Help Desk Games: A pattern can be based around a series of interactions. This game rubric can be especially helpful in making scenes that had been bogged down in transaction, negotiation and/or conflict look good. Suggested Exercises: HELP DESK – Have a player assume a character and introduce a place of business; “The Help Desk […]
Hey Everybody Games: The potential for trouble in a “Hey Everybody, get out here” initiation is high. Players may rush out on stage to support the initiation with disparate reactions that then battle for dominance; chaos ensues and awkwardness follows. Or, though players may rush out on stage to support the initiation, they await to […]
Objective: Building patterns one step at a time, it doesn’t matter what “type” of game we’re playing. From any Offer, through agreements’ simplification, repetitions’ clarification and progressions’ heightening a group can confidently navigate and focus “organic” games. 5.0 Warm-Ups: Build energy and concentrate energy. Suggested Exercises: CRAZY EIGHTS 21 5.1 One Start, Multiple […]
Walk-ons – we can enter a two player scene in progress as another character, offering a move that contributes to the progression of the game(s) at play. Two high school boys are feeling self conscious in the hallway so Player 3 enters as a mean girl to point out their foibles. Two players are arguing over […]
“Cut-to” – when players doing a scene refer to a particular moment (from the past, future, etc.), a player comes onstage and announces “Cut to: that moment” and we see the moment. A comfortable ensemble can perform the “cut-to” (also called flashback, show me, etc.) without telegraphing the move by shouting “Cut to.” As with walk-ons, a “cut to” […]
Tag out – a “tag out” allows the audience to see how a character from a previous scene will react to another character/scenario/etc. To perform a tag out, a player enters a scene in progress and literally tags the player that he/she will replace on stage. The player tagging in should work to be clear in […]
Scene Painting/ “We See” – we can come in from offstage to describe (and physicalize) a previously unseen “visual” aspect of the scene. For example, a pompous character is painted with a monocle, “#1 Boss” button, etc. For another example, a scene with a child bemoaning having to do his/her chores is painted with a window […]
Pivot (Swivel/Barn Door) – Rather than Tag Out and Tag Back In, the Pivot allows two scenes to happen without players having to leave stage. For example, Player 1 is telling Player 2 all about his success in last night’s date. Player 3 enters stage on the other side of Player 1 from Player 2 to […]
https://videos.files.wordpress.com/jcgR04oo/johnsons-and-detective-walk-on-off-w-split-screen_hd.mp4 Split Screen – To heighten a two-person scene, Player Three and Player Four initiate a new scene - on the same stage, but existing in separate physical spaces. For example, a scene about a married couple fretting over money can be heightened by a couple of mice fretting over cheese. These two (or more) separate […]
Mapping – Exploring an idea through the filter of another scenario's language and objects. For example, player one is a businessman being bothered by player two, a salesman. If in trying to get the salesman to leave him alone the businessman uses language that we all recognize from a “break-up scenario,” such as “it’s not you […]