit. See some.

Now re-enact, but only able to speak own name. Does meaning still come
across? How? What is important?

Plenary:

What have we learned about Drama today? Is dialogue as important as you thought?

Extension activities / possible follow-on lesson

To teach effect of different expressions / moods, use same conversation but look at
effect of different mood / tone of voice

Use different strategies – freeze frame, pause, additional character, mime etc.
Comment on effect.

Give different settings to pairs, group have to guess setting.

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Hello.

Hello.

How are you?

Fine.

Have you been waiting long?

About ten minutes.

Oh.
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello.

Hello.

How are you?

Fine.

Have you been waiting long?

About ten minutes.

Oh.
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Lesson 2 –Addressing the audience

Aim of lesson: to introduce ways of addressing the audience whilst developing
dramatic expression.

Warm-up:
Facing out of the circle, practise showing various emotions facially, and then using
whole body. Now face inwards and show to group. How does body change between,
say, happiness (open expression, upward motion) and fear (closed, protective stance,
probably looking down)?

Walk around the room, changing expression/body language as teacher shouts out
different moods.

Task 1:
Discuss different thoughts/emotions that pupils experience in exams. These cannot be
expressed, as everyone in the room is silent. Discuss how a drama scene might show
these emotions.

E.g. In groups of 4, set scene for exam room and one by one, come out of the mime to
express true thoughts and feelings.

Show to the group.

Task 2: In the restaurant
Showing a character’s true thoughts and feelings

In pairs, in a restaurant setting, one of them is having a lovely time, the other is
having an awful time but pretending to enjoy themself. How could they show their
true feelings to the audience?

Freeze action and address audience
Voices in head
Phone call in toilets
Facial expression

These scenes can be serious or comical and can use as many ways of addressing the
audience as possible.

Plenary:

In what ways can a character address the audience? Why is this effective?

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Lesson 3
Aim of lesson: to introduce the concept of universal gesture and mime

Warm up: The gesture game
(a useful and fun warm up for future lessons!)

Standing in a circle, teacher introduces use of gesture by indicating in mime that a
pupil should:
Come here
Stop
Turn around
Go away
Discuss how the pupil knew what to do, and how and why gestures might be used in
every day life.

Now go around the circle, each pupil choosing and showing a gesture which is
familiar to everyone. This gesture now belongs to them. Show gestures once more
before beginning the game.

The aim of the game is to ‘send’ gestures around the circle. One pupil begins by
making their gesture, then choosing someone else’s gesture and doing that. The
person whose gesture was chosen must repeat it before choosing someone else’s and
so on. When someone makes a mistake, they are out and must sit down. When the
game gets down to 3 or 4, they win.

Rules: No hesitation
Don’t return a gesture which was sent to you
Always make your own gesture before choosing one to ‘send’
Don’t make the gesture of someone who is out!
Teacher’s decision is final!

This game can be played in two circles with three finalists from each circle meeting in
a final.
It can be a good idea to hold the final at the end of the lesson.

Task 1:
Individually – imagine you are getting ready for bed. Mime all of your
actions in detail.
Get into pairs and mirror each other getting up in the morning and having
breakfast.
Still in pairs, A & B – A makes a drink for B in as much detail as possible.
Feedback:
 What drink was made for you?
 Was it hot or cold?
 Was it in a tall or short glass?
Now B makes a sandwich for A.
Similar feedback.

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Task 2:
Move into groups of 4. Devise a mimed scene, using as many gestures as they can
think of, to show to the group. The winning group can be the one which uses the most
gestures.

Optional scenes:
Late for school
First date
Holiday from hell

Plenary:
What have we learned about mime and gesture this lesson? Can Drama be successful
without speech?

Extension activity:
In small groups, devise a scene entitled ‘The Broken Friendship’, using as many
gestures as possible but making restrictions as to the words that can be spoken.

e.g. only 10 words in total, or number members of group 1-4 and that is the amount
of words they can speak at a time.

