For printable copy of WHAT ARE YOU DOING? instructions, click on the word: INSTRUCTIONS
To see a video of WHAT ARE YOU DOING? being taught, click on the word: VIDEO

• This game is played in pairs. In this case, let’s call one actor “John,” and the other actor “Emily.”

• John begins by miming an action, e.g, tying his shoe. Emily approaches John and asks: “John, what are you doing?” Rather than answering, “I’m tying my shoe.”, John has to name an action completely different from the one he is actually doing, e.g., “I’m painting a house.”

• Immediately, Emily begins to mime painting a house. In other words, she has to do the action John said he was doing.

• Once Emily is fully committed to house painting, John can stop tying his shoe, approach Emily and ask: “Emily, what are you doing?” Emily must then name an action that is completely different from what she’s doing, and completely different from anything that’s been named before, e.g., “I’m playing baseball.”

• John immediately mimes playing baseball. At that point, Emily can stop painting the house, and ask John, “What are you doing?”

• The game continues back and forth until one of the pair hesitates too long before naming an action or names something too close to an action that’s been named before. 

  
  

Curtains Up Curriculum by Friends of the Groom Theater Co. is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Curtains Up is a training program designed for young actors sponsored by Friends of the Groom Theater Company. It is available to the general public for free under the terms of the Creative Commons License above.