Mirroring

1) Make sure everyone has their Zoom settings on hide non-video participants.

2) Invite all participants to position themselves so that as much of their bodies as possible is visible to their webcam. Now everyone should mute themselves and turn off their webcams apart from one person who remains on stage with you.

3) Now explain how the activity is going to work. You're going to start making some gentle movements with the parts of your body which are visible. The other person's task is to imitate as closely as possible what you are doing. Start very slowly and clearly. You want the other person to succeed so that it really appears like a mirror, as if no one is leading at all. After about thirty seconds to a minute, one person should turn off their webcam, effectively leaving the stage, and allowing space for another person to turn on their webcam and continue the exercise. This can go on for several turns, or until everyone has participated.

4) Once you're sure that everyone understands what to do, share a piece of atmospheric music (I used 'Gabriel's oboe' by Ennio Morricone) and start the exercise. In the video below you can see this exercise working with participants in Egypt, UK, Portugal, Mexico, Ukraine, and Spain.

Note:  This is a classic drama warm up game, reimagined as a Remote Theatre exercise. It's a great way to establish a connection and trust between actors, to raise awareness about responding physically through the webcam, and, as you'll see in the video, also becomes an interesting performance piece.