Drama Strategies

Drama strategies – also known as drama techniques or drama conventions – are the everyday tools of the drama teacher. They help to develop enquiry skills, to encourage negotiation, understanding and creativity. They can enhance performance skills such as character development and storytelling and be used across the curriculum to actively involve students in their own learning.

3D Living Pictures

Bring pictures to life through freeze frames, thought tracking and improvisation.
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Action Clip

Bring freeze frames to life in just a few moments.
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Conscience Alley

One person walks down an alleyway made by the group and listens to thoughts or advice.
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Cross-Cutting

Cross-cutting (also called split-screen) is a drama technique borrowed from the world of film editing, where two scenes are intercut
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Developing Freeze Frames

How to use drama techniques such as freeze frames across the curriculum.
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Flashbacks and Flash Forwards

Performers in a scene are asked to improvise scenes which take place seconds, minutes, days or years before or after
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Forum Theatre

A technique pioneered by Brazilian radical Augusto Boal. A play or scene, usually indicating some kind of oppression, is shown
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Freeze Frames

The use of body-shapes and postures to represent characters or objects.
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Hot Seating

A character is questioned by the group about his or her background, behaviour and motivation.
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Hot Spotting

An amazingly fun and easy way to mix up hot-seating and freeze frames to develop characters
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Image Theatre

In Image Theatre, still images are used to explore abstract concepts such as relationships and emotions, as well as realistic situations.
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Mantle of the Expert

Mantle of the Expert involves the creation of a fictional world where students assume the roles of experts in a
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Marking the Moment

Marking the Moment is a dramatic technique used to highlight a key moment in a scene or improvisation. This can
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Narration

Narration is a technique whereby one or more performers speak directly to the audience to tell a story, give information
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Role on the Wall

Role on the wall is a collaborative activity for developing thoughts and ideas about a character.
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Role Play

Role play is the ability to suspend disbelief by stepping into another character’s shoes.
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Soundscapes

The group is conducted to create a sound picture or “soundscape” using their voices and bodies.
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Spotlight

Spotlighting is a useful teaching technique for sharing improvised drama when you have divided the class into smaller groups. When
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Storytelling

Storytelling is one of the simplest and perhaps most compelling forms of dramatic and imaginative activity. A good place to
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Tableaux

In a tableau, participants make still images with their bodies to represent a scene.
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Teacher in Role

Teacher in role (TiR) is an invaluable technique for shaping the dramatic process and developing students’ learning. Simply put, the
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Teaching Gold Mining in New Zealand through Drama

These five incredibly simple methods for drama teaching inspired a teacher in New Zealand to bring to life her social
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Thought Tracking

A way to speak aloud the thoughts or feelings of a character in a freeze-frame.
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Whoosh! Bringing Stories Alive through Drama

An interactive technique in which participants become characters and objects in a story as it is told.
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REALLY appreciate all you do for the teaching profession and helping us to bring theatre and fun into the classroom! You are an inspiration and help us inspire our students. Huge thanks!

Myanna Gregory The English National Programme, Ferney-Voltaire, France

Your work is phenomenal and your website offers so many inspiring ideas to use in the different teaching areas in my life!

Laura Giosh-Markov

‘I was particularly inspired by how to manage teaching Shakespeare and the real emotion provoked by the refugee unit! I will be rewriting our schemes of work to incorporate as many new ideas as possible.’

Jennifer Carr Course Participant, February 2019

‘I took two classes of year 3 students through ‘The King’s Sentence’ on Friday. They absolutely loved it and it has provided them and their English teacher with a platform to explore storytelling writing. Your imagination is inspirational!’

Hayley Casingena February 2019

‘Your course was a revelation for us and has given us so many new ideas to use with the children. The Tiger Child story has become a firm favourite among the pupils and you gave us the confidence to try new things and to trust in the teacher-in-role technique, which the children love!’

Anna Izquierda White Rabbit Drama Club (April 2019)

You inspired and challenged us to be better teachers. You taught us how effective drama can be to get our students’ attention and make our lessons fun for them. You gave us new teaching tools and helped us feel we can make a difference in our students’ lives. Thank you.

Fátima Silva English Teacher, Agrupamento de Escolas Dr. Guilherme Correia de Carvalho, Seia, Portugal (April 2017)