After you have led student actors through Group Mirror: Practice in the Acting Skill of Cooperation, move directly into this next step of the drama activity that gives students practice in the Basic Acting Skill of Concentration.

NTC’s Dictionary of Theatre and Drama Termsdefines concentration as “…the actor’s focus on the moment of the play in which he or she is acting. Also referred to as “centering”—focusing on the work at hand, and being in character, in the moment of the play.”

Group Mirror: Focus on Concentration

Purposes

1. To repeat the Group Mirror: Focus on Cooperation activity with additional challenges. 

2. To emphasize the importance of the Basic Acting Skill of concentration in all drama activities. 

3. To give student actors practice in the skill of concentration.

Process

1. Ask the students to show you with their faces how you held your face in the first Group Mirror.

2. Tell the students, “As you hold your faces the way I held mine, please think of one word - one adjective to describe how I held my face. Raise your hands and when I gesture to you, please say your one word out loud. Repeats are fine. If someone else says the adjective you were thinking of, please say it again. It helps me to hear that more than one person has the same idea.”

The students most frequently respond with “serious,” “still,” and “blank.” Some young people have given me “expressionless,” “stern,” and “focused.”

3. Praise the students’ responses and tell them, “That’s right. But when I look in the mirror, do you think I always keep my face serious, still, and blank? No. Sometimes I make faces! Don’t you?”

4. Then explain that the next drama activity is the same – Group Mirror – but this time the goal is to practice the acting skill of concentration. Explain that “Concentration means that you focus so well on what you are doing, that nothing distracts you. But in drama, the hardest thing for some young actors is avoid cracking up with laughter.”

5. Go on to explain “In this Group Mirror, I am going to make faces when I look into the mirror. Your job is to copy what I do with my hands and arms and also copy the faces I make.”

6. Survey the students: “Raise your hands if you think you will be able to maintain your concentration. Raise your hands if you are not quite sure if you can.”

7. Raise the stakes by telling students “What if I told you I had a hundred dollar bill in my back pocket for every student who maintains concentration in this Group Mirror? Now raise your hand if you think you could do it. But – I don’t really have a hundred dollar bill. This is drama – remember that we are agreeing to pretend. But in drama, as in real life, if you make up your mind to do something, you usually can do it.”

8. Then explain the rules for this concentration challenge: “In a minute, I am going to invite you to stand. Then we will begin the concentration challenge. But – if it is too much for you and you cannot keep from laughing, please do the silent laugh, sit back down, and let the rest of us finish without making any noise or comments Loud laughter and comments make it difficult for beginning actors to maintain their concentration.”

9. Invite the students to stand. Once again, perform slow fluid hand and arm movements while you make faces “in the mirror.”  Do this for no longer than 20 seconds while the students silently mirror you. (Note: If some students crack up laughing and do not follow the directions to sit down and watch in silence, my advice is to ignore them and complete the activity.)

Reflect on the Drama Activity

1. Ask the students to raise their hands if they were able to maintain their concentration throughout that Group Mirror concentration challenge.

2. Ask students, “How did you do it? Here’s this person making these ridiculous faces up here. How did you keep your concentration? What strategies did you use?

3. Call on students who kept concentration and ask them to share their strategies.

4. If necessary, ask the students if they would like to try the concentration challenge again – now that they have some strategies. Repeat the activity.

5. End by asking the students “In the theatre, if actors on stage do something hilarious, is the audience allowed to laugh?” (Yes) “But are the actors supposed to laugh at themselves?” (No) Explain that concentration is an acting skill that actors practice again and again so that they get better and better at it.

Repeat both Group Mirror activities as warm-ups before drama sessions.

Here are directions for a 4-person variation on the mirror activity