Drama Games for Rehearsals

By Jessica Swale

"
'I wish I'd had this book when I was starting out as a young director... I cannot recommend it highly enough.' Marianne Elliott, from her Foreword
This dip-in, flick-through, quick-fire resource book in the bestselling Drama Games series offers dozens of ideas and exercises to energise and inspire a bold, creative rehearsal process for any play, of any period or genre.
Aimed at directors of all levels, it covers every aspect of rehearsal, including:


- Warm-up exercises to prepare the body, voice and mind, and to create a strong ensemble
- Ideas for approaching the text, tackling the 'Story of the Play'
- A wealth of games for unlocking the 'World of the Play', including developing characters, finding a physical style, understanding genre and investigating themes
- Suggestions for exploring sound and music, whether for use in the production or simply to encourage a sense of fun in rehearsals
This essential 'go-to' book will provide you with a host of original and illuminating games, perfect for the play you're rehearsing, be it Shakespeare or Greek tragedy, a Restoration comedy, physical theatre, Modern Naturalism – or even a brand new play.
Marianne Elliott, one of the most innovative and exciting directors working anywhere in the world, describes it as a 'beautiful, and very clearly written book' which will become her 'constant companion in future'.
"

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Oct 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781780018355

Jessica Swale

Jessica Swale is an Olivier Award-winning writer, director and film maker. She trained at Central School of Speech and Drama and the University of Exeter. Jessica began her career spending a happy decade as a theatre director, during which she founded and Red Handed Theatre Company, with whom she won Best Ensemble in the Peter Brook Empty Space Awards and multiple Evening Standard Award nominations. She then began writing. Her first play, Blue Stockings, premiered at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2013. It is now one of the most performed plays in the country, and is featured on the GCSE Drama syllabus. She is currently writing the TV series. Jessica’s next play, Nell Gwynn, won her an Olivier Award for Best New Comedy and transferred from the Globe to the West End, starring Gemma Arterton. She is currently writing the screenplay for Working Title. Other plays include Thomas Tallis (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse), The Mission and adaptations of The Jungle Book, Sense and Sensibility, Far from the Madding Crowd, Stig of the Dump and The Secret Garden. Now working primarily in film and television, she both directs and writes for the screens – original works and adaptations. Screenplays include Persuasion for Fox Searchlight, Nell Gwynn for Working Title, Longbourn for Studio Canal and an original rom-com for Blue Print Pictures. Her first film, Horrible Histories the Movie, premiered in 2019 and was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Feature for Children. Her directorial debut feature, Summerland (also writer), starring Gemma Arterton, premiered in 2020. She also wrote and directed the internet hit Leading Lady Parts, a short film promoting equality in film, starring Arterton, Felicity Jones, Emilia Clarke and friends, for the BBC and Rebel Park Productions. You can watch it on YouTube. Jessica is an associate artist with Youth Bridge Global, an international NGO which uses theatre as a tool for promoting social change in war-torn and developing nations. As such, she has lived in the Marshall Islands and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, directing Shakespeare productions including The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night and The Tempest. She has written three titles in Nick Hern Books’ popular Drama Games series: for Classrooms and Workshops, for Devising, and for Rehearsals. She is also an active campaigner for greater equality and diversity across all dramatic media, and an active member of Times Up and the Me Too movement.

Book preview

PART ONE

GETTING STARTED

In which we warm up

Whatever the genre of play you’re rehearsing, whether it’s a classic comedy or a new drama, don’t underestimate the value of a good warm-up. An actor has three tools to work with: body, voice and mind. Each can feel equally cold at the beginning of a long day’s rehearsal. Coupled with that, if the company haven’t worked together before, nerves may be running high. Either way, launching straight into Scene One won’t do anyone any favours.

In this section you’ll find warm-up exercises for body, voice and mind, followed by a selection of ensemble games.

Physical Games are warm-ups to energise the body and help players tune in to physicality in preparation for work.

Vocal Games begin with simple technical exercises for vocal and breath control, before moving into singing and sound games to get the vocal cords buzzing.

Focus Games are all about the mind and imagination. They are quick-thinking spontaneity games in which the actors move out of the purely physical into the realms of character and scenario.

Finally, in Team Games you’ll find exercises to help bond the group, either through physical proximity (Adele’s Super-Hugs) or through working together inventively (The Boogie Pyramid or Top Knot). If you’re running a workshop specifically on ensemble-playing or trust, you could use these exercises to form the core of your session.

Physical Games – Warming Up the Body

1. Elastoplast

A variation on classic ‘It’ with added physical challenges.

How to Play

Ask everyone to spread out and find a space. Choose one player to be ‘It’. Like conventional ‘It’, the person who is up must try and tag someone by touching them. However, in this version players have a lifeline: plasters!

If someone is tagged, they can buy themselves an extra life by putting a ‘plaster’ (their hand) on the place where they were tagged. They then carry on playing, though they mustn’t move their hand. If they get tagged again, they must use their other Elastoplast (their other hand) as a plaster, like the first. By this point they’ll be running with the handicap of having both their hands attached to their ‘wounds’.

When a player is tagged a third time, they must freeze and wait to be rescued. To rescue someone, two other players must come and lay a free hand on them, holding their hands on the frozen player for three counts. Then the player is ‘healed’ and thus free to go again. If, however, someone is tagged mid-rescue, then they become ‘It’ too. Game play continues until everyone is either ‘It’ or frozen.

The Aim of the