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!