Drama Game: Wardrobe malfunction

David Farmer
Friday, December 1, 2023

Use this icebreaker with in-person or virtual groups of students to spark creativity and warm-up your class.

Adobe Stock / Arie Studio

Age: 8 upwards

Players: Whole group

Time: 10 minutes-plus

Skills: Concentration, icebreaker

Materials: Dressing up items

A daft dressing-up game where students discover what they have in common

This game is based on ‘anyone who.’ It can be played face-to-face or online via Zoom or another video-conferencing platform.

Face-to-face, put a pile of costume items in the middle of a circle. Online, each player needs a few items of clothing or costume nearby, such as a red nose, some hats, a scarf and anything else – the funnier the better. Before the game starts, everyone puts on one item.

The teacher calls out a category beginning with ‘anyone who…’, such as ‘anyone who likes chocolate.’ As soon as the category is called out, anyone who likes chocolate must take off their item of costume, grab one of the other items and put it on. The teacher decides who was the slowest to do the task. That person becomes the next caller. They must think of a new category, for example: ‘anyone who… owns a pet.’

If the caller can't think of a new category, he or she can say ‘wardrobe malfunction’ at which point everybody must change an item of clothing!

Director's tip

Usually ‘anyone who’ is played with the rule that the category called out must be true for the person who calls it. So, if you call out ‘anyone who has been to Berlin’ then you should have been to Berlin. It's meant to be a game for getting to know people.

Example categories include:

  • Anyone who likes/doesn't like… coffee/getting up late/cats/sports/spaghetti
  • Anyone who's wearing… trousers/black shoes/a pullover/something blue
  • Anyone who's been to… London/Disneyland/the Berlin Wall
  • Anyone who has… a pet/sister/garden
  • Anyone who owns… a musical instrument/teddy bear/mobile phone
  • Anyone who went… to the cinema last week/on holiday this year
  • Anyone who would like to… fly in a hot-air balloon/go bungee jumping
  • Anyone who has ever… told a lie/been on a date/kept a diary
  • Anyone who will… watch TV tonight/go shopping at the weekend
  • Anyone who is afraid of… spiders/crowds/horror movies
  • Anyone who is allergic to… cats/nuts/homework