Situational Stakes: Our “What” is emotional reactions to active elements. Commitment and repetition are the only “why” we need. But “Because” can elevate the emotional stakes of a scene with context. “Stakes” come in many forms – and we want to apply emotion to all of them. These exercises focus on endowing premises and […]
Behavioral Stakes: Our “What” is emotional reactions to active elements. Commitment and repetition are the only “why” we need. But “Because” can elevate the emotional stakes of a scene with context. “Stakes” come in many forms – and we want to apply emotion to all of them. These exercises focus on elevating characters by allowing […]
Objective: A scene’s stakes (situational, behavioral and relation-based) can be heightened with more scenes, especially when emotions are heightened, too.
IMPRESSIONS - Impressions are a fun way to get into a fully formed character Variations: • Go around in a circle, have everyone say a person they do an impression of • Move everyone to the right one spot, they do the impression of the person next to them • Get two people up, they […]
Remember what you like; Repeat: We have to listen and retain so we can return to and heighten established information. Memory is a muscle to exercise. But the exercise can be fun – focus on what makes you laugh, what engages you. Suggested Exercises: STORY STEALING – Everyone in a circle. One at a time, […]
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 […]
Subsequent Beats: The stakes of one scene can be used as inspiration for initiating new scenes. SUBSEQUENT BEATS – Two players do a scene (edited early by the teacher). These two original players go to the wings. A Player Three initiates a new scene, explicitly soliciting the participation of Player One, Player Two, Both Players […]
Here's a collection of the Warm-Up Exercises on this site: General/Fun: Crazy Eights Name Thumper Robert Paulson Welcome to BLANK Mountain Hype People I Need Three Things Group Mind: 21 News Reel I Am Superman Buzby Burkley Kick The Duck, Red Rover "Tonight..." Hype People Character & Emotion: Carpool Here's The Deal. Yes, And. I […]