Acting Exercises, games and stuff?

-I just wrote a play and i'm going to direct it as well. I was just wondering if there are any exercises that we should do before reading the script during rehearsals or afterwards ect..After learning scenes a good idea for characterisation is if they do not have named characters let them create their own. And then perform the scenes that may have happened before, and after each scene. This allows actors to give them emotions to flow from rather than just bringing them out of the air. And the memory of this helps too.



A good game at the start of sessions is called zip, zap zop. You all stand in a circle and pretend to be passing "energy" to one another. Start with one person, and they must send the energy to someone in the circle by using an command eye contact. ZAP is used to pass the energy to someone right beside you (left or right). ZIP is used to pass it to anyone else except for the 2 either side of you. And ZOP is used as a 'block' which means the original sender must choose someone else. (I don't usually use zop, it is optional).

The intention of this exercise is to get everyone moving at the same speed. Usually you will find, at first everyone goes at different speeds. Some pass quickly and others slowly. Eventually, the group will most likely come to the same speed. This is very productive as when you have some people darting around the room, while others are moping in the corners it is not very useful.



Another exercise used to get everyone 'on the same level' is counting to twenty.

You again stand in a circle and at random times, anyone in the group must say a number, progressing from 1 to 20. If 2 people say a number at the same time, you must begin again, someone cannot say more than 2 numbers in a row, everyone must say a number and there is to be no contact as to when someone is going to say a number. It is all about getting on the same level and reading each other's UNINTENTIONAL body language.



As for warming up, shaking is good. You begin with your toes, then move to your foot, then lower leg, upper leg, fingers, hands, lower arm, upper arm, head, then whole body. This should not be a controlled shaking, just all over the place. COMPLETELY crazy =) It is good to move into an atmosphere in which you know that everyone can do silly things and not get embarrassed and is also a good warmup for bodily functions.



And that's all I can think of at the moment. Hope you like them.You need to try and warm up your actors vocally physically and it helps to et some creative juices flowing.



So improvisation games are good. I would find out if any of them new vocal warm up techniques because there are a lot and also some sort of running around game like IT, sock tag, or loads more are good.



your actors will know lots :D
My old drama teacher would do improv exercises and send two or more up. He would shout a topic or a place and we would improv. He also did the rag doll exercise to loosen us up. We had to drop our top half down like a doll over our waist. When we did that we would not put control on our arms so they would flop around. Then he made us roll up. Sorry it is hard to explain. Hope this helps!