HITCHHIKER
CURTAINS UP ACTING STUDIO
HITCHHIKER: A DRAMA GAME for KIDS
Playing Characters with Commitment
Actors pretending to ride in a car gradually adopt the unique quirks of each hitchhiker they pick up—embracing each new behavior completely.
Hitchhiker Drama Game explained
Step-by-Step Instructions
1 ) Take 4 folding chairs to create the interior of a car—two rows of two chairs, one row behind the other. One actor sits in the drivers’ seat and pretends to be driving. You can ask the students to name a place they are driving to.
2) As the actor mimes driving, he sees another actor with their thumb out pretending to be a hitchhiker. The driver stops the car and motions the hitchhiker in.
3) The actor playing the hitchhiker enters with a strong character choice or quirky mannerism and sits in the front passenger seat. e.g. The hitchhiker has an uncontrollable itch or speaks with a strange accent. The driver starts to drive again, and—as he converses with the passenger—he slowly takes on the character traits of the hitchhiker until both actors are behaving like the hitchhiker.
4) After a minute, a new hitchhiker appears. The driver stops and moves to Backseat A, as the actor in the passenger’s seat slides over to become the driver. The new hitchhiker now sits in the front right passenger seat. This new hitchhiker exhibits a totally different set of character traits or mannerisms than the previous one. Once again, as they continue the drive, the other actors in the car take on the character traits of the new hitchhiker.
5) After another minute, a third hitchhiker appears. The driver stops and moves to Backseat A, the actor in Backseat A slides to Backseat B, the actor in the Hitchhiker seat slides into the Driver’s Seat, and the new hitchhiker sits in the Hitchhiker Seat. Again, the newest hitchhiker has a totally different set of quirks which everyone else in the car adopts.
6) When the car stops for a fourth hitchhiker, the actor in Backseat B makes up an excuse to leave the car and jumps out. Everyone rotates in the pattern established and the game continues, with each new hitchhiker introducing a new character quality or trait, and the passenger in Backseat B finding an excuse to exit—making room for the new player. The game can continue until everyone in the class has had a turn in the car.
Encourage the students to make strong choices for their character traits and coach them to continue conversing throughout the scene. Also, it can be more entertaining if the actors in the scene adopt each new character trait or quirk gradually rather than all at once — as though the new trait is contagious and they are catching it slowly.
It’s helpful if your students form a line on the side of the car where the hitchhikers enter, so each new hitchhiker is ready to step forward when the car stops.
Since you are miming the car, make sure your students know to mime opening and closing the doors instead of walking through them.
MORE DRAMA GAMES AND THEATER ACTIVITIES YOU MIGHT ENJOY:
EMOTIONAL FRIENDS - A group of actors perform a scene in a series of emotional states supplied by the game leader.
HOTEL DESK - Actors adopt a strong character as they improvise a scene with a hotel desk clerk.
WALK THIS WAY - Actors practice moving as specific characters named by the game leader.
© 2023, Friends of the Groom Theater Company
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.