“As If” – The Limitlessness of Play

I was fortunate enough to attend NYU for my MFA in Acting under the legendary theater director, Zelda Fichandler.  Zelda taught a class for the first years called, The Actor’s Space, which I later came to realize was an in-depth exploration into our Imagination. We created one-person shows which she called Universe Projects and performed them just for the other 17 members of our class and, of course, Zelda.  We learned intimacies about each other, in an instant of mime, mask or music that would have taken years to reveal, and which would make our work as an ensemble incredibly strong.  Every day there would be another brave sharing of personhood.  And ironically, the more specific the work, the more universally we all felt it.

And then the games began.  Zelda led us in the kind of theater games that rely on the trust an actor has in her ability to play. It was like a wonderful regression to kindergarten, where what you make-believe teaches you about the world and yourself, and you don’t even know it.

One of my favorite of these games Zelda called, “As If”.  Sitting in a circle, one person begins, and off the top of their head, creates a hypothetical scenario:

“As if you were an astronaut in the middle of a space war”.  The person sitting to their left would rise and into the center of the circle they would go, letting their body float in a space-suit we couldn’t see and their face look horrified, dodging invisible lasers in a breathtaking display of alacrity and improbability. Ten years later, I still remember what was given to me by one of my classmates: “As if you were a camel, going to the dentist”… And so I became one. Quickly, I found the humps on my back, a cloven foot, and a sort of dull toothache that makes one shuffle toward the nearest DDS office.  On four legs with sorts of gutteral moans, I became a camel going to the dentist.

We didn’t do it for laughs (although they invariable came)…we did it for  commitment.  For being in our 20s and still playing as hard as we did when we were 4.  Somehow, after  “As If” we were more exhausted than after our Circus class where we held each other upside-down on the trapeze.  More elated than after Yoga class, where we practiced forearm-stands for 20 minutes.

Two tiny two-letter words.  What was their power? When you give an actor permission to be themselves first and to transform second, amazing things can happen.  It wasn’t called, “You Are” for a reason: Too much pressure. We were not required to sublimate ourselves in the service of the exercise, but rather let go for a moment and tumble into these imagined possibilities.  Those words are so incredibly open-ended, generous and full of possibility. They inspired the Thinker to come up with a delicious phrase and the Doer to just become.

And mostly in Grad Acting what I learned was how to unlearn any cerebral, methodologies that might get in my way of playing; To invest in the character AS IF her life was my life.  Second year: “As if I was Kate Keller from All My Sons”.  Third year, “As if I was Juliet”.  And in scene-study class we grew in confidence, how to create the given circumstances for ourselves, connect to the text and listen – really listen.

“If you believe it, we’ll believe it.” was a lesson the teachers gave us.  And for me it started with “As if”. Make-believe is best when played hard, without regard for looking foolish.  There is no right, only risks.  The more you invest, the more child-like you become.  Dress-up, House, Restaurant.  Children play as if it was their job and in the classes at Child’s Play NY, this is what we celebrate.  Through total commitment to play is how one becomes an imaginative creative force in the world.

Ideas for how to play As If in your family

The Players

You and your child can go back and forth.  You can play it sitting in a circle with your whole family in from out of town. You can play in a park, living  room or bedroom.  With two players, or an entire class or party.

Guides for Play

For younger children (ages 3 or 4) keep the sentences simple.  For instance, you can stick to a round of just animals.  “As if I was a bear”.  Once your child has mastered that, add a little something:  “As if I was a bear with my paw stuck in a honey jar.”  In this way you can explore imaginary scenarios.  Your child may even want to put marker to paper and illustrate some of these after you are done playing. Other scenarios you can explore: Professions, Roles in Society, Fairy Tale Characters.

If you are interested in exploring emotions with your child, you can certainly use “As If” as a launching off point  (“As if I was frustrated!”, “As if I had my feelings hurt”) getting more specific as the situation warrants.

If coming up with these on the spot isn’t for you, and your child is literate, you can both take some time to write down As Ifs to pull from a hat and act out.

