2. “Once upon a time”: Creating stories through improvisation
Age Range or Target Group| This workshop is appropriate for all age groups, it is recommended however that participants of the workshop are at similar developmental stages. In regard to target group, as the projects depicts, both EU citizens/natives and immigrants/refuges/asylum seekers can participate in the workshop. The workshop is open to people from any socio-economic background.
Number of participants| 10-15 participants. If the workshop is happening with more than 15 participants, more time should be given for each activity and maybe the help of another facilitator will be needed.
Duration| 50m – 70m
General Aim- Objectives| Aim of this workshop is to encourage participants to create and to share stories and to discover fixed or pre-mediated behaviours that maybe were not aware of. Sharing stories, they will be able to receive feedback from others and to reflect on it. For this, story-telling, movement and theatre improvisation exercises will be used as tools for the participants to help them to narrate stories. The fact that the workshop will be implemented to a diverse group including both immigrants and not, gives an opportunity for contact between different groups of people and the creation of positive bonding that gradually leads to acceptance, understanding and social inclusion.
Key Words & Phrases| theater; play; improvisation; story-telling; creativity
Instructions (Step by Step Process) |
A. Greeting and Introduction to the workshop (5-10 minutes)
B. Warm-up (10-15 minutes)
B1. Group Statues Energiser: The group starts moving around the room, relaxed. After a while, the facilitator shouts out a word. The group instantly forms themselves into statues that describe the word without talking. In the beginning they might form individual statues but as they repeat the exercise they might start working together to form their statue. Repeat a couple of times.
2. Grab an item: Participants grab an item they find in their personal belongings or in the room, that they believe represents something of themselves or a story, or that they like, they find interesting or funny. They all come to a circle and one by one share with the rest of the group their item and why they picked it.
C. Main part (30-45 minutes)
C1. Change the story I: Participants are asked to keep the items they had chosen in the previous activity and are grouped into groups of 5-6 people per group. Each member of the group places their item somewhere in their working space. Their items now create a kind of a scene. Now one by one, the members of the group go and make one change at a time to this scene. So, one person goes in makes one change to one of the items, then the next person goes in and makes another change, and it goes on like this. It is important that participants have their turns quickly and they make their changes as spontaneously as possible, going with the flow. After a while, the facilitator asks the groups to change scenes. That is, Group A starts working with Group’s B items as they have left them, and Group B starts working with Group C’s items as they have left them etc. When the exercise is done, participants are asked about how they felt, how they were deciding what changes they would do. How the change of items felt, if they saw a story happening etc.
C2. Change the story II: Now, the groups perform the same activity, however this time 2 of the members of the group become also part of the scenes for the others to work on. After a while, another member of the group can become part of the scene. At a third level, the facilitator can ask the rest of the members of the group to again change scene and go to another’s group scene and continue from where the other group left their scene. When the exercise is done, participants are asked about how they felt, how they were deciding what changes they would do. How the change of items felt, how did it felt to be part of the items or part of the people who decide the change, if they saw a story happening etc.
D. Closure – Debriefing (10-15 minutes)
Suggested questions for initiating the debriefing section of the workshop: How did you feel during the workshop? How was the experience of deciding how the story would evolve/ of being an object of the story? How do you think the experience would evolve if you were the only person deciding about it? Was there something challenging for you? Can you relate any of your feelings stemming from the workshop with your daily life? Anything else you would like to share?
Desirable Outcomes and Competences| Through the workshop participants will have the opportunity to work on their imagination, creativity and improvisation skills. They will be able to do this without focusing solely on the use of language, thus facilitating participants who may have language difficulties. This will happen through the improvisational and story-telling character of the workshop and the use of items as a way to tell a story. Participants will engage, communicate and interact with others for creational purposes.
Materials| The facilitator could arrange for some upbeat music to be playing during the workshop and for some items (clothing; bijou; daily objects etc) to exist in the room for the participants to use for their live story-telling photos.
Resources|
Group Statues:
Drama Menu (2014, June 26). Theatre Game #28 – 10 Seconds To Make. From Drama Menu – drama games & ideas for drama. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q-dVH3Tzho
International HIV/AIDS Alliance (2002). 100 ways to energise groups: Games to use in workshops, meetings and the community.
Media and Techniques| The workshop was based on improvisation and performing arts workshops, online videos, articles and books about theatre improvisation and story-telling.
Tips for the educator| Please refer to the general tips for the educator of the ST workshops.
Questions for Evaluation|
- How did you find the exercises of the workshop?
- Are there any suggestions/comments/questions you would like to make?
- Are the activities well explained?
- Do you think this workshop will be interesting for all age groups?