Status Pictures

Age: 7 to adult
Players: Pairs
Time: 10-20 minutes
Skills: Improvisation

Status is the key to great improvisation

Begin by discussing the meaning of ‘status’ and give some examples of status relationships, for example doctor and patient, policeman and criminal or even Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter (more examples are given below).

In pairs, create a still image where one of you has a higher status (is more important) than the other. If you like, you can choose a particular situation, or just choose two positions showing that one character is more important than the other.

When everybody is ready, invite the students to show their pair images and ask the others to guess who is “high” and who is “low”. Sometimes this may not be obvious!

You can ask students to notice how the images are made, for example is one character higher than another, are their bodies curved or straight, are they making eye-contact, invading body-space and so on.

Examples of some status relationships are: teacher/student, doctor/patient, doctor/nurse, celebrity/fan, shopkeeper/customer, superhero/villain, Sherlock Holmes/Watson, Matilda/Miss Trunchbull, Lord Voldemort/Harry Potter.

Director’s Tips

• Discuss why there may be areas of disagreement
• Make another image showing high and low status in a different way
• Try to make an image where you have equal status and see if the onlookers agree!

Video

Watch the wonderful video below presented by the talented Toby Park from Spymonkey (the theatre company that has made me laugh the most ever) for some more brilliant games based on Status – including Status Walk, Chorus Monster, Die Servant and Status Cards!