Perhaps as part of the introduction to class, get each attendee to share TWO semi-intimate questions.
Semi-intimate questions are halfway between mundane questions (what’s your favourite colour?) and intimate questions (have you ever lost someone whom you loved?). They are the sweet spot between those two.
For example:
Have you ever stolen something and what was it?
What is the story of your name?
What is the best meal you can prepare from scratch?
Write down all of these questions and share with the class once completed.
Now everyone picks two questions to answer.
You can also use the questions later in class to inspire monologues or full scenes.
This is an excellent getting to know you game but WARNING does take some time to play well.
The key to comfort is to allow everyone to pick whichever questions fire their own imaginations.
I often use this before teaching monologues as each one is essentially a tiny monologue - in fact, as noted above, I sometimes use the questions as a direct prompt for a personal monologue.