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“I’m a … “

Great for primary grades and great introduction to building interesting tableaux. Choose 5 to 7 players, number them 1, 2, 3, etc. Choose a location in which the scene will take place (i.e. The Magical Forest). Player 1 enters the stage, says “I’m a [character or object in the scene] and I [do some action/have some feeling]” he then freezes in a pose that shows what he is and holds that pose for the entire scene.

Example:

Player 1: “I’m a huge tree and I have lived in this forest for ten thousand years” (poses like a tree)

Player 2: “I’m a magic squirrel and I hide my acorns in this old tree.” (poses like a squirrel digging acorns at the base of the tree)

etc.

Tips: Try to have each new character build from the one(s) previous. This encourages listening, teamwork, and cooperation.

Encourage students to choose a pose that they can easily hold for a while.

Extensions: Add in “activations” where you can see parts of the scene come to life. (ex. “Activate the Tree and the squirrel for 5 seconds. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Freeze.”)

Attribution: Alastair Forbes and I first used this game in our Bad Dog Youth program curriculum. We used it as a way to introduce all of our players at the beginning of a set. Most recently I’ve used it with younger children to set up storytelling.

1 year ago 

Fairy Tale Interview

Fairy Tale Interview

Attribution: Alastair Forbes/Jessi Linn Davies, Bad Dog Theatre Company

Each performer is a character from the same well-known fable (4 to 7 players on stage at a time). Characters chosen should be secondary to the action (i.e. not Cinderella, but one of the mice; not Little Red but the woodcutter’s daughter; not Prince Charming but his tailor, etc.).

Set up a talk show on stage by selecting (or acting as) the host.

Ask questions to each character letting them respond in turn.

 

Variations:

Take questions from the audience. Have audience members ask questions in character.

Use a novel or historical/social context that your class is studying instead of a fairy tale. 

 

This activity is best when:

Characters have relationships with other characters, they support the same overall story, they have distinct viewpoints of the action of the story

Questions allow characters to display their opinion, viewpoint, and/or feelings rather than facts. (“What do you think about…?” “How did it feel when….?”)

 

Advanced work: 

 Allow characters to have conversations with each other inside the interview setting.

1 year ago 

This is the precursor to a game called Mrs. Mumbles. 

In different character voices, the pattern of “Is Mrs. Mumbles at home?” “I don’t know, I”ll ask my neighbour” is passed around the circle. The leader starts new voices going in either direction (clockwise or counter-clockwise).

2 years ago 

Valentine’s Day Fun While looking for something new to try with a group of improvisers who’d been working together for a couple of years, I found inspiration in the local drug store where I saw these candy hearts. Giving the guys (class was all boys) a treat, I played an on-stage scene game where each person on stage had three candy hearts in their hand and needed to include each of their three messages in their scenes, justifying them as they went. Good fun with sugar! I found that this really raised the stakes of their scenework, gimmicky as the game is.

Valentine’s Day Fun

While looking for something new to try with a group of improvisers who’d been working together for a couple of years, I found inspiration in the local drug store where I saw these candy hearts.

Giving the guys (class was all boys) a treat, I played an on-stage scene game where each person on stage had three candy hearts in their hand and needed to include each of their three messages in their scenes, justifying them as they went. Good fun with sugar! I found that this really raised the stakes of their scenework, gimmicky as the game is.


2 years ago 

Killer Granny One of my students invented this game based on a Killer Granny character we’d seen in a scene previously. It’s become a class favourite. Choose one person to be the granny. Granny stands aside. Of the remaining players, one is selected to be the one who is ‘carrying the bread’. This is a fresh loaf of bread that Granny loves to eat. She’ll intercept anyone who has it… Everyone walks around, rushing through the forest; Granny talks to passers by and asks whether they have the bread. You must speak the truth to Granny. If the passerby does not, granny whaks him/her with her cane (devilishly mimed, of course). The passerby is rendered onto the ground and can only be revived by being fed a piece of bread from the real bread carrier. The game ends when the bread is found by Granny.

Killer Granny

One of my students invented this game based on a Killer Granny character we’d seen in a scene previously. It’s become a class favourite.

Choose one person to be the granny. Granny stands aside.

Of the remaining players, one is selected to be the one who is ‘carrying the bread’. This is a fresh loaf of bread that Granny loves to eat. She’ll intercept anyone who has it… Everyone walks around, rushing through the forest; Granny talks to passers by and asks whether they have the bread. You must speak the truth to Granny. If the passerby does not, granny whaks him/her with her cane (devilishly mimed, of course). The passerby is rendered onto the ground and can only be revived by being fed a piece of bread from the real bread carrier. The game ends when the bread is found by Granny.

2 years ago  View high resolution

Five Elements of a Story - Storytelling Device


Five Elements of a Story

#1 Location – the where of the scene. Location includes the physical objects (and ‘set-dressing’ people) in the immediate space where the scene takes place, the time period, the atmospheric mood.

#2 Characters and their Relationship – who the main characters (or groups of characters) are and what is their relationship to each other. Give the characters names and make strong relationship links. Choosing “Strangers” as the relationship is ill-advised, since it makes for a lot more figuring-out work on stage.

I like to think of relationships as having two categories, and the best scenes can incorporate both in establishing the platform.

Working relationships: dictate the actions that the characters might take toward each other (ex. doctor/patient,  shoe salesman/customer, alien/astronaut, teacher/principal, movie star/fan)

Personal relationships: dictate how the characters feel about each other (parent/child,  bitter rivals, secretly in love/secretly repulsed, best friends since kindergarten)

Putting working relationships and personal relationships together make for lots to explore during scenework.

#3 Action – sometimes referred to at “conflict” the action represents the change in the routine of the scene, the moment when the characters need to deal with a new, life-changing bit of information (character finds a winning lotto ticket,  character reveals a lie, character’s home has been vaporized). When creating the action, it’s important for all players to agree on what the action point is since it’s going to be the focal point for the rest of the story. We care about this action being resolved in some way and when it is resolved, we’ll know we’ve hit the end of the scene.

