Featured Game: Slideshow

Skill Level: Beginner
Unit: Improvisation
Active Participants: Groups of 4-8
Materials: An open space
Values: Creativity, Confidence

OBJECTIVE

Participants make tableau imagery of improvised situations.

HOW TO PLAY

The audience designates a big activity such as a trip to Disney World or a journey through a jungle.
A participant is chosen to present a “slide show” (a series of still photos) of this event, using other participants as the characters in the slides. This should include a beginning, middle, and end.
Facilitator introduces the idea of “the magic clicker” that causes people to freeze after descriptions. The clicker makes the sound “click, click, click FREEZE,” after the picture is described causing the participants making the tableau to freeze.
Presenter acknowledges the photo and describes in more detail what is happening in the picture by narrating the poses of the participants.

TEACHING TIPS

For younger participants, the facilitator may choose to serve as the presenter in order to enable the story to flow.
Many participants will prefer to present, in which case, the facilitator can change the slides and participants can present 2-3 slides each.
If the facilitator is leading the slides, they should feel free to describe people’s poses in ways that they were clearly not intended: example, when a participant is clearly Superman flying, they may be described as someone on a Slip-n-Slide.