Fun Game for Beginners

An important aspect of character interaction on stage, that is over looked sometimes, is the status of each character compared to the others. By this I mean, Father/Son, Grandmother/Grandaugher, King/Servant. Each character
has a "ranking order" to other characters on stage. I have a fun game to play to help beginners recongnize the heirarchy between characters.

You will need a deck of cards. Hopefully you will have a large group, but a minimum of 5 people is needed for each round.

Have the first group of people take the stage and form a line. Explain to them that you will give them a card which they will hold against their forehead so they cannot see it, but the others can.

This card will indicate their ranking order in the group. A King and Queen are, of course, the highest and then following numerically down to the "2".

After you have given each person a card, you will say "Go" and the group must now interact with each other, based on the ranking order of the cards.

After they have played a scene for a bit, have them stop and see if they can guess which card they have. Discuss, with the whole group, the interactions they saw and any observations.

Have enough rounds so that everyone gets to have a card at least once.

Start very logically - have a King and Queen, a couple high cards and a couple low cards. Then mix it up a bit and have a King with all 2's / a King and Queen with 9's and 10's / A mixture of numbers, no face cards. For the last one - have one person be the Joker. (That's a fun round!)

This is a very easy game to play and catch onto and I know it will reap benefits for your actors!

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