#4 Raising the stakes. – the Action has given us one point of focus. There is one thing that we care about in this scene. Raising the stakes makes us (the characters on stage and the audience) care even more about it.

#5 Resolution:

You can raise the stakes in one of three ways. Here we’ll try raising the stakes on the statement “Jonas lost his wallet”:

a)      emotional link – make it a bigger deal for the character: Jonas’ pictures of his kids are in there. And he never gets to see them. And those were the only pictures he had of them. And the kids can magically sense that he’s not got them anymore, so they think he doesn’t love them.

b)      World implications link – make it a bigger deal in the world of the scene: Jonas is the president of the world. And he’s got a speech to start world peace in his wallet. And if the bad guys get his wallet they’ll get his secret security codes to the world-destroying machine.

c)      Immediacy link – make it a bigger deal now: Jonas has plane tickets in his wallet. And the flight is the only one this year. And it’s leaving in five minutes.

2 years ago 

Physical Choices for Characterization

Make a choice and show it really clearly. Make it BIG! I should be able to tell that you’re acting and what choice you’ve made for at least two of the following.

Amount of space between  your steps – big steps or small steps

Speed – fast or slow

Level – tall, medium, or small

Volume – amount of space your character takes up – lots or little

Direction – Direct or Indirect – straight lines or wandering curves

Additions – do something with your arms, add a facial expression, add an attitude

The first three steps you take on stage can give a lot of information to the audience and your scene partners. They can also help you to get into your own character, find its voice, pace, and unique identifiers.

2 years ago  1 note

Offer Circle - teaching notes and philosophy

The Offer Circle:

I often start introductory sessions with an offer circle so that all players get a chance to be on stage. It’s a great way to work on both of the two fundamental rules: do something and support each other.

Teachable Moments in the Offer Circle:

Someone doesn’t want to take their turn.

Encourage encouragement from the others. “How do we encourage someone who’s nervous?” (cheering, “you can do it!”, using their name) Improv is about impulses so it’s hard to change what we’re feeling…instead of changing our feelings, use them! I will suggest to nervous students to ‘just be more nervous’ in the circle. If they don’t know what to do, they can give energy and a gesture to saying, “I don’t know what to do!”Often, stating this example at the beginning of the activity allows for a useful out for really nervous players.

If the hoopla of encouragement and refusal goes on so long that the pressure is too immense, allow the nervous person to go later. Make sure you call them back in. I usually check in every few turns with the skipped students to let him know when his turn is comingup.

Someone is imposing by giving suggestions to someone else

The reason that a player isn’t deciding on an offer is probably not that they haven’t  any ideas. Most likely, they have too many ideas floating around their brains and are trying to choose the ‘right’ or ‘best’ one. Having additional ideas coming from all angles only makes this more difficult. This is where I usually point out that I haven’t  asked to see brilliant offers or good offers or funny offers, I just want to see anything!

Someone does more acting outside of the circle than in.

This can happen when a player is trying to deflect attention from the offer they will eventually make by creating a scene before their actual scene. Examples range from doing ‘thinking’ poses, feigning shyness, apologizing for or otherwise setting up one’s offer. It is usually easy to know which students are truly very nervous about going on stage and those who are just a bit anxious about how their performance will be perceived (oddly, a lot of class clowns fit into this category). For those in the latter group, I will point out, ‘Look – you’re a born performer! You’re doing more acting outside the circle than I’ve asked you to do inside it’

Someone makes a disparaging remark regarding someone’s performance.

Stop and deal. Call it right away and address it. Remind everyone about the agreements of support and encouragement that were made. If you’re doing the offer circle as a foundation of improvisation, this supportive atmosphere must be held to a high standard from the beginning.

Accepting the Offer:

When you accept an offer, you join in the scene and agree with the offer; agree to be in the same world that was created by the offer; don’t erase any of the work that the offer-maker made. What you should be saying, actor-to-actor, to the offer-maker is: ‘great idea! I’d like to be a part of that and I have some new ideas to add’. If in doubt, join in, say ‘yes’. Make the other player feel good about being on stage with you.

As off-stage players, it can be very difficult to keep ideas inside our mouths when  we’ve begun the jump in and accept process. This is good – great improvisers should be thinking all the time about what could happen next…but thinking and doing are two different things! Remember that shouting ideas from offstage can make it even harder for the on-stage players to continue their scene[1]. If you want to help, do so from on-stage or keep the idea in your mouth. It’s okay that there are millions of unseen ideas out there…their time will come!


[1] This is different from sidecoaching. An experienced coach knows when to prompt or change the scene and when to allow the scene to play out on its own.

2 years ago 

Fun games to play around the Table! These are great for family get-togethers and camp meal times! Puff Hockey – A game for two players.  Ball up a tissue, create goals at either side of the table with salt shakers or something small (I recommend going the short way across). Without touching the tissue, try to score on your opponent’s goal. You’ll be blown away by this game! (good for family members or close, close friends) Bizz Buzz - Count around the table, “1″, “2″, “3″, “4″, etc. one number per person. Any number that contains a 3 or a multiple of 3 is replaced with “Bizz”; any number that contains a 7 or multiple of 7 is a “buzz”. Add other substitutions for fun. (ex. one, two, bizz, four, five, bizz, buzz, eight, … , eleven, bizz, bizz, buzz, bizz, sixteen, …, twenty, bizz-buzz, twenty-two…) Die Die (aka 6 to 100) – you need a six-sided die, a piece of paper for each player, and ONE pencil. Good for up to 5 players. Players take turns (the politeness of this step is up to you) rolling the die. When someone rolls a six, he takes the pencil and starts furiously writing the numbers from one to one hundred. He continues writing until someone else rolls a six, when the six-roller takes the pencil and writes her own numbers. First person to complete their list to 100 wins. Pass the Buck - Need: one small object and at least six people. Two teams (team X; team O) sit on opposite sides of the table. All members of team X put their hands under the table. One person on team X starts with the object in his/her hands. Object is passed between X-team members until the O team says “stop”. All players put their fists on the table and O team gets three guesses as to which hand holds the hidden object. Proletariat Chess - Two Players. Need: 15 found objects (stones, cutlery, candies, etc.) Divide objects into piles of 3, 5, and 7. Players take turns removing 1 or two objects at a time from piles. Try to be the player to take the last piece. Word at a Time Story – go around the table telling a story, each player can only say one word (or syllable or sentence) at a time. Never Can Tell Games – I would be breaking a sacred code if I explained these, but there are loads of great never can tells: BRAIN, Black Magic, Magic Square, Movie Mind Reader, Slipodean Secret Writing, Polar Bears and Ice Holes (need dice), Crossed-Uncrossed, This is a Nine, The I Know Club…..ah the memories.

