It’s your birthday!

1) Make sure everyone has their settings on hide non-video participants. Then ask everyone except one student to turn off their webcams. Now you can demonstrate the activity with the volunteer on stage with you.

2) You're going to mime giving a present to the volunteer at the front. You could take it from under the field of view of the webcam or even go off stage to get it and bring it back. The point is that it shouldn't be a real object but the way you position your hands should indicate its size, how heavy it is, whether it's a living thing etc. Once you've made that clear you can pass it through the webcam to the other person, who should receive it. The receiver continues the mime in the same style and then comments on the present. It's important that the receiver is the person who actually decides what the present is and he or she should name it fairly early on ('Oh Wow! It's a necklace' for example) so that the mime doesn't become too vague. 

Some useful language to use:-

Giver

Happy Birthday!

This is for you.

I bought this for you.

I really hope you like it.

I'm sorry I couldn't wrap it up 

Receiver

 Oh wow! It's a X!

It's fantastic/lovely/amazing/just what I always wanted.

Where did you get it?

Thank you so much!

I love it!

3) You can now leave the stage and another participant can join. The receiver now becomes the giver and gives a new present to the new person. This process continues until everyone has taken part. With very large groups this stage can be done in breakout rooms.

Note

This activity creates a lot of positive energy and can be used to build rapport or as a nice thing to do at the end of a course. It's an excellent way of developing the remote theatre skill of passing something through the webcam, and of encouraging actors to commit fully to what they are doing on stage.