Drama Game: Two Storytelling Games

1. Story Web

Age: 9 to adult

Players: Whole group

Time: 10 – 20 minutes

Skills: Storytelling, Speaking and Listening

Materials: A ball of string

Tell a story, weave a web.

Sitting in a circle, one person holds a ball of string and tells the first sentence of a story. She keeps hold of the end of the string and rolls or throws the ball of string to someone sitting on the other side of the circle. He adds a sentence to the story. He keeps hold of his part of the string and throws the ball on to a third player – and so on – and gradually a web is built up.

Director's tip

• It is worth taking a photo of the web at the end of the story as a reminder of how everyone worked together

2. Point of View

Age: 7 to adult

Players: Pairs

Time: 20 minutes

Skills: Storytelling, Role-Play, Speaking and Listening

Materials: Bell or whistle

Tell someone else's story, from a new point of view.

This exercise is a development of Tell It Again. Begin by dividing the group into pairs and asking each person to tell a short anecdote to their partner. It can be up to two minutes in length. Remind everybody to listen carefully to their partner's story. Give a signal to stop after two minutes and swap over so that each person tells and hears a story.

Now everyone finds a new partner. This time each person's task is to tell the story that they were told. However, there is one important difference: they must not tell it from the point of view of the main character. So if, for example, your partner tells you a story about the day they rescued a cat, you could tell the story from the point of view of the cat, or that of a bystander, or even a fictional character. Participants can embellish the story in any way they wish.

Director's tip

• The exercise demonstrates three important storytelling techniques: learning a new story, taking on a simple role and making the story your own.

David Farmer runs the website www.dramaresource.com – a site that offers a wide range of ideas, games and courses for drama practitioners. He is the author of several books including 101 More Drama Games and Activities, from which this game is taken.