Fun games to play around the Table!

These are great for family get-togethers and camp meal times!

Puff Hockey – A game for two players.  Ball up a tissue, create goals at either side of the table with salt shakers or something small (I recommend going the short way across). Without touching the tissue, try to score on your opponent’s goal. You’ll be blown away by this game! (good for family members or close, close friends)

Bizz Buzz - Count around the table, “1″, “2″, “3″, “4″, etc. one number per person. Any number that contains a 3 or a multiple of 3 is replaced with “Bizz”; any number that contains a 7 or multiple of 7 is a “buzz”. Add other substitutions for fun. (ex. one, two, bizz, four, five, bizz, buzz, eight, … , eleven, bizz, bizz, buzz, bizz, sixteen, …, twenty, bizz-buzz, twenty-two…)

Die Die (aka 6 to 100) – you need a six-sided die, a piece of paper for each player, and ONE pencil. Good for up to 5 players. Players take turns (the politeness of this step is up to you) rolling the die. When someone rolls a six, he takes the pencil and starts furiously writing the numbers from one to one hundred. He continues writing until someone else rolls a six, when the six-roller takes the pencil and writes her own numbers. First person to complete their list to 100 wins.

Pass the Buck - Need: one small object and at least six people. Two teams (team X; team O) sit on opposite sides of the table. All members of team X put their hands under the table. One person on team X starts with the object in his/her hands. Object is passed between X-team members until the O team says “stop”. All players put their fists on the table and O team gets three guesses as to which hand holds the hidden object.

Proletariat Chess - Two Players. Need: 15 found objects (stones, cutlery, candies, etc.) Divide objects into piles of 3, 5, and 7. Players take turns removing 1 or two objects at a time from piles. Try to be the player to take the last piece.

Word at a Time Story – go around the table telling a story, each player can only say one word (or syllable or sentence) at a time.

Never Can Tell Games – I would be breaking a sacred code if I explained these, but there are loads of great never can tells: BRAIN, Black Magic, Magic Square, Movie Mind Reader, Slipodean Secret Writing, Polar Bears and Ice Holes (need dice), Crossed-Uncrossed, This is a Nine, The I Know Club…..ah the memories.

2 years ago 

Flipper Flopper Need: one penny for each pair The Game: Divide into partners. One partner is the Flipper, one is the Racer.Racers line up at the starting line, Flippers at the finish line.Flippers, as fast as they can, must flip their coin and report what comes up.Heads – racer takes two steps forwardTails – racer takes one step backRacers must step heel-to-toe.First racer to high-five his/her partner wins. Variations: - allow intervals of ‘big steps’ where racers are released from the heel-toe rule Pinch my Penny Need: a penny for each player The Game: stand facing your partner. Put your left hand behind your back and hold your right hand out, flat, in front of you with the penny in the palm of your hand.Stand so that your hand is right beside your partners, facing your partner.Rules: must start from open palms, must keep your left hand behind your back.Try to steal your partner’s penny.

Flipper Flopper

Need: one penny for each pair

The Game:

Divide into partners. One partner is the Flipper, one is the Racer.Racers line up at the starting line, Flippers at the finish line.Flippers, as fast as they can, must flip their coin and report what comes up.Heads – racer takes two steps forwardTails – racer takes one step backRacers must step heel-to-toe.First racer to high-five his/her partner wins.

Variations:

- allow intervals of ‘big steps’ where racers are released from the heel-toe rule

Pinch my Penny

Need: a penny for each player

The Game:

stand facing your partner. Put your left hand behind your back and hold your right hand out, flat, in front of you with the penny in the palm of your hand.Stand so that your hand is right beside your partners, facing your partner.Rules: must start from open palms, must keep your left hand behind your back.Try to steal your partner’s penny.

2 years ago 

Soundscapes

Large Group Soundscape

 

Attribution: Jessi Linn Davies, Canadian Improv Games: Kingston; E=MC, Queen’s University

Create a sound rich sound environment with your group. Have students sit in a circle, spead out from one another. After allowing students to explore the different sounds they can make, guide the work by bringing everyone to silence. Build various sound environments with each group member taking part. Guide the exercise with your voice, bringing the group from silence to a ‘din’ to silence again.

 

Sample Environments:

A busy office, a jungle, a factory, a city street, hospital, wild western town.

 

Variations:

Add rhythm as a component so the class is creating a rhythmic soundscape.

Tell a story through sound only

Allow students to use words, though only one or two, to add to the other sounds.

 

Advanced:

Instruct students to use only words to create a ‘mood-scape’ by vocalizing the words with a specific mood in mind (What dictates mood more, the words chosen or the tone used?)

This activity is best when:Participants are calm; there is a base knowledge of ‘offers’ and building on the offers of others; students listen well to each other; groups are agreeing on the location, fleshing it out by building on the ideas of others; the instructor has a guiding hand over the arc of the soundscape or story.

2 years ago 

Job Interviews - Character Work

Job Interviews

 

Put performers in pairs. One partner is the interviewer, the other enters (in character) for a job interview. Interviewer asks questions which feed and strengthen the interviewee’s character choices. This scene should take 1-2 minutes maximum and could be as short as 30 seconds. The exercise can be used for performance or as an everyone-in-pairs exercise.

This activity is best when:

the interviewee makes big, strong character choices and the interviewer plays the foil to the interviewee’s character; both performers listen to offers made by each other and include the other’s offers in their responses/questions.


