Smaller and Larger
[alt name: Emotional String of Pearls]
Four to six players take the stage. One player steps forward and makes an emotional facial expression or a gesture. One by one the other players step forward and make the gesture larger or smaller depending on where they stand. When finished the series of expressions go from small on stage right to large on stage left.
When the players step forward they can chose any spot in the sequence they want.
You can combine an emotional facial expression and physical gesture.
Notes:
This is a rehearsal/warm up game more than it is a performance game.
This game is similar in structure to the game "String of Pearls".
Substitue 'status' for emotional facial expression for a Status String of Pearls.
This games came to us from the tireless and inventive Ann Feehan in San Francisco.
If you play this game please write me a note so we can get some feedback.
Challenge: Invent an Improv Game based on the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate.
I sent the challenge to followers on Facerbook and Twitter.
Here are the responses:
Joop Vinke in the Netherland:
Today my students were watching the wedding when I entered the class and I let them do three excercises on it
1. William offers his Sarah [Kate] a present.. She accepts it and tells what it is and William explains the reasons why he gave it
2. Sarah [Kate] offers him too a present to and tells him (with a given emotion) why she thinks this marriage won't last long
3. Both make the agreement just to do as if nothing happens and walk together out of the church.. (in different given styles)
It was a wonderful lecture with of course a relation towards the subject of the lecture: Firing people and how to deal with own and others emotions :-)
Warm regards from The Netherlands!!
[Note: Joop teaching at the Arnhem Business School]
Holly Thorsen in San Francisco, California
You could do the royal wedding version of slo-mo commentary. Ask the audience for one of the obscure traditions of a royal wedding as your activity and have the commentators explain it all in british accents as other improvisors act it out. Everything's fun with accents!
Tara McDonough in Portland Maine
Make up an obscure tradition (or maybe that's what you mean, Holly?) Or perhaps something involving over-blown and incomprehensible British accents, and translation?
Kevin Bohnert in San Francisco, California [The Streetlight People Improv Group]
How about a backwards epic long-from? First line is "I do", and last line is "It's a boy!" when William (Harry? whatever his name is) is born.
Janie Summers of Sebastopol, California
A secret endowment wedding scene where the audience offers some obscure reason why the ceremony (sorry, cerremny) can't continue (the king/queen can't sleep without a dozen corgys, a never before brand of speech impediment, a hat sexual problem, an extra pinky inherited from anne boleyn). prevail?
Richard Laible of Chicago, Illinois [Laible Productions]
The game is called "I do...to much!" It is a oneupmanship game where the bride and groom are reciting their vows (I would get a topic or two that have to be woven into the game) back and forth and have to "better" the last vow said.person. Example: I will take out the trash. The winner is when the last person falters and a new bridge/groom takes their place.
Joshua Nicols from Fullerton, California [The Lobby Improv]
Royal Party Quirks
From the audience you get 3 random nouns and celebrities.
Its a guessing game, where the guests of the wedding need to be announced. The announcer observes their conversation and behavior and when they figures it out he says "Ladies and Gentelmen, the Earl of (Noun) and his guest (celebrity)."
They snootily move along into the party. And the next couple walks in.
Francine Wolf of Clearwater, Florida[ZaZu Productions]via twitter
A line of players, jump in with three sentences-guests you wouldn't expect at the wedding saying things you would never hear.
Dan Beeston of Brisbane, Australia. [Smart Enough] via twitter
Easy. What is a Royal Wedding if not the Ultimate Status swap. Go in Commoner, go out Royal. Do a Status Transfer.
Lover/Ex/Friend
Lover/Ex/Friend
Four players take the stage. Each player secretly chooses one of the other players to be their current lover. Then they secretely choose one of the remaining two payers to be their Ex-Lover. That means the one remaining player will be their friend (just-a-friend).
The set up may be a party and the players arrive one at a time. And play a scene.
Notes:
The players endow qualites on the others but not on themselves. This reveals relationship...which seems to be one of the things we're interested in when we go to the theatre. Relationship gives character - not funny-walk-character, moral character.
This is a variation of the Silly, Sexy, Smelly game by Keith Johnstone.
This may be more of a workshop exercise than a performance game. Although I've seen the Johnstone version in performance work quite well.
To help the players keep it random you can ask them to assign A, B or C to each of the other players. Then tell them that the "A" person is the Lover, etc.
This game come to us from Jenn Chou of the New 19 in Los Angeles. Who Adds:
"Every time I play this, I am just fascinated by every single relationship, especially when Player 1 is in love with Player 2, but Player 2 thinks Player 1 is JUST A FRIEND. (This JUST A FRIEND thing is so awful and painful...like life)"
Variations:
You can play it in silence to highlight the relationships. And Jenn suggests, The silent version is fascinating. Best not to have a "party" because it gets too mime-y. Better to cut out the space object work and just have players enter one at a time and silently interact.
If you play this game please write me a note so we can get some feedback.
The scene starts at a single point in time (like any scene). Players alternate between a scene-in-reverse from that starting point, and a scene going forward from the same starting point. Each time the bell rings, players jump to the last moment we saw in the alternate timeline (forward or reverse) and pick up where they left off.
Notes:
Sometimes an offer, introduced in the scene-in-reverse, would prompt the ending in the forward moving scene. As the game continues the players jump from the beginning of the scene to the end of the scene which allows for lots of reincorporation and fun interplay.
This game was discovered/created in a class lead by Rich Cox in May 2010. The improvisers are Eva Balint, Barbara Anderson, Brett Bavar, Bill Rogg, Justin Vandehey . Thank you all for your adventure and sharing your discoveries.
More notes:
Cynthia Brown wrote to say that her group played the game and had a few challenges. Thank you Cynthia for trying the game and letting me know what you and your group experienced. Here are a few more notes on the game:
The actors begin a scene...let's say that they are sitting down to dinner at a cafe for a date. They play the scene in a forward direction until they get a ding. Let's say they get a ding when the waiter spills wine on the guy. The ding makes them jump back in time to the beginning point (sitting down at the cafe) and they play a scene in reverse until they get a ding....we'll say that the moment they get a ding is when they come into the cafe. The ding takes them forward in time to when the waiter spills the wine on the guy and the actors play the story forward from there....until they get another ding. Let's say it's the point where the waiter and the gal leave together. The ding takes them back to when they came into the cafe and they play a scene in reverse (perhaps adding a bit about how clumsily the guy is...or how cute the waiter is...or something that might foreshadow the other scene.
The players give a bell to an audience member. Every time the audience member rings the bell one of the 'soap opera characterse' will kiss or slap someone.
Tell the musician that at any time he or she can add a dramatic 'sting' and the actors will have to justify what was so important about what was just said.
Notes:
I played this game for the first time with Diane Rachel and Kasey Klemm at BATS Improv. It was a lot of fun.
New Game Sunday