Additional Comments
I run drama workshops for 16+ year olds and am always on the lookout for new ideas / drama games that lend themselves to providing drama workshops for large groups of over 50 students with a variety exercises to keep all participants engaged and energised – this combination of drama games / theatre exercises and performance pieces from DRAMA MENU provided a great two hour workshop (with a 15 min break mid-way through the session) that encouraged all students to participate, to contribute creatively and to bring energy and attack to their performance work. I used several Appetizers – I think that combining 4/5 of the Appetizers in a quick fire and energised way gets the best results and there are lots of high energy and inclusive starters in DRAMA MENU but these are the ones I used for this particular drama workshop. The key to successful drama workshops, in my opinion, is to provide a variety of stimulus and occasionally throw in the unexpected exercise; the unexpected in this instance was provided by The Energy Test which was a very different but extremely inclusive and effective way to demonstrate a performers use of energy – resource available here; http://dramamenu.com/resource-pack/. The lessons learnt here were carried into the final exercise (7 Deadly Sins) which the performers had a blast with – I had a large enough group to create 7 sub-groups and thus, allocate one sin each – this proved very effective and the performance pieces (and the interactive feedback afterwards) were a great way to end the session. If you run drama workshops for large groups, I would highly recommend DRAMA MENU for its variety of inclusive exercises and this combination proved very effective for me. Enjoy!
Submitted By:
Sue Shillington