7 Icebreaker Games for Your First Drama Class

There’s something slightly strange about the first drama class.

You want your students to talk, move, improvise, listen to each other and stop worrying about looking silly.

Meanwhile, quite a few of them are thinking:

“Please don’t make me stand up there by myself.”

That’s why I wouldn’t begin the first session with a big improvisation or an endless round of:

“My name is Luis, I’m 13, and my hobbies are…”

There are much less painful ways to help a group get to know one another.

These seven games need little or no preparation, and they start developing things you’ll use constantly later on: listening, focus, physical expression, confidence and ensemble awareness.

1. Name in Motion

Put everyone in a circle.

One at a time, each student says their name and begins a sentence:

“My name is Marta and I like…”

But they aren’t allowed to finish it with words.

Instead, they have to mime the activity.

Marta pretends to swim.

The rest of the group tries to work out what she’s doing.

The activity doesn’t even have to be true. With particularly shy students, letting them invent something can take away a surprising amount of pressure.

The useful part is that within the first few minutes, every student has already done one tiny piece of performing in front of the group without feeling as though you asked them to “act.”

And you’re already learning much more than their names.

2. Me Too

One person says something true about themselves:

“I like video games.”

Anyone who shares that can raise a hand, take a step forward or change places.

Then somebody else offers another statement:

“I have a dog.”

“I play an instrument.”

“I like dancing.”

“I’m nervous about singing on my own.”

I’d start with simple, low-stakes statements.

The point isn’t to discover who is different.

It’s to create lots of little moments of:

“Oh — you too.”

That can start breaking down established friendship groups surprisingly quickly.

3. Follow the Feeling

Divide the class into small groups.

One student begins walking across the space while secretly playing an emotion.

Fear.

Excitement.

Pride.

Suspicion.

Or absolute Monday-morning boredom.

Everyone else follows and copies the way that person moves.

Then change leaders.

At the end, ask:

“What emotion did you think they were playing?”

You’ve suddenly started a lesson on physical acting without giving a lesson on physical acting.

Students begin noticing that emotion changes pace, posture, focus and even how much space someone takes up.

4. Synchrony Without a Leader

Ask everyone to walk freely around the space.

First, let the group gradually find roughly the same walking speed.

Then introduce the important rule:

Nobody is in charge.

No talking.

No countdown.

No secretly choosing a leader.

The whole group must try to stop at the same time.

Then begin moving again together.

Once they start succeeding, make it harder:

speed up;

move in slow motion;

change the style of movement;

sit down and stand up together.

The goal isn’t to spot who is leading.

It’s to make the leader disappear.

Slowly, 25 separate people stop behaving like 25 completely independent performers and start noticing the ensemble.

5. The Mirror

Put students into pairs, facing each other.

One person is the performer.

The other is the reflection.

The first student begins moving slowly, and their partner copies the movement as though there were a mirror between them.

Then switch roles.

Once they’ve got the idea, add a challenge:

someone watching shouldn’t be able to tell who is leading.

That forces the leader to stop making sudden changes and the follower to really pay attention.

You can let a few pairs perform for everyone else and ask:

“Who was leading?”

If the group isn’t sure, it worked.

6. Flash Groups

Everyone moves around the room.

You can keep changing the way they travel:

like someone who’s late;

like the most important person in the building;

as if the floor were burning;

as if they were moving through jelly.

At any moment, call out:

“Three!”

They immediately form groups of three.

Then they move again.

“Five!”

New groups.

“Two!”

A new partner.

I’d introduce one rule right at the beginning:

You can’t hover next to your usual friends waiting for the right number.

Within five minutes, every student will have had small interactions with lots of different people.

And you’ve also created a very useful way to make groups throughout the rest of the year without spending five minutes negotiating who works with whom.

7. Count to 10

The challenge sounds ridiculous:

The group has to count from 1 to 10.

But there are no assigned turns.

Anybody can say:

“One.”

Then someone else:

“Two.”

And so on.

If two people speak at the same time:

back to one.

They can’t simply go around the circle.

They can’t signal to each other.

They can’t decide the order beforehand.

At first they’ll probably try to beat the game.

And fail quite a lot.

Then something interesting starts happening.

They wait.

They listen.

They begin noticing when somebody else seems about to speak.

When they finally reach ten, ask:

“What changed between the first attempt and the last one?”

You’ll usually hear things like:

listening;

waiting;

paying attention;

not rushing;

noticing everyone else.

In other words, almost everything they’ll need later onstage.

Don’t Do All Seven on Day One

For a first drama class of around 50–60 minutes, I’d choose only three.

Name in Motion to start learning names.

Follow the Feeling to get them using their bodies.

And Synchrony Without a Leader or Count to 10 to finish by building some sense of ensemble.

The aim of the first class isn’t to prove how many drama games you know.

It’s to move students from:

“I really hope I don’t embarrass myself.”

to:

“Okay. We’re allowed to play here.”

For a first session, that’s already a lot.

Ready to Move Into Improvisation?

Once the group knows each other and you’re ready to go further, you can also try these improvisation theater games for kids.

What Comes After the Icebreakers?

Breaking the ice is only the beginning.

Once you start thinking about putting on a show, other questions appear:

How many students do I have?

How many characters do I need?

Who is comfortable singing alone?

How much rehearsal time do we actually have?

What can I realistically stage with this group?

At Kaikana Musicals, we create school musicals for student casts, with information about recommended ages, cast structure and production materials available before you have to make a decision.

Explore Kaikana Musicals

Because you don’t need to find the musical you like most.

You need to find the one you can make work with the students in front of you.

Luis
Kaikana Musicals