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TIP: You can see many prime examples of creative Drama Workshop lesson plans and creative techniques in the Writing Team Lesson Sets (for supporting members). Writing Team lessons use a variety of drama techniques and include adaptations for doing drama with younger children and non-readers.


Last edited by Neil MacQueen
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creative dramatics Bible story

"Directed Dramatics"

Actors perform narrator-prompted actions and reactions and sounds effects as the story is read aloud.


The teacher/narrator reads a "creative dramatics script" or just guides the children through the story using suggestions.

This technique is based on my work as a children's librarian, where books are re-enacted after we read them using creative "directed" dramatics.

The teacher has a story "script" with dramatic directions, such as

  1. Start stepping out of the boat just like Peter did, but freeze when your toe touches the water.
  2. What's going through your mind right now, Peter!
  3. One by one I might say, "Go ahead and take your next step and show us how thrilled you are to be walking on water. Walk three steps and stop so the next Peter can go."

And so on through the story. Individuals can act out different parts, or sometimes the entire class together is every character in the story.

The children do not have scripted lines to read, so they can focus on remembering the story they have internalized rather than on reading words off of a page.

Tips:

Don't over-dramatize every point, keep the pace moving so the students are fresh when you want to take a little extra time on something important in the story, such as, "what are you thinking now Peter as you sink the waves?"   

Not everyone has to act out every part of every scene. If a student doesn't act something out very well, suggest something to them or invite another student to also follow your direction.

Some actions/reactions are just for fun. "What sound do you think Peter made as he went under?"  "Peter, give us your best sound of relief when Jesus reached down to save you."

I usually create my dramatic reading teacher's script starting with scripture straight from the Bible. I then modify the text with kid-friendly grammar, words, and clarifications.

In the story, look for actions, dialog, sounds, and even "people and things in the background not mentioned in the story but you can imagine they are there" to come up with a variety of "things to act out" in your script.

I sometimes use this technique with puppets instead of human actors -- the children are sometimes more free and creative when they are not personally "on stage."

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  • kids acting out a story
Last edited by Amy Crane

"This is Your Life" TV Show Format

Here's a drama "TV Show" idea that worked great for us and can be applied to MANY stories.

We're doing Saul's conversion on the road to Damascus, and we're using a "This Is Your Life" television show format in our drama workshop.

The format:
A TV show host welcomes Paul to sit on a couch in front of the camera and an audience as his life story is briefly told (or the part you want to retell). Then one by one, characters from his story join him with a story to tell about him.

Several important people from Saul's past go behind a screen one at a time and are "heard" saying something they remember about Saul from the story. Saul "remembers" their voice and there's a big reunion between Saul and the character to the sound of applause. The two sit on the couch together as the host asks them a few questions.

So tell me Stephen, where was Saul the first time you met him when you were being stoned?  How did you feel about that Saul?   etc etc.

People from Saul's past and story that appeared, included:  Rabbi Gamaliel his teacher, Stephen (the first Christian martyr), Judas of Damascus who took blind Saul in. Ananias whom God sent to baptize Saul, a witness to his conversion the road, and a Pharisee who doesn't know what to make of it all.

Last of all, Jesus appeared on the show to explain why he called Saul.

Their "comments" that they shared on the show were discussed ahead of time with the group and turned into note cards. The "show host" welcomed them onto the stage to sit next to Saul/Paul and then interviewed them with questions that referred to their note cards. They stayed and made room for each new character.

It's been fun, and a different approach for us.

The only props we needed were a couch (row of chairs), a few costumes, and a paper covering a large book on which we wrote:  This is Your Life Saul of Tarsus!

This TV show was a good "drama" to video record and watch again! (and ask a few more questions).  Record with your cellphone and play it back on a large screen (using a cellphone to HDMI cable).

Idea originally submitted by Ken Wezeman and since expanded here by various volunteers!

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Last edited by Neil MacQueen

Ideas for involving Preschoolers in Drama

We do modified Rotation Model for our preschoolers IN their preschool area, and one of the activities they love when its week comes up in rotation our Drama Workshop.

One thing we have used successfully is adapting the story into one of their popular TV shows like DORA THE EXPLORER.

In case, you don't know or remember, The show is presented in the style of both an interactive game and a point-and-click adventure game, with gimmicks such as title cards appearing in windows and Dora asking the viewer to help her decided which one is best for the current scenario or what to do next. Dora has various familiar friends and is accompanied by "Boots" her monkey friend. SIMILAR to Blue's Clues too.

Just did David's anointing today and it worked great.

We started with a Bible Storybook reading of the story. Then we invited the kids to become the "audience" in front of our "TV"  (a very large cardboard square in which Sam the Explorer and "Oily" appeared to act out their show). An off-screen narrator with a copy of the storybook and some notes directed the show as Sam and Oily moved on the screen.   (Sam and Oily were some funny teens we recruited.)

