Theatre Games

The Draw

The competition will take place across three rounds - a one minute round, a two minute round and a four minute round. In each round, pairs of teams will play the same game. The captains of the teams will toss for who selects the game. The game can be chosen or randomly selected. Themes for each scene can either be taken from the audience or taken randomly. Teams will be judged by a panel of 3 judges, each giving a score from 0 to 5. One of the judges will be a hanging judge, who may hit the 'gong' to end a scene at any fnord time. If the hanging judge hits the gong, they must award 0 to that team for that round. The winning team will be the team with the highest score at the end of three rounds. If necessary, there will be a tie-breaker round. Good luck and have fun!

Glossary

There are a few terms that will crop up from time to time when playing any Theatre Games. Here's a few that you should be familiar with:

Block	An obstructive comment or action that doesn't progress the scene. "What's that over there?" "It's nothing."
Endow	To treat someone as though they were playing a particular attribute so that that person picks up the attribute.
Gibberish	A nonsense language, used in some scenes. Expressiveness, emotion and so on may enter the voice, but no recognisable words can be used.
Wimp	A cop out. Showing unwillingness to be creative. Letting others do your thinking for you. "What's that over there?" "I don't know, you tell me."

Draw Games

The following games will be "in the draw", ie. will be on the list to be randomly selected by team captains who do not wish to choose their own game. These are the games that beginners should concentrate on practising. These are all fairly widely-spread Theatre Games, or variations thereof.

Advertisement Alphabet Death In A Minute Endowments Expert Double Figures Inner Voice Mime Opera Poem Puppets Shared Story Sing About It Slow Motion Commentary Song Space Jump Time Warp Trigger Words Typewriter Word At A Time Story

Other Suggested Games

This is a list of other games you might want to be familiar with. There is no need to stick to the games on this list - improvise away!

Classic In A Minute Emotional Rollercoaster Genre Rollercoaster If You Love Me Object Pop Up Story Book Slide Show Slow Motion Race Stand, Sit, Lie Statues Super Heroes Twenty One What Are You Doing

Warmup Games

If You Love Me The idea of this game is to make others players 'crack'. The players whose turn it is approaches another player and says "If you really loved me, you'd smile." That player must answer "I really love you, but I just can't smile." while keeping a straight face. Pulling faces, sitting on laps etc. is allowed in order to get someone to crack.

Object A fast-paced game for any number. An ordinary object is placed in the centre of the room. Players either take turns or jump in as they wish. The idea is to act a short (5 second!) scene in which the object is endowed as something other than what it is. For example, if the object used is a shoe, then someone might hold it to their ear and use it as a telephone, someone else might mime ironing their clothes and so on.

Slow Motion Race A warmup game for an individual team. The team has a race over a short distance - each person moving in the slowest slow motion they can while still trying to actually win the race. A good physical warmup.

Twenty One A good group warmup. The idea is to count to 21 as a group. No turns are taken, instead anyone can yell out the next number (from 1 to 21). If a number is skipped or if two people yell the same number at the same time, then you must start again from 1. It's a great feeling for the group when you finally hit 21!

What Are You Doing A good warmup for your imagination. The group forms a circle. Someone begins by miming simple action. The next person (clockwise or anti-clockwise) asks "What are you doing?" The person miming then answers with an action other than that which they are miming. The new person takes this action and the game continues round the circle. For example, if Bill mimes eating popcorn and is asked "What are you doing? " he might answer "Riding a bicycle" The person who asked the question would then mime riding a bicycle, and so on.

One Minute Games

Advertisement The team must advertise an imaginary product. The advertisement can be a song, a short scene or anything, but must sell the product.

Alphabet A scene is acted in which the first words of everyone's dialogue must be in alphabetical order. Thus, if Bill comes out with "A nice day for it,", Jenny might follow with " Better than yesterday, that's for sure!"

Classic In A Minute The team must act out a condensed version of a classic story in one minute.

