IMPROVISATION

WORKSHEET ACTIVITIES

SUITABLE FOR ACTING, MUSICAL THEATRE AND SPEECH AND DRAMA

Improvisation is an important skill for any actor and performer. This activity sheet gives you some fun activities to try either on your own, with your family or even with your friends on a video call. There are lots of options, so you can split the tasks up and try a them over a few days.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES OF THE SESSION

To:

Warm up the articulators
Use the voice effectively
Start improvisation activities
Be imaginative in improvisation
Develop listen and response skills
Be more confident in improvisation and speaking aloud
To use resources to develop improvisation techniques

WARM UP EXERCISES AND ACTIVITIES

(10 minutes)

There are lots of simple exercises here to warm up your voice and body.If you haven’t been physically active today then you can use them to get you going and increase your energy.It’s a good opportunity to get your whole family involved.

Try them all and then concentrate on the ones you enjoy and then you can build your own warm up from this menu.

FACE, TONGUE & JAW

Stick your tongue in and out 6 times to stretch the tongue
Smile and pout x 6
Circle your tongue slowly 4 times right 4 times left with mouth closed.
Chew an imaginary piece of toffee use all your jaw and imagine what it tastes and feels like.
Have a little laugh to yourself to think about opening the vocal folds.
Laugh out loud with control, use the whole face, then silently whilst thinking about how it feels.
Scrunch up your face tight, then open with mouth open saying ahhhh! Scrunch close, open ahhhh.

BREATHING

Breathing in for 4 counts and out for 8 counts. Keep shoulders relaxed and feel the breath down into the abdominals.
Breathe in for 4 and out for 8 counting aloud, 12345678
Any variation on this to start to feel the breath filling the lungs without tension and breathing out with control. Imagine you have a balloon in your abdominals and when you breathe in the balloon expands and when you breathe out it deflates.

VOCAL - VOWELS

Working through the following vowels sounds add a physical action and send it back and forth to your partner. Ee Ay Ah Oh Oo Aw i.e Eeeeeeeeee with an arm(s) action (circle or similar)

PING-PONG CONSONANTS

Using consonants each person choosing a consonant to strengthen articulation i.e.
Person 1 - PppppppppppP
Person 2 – BbbbbbbbbbbB
Person 1 - TttttttttttttttttT
Stress is on the first and last letter and this is done until you run out of consonants. Pace is key and have fun with it.
Try adding a consonant to the vowel sound and change the consonant i.e Mee, May, Mah, Maw, Moh, Moo Tee, Tay, Tah, Taw, Toh, Too

TONGUE TWISTERS

Say the tongue twisters slowly at first to get used to them and then quickly up to 6 times in succession.
a. Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry
b. Red Feather, Yellow Feather
c. She sells seas shells on the seashore
d. Unique New York
e. Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers.
Why not write your own tongue twister…then teach it to each other?
Try saying a tongue twister with emotion, sad, happy, excited…you decide.
Try to say the tongue twisters quietly, then loudly.
Have a competition with each other and see how many times you can say the tongue twister with clear diction and breath control.

PHYSICAL

Check the space for hazards and make sure there are no vases you can accidentally break before you start.

Put your right ear to right shoulder and roll your chin down and forward until to the left ear meets the left shoulder. Roll back the other way x 3.
Shrug your shoulders up, down, then roll them forward and backward.
Swing your arms in a circle in one direction, then the other, then in opposite directions - one forward and one backwards (this one takes some concentration!)
Do some star jumps to get your whole body going x 6
Roll your body down to the floor with your arms out stretched and then back up again very slowly. It’s a good idea to softly bend your knees to avoid injury unless you’re super flexible!
Shake everything out to release any last bits of tension in your body.

EMOTION, CONCENTRATION AND FOCUS ACTIVITIES

(5 minutes)

Choose one of these each time you do the worksheet.

THE TELEVISION GAME

In pairs, choose one person to lead the game and pretend they have the remote control for the television. Ask the other person to visualise the television. It is up to the person with the remote control to change what’s on the screen i.e. it is a scary film, a happy programme, a funny cartoon and the reaction changes with each change of emotion or imaginative image.

