1.

Miming

● Mime is a theatrical technique of suggesting action, character or emotion without words,

using only gesture, expression and movement. The characters use only gesture and
movement to act out a play or role.
● Mime is important because it is an effective way of encouraging students to develop their
acting skills in terms of body language (posture, movements, gestures, etc.) and for
them to gain a greater awareness of its importance as a form of communication. In the
exams, it tests candidates’ ability to produce a performance which demonstrates a
thoughtful interpretation, use of body and space, a sense of spontaneity and conscious
awareness of the audience.

2. Mirrors
● Mirrors is a paired activity that allows students to work on leading/following through
collaboration and focus. Partners work silently to create mirrored kinesthetic movements.
The activity involves shared trust and responsibility as partners work to keep each other
safe.
● Directions:
- Divide the group into pairs and ask that each pair decide who is Player A and
who is Player B.
- Player A will be the mirror and B the actor.
- Pairs stand facing one another. Ask students to make eye contact.
- As Player B begins moving, A is to mirror B’s actions exactly. Both players should
maintain eye contact, with Player A seeing B’s movement through his/her
peripheral vision.
- Encourage slow and sustained movements to begin with and/or simple actions
like brushing teeth or playing a sport in slow motion.
- After a set time, ask students to switch leaders. Eventually, pairs can be
encouraged to switch back and forth between leaders on their own or to try and
work together where neither person is leading
● It is important to have students explore feeling vocabulary (sad, excited) through their
movements

3. Statues
● Statues is a low-to-medium risk image work activity in which students quickly
shape their own bodies individually and independently to create a frozen “statue”
that represents a person, feeling, or idea. This activity uses limited space and it is
a great way for students to practice how to shape their bodies to represent their
thinking and understanding
● Direction:
- Invite students to find their own space in the room with a set perimeter.
(This can also be done seated, though standing with space is preferable.)
 - Introduce the activity. For example, I will give you a word/theme/character
to explore. Your job is to create a frozen statue that represents your
response.
- Encourage students to use their whole bodies including their faces. Offer
the prompt. For example: Make a statue of one character you remember
from our story. Or, Make a statue that shows how we use measurement to
do something.
- Then, give students a moment to think, then count backwards from five or
ten to one while they create their images.
- Once statues are made, choose a way to look at the images. For young
players, try quickly, calling out what they see their bodies doing. For
example, I see big smiles on faces.
- For all students it can also be useful to single out a particularly effective
statue or two to remain frozen while others relax, to invite and focus
further interpretation and discussion.
● It is important to create a sculpture of a character at a specific moment in a story, or of
a feeling or action in a story.

4. Freeze frame
- Freeze frames are a quick and effective way to start a drama session.
They can easily be used with any age from children to adults. Participants
create an image using their bodies – with no movement. Freeze frames
can be made by individuals, small groups or even the whole group.
- Freeze frames are quick to create but they can be used as stepping
stones to more sophisticated drama activities and performances.
- A good way to explain a freeze frame (also known as still image) is that it
is like pressing the pause button on a remote control, taking a photo or
making a statue. The images can be made quickly without discussion – or
they can be planned and rehearsed. They are very useful as an immediate
way of communicating ideas or telling a story. They can be used to
represent people or objects and even abstract concepts like emotions or
atmospheres. As there are no lines to learn, freeze frames can help shyer
performers to gain confidence.

5. Tableau
- A group of silent, motionless figures used to represent a scene, theme, or
abstract idea (e.g., peace, joy), or an important moment in a narrative.
- may be presented as stand-alone images to communicate one specific
message or may be used to achieve particular effects in a longer drama
work
 - Important features of a tableau include character, space, gesture, facial
expressions, and levels
- very useful for communicating ideas and deciphering meaning
- can be used to quickly establish a scene that involves a large number of
characters

6. Hot-seating
- drama strategy in which a character or characters, played by the actors,
are interviewed by the rest of the group
- to recount a specific event, explore motivation and multiple
perspectives/experiences related to a theme, topic, event, or idea within a
story.
- requires actors to have familiarity with a story, and opportunities to have
role-played the story first too
- in the hot-seat it needs to be determined:
• Who they are in the interview (i.e. which character)
• Where they are (i.e. the setting for the interview);
• Why they are in the hot-seat