Name Gesture

Summary

A common name game to encourage imagination, physical movement and mime when introducing yourself.

How Do I Play It?

Start in a drama circle.

Teacher/facilitator models/starts by stepping forward and saying their name with an action. Then steps back and ask the students to follow the example, and then to pass it on to the next student etc.

Continue until everyone has been introduced.

Tips

For less confident groups you could run it in pairs where they introduce each other and have an opportunity to discuss their mimes with each other.

Variations

Following the students name and gesture the whole group repeats.

Once familiar you could use just the actions to pass the gestures from any students around the circle.

Participants
Pairs, Small Groups, Whole Group
Expertise
All
Skills
Character, Confidence, Improvisation
Read more...
Games could be a beginning starter, an introducing step during a workshop or as an end plenary. They are a platform for further development and are never meant to be the whole session on their own.

The nature of drama games is that they are shared, adapted and extended. The original author is not so important as the shared practice. You’ll find games on the site that you’ve seen before, called something different or that you even use in your own teaching toolkit.

We hope that among the known games are ideas of how to refresh old ones as well as new games to use.