Ensemble Building Activity

STUPID HUMAN TRICKS

AIM:    To practice ensemble building with young students by sharing and teaching unique talents/quirks. 

OBJECTIVE: To share and learn to celebrate their unusual tricks and then teach them to their classmates. Every student has an unusual trick they can do! It's a unique little quirk, which makes them special.    

STUDENTS WILL:

• Share their unique tricks in a goofy talent show setting.
• Learn how to be a patient teacher
• Be open minded to learning something that seems impossible
• Have pride in their unique "quirks"
• Learn to look vulnerable in front of their peers when performing a new skill/trick that is difficult/hard to master.
• Be a supportive audience for each other during a vulnerable presentation.
• Approach a "silly" activity with seriousness.

PROCEDURE:

Explain to students, “This activity is called, "Stupid Human Tricks". 

1. We explain what a 'stupid human trick' is: “Everyone has an unusual trick they can do! It's a unique little quirk, which makes you...you! There are no excuses! Everyone has something!”
2. Give students some examples:
1. Body Tricks: double jointed body parts, wiggling your ears, touching your tongue to your nose
2. Athletic Tricks: splits, flips, handsprings, stand on your head,
3. Knowledge Tricks: say the 50 president's names in less than a minute, sing the alphabet backwards, recite the "I had a Dream Speech"
4. Misc: Shakespeare Sonnet in another language, drinking water from a straw up their nose, etc..

3. Explain the rules:

• The trick has to be performed in ONE MINUTE or less.
• Have 2 - 3 kids show examples.
• They will pair up with someone they have NOT worked with yet.
• They will practice together for 5 - 7 minutes.
• They have to teach their partner their "trick". 
• This is the key lesson: Even if it is a body trick that would be impossible to teach...they must commit, modify and work together to teach each other the trick to the best of their ability.
• They must practice presenting their trick as an "act". Beginning, middle and end. (Intro, Trick, and Bow)

4. Group comes together as a whole and we present as many partners as possible.

• Remind students that they are on stage and they must commit to presenting their tricks as a full scale scene.

FOLLOW-UP:Discus why this activity is relevant to our work in the theatre: (Working together, patience while learning something difficult, being vulnerable on stage, presenting the trick as a finished scene).

Ask the students:  “Was it harder being the teacher or the student? Why?”

“How did it feel to present a trick that you haven’t mastered yet?”