2 years ago 

Hotseat Revolve - Character Activity

Hotseat Revolve

 

Attribution: Jessi Linn Davies, SEEDS (Seven/Eight Enrichment Day Studies), Queen’s University

Each performer has developed his/her own character for this exercise. Place 4 chairs on stage – three for the questioners and one for the character in the hotseat. Set up the rest of the class so they are sitting in a circle, including the 4 chairs. Taking turns, questioners each ask one question of the character in the hotseat. Questions should be related to both the asker and the responder. Once the three questions have been answered, everyone in the room rotates one space clockwise, moving a new character to the hotseat, adding a new character on-stage to question.

This activity is best when:

Questions are open-ended and require more than a “yes” or “no” response; questions relate to both characters; students are feeding and endowing each other’s characters; audience members are NOT in character while waiting to go on stage; performers give lots of information about their character (refer to “First Three Steps” activity).

Advanced work

:After meeting all characters in this way, allow for more advanced scenework (less formal scene structures, i.e. selecting three characters to meet in a coffee shop) and lead toward a half-hour long-form improv experience where all characters interact with each other.*

*This advanced work is a great experience for students as long as you’ve set out agreed upon rules of conduct, ending time, and expectations of character interactions. Townhall meetings, class reunions, cruise ships, and trade fairs are good scenarios which can include all created characters and give the exercise some shape. It is best if the instructor is in role during the exercise (mayor, reunion organizer, activity director, fair coordinator).

2 years ago 

Boost - for Raising the Stakes

I was working with the LCVI improv team earlier this month and was inspired to create this game for them. It is as yet untitled, so if anyone has any ideas…

Get everyone to walk around, filling the space, taking care to spread out as they walk. At any time, one team member (the initiator) makes a statement (ie “I’ve lost my wallet”). Right away, other team members move toward the initiator and, one after another, they add stakes to the initial statement. Once an agreed-upon number of stakes are added, all players immediately continue walking around again and the cycle continues.

Example:”I’ve lost my wallet”; “and it contained all the money I have in the world”; “I’m here to collect that $500 you owe me”

Tips:

Encourage those adding stakes to listen well to each other so that each offer builds upon the previous one(s).

Encourage stakes to be built in the same direction (positive or negative); encourage positive offers, too. (ex. “I got a letter”; “and it’s a love letter”; “from Brad Pitt”)

Encourage stakes to pertain to one focal point (“It’s test day”; “and I need this grade for college”; “and I know James is going to cheat from me”; in these examples, the feeds don’t correspond to the same issue) Have the team agree on one issue and strengthen that aspect of the offer.

This is difficult. I tried this with my 11 to 13 year olds later in the week and they didn’t grasp the concept of making the specific thing important in the same way as the previous offer.

If you can think of a good name for this one, let me know. (New Stakes Game) is pretty boring.

We then expanded this exercise into scene work where the team strengthened one initial offer through a series of vigniettes. I was surprised to see that the resulting scenes didn’t seem like exercises, they were simply good scenes!

2 years ago 

Layers - great focus

LayersGroups: this works for groups of 8 to about 30. Grades 6 and up, modifying difficulty as necessary.
The Game: Stand everyone in a circle. This is an energy-passing game that requires lots of focus from all players.Add each layer after mastering the layer previous. This can be accomplished in one go, or over a series of days, tracking the group’s progress. First Layer (Names): Have everyone look to their right and make sure they know the name of the person beside them. Starting with a leader go around the circle, each player saying the name of the person on their right (after their own name is called). REMEMBER THIS ORDER. Make sure to remember the name you say (our positions will change later, but this order of names is important). Remember this and move to the next layer. Second Layer (Category): Starting with a new leader, develop a new pattern by sending each player a word/phrase from a pre-selected category (i.e. food, school, positive phrases). Refer to zoom rules, make sure everyone receives a word, that all words are different, and that that the leader of that category (who sent first) receives last. PRACTISE this pattern, once established, and do the exact same pattern (same words, same order) a few times to cement it in the minds of all players. Now, review the first layer (Names) and add in the second layer (category) so that they are both happening at the same time. Each layer works independently of the other. Continue until you master both together (sometimes I set a benchmark of three successful rounds of each layer simultaneously, as counted by the leaders).  Third Layer (movement): Now it gets complicated. Add in the rule that instead of just sending the category (verbally) to the next person in sequence, the sender must move to the position of the receiver (again, see zoom for details). The names layer becomes much more difficult. Continue through three successful rounds.This is the place where I need to add in the rule that only the leader of each specific layer may restart a category if it gets dropped. If this is getting difficult, good. Check in with the group to see what strategies they’d like to try in order to master a layer they’re having trouble with. (These usually include no extra conversations, repeating your word/action to the reciever until he/she picks it up, varying the pace, looking only at the two or three people from whom you receive informaion). Fourth Layer (sound and actions): Choose a new leader and create a new pattern of sounds and actions making sure every player is a part of the chain and that the leader is the final one to receive. Each player should invent a sound and action (I recommend ‘pointing’ or ‘dirctional’ actions like ‘zoom!’ from the last game). It’s a bonus if these actions can flow together from one to the other. PRACTISE this pattern, once established, and do the exact same pattern a few times to cement it in the minds of all players. (Sending Sounds and Actions and getting them to flow is a great exercise on its own!) Add the fourth layer to the others, and continue until brains get fried. The point is for players to leave their before-improv stuff at the door and have to put all their brain focus into the activity. This game works best when: There is a lot of ‘yes energy’ and support for each other in the group. You take time to review and cement each layer and You push past the group’s comfort zones.
Additions and Variations:
Additional layers that can be added are any category, telling a story word at a time, or phrase at a time, divide sound & actions into loooong sounds and quick sounds (stab or sustain), or have a physical object (rubber ball or chicken) to throw around either in a pattern or randomly. There is also a great trashball game I learned from Jorgi at Camp Tawingo along these lines. Curious? Ask me! Thanks to Devon WL Turner and Matthew Sereda who are both excellent facilitators of this game and with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working.

