These drama activities celebrate the Olympic Torch Relay by exploring the themes of peace, unity and friendship and culminate in a powerful presentation piece.
1. Three become one
- Invite students to take part in a piece of drama to celebrate the Olympic Torch Relay. Divide students into three groups, each group representing peace, unity or friendship.
- One or two participants at a time should come together from each of the three groups to communicate important messages about the Torch Relay and what it stands for. This ‘coming together’ is a great way for students to work with space and movement. Musical instruments or a soundtrack could be used too, showing three individual sounds coming together as one.
Making the message clear
In the planning stages of the drama, students could think about
- The ancient origins of the Torch Relay.
- Representing some of the memorable moments of the Olympic Flame and Torch Relay of modern times as freeze frames or as photographs that ‘come to life’.
- The experience of being a Torchbearer in 2012. What impact will the event have on the people and communities it passes through? Read a story about a day in the life of a Torchbearer for some inspiration.
Creating your presentation
- Before creating the final presentation, try some relay improvisation games. Group 1 begins to improvise around the theme of the Torch Relay, then when you say, “Pass the Flame,” they freeze, and move onto the next group.
Performing the drama
- Consider the audience and venue for the presentation. Are you going to be working in your own class, with younger children or with community groups outside school?
- Could you organise groups to create promotional posters, film the show, and report and write press releases?
2. Torch Relay creative writing
Encourage students to write a short story with three essential ingredients:
1. The writing must include one of the locations that the Torch Relay will pass through. Find a complete list of locations.
2. The story must feature the Olympic Torch at some point.
3. One of the Olympic Values – respect, excellence or friendship – must be a thread or theme.
Relay plots – try some fun warm up exercises to generate ideas, begin a story plot and pass it on.
The judging panel
Encourage students to promote the short story as a creative writing competition and set up their own judging panel.
Ideally, the first meeting of the judging panel should establish a set of criteria against which the stories will be judged.
Are you going to invite anybody local to be a part of the judging panel? Will they read all the stories or just a final shortlist?
What prize might be on offer for the winning stories – could your local newspaper publish the winners? Perhaps there is a specific school trophy or prize that could be awarded? Remember the power of three – will there be three prize medals, gold, silver and bronze?
3. Ready, steady… write!
Set up a relay poetry event to create three communal ballads or story poems to celebrate the Olympic Torch Relay.
What is a ballad?
A ballad is a narrative poem, sometimes written communally, in a four-line stanza pattern. The most popular ballads use an a b a b rhyme scheme.
Any form of poem that tells a story would be appropriate for this activity, although it is a good idea to decide on approximate verse size and structure before beginning.
Finding inspiration
Share examples of ballads with your students. Good sources of inspiration are the legends of Robin Hood, Bob Dylan lyrics, The Ballad of Frankie and Johnny and La Belle Dame Sans Merci by Keats.
Setting up your ballad relay
The idea is that three groups work to create three ballads simultaneously by starting and passing on a group of stanzas to the next team… ballad-writing relay!
Each of the three groups has an arranged time slot, at least 30 minutes, to create their four stanzas on the topics below and then pass their verses on.
Why not contact other schools in your area and write collaboratively with them?
Stanzas 1-4: The origins of the Torch Relay.
Stanzas 5-8: The Torch finds its way to your ‘fair city’ – what has your town or location got to offer?
Stanzas 9-12: Where will the Torch end up? Think about its great destiny at the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.
