If you’ve spent roughly 3.1 seconds on the web, you’ll have encountered a meme. If you’ve seen or heard of Grumpy Cat, Condescending Wonka, Surprised Pikachu, Woman Yelling at a Cat, or the Ermahgerd Girl, these are all long-standing, well-known memes. New memes pop up each day — on the time of writing, a Google seek for “theatre memes” introduced up 17.9 million outcomes. Memes have turn into so prevalent that there’s even a card sport collection known as “What Do You Meme.” (And simply in case you’ve been dwelling below a rock, it’s pronounced “meem,” not “me-me.”)
Here’s an attention-grabbing truth: the phrase “meme” is a spinoff of the phrase memetics and the Greek phrase mimema, which means “imitated.” British biologist Richard Dawkins launched the phrase meme in his 1976 e-book The Selfish Gene, as an try to elucidate how concepts replicate, change, and develop. The official dictionary definition of “meme” is “an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online especially through social media.” It’s attention-grabbing to see how the phrase’s which means has advanced!
Most long-standing memes originated on boards reminiscent of Reddit, however have since moved to locations reminiscent of Instagram and TikTok. Your college students can undoubtedly introduce you to the present meme tendencies, as they’re all the time altering. Memes aren’t going anyplace although, so why not harness the facility and hilarity of memes and use them for inspiration for drama class actions? Here are 10 concepts for utilizing memes in your drama classroom.
1. Make a set of favorite drama class / theatre memes and show them on the wall in your classroom. You may additionally use them to embellish your drama classroom door.
2. When learning a play, have college students discover memes referring to it. (For instance, a Google seek for “Romeo and Juliet memes” turns up practically 2.3 million outcomes.) Analyze the place they arrive from within the play. Do they make sense? How may one alter them to make them funnier or extra correct?
3. Create a meme (or collection of memes) utilizing a present meme pattern, both associated to your classroom or to a play you’re learning. If you’ve a college social media account, share them!
4. Choose a personality from a play or musical. Find 5 memes that describe or relate to that character. Use these memes to make a personality description presentation, both as a video compilation or temper board. Why did your college students choose those they did?
5. Make a tableau scene the place college students recreate a well-liked meme onstage.
6. Do the Drama Class ABCs mission utilizing drama- and theatre-related memes as an instance the ABCs.
7. Write a scene through which the characters discuss with a meme sooner or later throughout the interplay. How can college students incorporate the meme with out making it apparent or awkward?
8. Write a scene through which characters from completely different memes meet one another. For instance, Ridiculously Photogenic Guy meets Kermit Sipping Tea. How would they meet? What would they discuss? What have they got in widespread?
9. Write an origin story for a meme character. Where did they arrive from? What are their likes and dislikes? How did they turn into the particular person they’re within the meme?
10. Write a monologue from the angle of the particular person/object within the meme.
Bonus Activity: Share memes that had been well-liked from while you had been your college students’ age. (For instance, the primary viral meme is taken into account to be the Dancing Baby, which got here out in 1996!) How have memes advanced and adjusted since then?
Click right here for meme-related exit slip questions.
Kerry Hishon is a director, actor, author and stage combatant from London, Ontario, Canada. She blogs at www.kerryhishon.com.
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