15 Engrossing Drama And Improv Games For Teens

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Whether your teen is shy and introverted or is always hyperactive and extremely outgoing, drama games will help channel all her energy into a positive action. We at MomJunction have compiled a list of brilliant improv and drama games for teens.

Drama Games For Teens:

1. Count The One, Two, Threes:

Let your teen pair up with a partner for this fun game. It is an absorbing way to improve concentration and hone one’s multi-tasking abilities.

First, ask your teen to stand facing the partner and keep counting one, two, three over and over again.
Once the pair can do so comfortably, ask them to clap their hands instead of saying ‘one.’ They will still have to say two and three out loud. So the pattern will be a clap, followed by saying two, three out loud.
Once the pair can do this step, they have to exchange the word ‘three’ for the act of bending their knees. So, the pattern will be a clap, say the word ‘two’ out loud and then bend the knees. It has to continue like this over and over again.
Once your teens can master these movements and do them properly, ask them to create their steps and incorporate the same.

[ Read: Fun Party Games For Teens ]

2. The Truth And Lie Hide And Seek:

The aim of this drama game is to try and improve the facial expressions. Your teens will have to master the art of convincing and maintaining their expressions, whether they are lying or are being truthful.

If there are many teens around, they can all sit down in a circle to play the game. In case there are not too many teens, you can divide them up into pairs and ask them to sit facing each other.
For the game, each teen has to start by introducing himself with three lines about self. The teens will have to say two true things about themselves, but one lie. While doing so, your teen will have to try and keep the expressions as calm and natural as possible, so that the other teens are not able to spot out the lie.
The other teens who are listening to the introduction will have to try and read the facial expressions and detect the lie. Once a teen gets caught, he steps out of the game, while the teen who found the lie wins a point.
The teens can also play this as a group challenge, where one team will be the spotters and the other team has to lie. The teens in the lying group can choose who will tell the lie. Once ready, the teens in the lying group can introduce themselves with one sentence each. While all the teens in the group will tell the truth, only one teen will lie. The other group has to try and spot out who is lying. You can keep reversing the groups into the lying and the spotting teams for each round.

3. Catching The Name:

Here is a fun way to introduce your teen to new friends, or just throw a challenge game amongst friends. It will help build concentration.

Let your teen and friends sit in a circle. For the game, your teen can use a ball or a throw pillow.
The teen with the ball or the pillow has to throw it at random at any other teen in the circle. While doing so, the teen who is throwing the ball will have to say his name out loud. For instance, if your teen is throwing the ball while doing so he will have to say “Hi I’m so and so.” Make sure that your teen is looking at the other teen while saying his name. Once the other teen receives the ball, he has to throw it to another teen while saying his name.
First, let all the teens get comfortable with each other and be able to practice this over and over again.
Once they can do so, take the game to the next level. Now when your teen throws the ball, instead of just introducing himself, he will have to say his name and the name of the person he is throwing the ball to. For instance, he has to say something such as “so and so is throwing at so and so.” Keep repeating the game till all the teens are comfortable and can say it.
For the next stage, the teen who throws the ball has to fold his arms in front of him to signal that he has already played. As the tempo of the game builds up, the teen who throws the ball has to be careful and not throw the ball at any teen whose hands are folded. While concentrating on the folded hands, the teens will also have to remember to say the right sentences.

[ Read: Group Activities For Teenagers ]

4. Counting Up And Down:

Here is another fun drama game for teenagers that will help them to improve his concentration as well as hone his patience skills.

Let the teens sit down together and form a circle. The idea is that the teens will have to do a count up and a countdown, without any particular order of person. For instance, one teen starts the game by saying out the word ‘one’ and any other teen in the circle can say the next number.
The teens have to be extremely alert and ready so that they can say out the numbers in sequence.
It is not allowed to repeat a number during the same round, for instance, if a teen says the number ‘four’ the other teen cannot say the same again, as it will lead to a negative marking. The teens have to concentrate on the numbers that are being said and also use their patience to take their turn properly.

5. What Are You Doing:

In this fun acting game, your teen will have to keep his focus on high alert and put his fast thinking skills to use.

One teen has to take center stage and perform an act of doing something, without saying anything out loud. You can let all the other teens stand in a queue or sit in a circle.
Now one teen gets up and asks the teen what he is doing. He has to answer anything else other than what he is doing. For instance, if he is performing the action of dancing, he will have to say something else, such as “I am brushing my teeth.”
The teen who asked the performer “What are you doing” will have to start immediately acting on the action that the other teen said, in this case, “I am brushing my teeth.”
Now another teen will come up and ask “What are you doing” and the game continues till everyone gets a chance to perform.

6. Shake Up The Sequence:

This fun game will help your teen warm up and get ready for a performance or just for fun.

All the teens have to stand up and together count out from one to ten. While saying out each number, they have to shake their right arm. Next, they have to count down from ten to one and shake their left arm.
Once they have finished the sequence, they have to start counting again from one till nine and shake the right leg. Next, they have to count down nine to one and shake their left leg.
Keep changing the sequence like this till the teens are left with counting only from zero to one and back.

[ Read: Indoor Games For Teens ]

7. Shake Up A Storm:

The game will help teens modulate their voices.

