Personal Game – how you react to who you are, where you are or what you’re doing
* I love cake; when I eat a piece I’m overcome with joy and I sigh involuntarily
Scenic Game – how you react to who your scene partner is, what your scene partner is doing or how your scene partner is acting
* Greg is my hero; when he criticizes me I’m destroyed and flagellate myself
* We are scared of ghosts; when we hear a noise we freak and run around
The games represent a pattern of behavior established through evolving rules. Establishing and leveraging these games A) enable players to react through rather than think through scenes and B) engage the audience, letting them know our characters through their patterns of emotional behavior and care about them.
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Inspired by a Harold's use of neon light, Patrick initiates a scene with a Self Contained Emotional Statement in which he establishes a kinship with the "inert gas that doesn't mix with other elements."
David reacts, establishing a scenic game between them as a store clerk who wants to sell this sadsack a lamp.
Patrick channels his personal game through a new object in their environment - a fluorescent lamp whose "buzz" makes Patrick not feel as alone.
David reacts, establishing his personal game as "never alone."
Patrick reacts, establishing his end of the scenic game as jealousy.
Patrick reengages his personal game, now finding a lamp that responds to his touch.
David reacts through his personal game's lens: he does this "every day."
Patrick reacts through his end of the scenic game: "Tell me you're hiring."
With "now we are," David not only shares an authentic in-the-moment reaction with the audience but also flips the script, allowing him to be sold on Patrick's need for company. And the audience loves it, because, through their established patterns of behavior, they've come to know these characters and, most importantly, they've come to care.
[…] Personal Games are the focus of the base Mirror, Action, Object warm-up exercise. Engaged in either how they feel about themselves, how they feel about what they’re doing, or how they feel about a mimed object, players build progressions of emotional reaction triggered by active endowments. As examples: A player loves his outfit, and as he scans himself toe to head he grows more and more impressed with himself (Mirror). A player grows more insane with every monotonous saw stroke. A player becomes more and more vain with every bite of the apple. […]
[…] discussed their personal preferences for initiating scenes. Some felt most confident heightening a Personal Game against new details. Some looked to map a relationship from earlier in the set onto a different […]