Glyn Trefor-Jones - Drama Menu: Theatre Games in Three Courses

Glyn Trefor-Jones

Theatre Games in Three Courses

NICK HERN BOOKS
London
www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

To my students,
who have been the inspiration and driving force behind this book

Introduction

Drama Menu is a comprehensive collection of theatre games and drama exercises designed to be combined into fun-filled and fulfilling drama sessions.

Taking inspiration from a culinary menu, Drama Menu combines games and exercises into three distinct courses: select an Appetiser, Starter and a Main Course combine them together and Hey pesto! (stay tuned for more gastronomic puns!), you have a ready-made hour of tried-and-tested activities that will engage and inspire your drama group.

Appetisers Fast-paced warm-up exercises designed to energise and focus the group. For ease of use, the Appetisers have been divided into circle and non-circle games. Choose one, two or more of these to enthuse and motivate the group.

Starters An intermediary course, designed to challenge the players and encourage creativity. One Starter should be enough to channel the groups energy and fire their imaginations (but, if you have a particularly hungry group, you might like to choose two).

Main Course The main body of the session, culminating in a final performance piece. Choose one Main Course to release the creativity of the players and allow them to express themselves fully and freely.

And finally enjoy your meal! The stress of planning lessons and workshops has been lifted from your shoulders, and you can now get on with what you do best: delivering creative and progressive drama sessions that your group will love.

Who is Drama Menu for?

Drama Menu offers a compendium of exercises and activities that can be enjoyed by a broad range of ages and abilities: schoolteachers (secondary and primary), drama groups/societies, theatre companies, weekend theatre schools, after-school clubs, playgroup leaders and drama-school students will all find useful and inspiring stimuli to further learning or just have some fun. All Drama Menuactivities have been tried and tested on performers between the ages of seven and twenty-one.

With one hundred and fifty-eight exercises and one million possible menu combinations you are sure to find a wealth of activities that will enhance your drama sessions and release the creativity of your group.

Why Use the Menu System?

The Drama Menu system has been developed and honed over several years and has consistently produced energised, focused, productive and of course fun drama sessions.

The system brings variety to your workshops, introducing the right element at the right time. The participants will experience a fast-paced and energised session that will inspire, focus and challenge their creativity.

Todays young performers respond well to a variety of activities and an array of stimulus Drama Menu offers this in abundance. Each course has been carefully selected and categorised in order to provide the most progressive and productive learning environment.

The three-course approach allows you to engage and enthuse the group before embarking on a series of increasingly challenging exercises that will channel the creative energy of the participants and further their experience.

What are the Combinations that Work?

Drama Menu has been developed alongside an interactive website that enables users to get the very best out of the book. Once you have found the combinations that work share them online.

Visit www.dramamenu.com and tell us all about your menu selections. What worked well? What energised/inspired/focused the group? By using the Suggest a Menu tool, you can let others know about your successful three-course combinations and even suggest your own side orders (exercises that complement the chosen menu).

The Drama Menu website brings together a community of teachers/actors/group leaders who are able to share ideas and offer exciting new ways to utilise the menu to its full potential. By sharing menus, ideas and resources, you need never be stuck for inspiration again.

There is also a comprehensive Resource Pack available to download through the website as an A4 PDF, which contains all the resources required to get the very best out of each exercise. If there is a script/worksheet/printout needed it isindicated at the top of the page, just below the game number, with the following: * RESOURCE . Find it in the Resource Pack and print out the required number of copies, making it even easier to unlock the true potential of the book and quickly deliver engaging and inspiring drama sessions.

And whats more, the website also offers a free sound-effects pack. Simply subscribe to our newsletter and we will send you a selection of dramatic sound effects that can be used to enhance several games within the book.

How Long Should Each Course Last?

The games and exercises in Drama Menu have been selected so that each course delivers an increasingly challenging activity that will take a little more energy, a little more focus and a little more time. Whilst it is difficult to provide exact timings for each exercise (as this will vary greatly depending on the size and ability of your group), here is a guide to how much time you should allocate to each course:

Appetisers

These fast-paced exercises bring energy and excitement (or, if required, focus) to the start of each session. Appetisers will usually be completed in five to ten minutes. It is a good idea to select more than one in order to make the start of your session as active and varied as possible. The challenge of several short, fast-paced games will usually engage the participants and encourage them to remain actively involved in the session.

Starters

The Starters require a little more thought, concentration and cooperation and, thus, will take a little more time than the Appetisers. As a guide, you should allow fifteen to twenty minutes to complete each exercise.

Main Courses

Main Courses should be allocated the most time as they provide the biggest challenge and demand the greatest level of creativity, cooperation and preparation from the players. It is advisable to allow twenty to thirty minutes for the preparation (and performance) of this most important course.

It is very easy to lose track of time during a particularly enjoyable and creative drama session, but this can often lead to a rather rushed and unsatisfactory conclusion. It rarely works to return to a performance piece in the following session as the energy, creativity and drive will have been lost, so it is recommended that you complete all courses in the allotted session time. By keeping a close eye on the clock, you will always be able to provide a rich, varied and complete learning experience.

And remember if you finish early and find yourself with ten to fifteen minutes to spare, help is at hand. At the back of the book, you will find a small selection of Desserts these are exercises that have been designed to fill the end of your session quickly and creatively with improvisational activities that require no prior preparation and no additional resources. So, if you have the time, choose one of these simple, inclusive exercises and you will have a positive and creative conclusion to your drama class.

Delivering the Perfect Menu

While you will have your own methods and techniques for delivering the perfect drama session, what follows are a collection of hints and tips of my own that may enhance your teaching experience and enable you to get the very best out of