Start with stretches!

Upper Body:

1. • Massage your cheek bones; make sure you don't have any tension in your face

   • Roll your head in a circle carefully

   • Slowly nod your head yes & no

   • Grab your left ear with your right hand over your head and gently pull it towards your shoulder; repeat for the opposite side

   • Roll your shoulders in large circles

   • Get bigger and bigger with your rolls until you're drooping your shoulders all the way down and bringing them all the way to your ears

   • Stretch your arms as far as you can and then hug your body; repeat four times

   • Roll your wrists in circles

Lower Body:

• Put your hands on your hips and lean to the right, then lean to the left

• Lunge forward with your right leg

• See how low you can lunge without falling to the ground

• See how straight you can keep your spine while lunging

• Switch and lunge forward with your left leg

• Roll your ankles in easy circles

• Go up on your tiptoes and back down; repeat 5-8 times

Shake your body out! Take a moment to stretch any part of your body that feels lazy or tense.

For Projection:

• Find your diaphragm and rest your hands gently on top of it

• Take ten deep breaths in and out; make sure your stomach extends when you breath in and flattens when you breath out

• Say "HA" ten times while watching your diaphragm work

• Start at your quietest project (a stage whisper) and build to your loudest while counting up to 10 (1 is the quietest, 10 is the loudest)

• Start at your quietest project (a stage whisper) and build to your loudest but this time say HA for each level; keep an eye on your diaphragm to make sure your projection is correct

For Diction:

• Say your alphabet forwards and backwards twice

• Say your alphabet again and time yourself; see how fast you can say it while still saying each letter clearly

• Now focus on vowel sounds. Say each vowel (a, e, i, o, u) holding out the sound for one big breath

• Switch to consonant sounds with these exercises; make sure to hit the consonant as hard as you can:

  • T: tah, tay, tee, toe, too

  • V: vah, vay, vee, voe, voo

  • N: nah, nay, nee, noe, noo

  • K: kah, kay, kee, koe, koo

  • B: bah, bay, bee, boe, boo

  • R: rah, ray, ree, roe, roo

Tongue Twisters:

Follow this link - https://sites.google.com/parkertheatre.org/challengematerial/home

for tongue twisters! (And try out our challenge while you're there!)

Move to some Music:

• Pick your favorite song to move to

• Using different levels, challenge yourself to move to it only on a high plane, only on a medium plane and only on a low plane

• Try moving to it while only traveling backwards or sideways

• For an extra challenge, move to the whole song changing your movements with the tempo. Push yourself to be tired after dancing!

Balloon Song Lyrics:

• Blow up a balloon or find a light weight ball that you can safely hit into the air

• Pick a song whose lyrics you know by heart

• Try to say or sing the entirety of the song while keeping the ball or balloon in the air

• For an extra challenge, use a monologue you have memorized instead of lyrics

The Cards are in Charge

• Find a deck of cards and take one of each number/face card out of the deck (Ace to King)

• Shuffle the cards

• Pick one card from the deck at a time. Each card has the following rules:

  • Ace: Do 10 jumping jacks

  • Two: Grab the closest book and read the first sentence in a British accent, out loud

  • Three: Make up three lines about the inner thoughts of a lamp in your house

  • Four: Dance for 4 seconds

  • Five: Grab the closest item of clothing and decide what kind of character would wear that

  • Six: Create a new nickname for the closest animal (inside or outside)

  • Seven: Do 7 crunches

  • Eight: Find a book cover and create a new plot based on the cover

  • Nine: Go to Downstage Right, Upstage Right, Downstage Left, Upstage Left in the room you're in

  • Ten: Hold a plank for 10 seconds

  • Jack: Ask the closest person to you 5 questions about their day

  • Queen: Create your best fake laugh

  • King: Save this card until the end! Use all the character cards (2, 3, 5, 6, & 8) to create a new story based on the characters you created

  • For an extra challenge, write down the first scene of the play you've created