PANTOMIME
Year 7
Unit 2
During this unit, we will…
• develop our knowledge of
the pantomime genre
• understand the main features
of pantomime
• explore the acting style used
in pantomime
• create characters from a
script
• develop a performance from
a script
• develop our understanding
of the role of the audience
Lesson 1: The Pantomime Genre
Learning Objectives
• to develop knowledge of the pantomime genre and its features
• to explore some of the characters from pantomime
• to work with a script to create an effective performance
What is pantomime?
The story of pantomime is a tale of dragons and serpents. It features men
dressed as women, and women pretending to be young men.
Pantomime presents a tale of good and evil, where hope triumphs over
adversity after danger and virtual despair.
Pantomime's unique mixture of strangeness, confusion and absurdity has
much to tell us about ‘being British’. Christmas, for many of us, would not
be Christmas without pantomime; and pantomime is the place that many
people discover the magic of theatre.
2 Minute Talk – what do you know?
You have 2 minutes to discuss these questions,
in pairs…
• what do you already know about
pantomime?
• what stories are told in the form of a
pantomime?
• what is different about how these
stories are told when they
become pantomimes?
• what pantomime characters
can you name?
• how is the audience for a
pantomime different to most
other theatre shows?
• when do pantomime’s
traditionally take
place?
The pantomime tradition
Pantomimes take place around the Christmas period and are nearly always based
on well known children's stories such as Peter Pan, Aladdin, Cinderella, Sleeping
Beauty etc.
Audience participation is a very important
part of a pantomime. The audience are
encouraged to boo the villain whenever he
enters the stage, argue with the Dame (who is
always a man) and warn the Principal Boy
(who is always a girl) when the villain is behind
them by shouting out "He's behind you!".
Slapstick is an important part of a British
pantomime - the throwing of custard pies, the
ugly sisters (who are always played by men)
falling over, lots of silly costumes including of
course, the pantomime horse which is played
by two people in a horses costume.
By the end of the pantomime, the villain has
been defeated, true love has conquered all
and everyone lives happily ever after.
Task
Queen Mirror, mirror, on the wall
Who is the fairest of them all?
Mirror You what? (Aside) The mirror says to Queenie,
Don’t talk to me, you vicious meanie!
Queen Look, tell me what I want to know,
At once, you hear, and then I’ll go.
Mirror Well Wicked Queen, you know it’s true,
That beauty doesn’t lie on you,
For, lovely as you know you are,
Snow White is prettier by far!
Queen Snow White! Snow White! Oh, who is she?
She can’t be prettier than me?
Get yourselves into pairs.
Mirror The kitchen maid, I think you’ll find, Your teacher will now join your pair up with
But Queen why should you ever mind? another pair to make a group of 4.
She’s only in the kitchen here,
Cooking food and serving beer, Together, read through the following script
She’s always in a frantic hurry, extract 4 times, with each of you getting a
Surely there is no need to worry. chance to play all of the parts in turn.
Queen I will not rest until she’s dead, Try to think about how your voice should
I will not heed what you have said, sound for each of the characters. What do
Servant, servant, come to me, you think might be an appropriate ‘sound’
I want a job done painfully. for them? Can you use your voice to make
them sound convincing?
Queen Mirror, mirror, on the wall
Who is the fairest of them all?
Mirror You what? (Aside) The mirror says to Queenie,
Don’t talk to me, you vicious meanie!
Queen Look, tell me what I want to know,
At once, you hear, and then I’ll go.
Mirror Well Wicked Queen, you know it’s true,
That beauty doesn’t lie on you,
For, lovely as you know you are,
Snow White is prettier by far!
Queen Snow White! Snow White! Oh, who is she?
She can’t be prettier than me?
Mirror The kitchen maid, I think you’ll find,
But Queen why should you ever mind?
She’s only in the kitchen here,
Cooking food and serving beer,
She’s always in a frantic hurry,
Surely there is no need to worry.
Queen I will not rest until she’s dead,
I will not heed what you have said,
Servant, servant, come to me,
I want a job done painfully.
Now, return to your original pairs.
Together, your task is to create your own version of the magic mirror scene.
DON’T try to remember the exact words – make up your own! They don’t have to rhyme!
DO use your imagination to create believable characters that sound different to your normal
voice.
REMEMBER – to give both of your characters attitude!
Plenery
Which of the mirror scenes that
you watched today were most
successful?
What did the actors do
well?
What could have been
improved?
Which were the most successful
examples of effective
What two things have you
characterisation?
learned about pantomime
in today’s lesson that you
didn’t know before?