2 years ago  15 notes

“I’m a … “

Great for primary grades and great introduction to building interesting tableaux. Choose 5 to 7 players, number them 1, 2, 3, etc. Choose a location in which the scene will take place (i.e. The Magical Forest). Player 1 enters the stage, says “I’m a [character or object in the scene] and I [do some action/have some feeling]” he then freezes in a pose that shows what he is and holds that pose for the entire scene.

Example:

Player 1: “I’m a huge tree and I have lived in this forest for ten thousand years” (poses like a tree)

Player 2: “I’m a magic squirrel and I hide my acorns in this old tree.” (poses like a squirrel digging acorns at the base of the tree)

etc.

Tips: Try to have each new character build from the one(s) previous. This encourages listening, teamwork, and cooperation.

Encourage students to choose a pose that they can easily hold for a while.

Extensions: Add in “activations” where you can see parts of the scene come to life. (ex. “Activate the Tree and the squirrel for 5 seconds. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Freeze.”)

Attribution: Alastair Forbes and I first used this game in our Bad Dog Youth program curriculum. We used it as a way to introduce all of our players at the beginning of a set. Most recently I’ve used it with younger children to set up storytelling.

Fairy Tale Interview

Fairy Tale Interview

Attribution: Alastair Forbes/Jessi Linn Davies, Bad Dog Theatre Company

Each performer is a character from the same well-known fable (4 to 7 players on stage at a time). Characters chosen should be secondary to the action (i.e. not Cinderella, but one of the mice; not Little Red but the woodcutter’s daughter; not Prince Charming but his tailor, etc.).

Set up a talk show on stage by selecting (or acting as) the host.

Ask questions to each character letting them respond in turn.

 

Variations:

Take questions from the audience. Have audience members ask questions in character.

Use a novel or historical/social context that your class is studying instead of a fairy tale. 

 

This activity is best when:

Characters have relationships with other characters, they support the same overall story, they have distinct viewpoints of the action of the story

Questions allow characters to display their opinion, viewpoint, and/or feelings rather than facts. (“What do you think about…?” “How did it feel when….?”)

 

Advanced work: 

 Allow characters to have conversations with each other inside the interview setting.

This is the precursor to a game called Mrs. Mumbles. 

In different character voices, the pattern of “Is Mrs. Mumbles at home?” “I don’t know, I”ll ask my neighbour” is passed around the circle. The leader starts new voices going in either direction (clockwise or counter-clockwise).

Valentine’s Day Fun While looking for something new to try with a group of improvisers who’d been working together for a couple of years, I found inspiration in the local drug store where I saw these candy hearts. Giving the guys (class was all boys) a treat, I played an on-stage scene game where each person on stage had three candy hearts in their hand and needed to include each of their three messages in their scenes, justifying them as they went. Good fun with sugar! I found that this really raised the stakes of their scenework, gimmicky as the game is.

Valentine’s Day Fun

While looking for something new to try with a group of improvisers who’d been working together for a couple of years, I found inspiration in the local drug store where I saw these candy hearts.

Giving the guys (class was all boys) a treat, I played an on-stage scene game where each person on stage had three candy hearts in their hand and needed to include each of their three messages in their scenes, justifying them as they went. Good fun with sugar! I found that this really raised the stakes of their scenework, gimmicky as the game is.


Killer Granny One of my students invented this game based on a Killer Granny character we’d seen in a scene previously. It’s become a class favourite. Choose one person to be the granny. Granny stands aside. Of the remaining players, one is selected to be the one who is ‘carrying the bread’. This is a fresh loaf of bread that Granny loves to eat. She’ll intercept anyone who has it… Everyone walks around, rushing through the forest; Granny talks to passers by and asks whether they have the bread. You must speak the truth to Granny. If the passerby does not, granny whaks him/her with her cane (devilishly mimed, of course). The passerby is rendered onto the ground and can only be revived by being fed a piece of bread from the real bread carrier. The game ends when the bread is found by Granny.

Killer Granny

One of my students invented this game based on a Killer Granny character we’d seen in a scene previously. It’s become a class favourite.

Choose one person to be the granny. Granny stands aside.

Of the remaining players, one is selected to be the one who is ‘carrying the bread’. This is a fresh loaf of bread that Granny loves to eat. She’ll intercept anyone who has it… Everyone walks around, rushing through the forest; Granny talks to passers by and asks whether they have the bread. You must speak the truth to Granny. If the passerby does not, granny whaks him/her with her cane (devilishly mimed, of course). The passerby is rendered onto the ground and can only be revived by being fed a piece of bread from the real bread carrier. The game ends when the bread is found by Granny.

Five Elements of a Story - Storytelling Device


Five Elements of a Story

#1 Location – the where of the scene. Location includes the physical objects (and ‘set-dressing’ people) in the immediate space where the scene takes place, the time period, the atmospheric mood.

#2 Characters and their Relationship – who the main characters (or groups of characters) are and what is their relationship to each other. Give the characters names and make strong relationship links. Choosing “Strangers” as the relationship is ill-advised, since it makes for a lot more figuring-out work on stage.

I like to think of relationships as having two categories, and the best scenes can incorporate both in establishing the platform.

Working relationships: dictate the actions that the characters might take toward each other (ex. doctor/patient,  shoe salesman/customer, alien/astronaut, teacher/principal, movie star/fan)

Personal relationships: dictate how the characters feel about each other (parent/child,  bitter rivals, secretly in love/secretly repulsed, best friends since kindergarten)

Putting working relationships and personal relationships together make for lots to explore during scenework.

#3 Action – sometimes referred to at “conflict” the action represents the change in the routine of the scene, the moment when the characters need to deal with a new, life-changing bit of information (character finds a winning lotto ticket,  character reveals a lie, character’s home has been vaporized). When creating the action, it’s important for all players to agree on what the action point is since it’s going to be the focal point for the rest of the story. We care about this action being resolved in some way and when it is resolved, we’ll know we’ve hit the end of the scene.

#4 Raising the stakes. – the Action has given us one point of focus. There is one thing that we care about in this scene. Raising the stakes makes us (the characters on stage and the audience) care even more about it.

