Guess Who I Am

Age: 6 to adult
Players: Whole Class or Small Groups
Time: 10-20 minutes
Tags: #Improvisation,  #Speaking and Listening

A fun way of creating characters from any picture

This game is a perfect introduction to simple role playing and hot seating.

Choose an image with as many characters as there are students. This can be a picture from a story book or text book, a movie or animation, a documentary photo or work of art. There should be people in the picture and there should be some kind of story or subtext. Show the picture to the students and spend a few minutes asking them to look carefully at what’s happening.

Begin by demonstrating to the class. Secretly choose a character from the picture. Speak and move as though you are that character and see if the students can guess who you are. In the video you can see an example of a character from the painting ‘Children’s Games’ by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

‘Okay you lot, I’ll count to 20 and I want you all to hide! I promise I won’t peep. And don’t all hide in the same place. Off you go!’

After the students have guessed the character, ask them to work in pairs. One player chooses a character from the picture and speaks as that character for the other one to guess, and then they swop over. When they have all tried it you can ask them to show what they did to the rest of the class. They only have to speak a sentence or two, depending on their proficiency.

Director’s Tips

• As a variation, when the partner thinks they know who the character is, they can play another character related to the first one to develop a short scene.
• For other ways to use pictures – and tons of images, see 3D Living Pictures