Heightening Through Tag-Outs: A “tag out” allows the audience to see how a character from a previous scene will react to another character/scenario/etc. We want to execute tag-outs in service of heightening the emotional stakes.
TAG OUTS –To perform a tag out, a player enters a scene in progress and literally tags the player that he/she will replace on stage.
Lessons:
• Being a bigger version of Player One; Do what Player One did bigger – always a trusty default (You were excited by snails? I’m going to be really excited by snails).
• Keep it Active / Avoid Being a Psychiatrist – we don’t want to rehash the previous scene (“Tell me about your feelings for snails”/ “Remember? In the last scene when you liked snails?”). Initiate with active elements that can affect characters emotionally in the present moment.
• Wherever You’re Taken, Trust In You – If Player Three takes Player One’s snail lover to see the animated movie Turbo, Player One is expected to heighten his excitement. Player One can relax in knowing that wherever he’s transported he just needs to trust in his emotional reactions.
• Elevate the Details – A player who fears action figures can be terrified of all little versions of things. A player obsessed with her eyebrows can obsess over everything she trims. A tenant complaining to her absentee landlord can also complain to an absentee God.
[…] Tag-Out Progressions Example #1: Mirror/Heighten relationships. Do several scenes of players at work get tagged back to their domestic lives? Do relationships progress more to the dominate or submissive? Who has twins and/or bigger versions of them? Example 2: Build worlds. Can disparate scenes each heighten Take Your Daughter To Work Day? Do different scenes’ characters intersect if maybe only for a moment? Could every character at some point be tagged in and out of a T.G.I. Fridays? Example 3: Employ triggers. It’s very Family Guy, but can players establish a language to evoke tag-outs, like “That’s just like the time…” Remember to first serve the scene before the show, so don’t kill what’s been established on stage for your little joke. Remember, too, that if all your tag-out consists of is a joke then the original scene can always tag back in. […]
[…] helpful in coaching to the Opportunity: * Subsequent Beats * Subsequent Beats Class * Memory * Heightening with Tag-Outs * Subsequent Beat Exercises * Pattern […]
[…] lot of times we’ll facilitate choosing who to replace in a Help Desk game with a Tag Out – instead of trying to inhabit the same space and time as the Offer dialogue, in initiating the […]