#5 Resolution:

You can raise the stakes in one of three ways. Here we’ll try raising the stakes on the statement “Jonas lost his wallet”:

a)      emotional link – make it a bigger deal for the character: Jonas’ pictures of his kids are in there. And he never gets to see them. And those were the only pictures he had of them. And the kids can magically sense that he’s not got them anymore, so they think he doesn’t love them.

b)      World implications link – make it a bigger deal in the world of the scene: Jonas is the president of the world. And he’s got a speech to start world peace in his wallet. And if the bad guys get his wallet they’ll get his secret security codes to the world-destroying machine.

c)      Immediacy link – make it a bigger deal now: Jonas has plane tickets in his wallet. And the flight is the only one this year. And it’s leaving in five minutes.

Physical Choices for Characterization

Make a choice and show it really clearly. Make it BIG! I should be able to tell that you’re acting and what choice you’ve made for at least two of the following.

Amount of space between  your steps – big steps or small steps

Speed – fast or slow

Level – tall, medium, or small

Volume – amount of space your character takes up – lots or little

Direction – Direct or Indirect – straight lines or wandering curves

Additions – do something with your arms, add a facial expression, add an attitude

The first three steps you take on stage can give a lot of information to the audience and your scene partners. They can also help you to get into your own character, find its voice, pace, and unique identifiers.

Offer Circle - teaching notes and philosophy

The Offer Circle:

I often start introductory sessions with an offer circle so that all players get a chance to be on stage. It’s a great way to work on both of the two fundamental rules: do something and support each other.

Teachable Moments in the Offer Circle:

Someone doesn’t want to take their turn.

Encourage encouragement from the others. “How do we encourage someone who’s nervous?” (cheering, “you can do it!”, using their name) Improv is about impulses so it’s hard to change what we’re feeling…instead of changing our feelings, use them! I will suggest to nervous students to ‘just be more nervous’ in the circle. If they don’t know what to do, they can give energy and a gesture to saying, “I don’t know what to do!”Often, stating this example at the beginning of the activity allows for a useful out for really nervous players.

If the hoopla of encouragement and refusal goes on so long that the pressure is too immense, allow the nervous person to go later. Make sure you call them back in. I usually check in every few turns with the skipped students to let him know when his turn is comingup.

Someone is imposing by giving suggestions to someone else

The reason that a player isn’t deciding on an offer is probably not that they haven’t  any ideas. Most likely, they have too many ideas floating around their brains and are trying to choose the ‘right’ or ‘best’ one. Having additional ideas coming from all angles only makes this more difficult. This is where I usually point out that I haven’t  asked to see brilliant offers or good offers or funny offers, I just want to see anything!

Someone does more acting outside of the circle than in.

This can happen when a player is trying to deflect attention from the offer they will eventually make by creating a scene before their actual scene. Examples range from doing ‘thinking’ poses, feigning shyness, apologizing for or otherwise setting up one’s offer. It is usually easy to know which students are truly very nervous about going on stage and those who are just a bit anxious about how their performance will be perceived (oddly, a lot of class clowns fit into this category). For those in the latter group, I will point out, ‘Look – you’re a born performer! You’re doing more acting outside the circle than I’ve asked you to do inside it’

Someone makes a disparaging remark regarding someone’s performance.

Stop and deal. Call it right away and address it. Remind everyone about the agreements of support and encouragement that were made. If you’re doing the offer circle as a foundation of improvisation, this supportive atmosphere must be held to a high standard from the beginning.

Accepting the Offer:

When you accept an offer, you join in the scene and agree with the offer; agree to be in the same world that was created by the offer; don’t erase any of the work that the offer-maker made. What you should be saying, actor-to-actor, to the offer-maker is: ‘great idea! I’d like to be a part of that and I have some new ideas to add’. If in doubt, join in, say ‘yes’. Make the other player feel good about being on stage with you.

As off-stage players, it can be very difficult to keep ideas inside our mouths when  we’ve begun the jump in and accept process. This is good – great improvisers should be thinking all the time about what could happen next…but thinking and doing are two different things! Remember that shouting ideas from offstage can make it even harder for the on-stage players to continue their scene[1]. If you want to help, do so from on-stage or keep the idea in your mouth. It’s okay that there are millions of unseen ideas out there…their time will come!


[1] This is different from sidecoaching. An experienced coach knows when to prompt or change the scene and when to allow the scene to play out on its own.

Fun games to play around the Table! These are great for family get-togethers and camp meal times! Puff Hockey – A game for two players.  Ball up a tissue, create goals at either side of the table with salt shakers or something small (I recommend going the short way across). Without touching the tissue, try to score on your opponent’s goal. You’ll be blown away by this game! (good for family members or close, close friends) Bizz Buzz - Count around the table, “1″, “2″, “3″, “4″, etc. one number per person. Any number that contains a 3 or a multiple of 3 is replaced with “Bizz”; any number that contains a 7 or multiple of 7 is a “buzz”. Add other substitutions for fun. (ex. one, two, bizz, four, five, bizz, buzz, eight, … , eleven, bizz, bizz, buzz, bizz, sixteen, …, twenty, bizz-buzz, twenty-two…) Die Die (aka 6 to 100) – you need a six-sided die, a piece of paper for each player, and ONE pencil. Good for up to 5 players. Players take turns (the politeness of this step is up to you) rolling the die. When someone rolls a six, he takes the pencil and starts furiously writing the numbers from one to one hundred. He continues writing until someone else rolls a six, when the six-roller takes the pencil and writes her own numbers. First person to complete their list to 100 wins. Pass the Buck - Need: one small object and at least six people. Two teams (team X; team O) sit on opposite sides of the table. All members of team X put their hands under the table. One person on team X starts with the object in his/her hands. Object is passed between X-team members until the O team says “stop”. All players put their fists on the table and O team gets three guesses as to which hand holds the hidden object. Proletariat Chess - Two Players. Need: 15 found objects (stones, cutlery, candies, etc.) Divide objects into piles of 3, 5, and 7. Players take turns removing 1 or two objects at a time from piles. Try to be the player to take the last piece. Word at a Time Story – go around the table telling a story, each player can only say one word (or syllable or sentence) at a time. Never Can Tell Games – I would be breaking a sacred code if I explained these, but there are loads of great never can tells: BRAIN, Black Magic, Magic Square, Movie Mind Reader, Slipodean Secret Writing, Polar Bears and Ice Holes (need dice), Crossed-Uncrossed, This is a Nine, The I Know Club…..ah the memories.