Another option is to give each character a different emotion.

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Lesson 4 – Physical theatre

Aim of lesson: to introduce physical theatre whilst developing character.

Warm up: alert walking
Walking around the room: fast, slow, happy, sad, saying hello…
While they are walking keep freezing, changing direction, then walking again.

Now ask them to walk:
on tiptoe
on heels
on inside / outside of feet
letting nose lead you
left hip
right ear…

While they are doing this, get them to ‘wind up’ or exaggerate the walk, then bring it
down again (give them a scale of 1-10).

Discussion:
How do different walking styles change mannerisms? E.g. nose leading, what type of
character do you think of?

Task:
In groups of 4 or 5, devise a scene using universal gesture, where each person must
show their character’s personality by using a particular walk and showing a particular
emotion.

Plenary:
How can gestures be used effectively in our drama? In what ways can body language
and mannerisms improve our acting?

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Lesson 5 – An introduction to status levels.

Aim of lesson: to introduce concept of status and how levels can be used to show this.

In circle, ask for 2 volunteers to show a freeze of ‘bully and victim’.
Make the tallest / biggest the victim. How can we still make the scene believable?
Pupils can help to improve the freeze by ‘sculpting’ it.
Repeat this activity, to show rich/poor and winner/loser.

Discussion – how is body language used here? Do the freezes show a powerful
image, even without language? How are levels used? Focus on levels and how they
can be used to show status (explain status), along with body language and facial
expression.

Task:
In groups of 4, show the following tableaux, using levels to show power / status:

1. The classroom
2. The awards ceremony
3. In prison

Show to group.

Now choose one tableau to bring to life for one minute, using body language and
levels to show emotions and status. Try to limit language and focus on expression.
Begin and end in a freeze frame.

Show to group.

Plenary:

Choose one positive element from each sketch and comment. Ask pupils to
contribute positive comments. How and why is status used in Drama?

Extension activities / possible follow-on lesson

This work may continue into the next lesson. Pupils can choose a different tableau to
animate, using status cards; with time to develop a short storyline.

Another option is to allow pupils to choose their own setting which rest of group have
to guess, as well as the status levels shown.

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Lesson 6 – Status continued

Aim of lesson: to develop understanding of status and how it can be shown effectively
in Drama. Also, to explore the ways in which status levels can change; and how this
can be dramatised.

Warm – up:
Using status cards, numbered from 1 to 10 – take it in turns to leave room and come
in showing status by the way they enter, where they stand and how they react to
others etc.

Group have to guess what status they are. One volunteer can try to sequence them.

Again using status cards, small group to improvise a short scene in front of rest of
group ‘in the Doctor’s waiting room’ or ‘at the museum’. Group to guess what status
they are.

Task:
In groups of five, devise a scene set in a bank, clearly showing status levels. Discuss
who might have highest / lowest status.

Show to group.

Now run the scene again, but show a change in power levels / status. E.g. perhaps the
manager collapses and the cleaner is the only person who knows first aid…

Show to group.

Plenary:
Why and how do status levels change? Have we shown this effectively today?
Why/why not?

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Lessons 7 & 8 – Fireworks Drama (to be used when relevant!)

Aim of lessons: to think about the dangers of fireworks and to dramatise this. Also to
explore how mime and choreographed response can help to improve drama.

Discuss the dangers of fireworks – most people think that warnings about being
careful with fireworks don’t apply to them but think about how fireworks can be
dangerous even for spectators. Pupils enjoy telling their stories of near-misses or
minor injuries!

Task 1:
In groups of 4, they decide to get hold of some fireworks. Not all want to do this but
eventually some are obtained – show this scene to the group.

Task 2:
Now show the consequences – what happens when the fireworks are set off? Discuss
skills needed when focus of the Drama is something like fireworks which cannot be
seen. (e.g. facial expressions & reactions need to be simultaneous…)

Show this scene to the group.

