Kelly McKeown

Improvisation
5 December 2011
Series Assignment
The Lion King
Synopsis:
The Lion King starts out with Mufasa and Sarabi, King and Queen lions of the Pride Lands
in Africa, holding up their newborn baby to show all of the land. All of the animals of the land cheer
and then bow to the new future king. Scar, Mufasas younger brother, is envious of his brother's
position as king and is angry at the fact that he will never be king now that Mufasa has an heir to the
throne. Simba is now a growing cub and wants his father to show him the lands he will someday
rule over. Simba then returns to Pride Rock where his Uncle Scar is lurking about. Scar gives hints
of an elephant graveyard, and naturally Simba wants to go, even though his father has forbidden
him. Simba and his friend Nala go there, and then almost get eaten by hyenas, but Mufasa rescues
them. Scar then decides that he is going to kill both Mufasa and Simba so that he can have the
throne. The next day, Scar tells Simba he has a surprise for him. Instead, a huge stampede comes
running through and Simba is in the middle. He manages to stay alive because his father comes to
save him but his father gets pushed into the stampede by Scar. Simba runs down to look for his
father; he discovers him dead. As he mourns his loss, Scar appears and blames Simba for what
happened. Simba, thinking he had started the stampede that killed his father, follows his uncles
advice when Scar tells him to run away and never return. Simba meets up with two animals, Timon
and Pumbaa, and they start a life of no worries as three friends. After Simba is grown up, he runs
into Nala and they reconnect. Nala encourages him to go back to the Pride Lands because they need
his help, as Scar has let the hyenas rule under him. Simba first says no but later decides he needs to

help, after talking to Rafiki, the old village monkey, as he tells him that his father lives in him.
Simba returns and confronts his uncle about what has been going on since he left. Scar gets Simba
to confess that he killed his father, but his plan backfires when he tells Simba that it was actually he
who killed Mufasa. Simba makes him tell all of the animals and they are all enraged. Simba then
meets Scar at the top of Pride Rock surrounded by flames where Scar begs for his life. Simba gives
him his life yet tells him to run away. When Scar tries to attack Simba instead of running away,
Simba manages to push him off of Pride Rock and watches him fall. The movie ends with Simba
and Nala holding up their child for all of the Pride Lands to see, symbolizing the circle of life.
Improvisation Games for Middle School Age Putting on a Play of The Lion King:
1. The first game to start everyone going and to really enforce the movie into the actors,
will be 60, 40, 20, 10. To start this game you will need a handful of players, whoever is
willing to participate, roughly 4 6. They will then act out the entire movie in 60
seconds, then in 40 seconds, then in 20 seconds, and finally in 10 seconds. This game is
just a started but it will really help the actors understand and begin thinking about the
main points of the movie and how it will come across on stage.
2. This game is called Cross the Circle. To start, the cast makes a big circle; you do not
have to be too close to your neighbor. Then, everyone is given a number 1, 2, or 3 to
ensure there be no injuries. The leader will then call a number and whatever number is
called has to cross the circle. But the leader will also shout how to cross the circle. First
it will be an animal, and then an animal with an emotion. For example the leader will
say: All number 2s cross the circle as a giraffe. Then later as they actors start getting
into the swing of things, the leader will say: All number 2s cross the circle as a sad
giraffe. This game will have the actors access not only the animals and characteristics of
the animals, but then also an emotion. This movie is filled with emotion from jealousy to
sadness to happiness at the end, and all of the animals go through some sort of change in

emotions. This also helps actors try out many different animal characters. In most cases,
school productions dont have one person per every little role, so many people may be
playing more than one part; especially of different minor characters. All roles are
important so actors need to be able to be and feel each part that they play.
3. This next game is called Animal Pairs. Everyone can participate in this game and it will
be an energetic game for all. All players will line up and the leader will give each person
an animal that they will have to act out. The trick is, they will have another person in the
room that was told the same animal and they will have to find that animal by the actions,
sounds, and characteristics they are portraying. For example I will tell two different
people to be a lion and they will have to display characteristics of a lion in order to find
their pair. This game will help the actors first of all see how other people would portray
different animals, but also it will help actors begin to think about how each animal is
different, so that when they are on stage, their character will be known to the audience.
4. The following game is called Going to the Water Hole. This is a variation of the game
Going to a Party. To play this game, you will need about five cast members. One will
start already at the water hole; they dont have to be any specific animal. The rest will
have to pick an animal from the show or one that would be in the Pride Lands of Africa
(lions, hyenas, warthog, meerkat, mandrill (monkey), hornbill (bird), elephant, emu, etc).
One by one each actor will approach the water hole and talk to the person there, making
sure to show off their characteristics as an animal specific to the show. All participants
should be fully into their characters; if this requires voices, specific actions or lines, so
be it. If the host animal thinks they know what each player is they will take a guess and
the animals may leave upon them being guessed. This game will go fast so more than
five cast members is okay too. This game will also be focused on the animals but more
specifically on how they move, talk, and should interact with each other around the

water hole; the common meeting place for animals in the African Pride Lands. A few
scenes take place here and all cast members should be fully able to know how to be fully
in their characters skin.
5. The next game is called Family Portrait: Beginning, Middle, & End. In this you will
need many characters but not all of them will participate throughout the whole game;
Mufasa, Sarabi, Simba, Scar, and Nala. You can add more if more actors want to
participate (ie. Timon, Pumba, Zazoo, Hyenas, etc). Players will pose as if a family
portrait is being taken, still remembering that they are animals, but showing their
feelings. Actors will do a family portrait for the beginning of the show, the middle, and
then the end. First will be the beginning when Simba is born. Next will be the middle
when Mufasa is dead. The end will be the circle of life when Nala and Simba have their
own baby. They will do each portrait but then be asked to go back in some cases, to take
note of how body language and characters in general have changed. This game will
make the actors think about what is going through the characters mind throughout the
whole show, when emotions are clearly changed between each scene. Actors will gain a
sense of what other characters are feeling in addition to themselves and will portray the
animal they should be and also the emotion that goes along with the specific scene.
6. The final game is called Rumor Interview. In this game, you will need one person to
play Simba and that person will sit in the middle. (You can also use other characters (ie.
Scar, Mufasa, Nala) depending on how long you want the exercise to last). Simba will be
facing the audience and the audience will be like a panel of interviewers and will ask
him questions about his fathers death. Note that Simba is a little cub but is faced with a
harsh life at a young age. The interviewers can make up rumors about how they heard
the story happen and Simba will have to answer to those questions. For example
interviewers could say: I hear that you pushed your dad into the stampede because you

wanted to be King or Is it true that you planned the stampede so your father would be
there at the same time. The actor that plays Simba will have to answer these questions
to the best of his knowledge of what he really knows from the scene. With all this hurt,
Simba will be upset, so one actor will slowly make his way up to Simba and then begin
whispering Hakuna Matata and It means no worries in his ear to build him up. Once
Simba has had enough of the rumors, he will walk offstage. This game will strengthen
the main roles characters in that they will be put in a hard position like they all were at
some point in the show. The actor will be challenged emotionally and will really have to
think about what they think happened in the story.