Fun games to play around the Table!

These are great for family get-togethers and camp meal times!

Puff Hockey – A game for two players.  Ball up a tissue, create goals at either side of the table with salt shakers or something small (I recommend going the short way across). Without touching the tissue, try to score on your opponent’s goal. You’ll be blown away by this game! (good for family members or close, close friends)

Bizz Buzz - Count around the table, “1″, “2″, “3″, “4″, etc. one number per person. Any number that contains a 3 or a multiple of 3 is replaced with “Bizz”; any number that contains a 7 or multiple of 7 is a “buzz”. Add other substitutions for fun. (ex. one, two, bizz, four, five, bizz, buzz, eight, … , eleven, bizz, bizz, buzz, bizz, sixteen, …, twenty, bizz-buzz, twenty-two…)

Die Die (aka 6 to 100) – you need a six-sided die, a piece of paper for each player, and ONE pencil. Good for up to 5 players. Players take turns (the politeness of this step is up to you) rolling the die. When someone rolls a six, he takes the pencil and starts furiously writing the numbers from one to one hundred. He continues writing until someone else rolls a six, when the six-roller takes the pencil and writes her own numbers. First person to complete their list to 100 wins.

Pass the Buck - Need: one small object and at least six people. Two teams (team X; team O) sit on opposite sides of the table. All members of team X put their hands under the table. One person on team X starts with the object in his/her hands. Object is passed between X-team members until the O team says “stop”. All players put their fists on the table and O team gets three guesses as to which hand holds the hidden object.

Proletariat Chess - Two Players. Need: 15 found objects (stones, cutlery, candies, etc.) Divide objects into piles of 3, 5, and 7. Players take turns removing 1 or two objects at a time from piles. Try to be the player to take the last piece.

Word at a Time Story – go around the table telling a story, each player can only say one word (or syllable or sentence) at a time.

Never Can Tell Games – I would be breaking a sacred code if I explained these, but there are loads of great never can tells: BRAIN, Black Magic, Magic Square, Movie Mind Reader, Slipodean Secret Writing, Polar Bears and Ice Holes (need dice), Crossed-Uncrossed, This is a Nine, The I Know Club…..ah the memories.

Flipper Flopper Need: one penny for each pair The Game: Divide into partners. One partner is the Flipper, one is the Racer.Racers line up at the starting line, Flippers at the finish line.Flippers, as fast as they can, must flip their coin and report what comes up.Heads – racer takes two steps forwardTails – racer takes one step backRacers must step heel-to-toe.First racer to high-five his/her partner wins. Variations: - allow intervals of ‘big steps’ where racers are released from the heel-toe rule Pinch my Penny Need: a penny for each player The Game: stand facing your partner. Put your left hand behind your back and hold your right hand out, flat, in front of you with the penny in the palm of your hand.Stand so that your hand is right beside your partners, facing your partner.Rules: must start from open palms, must keep your left hand behind your back.Try to steal your partner’s penny.

Flipper Flopper

Need: one penny for each pair

The Game:

Divide into partners. One partner is the Flipper, one is the Racer.Racers line up at the starting line, Flippers at the finish line.Flippers, as fast as they can, must flip their coin and report what comes up.Heads – racer takes two steps forwardTails – racer takes one step backRacers must step heel-to-toe.First racer to high-five his/her partner wins.

Variations:

- allow intervals of ‘big steps’ where racers are released from the heel-toe rule

Pinch my Penny

Need: a penny for each player

The Game:

stand facing your partner. Put your left hand behind your back and hold your right hand out, flat, in front of you with the penny in the palm of your hand.Stand so that your hand is right beside your partners, facing your partner.Rules: must start from open palms, must keep your left hand behind your back.Try to steal your partner’s penny.

Soundscapes

Large Group Soundscape

 

Attribution: Jessi Linn Davies, Canadian Improv Games: Kingston; E=MC, Queen’s University

Create a sound rich sound environment with your group. Have students sit in a circle, spead out from one another. After allowing students to explore the different sounds they can make, guide the work by bringing everyone to silence. Build various sound environments with each group member taking part. Guide the exercise with your voice, bringing the group from silence to a ‘din’ to silence again.

 

Sample Environments:

A busy office, a jungle, a factory, a city street, hospital, wild western town.

 

Variations:

Add rhythm as a component so the class is creating a rhythmic soundscape.

Tell a story through sound only

Allow students to use words, though only one or two, to add to the other sounds.

 

Advanced:

Instruct students to use only words to create a ‘mood-scape’ by vocalizing the words with a specific mood in mind (What dictates mood more, the words chosen or the tone used?)

This activity is best when:Participants are calm; there is a base knowledge of ‘offers’ and building on the offers of others; students listen well to each other; groups are agreeing on the location, fleshing it out by building on the ideas of others; the instructor has a guiding hand over the arc of the soundscape or story.

Job Interviews - Character Work

Job Interviews

 

Put performers in pairs. One partner is the interviewer, the other enters (in character) for a job interview. Interviewer asks questions which feed and strengthen the interviewee’s character choices. This scene should take 1-2 minutes maximum and could be as short as 30 seconds. The exercise can be used for performance or as an everyone-in-pairs exercise.

This activity is best when:

the interviewee makes big, strong character choices and the interviewer plays the foil to the interviewee’s character; both performers listen to offers made by each other and include the other’s offers in their responses/questions.


Hotseat Revolve - Character Activity

Hotseat Revolve

 

Attribution: Jessi Linn Davies, SEEDS (Seven/Eight Enrichment Day Studies), Queen’s University

Each performer has developed his/her own character for this exercise. Place 4 chairs on stage – three for the questioners and one for the character in the hotseat. Set up the rest of the class so they are sitting in a circle, including the 4 chairs. Taking turns, questioners each ask one question of the character in the hotseat. Questions should be related to both the asker and the responder. Once the three questions have been answered, everyone in the room rotates one space clockwise, moving a new character to the hotseat, adding a new character on-stage to question.