Lesson 8
Last week, we worked on ‘fireworks’ drama. Following on from this, pupils can re-
enact the scene to include a monologue / addressing the audience to show a
character’s true thoughts and feelings about setting off fireworks.

Next, show what happens when the fireworks are set off.

Now fast-forward in time. What are the long-term repercussions?

If time, run all fireworks drama as one piece.

Plenary:
How many different drama skills have you used in this piece of drama? How and
why were they effective?

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Lessons 9 & 10 – Persuasion

Aim of lessons: to discuss and explore different persuasive techniques for dramatic
effect.

Lesson 9
Sitting in circle, think of a time, recently, when you have had to persuade someone to
do or go along with something. Hear examples. Were you successful? Why? Why
not? (could be done as small group work)

Now think of any techniques you might use to persuade someone – verbal brainstorm

e.g. bribery crying threats reverse psychology flirting
sucking up lying compromise blackmail!

Now in groups of 3, devise a scene in which a Y8 pupil tries to persuade their parents
to let them stay out overnight, using some of the above devices. (As an option, a
sibling could replace a parent.) The parent is unwilling to allow this and offers to
collect child at midnight. Who is successful?
Show scenes

In the same groups, devise a scene in which two Y8 pupils want to buy some chips,
but they don’t have enough money. How might they persuade the shop keeper to sell
them cheap chips?
An option could be to change the desired purchase!
Show scenes

Plenary:
What have we learned about persuasive techniques this lesson?

Lesson 10
Recap what we learned last lesson about persuasion.
Now in groups of 4, devise a scene in which a Y8 pupil is persuaded to either:
smoke, drink alcohol or bunk school, by their peers.
End in a freeze – predictions?
Second scene - sibling finds out!
Third scene – How does the Y8 pupil persuade their sibling not to tell their
parents?
Optional final scene – what happens next?
Plenary:
How have persuasive techniques been used in these scenes? Do they make the Drama
more interesting for the audience?

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Lessons 11 & 12 – An introduction to script work

Aim of lessons: to introduce script work, whilst trying to maintain good use of
expression and body language.

In circle, two volunteers to show scene: adult strangers asked to wait in a room. How
do they react?

Discussion:
How might two strangers might feel when they meet - shy, awkward etc. Why? How
were these emotions shown in the drama?
Discuss situations where people might feel awkward.

Task 1:
In groups of 3 or 4, pupils show an awkward situation when a 15 year old meets
parents of new girlfriend / boyfriend for first time. They have nothing in common and
one parent seems to be making conversation difficult on purpose!
Use awkward silences, fidgeting etc. Aim to make audience squirm!
Now all have to imagine that they are seven. How might they act this age? Discuss
differences in response to adults meeting and children meeting for first time. /why
might children be more accepting and less nervous?

Task 2:
In 3s, two friends and one new pupil meet for first time in school playground. Show
reactions, conversation.
Show to group.

Plenary:
What have we learned about today? What skills have we developed?

Lesson 12
Last lesson we thought about reactions to new / strange people. In the play ‘The
terrible fate of Humpty Dumpty’, a new pupil is bullied by a gang and is eventually
killed.
Explain that this lesson, they will be acting as twelve year olds and using a script.
The aim is to maintain good body language and expression rather than burying their
noses in the script.
Use extract from the very beginning of the play, where Terry dies. (Scenes one and
two). Rehearse in groups of 8 or 9.
Each group to perform one section of the extract to the rest of the group.
Plenary:
What are the problems of working with a script and how can we learn to avoid them?

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Extension activity / character development

During rehearsal of the above scenes, pupils sit down and focus on their character and
how they would be feeling in the scene.
Walk around room showing emotions through body language.

Now choose one short phrase from the script and learn it. This time, when walking
around, repeat this phrase, showing appropriate emotion.

Now, in groups of 5 or 6, show ‘Sammy’s nightmare’, using exaggerated
mannerisms and appropriate actions. This activity can be used to introduce the term
‘abstract drama’.

Options: Each person can only say their phrase
Use sound effects
Use music

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