RESOURCE PACK: ‘Whoosh whoa zap’ warm up game.
By Lucy Shaw
March 2014, Istanbul Cevre MS festival
Whoosh Whoa Zap! Circle warm-up game (taken from Improv for Actors by Dan Diggles) and adapted by me to suit groups
preparing to rehearse and perform a scripted play* in a very short space of time. This is a really fun way of getting the students used
to saying some of the key lines dramatically in character and sometimes also introducing the plot. After a few minute’s practice, any
students hesitating too long or not putting in enough effort are thrown in the soup (sit in the middle of the circle)! Of course, you can
change the lines you choose and try it out with lots of other plays, but here are some suggestions to get you going!
“Whoosh” is passed around the circle
“Whoa” changes direction
“Zap” shoots it across the circle to another person who continues
The Zap receiver may have to say a phrase before sending it on. This is optional.
Whoosh
All hail Macbeth!
Whoa
I have done the deed.
Julius Caesar
Help, ho, they murder
Ceasar!
Et tu, Brute?
Romeo and
Juliette
Hamlet
What’s in a name?
Be gone and live or stay
and die.
Something is rotten in the
state of Denmark.
I love thee not, therefore
pursue me not.
Darling, why don’t you ask
the Wise One?
Macbeth
To be or not to be.
Zap
Double, double, toil and
trouble.
Beware the Ides of March!
A plague on both your
houses.
Murder most foul!
Zap receiver
Come what may.
Friends, Romans,
Countrymen, lend me
your ears.
Parting is such sweet
sorrow.
My hour is almost come.
Midsummer
I love thee.
Let me not play a woman; The course of true love
Night’s Dream
I have a beard coming.
never did run smooth.
More than A
What must I do?
Whizz Shabang!
None shall pass without
Match by
a fight!
Aaron
Shepherd
*I especially like using Brendan P. Kelso’s creatively edited Shakespeare for kids and Aaron Shepard’s Reader’s theatre plays as
starting points for performances with my fifth and sixth graders (9-12 years old).
Enjoy. Lucy Shaw ([email protected] - International School of Geneva)