Let all teens stand up on one side of the room and one teen takes on the role of the conductor. The conductor has to move his arms up or down, showing how to build up the crescendo.
The teens will have to concentrate on the driver’s movement and modulate their voice accordingly. In this way, the storm will build up and subside and build up and down again. Add actions such as stomping feet for thunder, rubbing hands together for breeze and so on..

8. The Voice Over:

Here is another game that will help your teen practice expressions through voice.

Blindfold one teen at a time and let all the teens stand in a queue. Now one teen goes over to the blindfolded teen, disguises his voice and his tone and says something such as “who am I?”
The blindfolded teen has to guess the teen’s name correctly. If the answer is right, the blindfold passes on and so on. Make sure all the teens have a turn at being blindfolded and at disguising their voice.

9. Walk With Me:

This game will teach your teen to follow cues without being told and how to read body language.

Let all the teens stand around the room and start walking on a given signal. Make sure they walk all over the room and use up all available space. At another given signal, all the teens have to stop and freeze wherever they are.
Let them practice till they get the hang of it. Next, the teens will have to do the same thing but without being given a signal. They will have to read each other’s body language and start walking as a group, and stop at the same time as well.

[ Read: Sleepover Games For Teens ]

Super Fun Improv Games For Teens:

Image: iStock

10. The No Sense Dictionary:

Here is a fun improv game that will help your teens concentrate on what others are saying, and come up with a made up answer to that in an instant.

Let the teens sit down in a circle. One teen starts by saying a word. The teen sitting next has to come up with any word randomly, which does not have to be connected to the first word.
For instance, the first teen says the word ‘spaghetti’ and the second teen says the word ‘book.’ The third teen has to immediately come up with a definition sort of statement which will have to include the two words mentioned earlier. The teen can come up with anything, as long as it is fun and creative. A fun sentence could be something such as “The spaghetti has recently been declared as one of the most delicious form of bookmark that any book lover could use, especially while reading during a meal.”
To make it fun, you can also change the order and pick any two people at random to say the words and a third random person to come up with the definition.

11. Act-ionary:

Here is a game that is not just an extension of dumb charades, but is a great way to help your teen express and emote.

Divide up the teens in to different groups depending on the number of teens that are there. One teen will have to help lead the game, so count out one teen from the groups.
Hand out a sheet of paper and pen to each group and ask them to come up with a list of words, expressions and such that have to be acted out. Try to keep them as much expression oriented as possible.
Make sure that the teens write their team names on the paper, such as team A, team B or anything that can distinguish them apart.
The teen who will help to lead the game will take the lists and make sure that he hands the opponent team’s list to the player who comes up to act. The player will see the word and then go back to his team and emote, without saying anything. The players have to guess the right emotion, expression or word that is mentioned in the list.

12. Freeze And Justify:

It is a great improv game for teenagers that will help them to think on his toes and come up with something immediately.

Let all the teens sit in a circle and ask any two teens to stand in the middle. Say any scene out loud that the teens will have to enact there. The key is to use a lot of hand movement, expressions and such.
During any time that the teens are performing, any other teen can shout out the word ‘Freeze.’ The performing teens will have to freeze in their act immediately.
The teen who shouted ‘Freeze’ has to get up and tap any one of the performing teens, who will now sit back. The new teen will have to take over the act and start a new one, by initiating the movements and communicating to the partner how the new act will proceed.
As all this has to be done without speaking, it is a unique way to help the teens express themselves and communicate through their facial and body language. Make sure all teens get a chance at performing.

[ Read: Camping Games And Activities For Teens ]

13. Only A Word:

In this fun improve game, your teen will build his concentration skills and use his fast thinking skills to good use.

Use a ball to initiate the game. The idea is to build up a story where each teen says only one word at a time. For instance, your teen rolls the ball out by saying out a word, such as “there” or “once.”
The teen who gets the ball says another word to maintain the flow and rolls out the ball. Whoever gets the ball says the next word and so on.

14. Changing Action:

In this improv game, your teen will have to be ready to exercise his mental as well as physical prowess. It’s a great way to improve concentration and retain memory.

Let the teens sit in a circle and one person sits inside to start the game. The starter of the game does some action, such as clapping hands while the others watch. Now the starter says ‘change’ and starts doing another action, such as rubbing hands together.
The teens have to remember the previous action and start clapping their hands. Now, when the starter shouts ‘change’ and does a different action, the teens have to start rubbing their hands together.
The game will continue this way where all the teens have to mimic the action that the starter was doing before shouting ‘change.’

15. Hey:

The game will teach your teen how to focus and perform in sync.

Let all teens stand in a circle while one teen stands in the middle. The teen calls out ‘hey’ and all teens have to look directly in some other teen’s face. There will be some teens who will be looking away from each other, but some who will realize that they are staring directly at someone else.
When that happens, the two teens who are looking into each other’s eyes have to say ‘hey’ and move out.

With so many drama and improv games to try, your teen will never have a dull moment with friends around. Not only will it make indoor time fun, but also help in improving your teen’s concentration, patience, expression skills and the ability to read sign and body language.

The best part is that you can join in as well! So moms, do let us know which of the above you are planning to play this weekend. And share some of your game ideas if you already do these with your teen.