Lesson 2: Audiences & The Narrator
Learning Objectives
• To develop performance
work from text
• To explore the role and
impact of the narrator
• To develop ways of
showing audience
awareness
2 Minute Talk – Recap
You have 2 minutes to discuss these questions, in pairs…
• when do pantomime’s traditionally take place?
• what is the audience’s involvement at a pantomime
called?
• which characters are usually played by actors of
the opposite gender?
• what is the drama term that covers some of the
silliness of pantomime, characters falling over,
custard pies in the face etc?
• how does pantomime always end?
2 Minute Talk – what do you know?
You have 2 minutes to discuss these questions,
in pairs…
• what do you already know about
pantomime?
• what stories are told in the form of a
pantomime?
• what is different about how these
stories are told when they
become pantomimes?
• what pantomime characters
can you name?
• how is the audience for a
pantomime different to expect
What do audiences most from:
other
a) thetheatre
style shows?
of acting in a pantomime?
b) the pantomime characters?
• when do pantomime’s
c) their own
traditionally interaction / involvement in the show?
take
place?
Audience Participation
The Narrator
What is the role of the narrator in pantomime?
What do they bring to the
pantomime?
As a class, we are going
to read the opening scene
of a pantomime script…
Narrator Good friends, we now present before you, Queen I will not rest until she’s dead,
And I trust, we will not bore you, I will not heed what you have said,
A happy, hippy, pantomime, Servant, servant, come to me,
Snow White, and Gnomes, told just in rhyme. I want a job done painfully. (enter Pigswill the servant)
I know it should be dwarves on stage,
But really, they have come of age, Narrator Now Pigswill was her servant true,
Gnomes are funnier, you’ll see, He did what he was told to do.
They give me more variety.
We go at once to ‘Castle Doom’, Pigswill I have to run about this place,
Flit at once into the room, To serve the Queen, to show good grace.
Where Wicked Queen sits combing hair, What is it, that I have to do?
She thinks she hasn’t got a care. Please don’t request, I clean the loo.
Queen Mirror, mirror, on the wall Queen Go to the kitchen, find Snow White,
Who is the fairest of them all? Make sure somehow, she dies tonight. (exit Queen)
Mirror You what? Pigswill I can’t let Queenie kill this wench,
If she should die, there’d be a stench,
Narrator The mirror says to Queenie, Of scandal in this pantomime,
When this should be a happy time.
Mirror Don’t talk to me, you vicious meanie! I’ll yell her she must go away,
Follow the path, and never stray,
Queen Look, tell me what I want to know, Until she’s hidden in the wood,
At once, you hear, and then I’ll go. This plan of mine sounds really good. (exit Pigswill)
Mirror Well Wicked Queen, you know it’s true, Narrator So Pigswill goes and warns Snow White
That beauty doesn’t lie on you, And off she flies into the night,
For, lovely as you know you are, She has to hide from Wicked Queen,
Snow White is prettier by far! But knows that she cannot be seen,
By people from the castle grey,
Queen Snow White! Snow White! Oh, who is she? She lives to fight another day.
She can’t be prettier than me? At last she saw upon the track,
A house, quite small, no turning back,
Mirror The kitchen maid, I think you’ll find, She looks and see’s there’s food inside,
But Queen why should you ever mind? The door was also open wide,
She’s only in the kitchen here, She walked right in, and smelt the food,
Cooking food and serving beer, But decided that it might be rude,
She’s always in a frantic hurry, To help herself, to food, and eat,
Surely there is no need to worry. Then heard the noise of trampling feet.
Bringing the
Script to Life
How can the text can be
put onto stage with
maximum audience
involvement?
What skills are going to be
needed for the actors to
be successful?
In groups of 4, create your
own version of the scene,
either using the text if you
want to, or using your
own words to tell the
same story.
Group Work
Now join together with another group.
Watch each others work and then feedback
constructively on what you think was good and
what could have been improved.
Remember to feedback
kindly – use ‘2 stars and a
wish’ if it’s helpful.
What techniques did they
use that were successful?
Can you think of any ways
that they could have
brought more interaction
or more humour to their
performance?
You will be asked to report
your ideas back to the
class at the end of this task.
Plenery What drama techniques did you see in
action today that you thought were
particularly successful?
What acting style is needed in
pantomime?
How successful were we in
achieving this in
today’s lesson?
What did you learn about the
narrator in today’s lesson?
PANTOMIME
Year 7
Unit 2
Lesson 3: Your Pantomime
Learning Objectives
• To create pantomime
characters from a text
• To develop character
detail through the use of
Role-on-the-Wall
The Challenge
Over the next few lessons, you are going
to develop your own pantomime for
performance to the rest of the class.
You will be given a basic script, which
you should adapt, develop and add-to,
to make it into a pantomime.
