Tag Archives: ensemble

Jan 29

Focusing Stage Picture exercises

Focusing Stage Picture: Staging an environment in a group game breeds potential complications as players abandon pattern for roles and over-prioritize explaining who they are and what they’re doing. But attention to the elements of stage picture can help focus a group scene and facilitate quick collaborative heightening.

Suggested Exercises:

STAGE PICTURE TABLEAUS – One by one, players enter stage, fleshing out a picture with static poses and/or repetitive motion. Teacher gives a suggestion of a location, for example, “Apple Orchard,” “Beach,” “Race Track.”
Progression/Lessons:
• Players tend to want to fill in all the possible roles in a location. An orchard has pickers, trees, baskets, landscapers, squirrels.
• Ask “Where’s the focus?” They won’t know.
• Build deliberately with agreement – There’s no reason we can’t all be trees. A scene about five trees and one squirrel will be easier to find and heighten faster than a scene where six separate entities struggle for reason to exist.
• Seek symmetries; empower asymmetries
• Ask “Is this a One Person, Two Person, or Three Person Scene?”
• Ask “Who should talk first?”
• Have them point out the groups, defining focus. Point out Upstage/Downstage distinctions for focus. Point out who can see who, and so who has to take their cues from who
Variations:
• Push them to define more and more abstract environments; i.e., NASA, Hell.
• Speed loading – have everyone crowd the space quickly upon hearing the suggestion, making bold choices and seeking symmetries faster.

 

ONE, TWO, THREE PERSON SCENES – Player build tableaus and then get to talk. Remember, Self Contained Emotional Statements. To start, players should align their emotional perspectives with the other players they are physically mirroring/complimenting.
Lessons:
• Simplify and find focus through agreement in stage picture and emotional perspectives
• There’s no reason we can’t always do One Person Scenes – even if our physicality is different
• When you do have groups, don’t fall to negotiations, arguments or other lines of questioning – exploring juxtaposed emotional perspectives is all the scene we need
Variations:
• Have everyone pick someone to agree with before the suggestion is given – players can mirror/compliment one player’s physicality and another player’s emotional perspective; it can be fun to surrender to being forced into aligning with a perspective despite “sense”

Jan 28

Pattern Into Game exercises

Understanding the atomic structure of patterns can help a group collaboratively build complex and evolving molecules. Devotion to pattern analysis will foster Pavlovian pattern recognition.

Pattern – a sequence that can be repeated / a structure that can be reused

Game – a sequence of actions, related by rules of cause-and-effect, that heightens with repetition

Elevating pattern work into game play, we focus on two aspects. One, we want a relationship between the nodes of the sequence. And, two, we want a progression of subsequent relationships that heightens the sequence in a concentrated direction.

Patterns that facilitate game play can be defined by three “moves.” A “move” is defined as “a single node of a pattern.” The “move” needn’t be “one line” or “one player’s contribution,” and the “moves” of any given pattern may be redefined in retrospect as new contributions are added. Through analysis and practice, a player learns to recognize and define the distinct moves that define a pattern.

Evolution of the pattern –
• 1st move = Offer (anything is an offer)
• 2nd move = Sets the pattern (of the myriad directions available after the offer the set move begins to define a single trajectory)
• 3rd move = Cements the pattern (clarifies the pattern in a direction that can be repeated and heightened.
E.g. Orange (1); Apple (2); Kiwi (3)
E.g. Orange, Peel (1); Melon, Rind (2); Apple, Skin (3)

Suggested Exercises:

WORD ASSOCIATION – Have Player One say any word. Have Player Two say a word inspired by Player One’s word. Have Player Three say a word that, in relating to the 2nd word, heightens the relationship between the first two words.

TO THE ETHER GAMES – Have Player One take stage and make a Self Contained Emotional Statement. Have Player Two come out and change one thing about Player One’s SCES. Have Player Three give a SCES that, in relating to the 2nd SCES, heightens the progression between the first two SCESs.

Lessons (for Word Association and/or To The Ether):
• The Offer is anything. The Set move seeks to establish a relationship with the Offer move. The Cement move seeks to heighten the relationship between the Set and Offer moves through its own relationship with the Set move. The progression of Offer, Set and Cement moves define the rules to the relationship between nodes in the sequence.
• Trust simplicity – stick the same language; don’t allow personally-clever A-to-E connections ground the group in confusion
• Serve the group – you don’t have to be funny for the group to be hilarious; be willing to set the pattern for another to spike; the 2nd move will never be as funny as the 1st or 3rd but it is necessary to facilitate the big payoff.
• The sooner a pattern is cemented, the sooner everyone can play – when players feel compelled to continue a pattern you know it has been established with a clear progression.

Jan 28

To The Ether Game exercise

The fun of collaborative creation is confidently following wherever it goes. A commitment to making moves in the context of all that precedes them can help a group shape that creation without controlling it, focusing the group’s progression for maximum heightening and impact.

To The Ether games are the simplest in terms of pattern components but are the most varied in terms of their final form. Drilling To The Ether games with post-game analysis of the progression of moves will help students build pattern muscle memory.

TO THE ETHER GAMES – Have Player One take stage and make a Self Contained Emotional Statement. Have Player Two come out and change one thing about Player One’s SCES. Have Player Three give a Self Contained Emotional Statement that, in relating to the 2nd Self Contained Emotional Statement, heightens the progression between the first two Self Contained Emotional Statements.