CONVERSATIONS

Using either fruit, vegetables or favourite foods have a conversation using a range of emotions and only the words i.e. apples, bananas...happy, sad excited. Each participant chooses a different word which means this could be extended to ‘I love apples’ with a response of ‘I hate apples’. The natural extension of this is ‘Why do you love/ hate apples/bananas’.

TELL ME ABOUT...

Your favourite book, holiday, food, to a time limit – 30 seconds.
Three fun facts about yourself. Make sure you introduce who you are first i.e My name is... and I’m...(age) – time limit 60 seconds.

IMPROVISATION (MAIN ACTIVITY)

(15-20 minutes)

This is the main focus of the worksheet and these activities can be repeated and split over several days or sessions. It's a good opportunity for you to reflect on how things are going and what you want to change or do differently. Once you are confident with an activity then you can show your performances to family and friends – in person or over a video call.

1.TELEPHONE IMPROVISATION – Receive, listen and respond.

Imagine you are waiting for a phone call or a Facetime call. You can use sound effects on your phone and make the call. The person receiving the call does not know who is on the other end of the call and what they are about to say...i.e. it could be a very happy call, you’ve passed an exam or won a huge amount of money. It could be a sad call and something you were really looking forward to is cancelled... Swap places and both participants to have a go. Be imaginative and maintain focus on what the other person is saying on the other end of the phone only the receiver knows what is being said. This exercise takes a little time to develop so initially put a time limit of 1 minute and this will naturally increase as confidence increases.

Key points

For younger children keep it simple i.e. A phone call from a friend or relative in another country.
Remember to allow the imaginary other person to speak, use pause, listen and respond.
Remember the receiver of the call knows what is being said so the observer, your partner needs to hear and see the receiver reaction both vocally and physically.

2. WHO’S ON THE SOFA?

Person A sits on the sofa and decides who they are i.e. this could be a Disney character, a favourite singer, dancer or television or book character. Person A establishes who the character is by actions and a little chat to self about why they are on the sofa. Person B asks questions about who they might be...Person A can answer freely but in character. Once it is clear who Person A is swap over and Person B shows a different character.

Key points

Person A should try to keep the initial dialogue going as much as possible and establish who the character is.
The questioning should be a fluid exchange and develop the situation.
To advance this activity, Person B can ask Person A. Why are you here? What do you want?

3. WHAT'S IN THE BOX?

Create a box of words or envelopes labelled to include the following:

Locations/Places i.e. in a forest, a haunted house, the supermarket, in a spaceship.
Lines to start improvisation i.e. “I wonder what happened here?” “I’m not sure I should be here” “Crikey, that’s a surprise!” “Who was that?”
Emotions: sad, happy, excited, worried...
Character types: brave person, curious person, scared person, confident person...

Create an improvisation which can be done as a solo improvisation. Start with the location, establish the setting by telling the listener where you are i.e. “Oh wow, this place is amazing, look at all these cobwebs and really old stuff! I don’t like the look of that picture; the eyes are following me... (add a line) I’m not sure I should be here? I know I should’ve listened to Mom and not come here as I’m getting a bad feeling...(add an emotion) I’m really scared but I don’t know why it’s just a feeling....(add a character type) Oh I’m not worried, I’ve done bungee jumping and everything...

Key points

Take time to develop these improvisations. Time limits of 2 minutes initially work well and keep adding ideas to the box or envelopes. As skills develop the time will naturally extend.
It is not necessary to have an ending to the improvisation. Do not leave your own improvisation if you run out of things to say, leave the improvisation on a cliff hanger!
Be imaginative and have fun creating stories through improvisation.

EVALUATION

(5 minutes)

RECORDING PROGRESS

Write down your answers to the following:

What have I learnt today?
What did I do well today?
What do I want to improve for the next session?
What did I enjoy and why did I enjoy it?
How will I improve what I did today?
I will do this by...(date)

Then get your parent or guardian to sign it. If you keep that going over a few days, before you know it, you will have started a drama workbook which charts your progress.

Access Trinity Anthology online for poems, stories, monologues and a whole host of resources to support your independent sessions.