You will be assessed on your pantomime
performance.
We are looking at your skill in developing
the script and in creating exaggerated
pantomime characters.
Tasks
1. Read through your script
2. Allocate the parts
3. Start to work out how you can
adapt your script to make
it into a pantomime.
It’s very important to make
sure that everyone has
plenty to do, so that
everyone has the same
chance to get good marks
in the assessment.
Consider:
Adding characters or
scenes if one of your
actors needs a bit more
‘stage-time’.
Characters How do they talk?
What sort of vocal expression do they have?
Consider your characters… How do they move?
What sort of physical expression do they have?
How do you make them different to you?
How do you make them stereotypical?
How do you make them exaggerated?
Role-on-the-Wall
Red: Facts
Blue: Opinions
Who is he? Who are
What is
his friends?
he like?
What sort of personality does
he have?
What might
Where he say about
does he himself?
live? What would an
audience think How old
about him? is he?
What is
his style?
Example
What else could be added about Matilda?
Plenery
As a group, what do you all need
to do between now and the next
lesson?
What drama techniques could we
consider using in our final pieces?
How do we add to the scripts to
make them successfully into
pantomimes?
PANTOMIME
Year 7
Unit 2
Lesson 4: Audience Paricipation
Learning Objectives
• Develop confidence
when using a script to
aid performance work
• To develop audience
interaction from the
script.
•
2 Minute Talk – Recap
You have 2 minutes to discuss
The plot of your Pantomime so far
The characters you are playing
Skills you have learnt so far
What exaggerated acting skills (facial expressions,
Voice, body language) your character will have.
2 Minute Talk – what do you know?
You have 2 minutes to discuss these questions,
in pairs…
• what do you already know about
pantomime?
• what stories are told in the form of a
pantomime?
• what is different about how these
stories are told when they
become pantomimes?
• what pantomime characters
can you name?
Audience Participation
• how is the audience for a
pantomime different to most
other theatre shows?
Aredo
•• when there any moments, in your script, where you could add in the lines
pantomime’s
“Can they?”
traditionally take or “Does it?” or another simple question in order to get the
audience to say Yes or No?
place?
• If so, try to add it in and then begin the classic argument with the audience
stating “Oh no it doesn’t” or “Oh yes it does”
Audience Participation
Experiment with the following:
Does it matter who argues with the audience?
Heroes / Villains?
Does it matter how many times
you respond?
(Can you do it too many times?
What is the best number?
How can you encourage
the audience to respond?
Hand gestures can sometimes encourage the
audience to speak the lines.
Explore all opportunities
for audience participation
with your script.
Plenery When was audience participation
particularly successful?
What questions had the best response in
pantomime?
How successful were we in
achieving this in
today’s lesson?
PANTOMIME
Year 7 Unit 2
Lesson 5
Lesson 5:
Developing Your
Pantomime
Learning Objectives
• To develop confidence
when using a script to aid
performance work
• To complete blocking of
the text for performance
Rehearsals
In your groups:
• Recap your plot and characters
• Start ‘blocking’ your scene
• Pay close attention to the stage directions
to help you, but also use your imagination
to help to make sure that the scenes aren’t
boring to watch
• If you are not on stage, watch the action
and act as a ‘critical friend’ to those who
Prepare a section of your are. Make suggestions too if you can
pantomime to show at the
end of this lesson…
Blocking
Blocking is a way of structuring entrances / exits and
Movement of people and props around the stage.
Blocking helps to make sure that the audience sees
what / who you want them to see at the right time.
What would it look like if a performance wasn’t
blocked?
Once confidence students can start to block their two pantomimes.
Plenery
As a group, what do you all need to do between now and
the next lesson?
Can you arrange to get together to rehearse outside of
class?
How can you make sure
that you’ve learnt your lines in time for
next week?
PANTOMIME
Year 7 Unit 2
Lesson 6
Lesson 6:
Your Performance
Learning Objectives
• To perform a suitable role
/ roles as part of a cast of a
pantomime for assessment
• To have confidently
learnt character lines and
be able to follow the
guidelines of a selected
script
Rehearsals
Criteria
To achieve success in this assessment, you must
have demonstrated, as a minimum:
• The creation and presentation of an
appropriate role
• The appropriate use of language and vocal
skills
You must also have:
• Learnt your lines
• Worked effectively in a team
Prepare a section of your
• Contributed to the creative process of putting
pantomime
on your to show at the
pantomime
end of this lesson…
What do you think of the performances that you’ve seen today?
Can you specifically say who did well and why you think they did well?
Whose characterization was effective?
Which group was most successful in incorporating the pantomime elements?
Plenery
