Work pack: Youth club activities - Drama techniques

As well as being great fun, drama-based activities stimulate the imagination and enable young people to explore issues in a safe and supportive environment. Wigs, hats, glasses and masks all encourage young people to "step outside" of their normal personas and experiment with seeing the world as someone else.

The skills and qualities that are developed through this activity, such as empathy, teamwork, creativity and increased confidence, are transferable to all areas of life.

These activities are intended to be an introduction to drama for young people. Each idea builds on the previous one, taking young people through basic improvisation and mime techniques, and concluding with a short piece of scripted theatre.

WALKING WARM-UP

Aim: This is a short icebreaker for small or large groups that introduces the concept of improvisation.

You will need

- A whistle

How to do it

Ask the young people to begin walking around the room. Explain that when you blow the whistle, you want everyone to stop and change direction.

After the second round, stop and explain that you are now going to set a 'walking theme' for each round. For example, "walk like someone who is late for their bus" or "walk like someone on the moon". The more creative, the better. The young people should keep walking around the room in the given theme until you blow the whistle to stop again.

Keep going with as many ideas as possible, inviting the young people to walk as themselves in the final round to close.

SOAP OPERAS

Aim: To consider difference and diversity through role play.

You will need

- Flipchart paper and pens to record ideas and develop scripts

- Props (optional)

- Scenario cards

How to do it

Start the session by asking the group who watches or has seen a soap opera. Invite the young people to call out what they watch and record it onto the flipchart paper.

Now, help to start a short discussion about soap operas, in particular looking at the way difference is portrayed by the characters. Encourage the young people to offer examples from popular soap operas. Start off a short discussion that asks:

- Are all characters shown as equal? Are some wealthier than others?

- How are ability, gender, ethnicity and sexuality portrayed?

- Is there a difference in the way "educated" characters, such as doctors, are shown as opposed to those without qualifications?

- Does this challenge or reinforce the usual stereotypes?

Divide the young people into smaller groups of four or five and hand each a scenario card (left). Explain that the scenario is the same for everyone, but that each group will be given an individual card with broad character outlines on. They can add details to the characters in order to show ethnicity, culture, age and family values.

In true soap opera fashion, each group should devise a short scene that introduces all of the characters and develops the scenario. Allow at least 40 minutes for the groups to develop their plot, script and then practise the scene.

Set up a stage area, with chairs facing it to form the audience. Next, invite each group in turn to perform their piece for everyone else, but without disclosing what was on their individual card. After each performance, lead a round of applause and hold a short feedback session.

Close by pulling out the main ways in which the different characters were depicted. Was it easy to show diversity? How did this compare with the earlier discussion about stereotypes?

The scenario

Mark is 15-years-old and has been caught shoplifting in a local supermarket. The shop manager stopped him as he tried to leave the shop with a bottle of vodka inside his jacket. When the manager asked him to empty his pockets, he also had two CDs and some chocolate.

The police have been called, because the supermarket has a policy of always prosecuting thieves. The scene opens as Mark sits in the manager's office waiting for the police and his parents to arrive.

PEOPLE POEMS

Aim: To build confidence and encourage young people to work together through mime activity.

You will need

- Post-it notes and pens for everyone

- Plain cards

How to do it

In preparation, make up cards with individual words or themes on. For example, the four elements of earth, air, fire or water. Divide the young people into four groups, allocating each group a theme card, pens and Post-it notes.

In their groups, each young person should quickly write two or three words associated with their theme onto the Post-it note. Once they have finished they should put it on the floor in the middle of the group, so that they can share their thoughts.

The task for each group is to create a tableau made out of its members, linked to the given theme and incorporating the ideas on the Post-it notes. So, for example, if the theme is 'water', the group tableau could be waves. Once they have managed this, give a further instruction they need to make the tableau move.

Ask each group to perform their fully working 'people poem', inviting the rest of the young people to guess the theme after each performance.

THREE WORDS

Aim: To introduce young people to performance work through improvisation.

You will need

- Flipchart and markers

How to do it

Divide the young people into small groups of four or five. Next, write three words on the flipchart. For example, why, sorry and tomorrow. Any three words will work, so you can use the activity with the same group more than once.

Explain that the task is for each group to develop a short scene where all three words are used. You can adapt this to make it a mime, with the three words the only ones allowed to be spoken.

Give the groups time to develop their scene and practise it, then invite each to perform their piece. Lead a round of applause after each and review the activity afterwards with the whole group.

BALLOONS

Aim: This is a relaxation exercise to close the session with.

You will need

- No equipment required

How to do it

Tell everyone in the group to stand so there is plenty of space around them. Now, ask them to stand up as straight as possible, breathing in deeply and then exhaling, visibly relaxing as they do so.

Lead this three times and then on the fourth round change the routine. This time, ask the young people to visualise themselves as balloons being pumped up and then very slowly being let down, exhaling loudly as they do it.

After five rounds, tell the young people that this time, when the air is let out of the balloon they should slowly fall to the floor, still making the "ahhh" sound but getting quieter and quieter. P

Vanessa Rogers is a youth work trainer, consultant and author.

Her books are available from www.nya.org.uk. For training and consultancy, go to www.resourceplanet.com. SOAP OPERAS - SCENARIO 1

Mark's father is a solicitor and his mum is the deputy head of a secondary school

SOAP OPERAS - SCENARIO 2

Mark does not live with his parents. He is in care, so his social worker will probably get to the scene first

SOAP OPERAS - SCENARIO 3

Mark has not seen his dad for years. His mum is at home caring for his twin sister, who has severe disabilities

SOAP OPERAS - SCENARIO 4

Mark's mum is a nurse and will just have gone to bed after the night shift. His step-dad is a window cleaner

SOAP OPERAS - SCENARIO 5

Mark's mum is a well-known actress and his dad is a famous football player

SOAP OPERAS - SCENARIO 6

Mark's mum is dead and he lives with his elderly grandmother.