Tips: When introducing the game at the beginning, it is usually prudent to do one example for each Volunteer. You can give one a simple example ("I think I'll go to the store and pick up some...") and one a more complex example ("You know, there's one thing my grammy always told me in situations like this. It's...").
Description: This game requires two audience Volunteers. Players A and B will start an open scene, but during the scene will have trouble determining the next thing to say (word or phrase). At this point, the Player can point or tap one of the Volunteers, who will provide the missing information. The Players will then continue the scene, justifying whatever the Volunteer added to the scene.
Tips: When introducing the game at the beginning, it is usually prudent to do one example for each Volunteer. You can give one a simple example ("I think I'll go to the store and pick up some...") and one a more complex example ("You know, there's one thing my grammy always told me in situations like this. It's..."). Description: This game takes two Players and two audience Volunteers. Players A and B cannot move their own bodies during the scene; Volunteers A and B are required to move their bodies for them. The Volunteers will tap the Players on the back (or the front) of the knees to get them to move their legs; they will have to turn their heads or move their arms when appropriate (or desired). The Players will be able to speak, and throughout the scene must justify their positions with the current action of the scene.
Tips: Frequent Gets involve a necessity of action - one Player is teaching the other to do something, they are playing a sport, they are working at a factory building ___. Gimmicks: The Players will often need to verbally justify their positions, but can also describe what they're about to do, to lead the Volunteers to move their bodies appropriately (or not, depending on the whims of the Volunteers). Players describing/engaging in a repetitive physical action (i.e., jumping jacks) can play with the Volunteer and get a good audience reaction. Variants: Sometimes known as Moving Bodies. You can have more Players (usually no more than three) or fewer Volunteers, if you want to make the Volunteer(s) work harder. Description: This game requires four players. First a suggestion for a non-geographical location is taken from the audience. Then each player tells what character they will be in the scene. Finally, suggestions are taken from the audience for four means of dying - not actual means (like gunshot or food poisoning) but more ridiculous, innocuous means (like marshmallows or the letter G). Once the scene begins, the four players act out the scene as normal, but each one eventually will die by one of the means suggested. The scene ends when everybody's dead.
Tips: Players have to remember nine pieces of information - the four characters, the location, and the four deaths. Not for the faint of memory. Gimmicks: Because each death is used once and only once, the game can become good-heartedly competitive for players to "get" the death they wanted. Players can "steal" a death from another - for example, as Player A is obviously setting up the opportunity to die, Player B can come in and somehow have the death be inflicted upon him instead. (Player A now has to find another death.) Players can also "give" a death to other players by setting them up with offers that lead towards a particular means of death. A player can enter and almost immediately come upon their means of death. The last player left can milk the scene for as much as they can - they're basically in soliloquy mode. Description: Players A, B and C will start an open improv scene. Throughout the scene, the host will freeze the action and call out particular emotions (taken previously as audience suggestions). At that point, the players must continue the scene in that emotion. The host continues to call out emotions and the players adjust accordingly until the end of the scene. Variants: Only players B and C change emotions; player A plays the "straight man" and reacts to B and C's changes. Gimmicks: The host calling out an emotion that is clearly contrary to the established direction of the scene. Our next game is called Emotional Roller Coaster, which is what our players A, B and C will be on. They are going to start a scene for us. [AUDIENCE SUGGESTION FOR SCENE START] During the scene, I will freeze the players and give them an emotion, at which point they will resume the scene incorporating that emotion. |
games and...This is our catalog of "games", including both short-form and long-form structures for performances, rehearsals, warm-ups and more.
Each game has a Description of the game, and many have Tips or Gimmicks for playing, as well as Variants to the listed game. The block quote section at the end is a sample script for whomever is hosting the game. Categories
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Games ListCategories
Chaplin Clay People Columns Conducted Story Count to 20 Customer Service Dating Game Denial Game Director's Cut Emotional Interview Emotional Mime Emotional Objects Emotional Quadrants Emotional Roller Coaster Forward-Reverse Four Ways to Die Freeze Tag Gibberish Translator Go Group Move Half-Life Here Comes Charlie Hitchhiker Marriage Counselor Mind Meld Movie Review Painting by Numbers Party Quirks Props Question This! Quick Exit Reflective Dialog Scenes from a Hat Shared Group Activity Shopping from Home Sit Stand Lay Slideshow Split Screen Story Game Third Wheel Upstage Downstage What Are You Doing? What Happens Next? |