The Drama

Come up with combinations of people, animals or even things in a situation that involve a bit of drama.  I always teach my actors (ages 6-10) about making the stakes high.  “As if I was a little girl” is not nearly as interesting as, “As if I was a little girl who thinks a wolf might be following her.”  Don’t be afraid to go anthropomorphic: “As if I was a flower poking out of the ground” is very fun to act!  Every sentence is its own unique story.  And part of the beauty of the exercise is that you get to hand off the sentence you create, so the pressure is off!  Let those two little words release your imagination, humor and courage.  Your children are already there.

Kids love to be entertained, they also love to take part in their own entertainment.  So here is the plan: Make reading aloud a game and let them play parts in the stories you read with them.  I call it ACTive Reading!

Creating the environment of a book is a wonderful way in.  Let your child explore the way the ocean sounds while reading, Mariana and the Merchild: A Folk Tale from Chile.  Playfully whistle and whoosh the sea and the wind with them; create whale calls and dolphin whistles. Then have them quietly continue the ocean soundtrack under your reading aloud and the effect can be quite hauntingly beautiful.  When reading Make Way for Ducklings what happens when your child acts out the traffic and the noisy streets of Boston or the quacks of the duck family?  How about the sounds of the monkeys in The Hatseller And The Monkeys or the monsters in Where the Wild Things Are?  You may come up with sounds together that are funny, some that are eerie.  Chances are you’ll be surprised by the way they astutely hear their world and give voice to their imaginations.

Beyond setting the scene, most children are eager to play the parts in the stories they read.  If they read themselves, they will enjoy following along while you read and saying the words of a certain character. Whether you are reading, Horton Hears A Who! or the Harry Potter books, there will likely be a character with whom they identify.  Let them cast themselves and say their character’s dialogue while you read the rest.  They will be living inside the story in a very exciting way.  For a moment in time, the character’s journey becomes their journey.  If they aren’t reading yet, gently prompt them with the character’s lines and let them interpret the rest.

In this way, you enter into a kind of dialogue with your child even while you are reading.  They’ll feel connected to the world of the book because they are a part of creating it and they’ll feel connected to you as you both tell the story.  They’ll also be having a lot of fun, which is always the bottom line!

Jocelyn Greene teaches acting at Packer Collegiate Institute and Berkeley Carroll School.  She is the Executive Director of Child’s Play NY (www.childsplayny.com) now enrolling for summer classes.  Kids age 4-10 explore theater in week-long intensive sessions.  Use code SM2010 for a 10% rebate on tuition.

Looking for a fun activity to spark your kids’ imaginations?  A game that I use in class, (which can work for even just 2 people) is something I call “Story Clap”, inspired by Viola Spolin, the legendary originator of Theater Games.

One person starts with an opener that puts us in the fairy tale or fable mind-set, like:

Once upon a time there lived a firefly who didn’t know she was a firefly…

In a deep dark forest there was a witch who loved to make soup out of …

You pass the story along to the next person by clapping, and then it is their job to pick up where you left off and continue talking and clapping until the story reaches a natural end.  You’ll be surprised how creative the story becomes as the tellers feel inspired by the collective voice of the group.

Experiment with the length of the story chunk you tell.  Archetypes are great to play off (princesses, witches, animals, dragons, etc.) and you can combine elements of their favorite books and characters.  This is also a great way to air an issue that may be coming up at home so that kids can give voice to their feelings.

As the adult in the group, it is important to help direct the story: set up a conflict and then help it toward resolution. With kids age 4-6, it’s a good idea to have the adult as the “clapper” to keep the action going. You’ll be amazed by how much they already understand story structure and how excited they are to create their own tales with you.   In my acting classes we end up physically re-telling the story, but it is a great activity all on its own for winding down at bedtime, car trips, or a family gathering outdoors.  On rainy days you can help them write the story down and they can illustrate it!

Jocelyn Greene is the Executive Director of Child’s Play NY (www.childsplayny.com) offering after-school and summer acting classes to kids in Brooklyn.  She teaches and directs at The Packer Collegiate Institute and The Berkeley Carroll School.