Evolution of the pattern –
• 1st move = Offer (anything is an offer)
• 2nd move = Sets the pattern (of the myriad directions available after the offer the set move begins to define a single trajectory)
• 3rd move = Cements the pattern (clarifies the pattern in a direction that can be repeated and heightened.
E.g. Orange (1); Apple (2); Kiwi (3)
E.g. Orange, Peel (1); Melon, Rind (2); Apple, Skin (3)

Lessons:
• The Offer is anything. The Set move seeks to establish a relationship with the Offer move. The Cement move seeks to heighten the relationship between the Set and Offer moves through its own relationship with the Set move. The progression of Offer, Set and Cement moves define the rules to the relationship between nodes in the sequence.
• Trust simplicity – stick the same language; don’t allow personally-clever A-to-E connections ground the group in confusion
• Serve the group – you don’t have to be funny for the group to be hilarious; be willing to set the pattern for another to spike; the 2nd move will never be as funny as the 1st or 3rd but it is necessary to facilitate the big payoff.
• The sooner a pattern is cemented, the sooner everyone can play – when players feel compelled to continue a pattern you know it has been established with a clear progression.
• Don’t forget emotion – if nothing else heighten emotion/character; that can earn you an edit even if all else fails to cohere.
• Categories – related contributions that do not heighten/progress; can be reordered without consequence (“Coke/Kleenex/Band-aid” vs. “Kleenex/Band-aid/Coke”). A run of categories typically necessitates a “resetting” pattern pass
• Poles – when two extremes are juxtaposed (hot/cold; love/hate) it can be difficult to find a contribution to continue the progression; upon hearing “poles” players should seek to set up another poled pair to establish a progression across pairs
• Resetting – when a pattern’s trajectory has reached an apex, players should think to start a second related pattern so that the game is heightening iterations of patterns. Example 1 – Womb/World/Heaven; Testies/Sweat sock/Hell. Example 2 – “I hate school”…“I hate prison”; “My teachers…”…“My guards…”
• Rule of 3s is not mandatory – while the rule of 3’s does facilitate funny, you don’t need factors of three; patterns don’t have to be played all the way down the line before they are edited
• Pattern Ending Edits – ideally a pattern heightens to a beautiful point and earns an edit; not-ideally a player makes a move at the expense of the pattern and fails to earn an edit leaving a dead scene; but there are moves that can successfully earn an edit while disrupting the progression –

  • Contextual Alignment – when it becomes clear what the whole pattern to that point has been about
    • “My nose ring hurts,” “My ink hurts,” “My brand hurts,” “My fixed-speed bike hurts.”
  • Throwing a Pattern on Its Head – if the pattern is heightened in a clear progression subverting that progression can be funny
    • “I love it,” “I love it,” “I love it,” “I loathe it”

VIDEO EXAMPLES OF “TO THE ETHER” GAMES –

Johnsons’ Opening – Date for the Dance

Johnsons’ Opening – Giraffe

IAIDB – I Wish

IAIDB – Everything Sucks

Jan 27

Organic Group Games class

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 Ends:   The rubric game mechanics can be applied to any initiation.  And the combination of mechanics can facilitate organic game play.

Suggested Exercises:

1 SCES TO TtE, HD & HE – A player initiates with a Self Contained Emotional Statement.  Other players build on, working to set and cement toward a To The Ether, Help Desk or Hey Everybody game.  Clear the stage.  Then the same initiating player gives the same SCES and another of the rubric games is built on top.  Clear stage, repeat.

Example: Player 1 enters, holding a mimed map, looking up and around and says, “Man, New York is so intimidating; where’s the Empire State Building?”

  • To The Ether Game – Player 2 enters on all fours, wiggling their nose and says, “Man, this maze is crazy complicated; where the hell’s that cheese?”  Player 3 enters with arms pressed to his sides, wiggling his whole body and says, in an angry character accent, “Man, these fallopian tubes are all dark and twisted; where the fuck that egg at?”
  • Help Desk Game – Player 2 enters and says, “I’ll help you…”  Player 3 watches that interaction, enters after Player 2 finds reason to leave and mirrors certain aspects of the interaction while heightening others
  • Hey Everybody Game – Player 2 enters and says, “Hey, you gots all of New York at your disposal, we’ll get you where you need to go,” effectively calling on additional players who find their own place and filter while respecting Player 1 as the facilitator

Lessons:

  • Clear moves breed clear games – get everyone on the same page and everyone can play; set up a clear progression and the group will be compelled to play
  • The rubric game mechanics are tools to shape any game – the core mechanics give us a way to relate and progress moves, they don’t dictate a game.
      • TtE Core – heightening one perspective/idea?  Build a progression thinking about elevating the relationship between A and B in C’s relationship to B.
      • HD Core – heightening an interaction?  Follow, not just “the joke,” but the full swath of scene elements (dialogue structure, word choice, emotion, pacing, beginning, end, etc.).   Build a progression, heightening elements that change between interactions and repeating elements that repeat between interactions.
      • HE Core – heightening a collection of disparate elements?  Establish stable ground for yourself as quickly as possible with a bold emotional reaction.  Build the progression through repetition of the sequence – players contributing in-turn and heightening through their personal filter.

 
 

5.2  Organic Montage:   Use the combinations of game mechanics to facilitate a varied run of games. 

Suggested Exercises:

ORGANIC GROUP GAME MONTAGE – A run of group games, edited and continued by the group.

Lessons:

  • Variance – vary the emotional energy, scene length, scene type, cast size, etc.
  • Callback – revisit and heighten games from earlier in the run