WORKSHEET ACTIVITIES

SUITABLE FOR ACTING, MUSICAL THEATRE AND SPEECH AND DRAMA

The way you use your physicality to enhance the stories you tell is an important part of being a performer. This activity sheet gives you some fun mime activities to try on your own, with your family or even with your friends over a video call. There are loads of options so you can split the tasks up and try them over a few days.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES OF THE SESSION

To:

• engage with the technique of non-verbal communication in drama
• be imaginative in developing skills in mime
• confidently use physical skills to communicate a story.
• use resources to develop mime 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.

• 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.

1. 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.
2. Shrug your shoulders up, down, then roll them forward and backward.
3. 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!)
4. Do some star jumps to get your whole body going x 6
5. 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!
6. 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

The grown up leads the game and pretends they have the remote control for the television. Ask your young person to visualise the television. It’s up to the grown up 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.

Key point

All reactions should be shown without making sounds i.e. A silent laugh and show you are scared in your face and body. All actions and movement can be over-exaggerated to show meaning.

PICTURE PERFECT

Create the perfect still picture of your favourite character from a book, film, computer game or television show. Think about how the person or character looks and sounds and decide what it is that makes them easily recognisable. You have a time limit of 30 seconds to decide how you can best physicalise who you are showing in your picture.

Key points

• The person creating the picture must hold the still image as if in a picture frame.
• The other person must try and guess who it is and give feedback to the person creating the picture.

MIME (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. WHAT AM I DOING?

Discuss what kind of activities we do every day i.e. getting up out of bed, getting dressed, brushing teeth, eating breakfast, going to school. Person A chooses what they would like to perform as a mime and Person B tries to guess the mime. The mime should last no longer than 30 seconds with 10 seconds to think about it. Use a timer to work within a time constraint.

Key points

• Person A performing the mime should make every movement clear. Show each detail i.e if you are miming brushing teeth, think about the order of how this is done. If this does not work the first time trying then discuss why it doesn’t work and think about how everyday activities happen. What do you usually do?
• Try these daily activity mimes two or three times because repetition and clarity of movement gets better the more it is practised.
• Perform the mime in front of a large mirror and do this activity together then turn it away from the mirror. Ensure you give feedback to each other on how clear the movements are.

2. STORYTELLING MIME

Part 1 Decide on a title or theme for a mime i.e. Walking the dog or The Mistake…write your story out. Try to create the mime based on an everyday or regular activity that you do. This will help you to think through the detail and make the mime clear. As in any story it should have a beginning, middle and end but also something that happens to change the course of events…this could be funny and remember it is all imagined so it can be as fantastical as you like!!

Part 2 When you are happy with the story outline start developing the mime. If you start with the beginning of the mime first and add the physical gestures and actions, then you can add the emotions i.e. where is the dog lead kept? Do you put your shoes and coat on first? What time of year is it? Is the dog very excited when going for a walk, make sure you have treats for the dog in your pocket... Build the mime slowly but initially keep within a time limit of 1 minute per section. When you have created the mime think about the pace, you might need to slow some of the action down or make it quicker.

Part 3 When you are happy with your mime, it is time to show and share. Get feedback on your work. Ensure all you perform can be seen by the audience. Work hard to show gestures, facial expressions and physical action clearly.

Key points

• Show the detail of the action and story through your body, hand and arm gestures and facial expression.
• Ensure all the action is big enough for the imagined audience to see i.e if you are making a cake, stir the ingredients with big movements and hold the mixing bowl so the size of the bowl is clear.
• Take time to create the mime and write down any changes you make to the story as you practise.

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.