Where Do You Stand? (inc Online Version)

From ‘101 MORE Drama Games and Activities’

Age: 7 to adult
Players: Whole Group
Time: 5 – 10 minutes
Skills: Decision Making, Speaking and Listening, Team Building

A fast and effective way of discovering everybody’s opinions about a subject.

Set up two chairs a long way apart and put a sign on them saying ‘Agree’ and ‘Disagree’. Read out a statement and ask everybody to choose a place to stand in between the chairs that they feel represents their view. The nearer they stand to one of the chairs, the stronger the opinion they are expressing. Those who don’t know, are open-minded or don’t want to say can move towards the middle. Emphasise that everybody’s point of view will be respected and encourage each person to decide for themselves. Give them a few moments to make their decision.

Once they have chosen their spot you can ask individuals why they chose to stand where they are. Gather a few opinions from different places in the line. Finally you can ask if anyone would like to change position now that they have heard differing points of view. Like Conscience Alley, the technique can be used to explore a decision faced by a character or more general moral dilemmas.

Play Online

You can play this game online in a group chat by reading out a statement then asking everyone to show a thumb up (agree), thumb down (disagree) or thumb horizontal (not sure). Then ask individual students to explain why they made their choice. After gathering a few responses, ask if anyone wants to amend their choice…

1-2-3

This drama game shows that when you thought that counting to three was easy, you were wrong!

Best Bits

An amazingly easy and quick way to share group work in Drama without wasting time.

Count To 20

A classic concentration and focus exercise, where the group tries to count to twenty.

Daft Definitions

Put random words together to invent new concepts! Great storytelling warm-up.

Drama Games for Story Books

Two amazing drama activities for bringing story books to life through drama!

Family Portraits

Groups make family portraits by striking funny poses.

Fruit Salad

A fun game encouraging fast reactions and verbal dexterity by saying the names of fruits.

Grandma’s Footsteps

This classic playground game is perfect for exploring dramatic tension. Plenty of fun, surprise and cheating!

Groovy Image Factory

Quickly generate repeating actions and sounds or words

Guess Who I Am

A fun way of creating characters from any picture.

Imaginarium

An exciting and completely unpredictable way to quickly develop a scene

Night Watchman

The museum is closed for the night. The watchman is making his rounds. But something strange is going on...

One Word At A Time

A story is told by the group or in pairs, with each person adding one word at a time.

Open and Close

A brilliant method of performing a series of freeze-frames to tell a story in a drama lesson.

Pecking Order

Can you work out where you stand in the pecking order?

Poetry in Motion

Poetry can be explored and presented effectively through drama and movement

Random Sound Stories

A story is told by the group or in pairs, with each person adding one word at a time.

Sculptor and Statue

In pairs, create a still image where one of you has a higher status than the other and let others

Shoe Shuffle

Develop imagination and mime skills using everyday objects

Siren (Voice Warm-Up)

An effective and easy humming warm up for exploring and extending the vocal range.

Soundscapes

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

Status Pictures

In pairs, create a still image where one of you has a higher status than the other.

Story Orchestra

The group tells a story, with a conductor guiding the narrative

Ten Second Objects

Drama game - groups make the shape of an object using their bodies - in only ten seconds!

Three Changes

An observation and getting to know you game - with online version

Three Word Sentences

Sometimes three words are just enough.

Two Truths And A Lie

Play online or live - tell your partner three things about yourself – two of which are true and one

What Are You Doing?

Quick thinking and action is essential in this funny mime and spoken language drama game.

What If

Quick ways to revamp a fairy tale – or any story

I prefer cats to dogs
If you find money on the street you should be allowed to keep it
Precious jewels are more valuable than trees
It’s OK to borrow something from a friend without asking them
It’s better to get angry than to bottle it up
You can’t change your own personality
It’s impossible to be honest with everyone
The press should be allowed to find out about the personal lives of famous people
Old people just don’t understand young people. (or vice-versa)

Kids enjoyed it! We used one of your topic ideas: If you find money in the street should you be allowed to keep it? The thumbs were going up and down or sideways quite a bit as kids persuaded each re their points of view.

Desiree Finestone Victoria, Australia (May 2020)