Warm It Up

Warming up the body and brain is just as important as warming up the voice when it comes to theatre

Before each rehearsal, it's important to get everybody warmed up, energised and feeling like part of a strong company. Everyone needs to be physically and mentally ready to have a successful and fun rehearsal. Remember that your cast will probably come straight from their school day to rehearsals. They might have been sitting still at desks and concentrating on their lessons. You need to get them moving, imagining and working together. Get them to put their school books away, take their shoes off, put on more comfortable clothes if they need to, and encourage them to see the rehearsal as space to escape, explore and create.

It's a good idea to spend about 20-25 minutes doing these games when everyone arrives for a rehearsal. Make sure you build in some time on the performance night too, to warm up properly. Never let anybody go on stage cold, or carrying preoccupations from the school day. Before performances, use the same exercises that everybody recognises from rehearsals - choose the games that they like best and which have got the best results for you before. Avoid introducing brand new warm-ups just before a performance, as this could throw some people.

If you want to bring in your whole company, call the crew to join in with the cast warm-ups. Everyone is part of the production, so it's important you all reach the same level of energy and creativity before the show.

There are loads of games and exercises you can do, and you can invent your own. Here are just a few ideas to get you started.

1. EMOTIONAL WALKING

This is a good, gentle exercise to open your warm-up session; it will encourage emotional expression and get the blood moving.

• Ask everyone to walk around the room, moving in and out of each other. (Make sure they don't just walk in a circle in the same direction; the idea is that they find their own path.)
• Call out an emotion and ask everyone to use their body and their manner of walking to show that emotion. It's a good idea to start with something easy and positive, like 'happy'.
• Give everyone a minute to explore their body language for that emotion.
• Choose another emotion. You can do this for as many different emotions as you like. If anyone has trouble channelling big emotions like 'scared', you could use stories, eg. ask them to move around as though they have found out some bad news, as though they have seen a ghost, won a prize, etc.
• You may find that they change pace depending on the emotion, or even stop still. This is fine.
• You can vary the intensity of the emotions by using a 1 to 10 scale, 1 being just a small indication of the emotion, 10 being the whole body and movement taken over by the emotion. You could call out 'happy, 10' and then 'happy 4'. This is a good way to encourage people to understand how they can use their body to reveal emotions.

2. WALKING INSECT

This is a fun way to get the group bonded and relaxed. It's particularly good if you have dance or choreography sequences in your show, as it will help your company to feel physically comfortable together.

• Everyone stands in a very tight circle, shoulder-to-shoulder, facing the centre.
• Everyone turns left by 90 degrees.
• Shuffle in so that you are all even closer to one another.
• Then ask everyone to sit down. If you are all close enough, you will be sitting on each other's knees.
• The whole construction should support itself so that you can actually walk like an insect with lots of legs. (Make sure you indicate which foot to start with!)

3. FIGURES OF EIGHT

Physical and good for concentration, this exercise will get everyone in tune with their body, from head to toe.

• Everyone scatters around the space, facing in whatever direction they choose.
• You're going to work each bit of your body in a figure of '8'.
• Start small and work up, eg. from the left big toe, to the left ankle, left lower left, left whole leg.
• Do the figure of '8' two or three times on each body part and make sure you work both sides of the body equally.
• Work up so you do the hips, shoulders and head, then fingers, hands, wrists, arms.

4. FOLLOW YOUR HEART

This will help everyone to experiment with their physicality and posture:

• Ask everyone to walk around the room. (Make sure they're not following each other, as this will inhibit their creativity.)
• Call out a body part and ask everyone to move as though led by that part.
• Explore as many features as you can. Eyes, nose, fee and chest are good, as they inspire exaggerated postures. Many people in real life do actually move as though led by certain features; it could be interesting to incorporate suggestions of this into your actors' performances.
• If you like, you can get more abstract with this and call out things like 'heart' or 'brain'. This will link nicely with the Emotional Walking game. How would someone move if led by the brain?

5. THE HAND CLAP

This is a great way to unify and send positive energy around right before the show starts. Do this backstage, or in the auditorium before the audience starts coming in:

• Form a circle, facing in so that everyone can see each other clearly.
• Hold up your hands in front of you, shoulder-width apart, as though preparing to clap your hands.
• Wait, stand still and completely silent, watching each other.
• When you feel the energy, clap you hands.
• The idea is to repeat this as many times as you need, until you clap together (Make sure to pause between each clap). When you do clap together, it will give everyone a sense of energy, unity and concentration.

You are now ready to do some vocal warm-ups before your performance! For more ideas on preparing for performance, visit Improv Encyclopedia.

Words: Maddie York, Sing Up