@The Arts Unit Creative Classes
Mime and machine
Develop skills in mime and physical theatre
Student drama resource developed by The Arts Unit
Years 5 and 6 drama
What will I learn?
You will:
explore your physicality
develop your mime skills
apply your imagination through physical theatre.
Welcome to the class
Duration: 00:00Before you begin
In this class, you will try some great drama activities that explore mime and physical theatre.
You will need:
a clear space to move around safely.
- Watch and warm up
Watch the 2018 State Drama Festival performance Dare to be by Berala Public School.
State Drama Festival 2018 - Dare to be
Berala Public SchoolDuration: 06:15Warm up games
Warming up establishes focus and prepares you physically for performance with energy. It is good to match the warm up games to the performance skills you will explore and link them to relevant Elements of Drama.
Watch the following 4 videos and complete the activities with Ellen Osborne.
2. Move and shake
Duration: 03:584 . Go stop clap jump
Duration: 03:522. Explore your physicality
Machine movement is a performance technique that combines multiple simple, repetitive body movements, in sequences, to represent a process, object or idea.
The Berala Public School students in Dare to be used sequenced movements to create a moving machine as part of their performance.
Activities
In a small group of 4-6 students, each student chooses a simple movement. Create a machine by creatively combining your movements with 1 student starting and every 10 seconds another student joining the machine.
Groups can try to replicate an existing machine (photocopier or coffee machine etc) or create a new one.
You may want to add a noise to compliment your action.
Each small group performs their machine for the class.
Create a machine with the entire class, 1 student joining the machine with a new action every 10 seconds until all students are involved.
3. Develop your mime skills
Mime is a theatrical technique using action, gesture, expression and movement to create character or emotion without words.
Watch the 2 introduction videos Kids meet a Mime and Mime Basics and then complete the following activities.
Kids meet a Mime
2. Mime Basics
Duration: 05:34
Warm up game: What are you doing?
Standing in a circle, the first student starts to mime an activity, for example washing the car. The student next to them on their right asks 'What are you doing?'. The first student keeps miming their action and also clearly says that they are doing a different activity. For example, if they are miming washing the car, they could say 'I'm playing the guitar'.
The second student then starts to mime playing a guitar. The first student stops miming their action.
The third student asks the second, 'What are you doing?'. While continuing to mime playing a guitar, the student clearly says a different activity, which the third student must mime. And so it goes on around the entire circle with each student having a turn.
There should be no repetition and no similar activities. For example if one student is miming playing basketball the next student cannot say, 'playing netball'.
Activities
Using their face and body students mime the following emotional reactions:
excited
frightened
bored
shy
surprised.
Students mime some of the following actions:
pushing a wall
trapped in a box
blowing up a balloon
folding clothes and packing a suitcase
digging a hole
pulling a rope.
In pairs, mime the following actions:
throwing a ball to each other
picking a flower for each other
building a brick wall
one giving a present to the other who then opens it.
4. Apply your imagination through physical theatre
Physical theatre uses physical movement, gesture, dance and/or mime to express ideas and can be a way to tell stories and explore social issues.
Group activity
In small groups or as a whole class, work together to devise an original performance piece, 2-3 minutes in length incorporating the physical performance techniques of machines and/or mime.
You could identify an issue or topic relevant to your group to explore. For example; loneliness, friendship, bullying, celebration.
The use of music, dance or sound effects could also be included to support your physical performance and engage your audience.
Congratulations!
You have completed this @The Arts Unit Creative Class.
