Stage It: Drama and Devised Theatre

You need: open space · a drum or clap signal for 'freeze' · cards with story titles

1. In groups of four, choose a story title card (such as 'The flood', 'Last one picked', 'The protest').
2. Make three freeze frames: beginning, middle and end. Use high, middle and low levels.
3. Make sure the most important character is where the audience looks first: at the front, higher, or with everyone facing them.
4. Show your three frames with a clap between each. The audience says what story they saw.
5. Add thought tracking: when tapped, each actor says one sentence their character is thinking.

How you'll know: The audience can tell your story back to you without you saying a word, apart from the thoughts.

Safety: No lifting or balancing on each other; keep freeze frames on the floor or on stable chairs.

Go further: Add a slow-motion movement between frames that shows how the characters got from one moment to the next.

You need: large paper · felt pens · a chair for the hot seat

1. Draw an outline of a person on large paper.
2. Outside the outline, write facts others can see: age, clothes, job, how they walk and talk.
3. Inside, write what they feel, what they want, and what they are afraid of.
4. One person sits in the hot seat as the character. The group asks questions like 'What did you do this morning?' and 'What do you want most?'
5. Add new ideas from the hot seat to the role on the wall.

How you'll know: Your character has a clear want and a clear worry, and you can stay in role for at least five questions.

Go further: Hot-seat a character who is the 'problem' in your play and find a reason they act the way they do.

You need: a pack of playing cards (1–10) · two chairs and a table

1. Each actor secretly draws a card: 1 is the lowest status, 10 is the highest.
2. Improvise a short scene (a shop, a doctor's waiting room, a council meeting) and play your status through your body, eye contact, space and voice.
3. The audience guesses each actor's number.
4. Swap cards and play the same scene again. Talk about what changed.

How you'll know: The audience guesses status within two numbers, and you can name three ways you showed it.

Go further: Play a scene where status flips halfway through: the low-status character ends up in charge.

You need: interview questions · a device for photos or voice notes (with permission) · access to trusted websites or the library

1. Write four open interview questions (who, what, when, how does it make you feel, what would help?).
2. Interview one or two people the issue affects. Ask permission before recording and tell them how you'll use their words.
3. Find two facts from a trusted source such as a council, DOC, NZ History or Stats NZ.
4. Photograph or sketch the place where the issue happens.
5. Highlight one real line, fact or image you want to put in your play.

How you'll know: You have an interview, two facts with sources, and a clear idea of who the issue affects.

Safety: Interview people you or your whānau know, or with a teacher present; stay together if visiting a site and keep away from roads and water.

Go further: Find out who has the power to change the issue and invite them to your performance.

You need: a storyboard strip (six boxes) · sticky notes · a timer

1. Write each scene on a sticky note: opening image, problem scenes, turning point, final image.
2. Move the notes around until the order builds tension.
3. Choose a transition between each pair of scenes: freeze, slow motion, a sound cue, a narrator line or a chorus movement.
4. Run the play with a timer. Cut anything that repeats.

How you'll know: Your play runs 6–10 minutes, and every transition is planned and rehearsed.

Go further: Use your symbol (an object, colour or sound) at the start and end so it means something different the second time.

You need: 2–4 LED torches or LED work lamps · coloured cellophane (red, blue, yellow, green) · pegs or tape · a darkened room · a volunteer actor

1. Darken the room. Light the actor's face from the front. Then from the side, from above and from below.
2. Write one word for the mood each direction creates.
3. Peg cellophane over the torch. Try each colour, then two torches with different colours from each side.
4. Mix red, green and blue light on a white wall and see what colours appear where they overlap.
5. Choose the lighting state for your opening and final image.

How you'll know: You can explain why you chose each lighting state and what it adds to the meaning.

Safety: Use LED lights only, which stay cool. Never put cellophane on halogen or incandescent bulbs. Keep cables taped down and walkways clear.

Go further: Use a sheet as a screen and make a shadow scene by lighting actors from behind.

You need: voices, bodies and everyday objects · a phone or laptop with a speaker · a free sound effects library · cue sheet template

1. Close your eyes and list the sounds of your setting (a busy road, a stream, a school at lunchtime).
2. Create a live soundscape with voices, body percussion and objects. Record it if you like.
3. Find one or two recorded effects from a free library and note where each came from.
4. Fill in a cue sheet: cue number, the moment on stage, the sound, the volume, and when it stops.
5. Rehearse with the sound operator until cues land on time.

How you'll know: Every sound cue is written down, lands at the right moment, and adds to the story.

Safety: Keep volume comfortable and warn the audience before any sudden loud sound.

Go further: Use silence as a cue: plan one moment where all sound stops and see what it does to the audience.

You need: your rehearsed play · a 'joker' (host) · a clear space where audience members can step in

1. Perform the whole play once without stopping.
2. The joker explains the rules: in the replay, anyone can call 'stop!', take the place of the main character, and try a different choice.
3. Replay the forum moment. When someone calls stop, they step in; the other actors respond truthfully in character.
4. After each try, the joker asks the audience: did that work? What else could happen?
5. Record the ideas the audience tried.

How you'll know: At least two audience members try a new choice, and you can list the solutions people suggested.

Go further: Take the best audience solution and write it up as a proposal for the person who can make the change.