Drama groups

Lucy Moore

Why?

A question I ask myself every Thursday night, but to answer it rationally (Thursday being 4 days away), a drama group is great for the following reasons:

• Providing a non-threatening way to join the church family
• Building up individuals’ self-confidence and skills base
• Building up group togetherness
• Having fun
• Exploring Bible stories and issues
• Giving children a way of serving the church

How do I start?

1. Collect ideas for drama games under the following headings:

• Warm up / icebreakers - games and exercises to help the group warm up physically, relax with each other & concentrate
• Imagination activities - anything which gets their imagination going
• Technical activities - anything which helps their technique - eg vocal work, movement work.
• Expressive activities - ways of expressing / performing ideas

You’ll find these by searching the web or by going to the Primary Education drama section of a big bookshop / games for children’s and youth groups from a Christian bookshop and rootling through what’s on offer, or better still, going to drama workshops and trying them out for yourself. (Yes, do contact us at BRF and we might be able to run one near you!)

2. Decide what you’re going to perform: a sketch for the Sunday group? A sketch in church? A full-length play? Having a project to work on focuses everybody.

3. You might run a session something like this: start promptly with 15 minutes of games and activities from the different headings above. Pray in an active way. Sit everyone down and explain the aim of this session. Split into groups to devise / rehearse for 30 minutes. Come back together to see what progress the different groups have made. Finish with praise for what they’ve all done and a song or prayer.

4. Make sure you keep your priorities in full view from the start - Artists (of any age) have a tendency to get peculiarly possessive of their Art, so keep reminding yourself and everyone you’re there to serve others, not to hoist yourselves onto a pedestal. What matters isn’t the drama but Jesus and our relationships with each other.

I could go on, but whole books have been written on this subject. Borrow them from the library before you buy them for keeps - there’s a lot of good stuff about and even more rubbish.