The kids shouted answers/directions to Sam the Explorer and Oily who always seemed to have a bit of trouble finding things for some fun reason.

Things the story led our "SAM THE EXPLORER" and his pet monkey "OILY" to go find or respond to:

Who's that talking to Samuel?
Help us find David (he's out in the field with sheep) Is he over that way?
Is this son David? (no, go find another)
Help us find the oil and horn to hold it in
What are we going to anoint him to be?

For "who" the narrator held up various signs and invited students to decide which one was correct, then invited a student to "click" the sign to advance the story/actors.  Dora and Oily waited onscreen while the kids were discussing.

The kids really got into it.

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Last edited by Luanne Payne

Bringing the Rotation Story to the Congregation through Interactive Drama

We try a few times each year to bring the story we have been studying in Sunday school to the congregation. In our church we have children's story time, usually an object talk done by the minister. Occasionally, I will let him know I'd like to take over children's time the last Sunday of a rotation.

Generally, I involve some or all of the children and some or all of the congregation through storytelling (with participation) or drama. Most often it involves humor and requirements are:

  • the material must be simple
  • either no props or very simple props
  • scripts (a copy for each participant often copied on front/back cardstock and part highlighted for ease of reading)
  • I prefer - narrating story and having the kids act it out.
  • length of 5-10 minutes.

Sometimes we will do the drama done in our Drama workshop.

Sometimes I will pull children and congregation members from their seats and we do the skit with no warning, practice, or prep (always fun and always a hit).

I will often take a part (crowd, women, God, Holy Spirit, Soldiers, nature, sound effects, etc.) and make the congregation do that part - this now gets everyone involved.

I will type up overheads of their lines and have my assistant run the overhead. So they will know when it's their turn to speak I always do an introduction by saying "... and the Crowd said..." and also doing an exaggerated rolling motion towards them with my hand - they may sing their lines, do them in rolling rhyme, or with an accent. I practice a couple of times with them so they understand what I want - and sometimes with a bit of encouraging fun, help them get their inner child to feel free to come out and play.

For material anything by author Stephen James is excellent. I've also found good skits or interactive stories by searching the internet, or reading from a storybook. Sometimes just some simple adjusting of the material to suit my needs .

The Sunday school does two full church services a year. One before Christmas and one the 1st of June. This June we will be bringing the Fall of Jericho to the congregation. We have a small rural church that has a balcony. We will be blocking off the back 3 rows of pews. The people of Jericho will be in the balcony with Rahab and 2 spy puppets, a red rope, and several Styrofoam bricks. The Israelites, priests with horns, and Joshua will be marching around the congregation below. I will be dressed as a high priest who is retelling the story and that script includes directions for the actors to follow. The spies will be lowered from the balcony (2 puppets attached to a red rope) and when the walls fall, they will really fall, as the bricks are dropped from the above balcony (and why the back rows are blocked, so no one gets hit on the head!).

I can guarantee you that half the congregation will have found themselves sitting down with their bibles the following week to read the book of Joshua and they will chuckle away as they remember falling bricks and a puppet spy who had his eyes covered as he slithered down the rope to safety!

Last edited by Luanne Payne

A New Twist on the Ol' Photo Tableaux Idea

Ian, one of our Writing Team writers, wrote a new take on the popular old "freeze photo" tableaux technique and turned it into "Ruth's Instagram Photo Drama" lesson. While the story retelling in the lesson has prompts for where/when to take what kind of photos, this "photo drama" is essentially scriptless from the kids' point of view.

RuthInstagramPhotoHere's the basic idea:

  1. You take a refrigerator box and turn it into a very large "cellphone" with a simple Instagram-looking interface painted onto it.
  2. Then you cut out the center of the "screen" so your kids can go INSIDE the box and pose key scenes and reactions to things happening during the reading of the story.
  3. Before posing a scene or reaction, the students write a "caption" or "comment" that tells what's going on in the photo -- and hang that page on the front of the "screen" so that the content become part of the photo itself.

The Team created its own brief storybook covering all four chapters of Ruth's story but you could use any Ruth storybook as long as it had most of the key scenes you needed to teach.

For example, if you're just teaching about the Chapter 2 Gleaning episode, you could shoot some photos from all the different characters' points of view. The other workers, what Ruth was thinking, Boaz wondering who the foreigner is. etc etc. What it feels like to have to glean (depend on others). Etc.

Ian's lesson plan has an outline of the story with "photo points" to take. Then you review the photos after the reading and share final insights.

Supporting Members can download the lesson here: Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz: Ruth's Instagram ~ A Photo Drama Workshop Lesson

Everyone can read the Lesson Summaries here!

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