Brigham Young University's Theatre Education Database

Ask for five volunteers to come up on the stage and participate in an improvisation. Tell them that they will be creating characters. Hand every student who comes up a prop.

Step 1 (Guided Practice) Prompt students to think about what kind of person would have a piece like that. What would they look like? What would they do with it? Do they walk quickly, slowly? What kind of posture do they have etc. After a moment, prompt students to strike a pose that represents their character. Then allow them to try to move like the character they’ve envisioned. Continue to ask questions as students are exploring and moving about the stage. What is your occupation? How many people are in your family? Where are you from? Where are you going? After a moment allow them to greet their neighbor with their character’s voice.

Step 2 (Discussion): Instruct students to put the props back in the prop box. Ask them questions like: Did the object you have make you feel like moving differently? What kind of character were you? How did you know what characters your classmates created? What kinds of characters did you see? As they tell us, write the different characters they came up with on the board. Compliment students on their ability to create an entire character from the inspiration of one prop!

Step 3 (Individual Practice): Tell students that they will all now each be creating a character. Each student needs to pick someone famous, someone they have seen, cartoon characters, a super hero character they wanted to be when they were a child (or that they want to be now). Each student needs to sit in their desk like the character.

Step 4 (Group Practice): Invite seven students to come to the stage and begin moving around the space exploring what that character might move like, using posture, facial expression and movement without speaking to anyone else. When the teacher says to, the students on the stage need to approach the nearest person and start a conversation with that person as if they were the character without revealing who they are by obvious allusions or statements.

 Step 5 (Group Practice): Have the seven students return to their desks. Ask all of the students to now introduce themselves to their neighbor in the style of their character. Students can change partners 2-3 times (while still sitting in their desks). (Adapted from an Augusto Boal Exercise)

Step 6 (Discussion): When this activity is over, have the students discuss what characters they were and what characters they saw, add these to your list on the board. Then, ask them if there are any other types of characters they can think of and write those too. Discuss all of the character types there are.

1.Old/Young characters

2. Rich/Poor

3. Quirky/ Outgoing vs. trying to fit in/Reserved

4. Healthy/unhealthy

 Step 7 (Transition) How did you recognize your classmates characters? What do you know about creating a character so far? What can you use to pretend to be someone else? (with a primary focus on  body and externalization) Voice? Body? Costumes? Facial expressions? Etc.

Step 8 (Guided practice): Pick 3 students to come to the front of the room. Ask them to walk back and forth with a certain emotion/character one at a time. 1. An angry old man. 2. Little Red Riding Hood. 3. A Rich Movie Star and a poor fan. After each person performs ask the class, What emotion did you see? Who might they have been? How could you tell? Cover the following in the discussion:

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  • Emotion
  • Character History
  • Age
  • Social Class

Step 9 (Guided practice): Pick 7 students to come to the front of the room and say the same line, “Can you believe that it is raining outside today.” Have small papers written for each scenario. When a student volunteer comes up to perform, hand them the slip of paper and whisper the character/scenario in their ear. Use the following examples: 1. A Grumpy Old Grandpa/Grandma. 2. A Young Child who wants to play in the rain. 3. A bride on her wedding day (her wedding is ruined!!) 4. A person, lost in a hot desert, and it will finally get a drink. 5. A witch who melts when they get wet. 6. A bored student who has been studying all day. 7. A person who’s picnic was spoiled by the rain.

Step 10 (Discussion): Ask the class what different emotions they heard. What kinds of characters or background stories could go along with these emotions? What characters do you think they were? How could you tell? Discuss that your voice is a powerful tool to help you create a character and tell a story. Use the topics for discussion. Lead them in a brief vocal warm-up, emphasizing the importance of projection, enunciation etc.

In the Discussion make sure you cover:

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  • Changing voice for characterization: pitch, speed, accents, timid etc.
  • Emotion
  • Age
  • Word Emphasis (GIVE me the apple, give ME the apple…)

Step 11 (Review/ Modeling): How do we create a character? Staying in character. What happens if you break character on stage? Do you need to be in character only when you are speaking? Address issues of laughing, audience response, forgetting lines, looking off stage, not focusing on the story by demonstrating these things for the class. Once you have broken character how do you recover?

Each student needs to choose a character type. They can be old or young, have any emotion that the student wants. This person is not a super hero but a real person you would find or meet. This would be a great opportunity to use your observation journals. You can base this person off of a real person or they can be made up. The only restriction is that this person cannot be yourself: TRY TO CHOSE A CHARACTER YOU DO NOT NORMALLY PLAY. This person also needs to be someone you could play- stick with your own gender and race. Each student needs to write a small biography for their character in first person, including their name, about their family, where they are from, what they do for a living, what their hobbies are etc…This should be about one page long. On the back of this page have students describe how this character would move. Give students the rest of the class period to finish this assignment.

This lesson is suggested to be included in a "character-development" unit.