There’s no denying it, I’m a show-off. There’s nothing I like better than being on stage, singing, dancing and acting – I’ve just finished being in a production where I sang a song about evicting an old lady and breaking a man’s leg. But here’s my confession: I don’t like ‘Christian drama’. It fills me with dread: terrible storytelling, awful costumes, poor production values, clunky dialogue… I know I’m generalising wildly, and there are some credible practitioners out there, but I think I’ve been scarred for life.
However, setting aside these prejudices (even if it’s just me who has them), using drama in children’s work is a fantastic way to help children get inside Bible stories, to build confidence and to meet the needs of those learners who need to move around. Even if you don’t have the skills or desire to lead a drama activity, there are bound to be those in your children’s work team or wider congregation who would love to help you out.
Drama has long been used to help people express their feelings and explore different stories, and it’s no less effective when used with children. Helping them explore the feelings and motivations of different characters in a Bible story, or process their thoughts and responses through role play, goes deeper than simply being told what a story means. It allows children to theologise for themselves. It enables children to work out any application for themselves, and give voice to concerns and questions that they might not otherwise be able to vocalise.
So, at any stage in your session, using drama can help children gain confidence and give them a mechanism for exploring their faith and their own feelings. It can also help your group discover more about a Bible story, and what God is doing in it, in ways that can change their lives.
OPENING UP: GAME IDEAS
In your group, you’ll have confident children and shy children, children who always answer your questions and those who would never say boo to a goose (or any other large bird). Playing some drama games can help children gain confidence and become more comfortable in your group. Try games such as ‘Zip zap boing’ or ‘Splat’ to help them get used to being in a group and interacting with others.
Zip zap boing
The children stand in a circle. One child starts and points at one of the people standing next to them, saying, ‘Zip’. That player points at the next in the circle and says, ‘Zip’. The ‘Zip’ passes around the circle until a player decides to point back to the ‘Zipper’ and says, ‘Boing’. The ‘Zip’ then goes round the circle the way it came. A person who receives a ‘Zip’ or ‘Boing’ can choose to say ‘Zap’ and point at someone across the circle. That player then restarts the ‘Zip’ going in the direction of their choice.
Splat Again the children start in a circle, but this time one person stands in the middle. This person spins around and points to someone in the circle, shouting, ‘Splat!’ That child must duck, while the children on either side of them should point at each other and shout ‘Splat!’ Players are out if they fail to duck, or are the second of the two to shout, ‘Splat!’ Play continues until just two children are left.
There are lots of other games you can play – these are just two to get you started. Why not search the internet to find more?
DIGGING IN
There is something inherently dramatic about the Bible: the grand overarching story, the smaller stories of peoples and nations, and the individual stories of characters following God. In each one, characters fight against each other and against God, while others work for the Lord and call his people back to him. Each player has cares and worries, beliefs and passions, successes and failures.
Most Bible stories would make incredible plays or films (and many have already). But if we help children explore the stories using dramatic techniques, then we open up this exciting, turbulent narrative to them. We give them the tools to interpret the stories for themselves, without looking through a filter which we have put in place, and help them to continue their relationship with God.
There are lots of techniques you can use to help children engage with Bible stories. Each require different levels of preparations and confidence on your part:
Simple re-enactment
You could start with children re-enacting the Bible story as it is, read out from a childfriendly translation of the Bible such as the CEV or GNB. Before you start, make a note of the different characters that you’ll need and assign children to those parts. (If you have a confident group, they could do this themselves.) The children mime along to the story, or think up lines to say according to what is happening at that point in the story. If you have access to the Dramatised Bible, you could use that to introduce simple dialogue. This technique helps children understand the events in the story and start to use their imagination as they think through some of the reasons why things are happening.
Using props, set and costume
You may already do this when Christmas rolls around each year. Most churches put on nativity plays, complete with tea towels, toy donkeys and a doll for Jesus. But what about doing this for other stories throughout the year? There are many stories which involve moving from place to place (Abraham, Joseph, the exile, Paul’s journeys), lots with dramatic surroundings (Noah, the Ten Commandments, Jonah) and still more where objects play a large part (the Last Supper, the Exodus).
Before the session, gather together anything that you’d like to use in acting out the story. Together, read the passage and make sure the children are familiar with what happens. Show the group the items or clothing you have brought with you and either show them how to use them, or hand them over and let their imaginations decide what they do!
Using extra props or scenery feeds imagination and helps children to experience a little more of what is happening. They are able to put themselves more readily in the place of the protagonists – maybe tasting some of the joy of a man being able to walk again or understanding the fear of David facing Goliath!
Rewriting the story
If your group likes writing, you could encourage them to write their own script of the Bible story. If there isn’t much dialogue in the Bible text, they will need to imagine what different characters would have said. Use these scripts to act out the story. Going one step further, you could try to think how your Bible story would play out in a contemporary context. This is easier with parables (maybe you’re old enough to remember Riding Light’s ‘Parable of the good punk rocker’), though other stories just require a bit more imagination!
Helping children explore the feelings and motivations of different characters in a Bible story goes deeper than simply being told what a story means – it allows them to theologise for themselves
Hot-seating
If you have confident children, you could try hot-seating. Pick out all the major characters in a Bible story and assign each one to a pair or small group of children. If you were exploring the Prodigal son, you would need a father, an older son, a younger son, some of the younger son’s new friends and some servants. Encourage the groups to read the Bible story and view it from the point of view of their character. How would the father have felt when the younger son said he wanted his inheritance? What made the younger son ask for the money? What did the older son think when he heard what his brother had done? What were the new friends doing before they met the younger son? What did they do after they had abandoned him? What did the servants make of the break-up of their master’s family?
Once they have done this, ask for a volunteer from each group to ‘be’ their character. In turn the characters sit on a chair (the hot seat) and everyone else asks them questions. This volunteer should answer the questions as their character (with help from their group if they need it).
This method digs deep into the character and motivation of the people in the story. It encourages children to spend time being their given figure and develop an empathy with them which would not be possible if they were just to listen to the story.
GOING FORWARD
Responding to the Bible story is another place where drama can be life-changing. As I said earlier, children can begin to articulate thoughts and feelings that they wouldn’t during a discussion. Through a dramatic response, children can meet God in extraordinary ways.
Role play
Encourage the children to think of situations in their lives where what they have discovered through the Bible story might have an impact. Give them a situation (at home, in school or elsewhere) and ask them to think of what might happen if they put into practice what they have discovered (or if they don’t). Encourage them to role play a scene where they portray what they have thought about. What are the consequences? How might they change things to make a more positive outcome?
Again this technique promotes empathy and understanding of what different people might think. It gives children a safe environment to explore potentially difficult situations. For example, they might not get on with a sibling, and a role play in response to discovering something about God from the Bible can give them an outlet to try out this new understanding in a context which worries them with little risk.
SO WHAT NOW?
If you think you’d be comfortable starting to see how drama might help your group’s faith development, then give it a go! If you don’t feel confident trying it out, then find someone in your congregation who is and enlist them to help you (following your church’s child protection policy, of course).
Drama is the door to many different experiences of God, and can help even the shiest of children express themselves in new ways. So what are you waiting for?