This activity is best when:

Questions are open-ended and require more than a “yes” or “no” response; questions relate to both characters; students are feeding and endowing each other’s characters; audience members are NOT in character while waiting to go on stage; performers give lots of information about their character (refer to “First Three Steps” activity).

Advanced work

:After meeting all characters in this way, allow for more advanced scenework (less formal scene structures, i.e. selecting three characters to meet in a coffee shop) and lead toward a half-hour long-form improv experience where all characters interact with each other.*

*This advanced work is a great experience for students as long as you’ve set out agreed upon rules of conduct, ending time, and expectations of character interactions. Townhall meetings, class reunions, cruise ships, and trade fairs are good scenarios which can include all created characters and give the exercise some shape. It is best if the instructor is in role during the exercise (mayor, reunion organizer, activity director, fair coordinator).

Boost - for Raising the Stakes

I was working with the LCVI improv team earlier this month and was inspired to create this game for them. It is as yet untitled, so if anyone has any ideas…

Get everyone to walk around, filling the space, taking care to spread out as they walk. At any time, one team member (the initiator) makes a statement (ie “I’ve lost my wallet”). Right away, other team members move toward the initiator and, one after another, they add stakes to the initial statement. Once an agreed-upon number of stakes are added, all players immediately continue walking around again and the cycle continues.

Example:”I’ve lost my wallet”; “and it contained all the money I have in the world”; “I’m here to collect that $500 you owe me”

Tips:

Encourage those adding stakes to listen well to each other so that each offer builds upon the previous one(s).

Encourage stakes to be built in the same direction (positive or negative); encourage positive offers, too. (ex. “I got a letter”; “and it’s a love letter”; “from Brad Pitt”)

Encourage stakes to pertain to one focal point (“It’s test day”; “and I need this grade for college”; “and I know James is going to cheat from me”; in these examples, the feeds don’t correspond to the same issue) Have the team agree on one issue and strengthen that aspect of the offer.

This is difficult. I tried this with my 11 to 13 year olds later in the week and they didn’t grasp the concept of making the specific thing important in the same way as the previous offer.

If you can think of a good name for this one, let me know. (New Stakes Game) is pretty boring.

We then expanded this exercise into scene work where the team strengthened one initial offer through a series of vigniettes. I was surprised to see that the resulting scenes didn’t seem like exercises, they were simply good scenes!

Layers - great focus

LayersGroups: this works for groups of 8 to about 30. Grades 6 and up, modifying difficulty as necessary.
The Game: Stand everyone in a circle. This is an energy-passing game that requires lots of focus from all players.Add each layer after mastering the layer previous. This can be accomplished in one go, or over a series of days, tracking the group’s progress. First Layer (Names): Have everyone look to their right and make sure they know the name of the person beside them. Starting with a leader go around the circle, each player saying the name of the person on their right (after their own name is called). REMEMBER THIS ORDER. Make sure to remember the name you say (our positions will change later, but this order of names is important). Remember this and move to the next layer. Second Layer (Category): Starting with a new leader, develop a new pattern by sending each player a word/phrase from a pre-selected category (i.e. food, school, positive phrases). Refer to zoom rules, make sure everyone receives a word, that all words are different, and that that the leader of that category (who sent first) receives last. PRACTISE this pattern, once established, and do the exact same pattern (same words, same order) a few times to cement it in the minds of all players. Now, review the first layer (Names) and add in the second layer (category) so that they are both happening at the same time. Each layer works independently of the other. Continue until you master both together (sometimes I set a benchmark of three successful rounds of each layer simultaneously, as counted by the leaders).  Third Layer (movement): Now it gets complicated. Add in the rule that instead of just sending the category (verbally) to the next person in sequence, the sender must move to the position of the receiver (again, see zoom for details). The names layer becomes much more difficult. Continue through three successful rounds.This is the place where I need to add in the rule that only the leader of each specific layer may restart a category if it gets dropped. If this is getting difficult, good. Check in with the group to see what strategies they’d like to try in order to master a layer they’re having trouble with. (These usually include no extra conversations, repeating your word/action to the reciever until he/she picks it up, varying the pace, looking only at the two or three people from whom you receive informaion). Fourth Layer (sound and actions): Choose a new leader and create a new pattern of sounds and actions making sure every player is a part of the chain and that the leader is the final one to receive. Each player should invent a sound and action (I recommend ‘pointing’ or ‘dirctional’ actions like ‘zoom!’ from the last game). It’s a bonus if these actions can flow together from one to the other. PRACTISE this pattern, once established, and do the exact same pattern a few times to cement it in the minds of all players. (Sending Sounds and Actions and getting them to flow is a great exercise on its own!) Add the fourth layer to the others, and continue until brains get fried. The point is for players to leave their before-improv stuff at the door and have to put all their brain focus into the activity. This game works best when: There is a lot of ‘yes energy’ and support for each other in the group. You take time to review and cement each layer and You push past the group’s comfort zones.
Additions and Variations:
Additional layers that can be added are any category, telling a story word at a time, or phrase at a time, divide sound & actions into loooong sounds and quick sounds (stab or sustain), or have a physical object (rubber ball or chicken) to throw around either in a pattern or randomly. There is also a great trashball game I learned from Jorgi at Camp Tawingo along these lines. Curious? Ask me! Thanks to Devon WL Turner and Matthew Sereda who are both excellent facilitators of this game and with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working.

“I’m a … “
Fairy Tale Interview
Five Elements of a Story - Storytelling Device
Physical Choices for Characterization
Offer Circle - teaching notes and philosophy
Soundscapes
Job Interviews - Character Work
Hotseat Revolve - Character Activity
Boost - for Raising the Stakes
Layers - great focus

About:

A list of drama games for use with camps, in school, leadership training, as rehearsal warmups, with some improv handles thrown in, too.