Chapter 1. Getting ready

Non-verbal warming-up activities

1.1 Handshakes

1.2 Hand catching

1.3 Mirror hands

1.4 Numbers in your head

1.5 Clap around the circle

1.6 Swings

1.7 Catch the ball

1.8 Beat out that rhythm

1.9 Touch it

1.10 Blind

Non-verbal cooling-down activities

1.11 Breathing

1.12 Feeling my space

1.13 Feeling your muscles

1.14 From seed to plant

1.15 Slow motion

1.16 Just relax

1.17 Directed relaxation

1.18 Going with the flow

Verbal exercises

1.19 Football wave

1.20 Can you do this?

1.21 The sun and the moon

1.22 Back writing

1.23 Gobbledy-gook

1.24 And I’m a butcher

1.25 Let me tell you something about X

1.26 Something in common

1.27 Directed group visualization

1.28 Childhood memories

1.29 Personalities/celebrities

Group formation activities

1.30 Strings

1.31 Atom 3!

1.32 Mix and mingle

1.33 I’ve got my eye Oil you!

1.34 I know what I like

Chapter 2. Observation

2.1 Freeze!

2.2. Back-to-back

2.3 Say ‘Cheese’

2.4 Just listening

2.5 I said, he said, she said...

2.6 Minimal differences

2.7 My potato

2.8 Kim’s game

2.9 Familiar scenes

2.10 Like me? Like you?

2.11 First this, then that...

2.12 Picture memory

Chapter 3. Working with mime

3.1 What am I doing?

3.2 My word

3.3 Metronome mime

3.4 Difficulty with large or small objects

3.5 Exchanging objects

3.6 Taste, touch, smell...

3.7 What time of day is it?

3.8 Mimes from the past

3.9 Miming a poem

3.10 Miming noises

3.11 Normal, slow, fast

3.12 Hotel receptionist

Chapter 4. Working with the voice

Preparing for voicework

4.1 Relaxation

4.2 Physical warm ups

4.3 Breathing

4.4 Warming up the voice

4.5 Preparing the articulators

4.6 Volume

Working with the voice

4.7 Thinking about my voice

4.8 Changing voices

4.9 Delayed repetition

4.10 Working on words

4.11 A vocal tapestry

4.12 Shifting the stress

4.13 Listing

4.14 Elastic sentences

4.15 Playing with the text

4.16 Listen to me!

4.17 Group orchestration of texts

Chapter 5. Working with objects

5.1 What am I holding?

5.2 My special object, your special object.

5.3 Metamorphosis

5.4 The envelope

5.5 The all-purpose object

5.6 Stone, wood and metal

5.7 It meant a lot to me...

5.8 Fashion show

5.9 Where did you get that hat?

5.10 Masks

5.11 What am I bid?

5.12 Symbols and icons

5.13 Who’s the owner?

Chapter 6. Working with visuals

6.1 Self-portraits

6.2 Identikit

6.3 From my album

6.4 Space invaders

6.5 High points

6.6 Portraits

6.7 Becoming a picture

6.8 Bringing a picture to life

6.9 Picture sets

6.10 Faces and places

6.11 Split cartoons

6.12 Mood pictures

6.13 Pictures from music

6.14 Recreating the scene

6.15 Guided visualization

6.16 Characters from fiction

Chapter 7. Working with the imagination

7.1 Something in common

7.2 Statues

7.3 Amazimbi

7.4 Patent pending

7.5 Making a machine

7.6 Waking dream

7.7 Festival

7.8 It’s against the law

7.9 Time’s arrow

7.10 Our new constitution

Chapter 8. Working from/into words, phrases, sentences

8.1 My favourite word

8.2 The feel of words

8.3 Real English or not?

8.4 What’s in a name?

8.5 Words and movement

8.6 Tableaux

8.7 Praise songs

8.8 Group Story

8.9 Off the cuff

8.10 Mirror words

8.11 Charades

8.12 Split headlines

8.13 Split exchanges

8.14 People, places, problems and things

8.15 Odd news

8.16 Proverbs in action

8.17 First lines

Chapter 9. Working from/into texts

9.1 Mini-texts

9.2 What next?

9.3 Starters

9.4 Tops and tails

9.5 Jumbled stories

9.6 What are they saying?

9.7 Stop press

Chapter 10. Working from/into scenarios and scripts

10.1 One-word dialogues

10.2 Dialogue interpretation

10.3 Alibi

10.4 Just a minute

10.5 Telephone conversations

10.6 Conflict

10.7 Tension

10.8 The hole

10.9 Role reversal

10.10 A real bargain

10.11 Real theatre scripts

Chapter 11. Into Performance

Benefits from performance

How to tackle the ‘Play project'

Selecting a play

Getting to know the text

Warming up

Improvisation

Rehearsal

Involving everyone

A few practical considerations

Some possible sources for plays