- Age: 11 to adult
- Players: Small groups
- Time: 30 minutes
- Skills: Improvisation, directing
Divide into small groups. One member of the group tells the others a true story of an event from their life. It should involve the same number of people as there are in the group (excluding the teller of the story, who becomes the director). The director chooses members of the group to play the various characters involved. Once the actors are sure of the story, they improvise it from beginning to end. The director gives the group notes before they improvise it again, trying to make it as true as possible.
You can take time to develop short sections of the story if the director feels they are not accurate enough. It's a great experience being the director, because you know exactly what you want the actors to do. It's also fun for the actors as they feel quite responsible for getting the story right and finding the ‘inner truth' of the characters - especially the person who plays the role of the protagonist. This exercise involves many of the skills involved in putting on a play: choosing a story, deciding how it should be told, casting, acting, directing and devising.
Director's tip
As an adaptation, begin by asking the group to decide on three strong, still images from the story. These can be shown to the other groups just before each group devises and rehearses their performance. If they try to include the images with in their scene it will help to make it more physically dynamic.
David Farmer runs www.dramaresource.com, a site that offers a wide range of ideas, games and courses for drama practitioners. This activity is from his book 101 More Drama Games & Activities.