Death In A Minute A scene is acted, during which at least one character must die, of whatever cause.

Expert Double Figures One player takes the role of an interviewer and another takes the role of an expert. The interviewer then interviews the expert about their area of speciality. The catch is that the other team members kneel behind these two and act out their hand gestures. The players and the hands should feed off each other.

Mime A scene is acted in mime.

Poem The team must improvise a poem, preferably one that rhymes.

Slow Motion Commentary The team is divided into two. The first group acts out some ludicrous sporting event (such as milking a giraffe) in extreme slow motion. The second group has to provide frantic sports commentary for the action (or lack thereof)

Word At A Time Story The team tells a story, each speaking in turn, and only speaking one word each. For example: Bill: "Once", Mary:"upon",Fred:"a",Jenny" time" and so on.

Two Minute Games

Inner Voice The team divides into pairs. Each pair consists of a character who will appear in the scene and their Inner Voice. The characters converse, while the Inner Voices interject with what is really going on in the characters' heads.

Pop Up Story Book A variation on Slide Show except that the still players are pictures in a book. The storyteller my pull "levers" and so on to get some minimal action.

Shared story The team tells a story, taking turns to tell a sentence or two. The team may elect to each choose a different genre or emotion to flavour their parts of the story.

Sing About It A short scene is played. Every now and again the audience or adjudicator calls out "Sing About It" and the player who is speaking must sing a short song about what they were saying.

Slide Show Similar to Pop Up Story Book

Song The team must sing a song in a style they select about a given subject.

Trigger Words Also known is Entrances and Exits. Each player has a trigger word, which all the other players know. A scene is played and every time a specific player's trigger word is spoken, that player must either enter or exit the scene.

Typewriter One player takes the part of a narrator and types a story, which the other players must act out.

Four Minute Games

Emotional Rollercoaster A scene is played and at certain set points (or randomly, adjudicator's choice) a new emotion is called. All players on-stage must continue the scene, playing the new emotion.

Endowments One player is taken to a 'cone of silence' - usually by sticking their fingers in their ears - while three attributes are decided. These are an occupation, an emotion and a physical attribute. They are then brought on stage and the other players must begin a scene in which the chosen player is 'endowed' with the appropriate attributes. All players except the chosen player must speak in gibberish.

Genre Rollercoaster A scene is played and, on the adjudicator's call, must change genre at given points.

Opera The players must perform an opera - all lines must be song but the story must be played out.

Puppets The players split into puppets and puppeteers. During the scene, the puppets speak all dialogue but cannot make physical moves unless moved by the puppeteers.

Space Jump Nearly everyone's favourite. The first player begins a scene. At a given point, the adjudicator calls 'Space Jump' and the second player enters the stage. Using the physical position of the first player, they must start a new scene. Again, after a set period of time, 'Space Jump' is called and the third player enters and a new scene is started. Once the fourth player has entered, things start to go backwards. That is, when 'Space Jump' is called again, player 4 leaves and the first 3 player revert back to their 3 player scene, then the two player scene and so on until the first player finishes their own scene solo. Sounds complicated (and is) but is lots of fun and very entertaining if done right!

Stand, Sit, Lie At any time during this game, there must be exactly three players on stage. What's more, one of them must be standing, one of them sitting and one of them lying down. If one player changes position another has to change to maintain the balance.

Statues A good tie-breaker game. One team organises the other team into frozen physical positions. When the scene starts, the team that has been arranged must start a scene, justifying their positions.

Super Heroes Each player on stage takes on the role of a Super Hero (or Villain) with spurious powers. The scene must make use of these bizarre powers.

Time Warp As the scene is played, the adjudicator calls out 'Time Warp' every now and again and gives a time such as 'Ten Minutes into the Future' or 'Three years ago'. The scene must switch to that new time with the same characters either experiencing the results of what they just did or trying to set up what they just did.