1. GENERAL HEADING: Warm-up Exercises

2. TITLE OF EXERCISE: "Circle Names"

3. GOALS: To build capacity for spontaneous reaction. To build recognition of other actors as characters. To build ability to work closely together.

4. NUMBER OF STUDENTS: Groups of 8

5. EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES: None

6. CLASS TIME NEEDED: 10 minutes

7. STEP-BY-STEP DESCRIPTION: Participants form a circle with their feet touching those of the persons next to them. One person stands in the middle of the circle. One person (not in the middle) starts by saying the name of someone else not in the middle. The person in the middle tries to touch (gently) the person whose name is called before that person can call another name; if s/he succeeds, the person touched moves to the middle. If the person in the middle does not succeed with the first name called, s/he continues to try to touch the person whose name is called before that person can call another name. The game is repeated, but this time characters' names from the play being worked on are used rather than real names.

8. POINTS FOR OBSERVATION, DISCUSSION: Responsiveness to spontaneous direction: Tension/relaxation.

9. SOURCE/REFERENCE: Michael Friedman, University of Scranton

10. ADDITIONAL READING: N.A.

11. VARIATIONS: Any genre of names can be used (requires participants to get names the other participants are using quickly).