Tag Archives: group

Jan 27

Hey Everybody Game exercise

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 take their cues from the initiator who becomes the facilitator in a stiff and slow series of interactions that typically revolves more around thinking than feeling.  Hey Everybody game mechanics allow a group to quickly build a focused direction out of disparate parts.

Suggested Exercises:

HEY EVERYBODY – A player initiates to bring a crowd on stage; “Team, take a knee.”  Players join and players make choices quickly in succession – reacting, agreeing, emoting – to establish the sequence of contribution.  The initiating player restarts the next sequence by heightening through the filter of their initiation.  Players contribute in the order of the initiating sequence, heightening through their personal filter.

Lessons:

  • Don’t wait; react – wait and nothing will happen or you’ll be stuck negotiating.  The sooner a player reacts, the sooner they’re taken care of, and there’s one less player to “figure out.”
  • Facilitate, don’t dictate – the game’s facilitator is just another player, who happened to start the scene.  The facilitator can and should find a personal filter and not feel the need to speak any more than anyone else.
  • Play your part – trust that if you continue heightening through your personal filter at your established place in the group’s sequence then an edit will be found.  You may not be “the funny one” this time, but your consistency will allow what is funny to pop.

Variations:

  • For more than contrived scenes – any scene where a group needs to focus chaos can be aided by Hey Everybody dynamics.  Have one player initiate a scene with a Self Contained Emotional Statement and have a crowd join that scene quickly, and quickly establishing a sequence of contributions.  Restarting and repeating a sequence of contributions can focus even the most disparate parts.
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