Type: Warm-Up, Creativity
Purpose: A fun game that will help students begin to think about using their voice and body to create different types of characters.
Procedure:
1. Gather the students into a standing circle.
2. Tell the students to close their eyes. When you snap, they will be transformed into a witch or wizard. They should change their body to best represent what they think a witch or wizard would look like. (Snap.)
3. Tell them to open their eyes as witches and wizards, and to imagine in front of them is a big, bubbling cauldron in which they will make their spells.
4. Tell them to feel around the edges of the cauldron, to smell it’s scent, to feel the steam on their faces.
5. Tell them for this first exercise they are evil, dark witches/wizards. They should begin to throw things into their cauldron, making up dark spells and chants in gibberish. They should not use any recognizable words.
6. After while, tell them when you snap they will become beautiful, good witches/wizards. (Snap.)
7. Tell them now to make-up spells and chants that will help people.
8. Ask two volunteers, Player A and Player B, to come into the center of the circle.
9. Tell them they are two witches/wizards making spells together, however they have different plans. Player A is making a spell that will secretly poison Player B, and Player B is happily making a spell with his/her best friend, completely oblivious to Player A’s intention.
10. Let them scene play out for awhile. Encourage the actors to make it big and funny. Then discuss with the class how the actors conveyed their different characters.
11. Allow other pairs to act our this same situation, or consider giving them a different conflict.
12. Reflect on what specific actions or gestures or voice variations make the scene most entertaining.
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