5 Activities to Spark Your Child’s Interest in the Theatre

Scarves, hats, jewellery, wigs, and coats can all seem like treasures to your child, especially when you place them in a special trunk or suitcase they can easily open. They may even spontaneously dive into the collection and invent a character or two. If not, you can always invite your child to dress up like the following characters:

• Grandma or grandpa
• Their favourite hero
• A person they look up to
• Their inner voice (e.g., someone shy or extravagant)
• Etc.

In addition to being fun, a dress up trunk can help your child learn more about themself, overcome shyness, and it can even be a tool for self-expression. These are all excellent reasons to give it a try!

Some Greek tragedy masks are funny, while others are a little scary. Either way, they’re a great way into the world of theatre. Do you know where they come from? Before you start making and using your own masks, consider doing a little background research with your child to learn more about them.

Use your imagination or get inspired by your research to make your mask. Once your creation is complete, put it on and try one of the following ideas:

• Recreate one of the finest tragedies
• Mime a story
• Take advantage of the anonymity afforded by your mask to tell a secret
• Etc.

There are so many beautiful plays for people of all ages out there. You might try finding one the whole family can enjoy and read it together. To do so, get comfortable, and follow these steps:

• Choose a character
• Identify their key characteristics
• Have each person read their lines out loud 

The idea isn’t just to have fun—this activity also gives your child the opportunity to find their own voice while practising their reading fluency.

In order to act out a play, we need to understand the full range of emotions and to be able to perform them accurately! To practise, you can try playing a game of “No laughing matter.” First, two opponents should face each other. Next:

• The first player acts out an emotion of their choice (e.g., with a loud belly laugh, silent tears, an angry roar)
• The second player repeats the emotion, but tries to outdo their opponent
• The first player acts out a new emotion . . .
• And so on, until one of the players starts laughing for real. 

The player who can keep a straight face the longest wins. If you want to play again, the other player gets to go first.

A story hat (a tuque works too!) can be a great tool for making up stories. Here’s how it works:

• Write 50 words or so on separate pieces of paper and place them in the hat
• Have each player pick a word
• The first player invents the first sentence of the story using the word they just picked
• The next players do the same thing one at a time, keeping in mind that all the sentences must be part of the same story.

To spice up the game and add a little “drama,” you can create additional rules such as the following:

• Say the sentences while laughing
• Say the sentences with a particular accent
• Omit certain vowels
• Etc.