Theater Exercises Can Help Students Re-Engage

“Hi diddle-dee-dee, an actor’s life for me!” This is the famous refrain from Pinocchio, a tale about a puppet’s quest to become a real boy. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, the android Data embraces acting to discover what it means to be human. These characters pursue humanity by engaging in activities with other humans.

Right now, educators and students are not unlike Pinocchio and Data. We have all been away from people. And we all need to reconnect with our bodies, minds, and the space around us.

This was the summer of closed camps, of empty air-planes, and of increasing unemployment. Students ended the 2019 – 2020 school year not with their friends, not with hugs, and not with their yearbook signing parties, but with lessons delivered through a variety of electronic classroom settings. So, as some students return to classrooms this fall, they may feel more disconnected from the world than ever before.

We have all been away from people. And we all need to reconnect with our bodies, minds, and the space around us.

Regardless of socioeconomic background, religious beliefs, or primary language spoken, all of our students have been affected in some way by the quarantines around the world and in their neighborhoods. Compound that with the unique challenges associated with each level of education, and teachers may need to reconnect as much as students do.

When students walk through our doors, they become our responsibility. We accept them willingly and happily. Before you haul out the textbooks, and before the ink on the student conduct forms is dry, take time to give students a chance to breathe and connect with their new situation. Allow them a Pinocchio moment.

Theater teachers from all levels have a treasure trove of exercises designed to allow actors to discover their characters from within, to find their humanity. Consider your own favorite actors. As they move from one film to the next, they maintain believability because of a connection with their characters that allows the audience to suspend disbelief. We laugh with them, cry with them, and cheer with them. We must regain a similar connection with our students to help them re-engage with the world.

And acting exercises can work in non-theater classes, too. Here are a few tricks of the theater trade to help students of any age and in any subject pause and reconnect when they return to classrooms. If you have a theater program at your school, reach out to that teacher for new ideas and suggestions, too.

BREATHE AND STRETCH

Many directors begin their rehearsal with breathing and stretching exercises. This allows students to find their physical space, center themselves, and focus their minds. Start with something simple and emphasize that these are to be done gently. Guide your students with a slow count of 10 for each step before moving on to the next one:

• Begin with feet at shoulder-width, arms hanging loosely at the sides, and shoulders relaxed.
• Take slow deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth.
• Reach for the ceiling, one arm at a time, while standing on tiptoe.
• With feet flat on the floor, slowly bend over and touch your toes.
• Hang in place, then slowly roll to an upright position.
• Rotate your left arm in a full circle, followed by the right.
• Pull each arm across your body, one at a time (see photo).

Students who dislike physical education probably won’t even realize you are providing them with basic calisthenics. Remind your students that if they feel discomfort or pain of any sort, they are to stop immediately.

EXAGGERATE

Choose a fairy tale to tell your class. Little Red Riding Hood works very well for this exercise. Assign each student the letter A or B. Each A faces a B. A actors represent Little Red Riding Hood while B actors represent each character she encounters. Start to tell your story.

As Little Red Riding Hood encounters the different characters along her journey (Grandma, Big Bad Wolf, etc.), ask your students to act out each character. Facial expressions and body language should be BIG and abundantly clear. Have fun, and remind your class that there are no wrong answers to this so long as gestures are all school-appropriate. Feel free to add new characters to the story, the Brothers Grimm won’t mind at all if you do.

KNOW YOUR SPACE

Let’s get those kids moving! Clear out the room for this one. Push desks aside and open it all up.

Actors need to know every detail of the space on their stage for both storytelling and safety. Have your students stand anywhere in the room, with social distance, and close their eyes. Tell them to turn around slowly in place, and then reopen their eyes. They are now facing different directions.

Use music to help with this one, because your students are about to get loud with giggles and laughter. As you play the music, tell students to walk forward. When they come to a wall or other obstacle, they turn in a new direction of their choice and continue walking. Stop the music, change to a random direction, and do it again. Stop the music, ask them to walk faster. Stop the music and ask them to walk backward slowly, very slowly, using only peripheral vision and not looking backward.

BEGIN AGAIN

Students and teachers alike need to remind ourselves that the world keeps spinning. Like Pinocchio and Data, we all need to reconnect with what makes us human.

Daniel Slowik has taught theater in Florida’s Broward County Public Schools since 1997 and serves as the fine arts department chair at the state’s largest middle school, Falcon Cove Middle School, in Weston, Florida.