Thoughts on Theatre: What the “Mirror Game” teaches us

One of the most common acting exercises one finds in acting and theatre classes — youth or adult — is known as the Mirror Game. If you’ve never done this before try it, it’s easy. Find a partner and stand face-to-face just a few feet apart. Get used to looking at each other, no talking, and try to relax. Then, start to move slowly and your partner tries to match your movements. As with a mirror, try to be perfectly in sync — if either person is going too slow or too fast, then speed up or slow down as needed to be better matched. The goal is to be so much in sync that if someone walked into the room they wouldn’t be able to tell who was leading and was mirroring. You and your partner should strive to be fully matched.

Students will ask, “Why are we doing this?” Here are a few things you can learn from this simple exercise. For one thing, most people find it awkward to look in a person’s face without looking away or laughing. So, simply getting comfortable, with yourself and with your partner, is a challenge. By extension, getting comfortable on stage is also a goal.

Another point, actors must learn to receive information form the other actors in a scene. And, upon receiving this stimulation, one must react to what is happening. This might seem like a simplified version of “listen and react” but having it be in such a simplified version makes it a good place to begin. The rules keep it simple for the beginner actor, but those very rules also empower the beginner actor. To summarize, some of the skills practiced by the Mirror Game include concentration, relaxation, listening, reacting, as well as building chemistry amongst the participants.