Tag Archives: symmetry

Jan 30

Kick The Duck, Red Rover exercise

Simplifying and Clarifying: The sooner everyone is on the same page, the sooner we can heighten and evolve collaboratively.

Our main tool of simplification is Agreement – the more players that mirror/agree, the less different stuff there is on stage to negotiate.

The more people you’re playing with the clearer you have to be. Our main tool of clarification is Repetition. The first time something happens, it’s random; the second time is purposeful; the third time is expected.

A group of people can take the stage and confidently navigate chaos by focusing outward, seeking symmetries, making differences matter and clarifying sequences of cause and effect through repetition.

Through “Kick The Duck, Red Rover,” players learn to focus outward and make the random purposeful by mirroring, heightening and supporting one another.

KICK THE DUCK, REDROVER – “On the count of three, everyone will be playing a game without words. You will collaborate to establish focus and define the rules of your game. One, two, three, go!” This game starts with impossible chaos but becomes manageable and then successful as the teacher lays on instructions with each iteration and the group feels how to build collaboratively.
Progression/Lessons:
• Someone will use gibberish to direct other players’ actions – Stop them and remind them to lead by following
• Ask “How did the game start?” They will tell you about the first move that was made. Remind them that the game started when you said “go.” Have them return to their positions and postures when you said “go.” Ask them to focus outwardly on what is already there at that moment.
• Seek Symmetries – Are you standing near someone? Posed like someone? If you seem like you could be aligned with someone, align yourself with them; do what they do. This agreement fosters focus.
• Empower Asymmetries – How do the different groupings relate? Make the asymmetries that exist matter. How does one group react to the other? What does one group do to another?
• Have the group shake it off, walk around the room and then, when teacher says “go,” start a new game focused on Seeking Symmetries and Empowering Asymmetries.
• Stop and ask them to walk you through what happened, with players explaining what they saw and what they did in response. Tease out “When X happened, Y happened.”
• “What rules were you playing by?” We want players to observe cause-and-effect and seek to clarify the “rule” with repetition. Make another X happen to make another Y happen. If you see X happen again, make Y happen again. Work to notice not only what is happening, but how what happens relates to what happened before. And pay attention to what happens after. Even if there is no inherent connection between the first set of moves, by working to repeat that sequence we begin to establish rules and clarify group direction.
• Everyone is necessarily “playing by their own rules” – but if each individual is committed to simplifying and clarifying then a group direction will emerge.
• If something is not clear, don’t ignore it or play it half-assed, make it clearer – by heightening it or otherwise clarifying the move. If you’re lost, chances are the rest of the group is too. Don’t wait for someone else to clarify what’s going on; take responsibility yourself. The rest of the group will thank you.
• “Can you go back and start this game over?” When they’ve learned to seek symmetries, empower asymmetries, establish and repeat rules of cause and effect, it’s time to get them to Reset the Game Sequence. Have them go back to their initial starting positions and try to do the same game again exactly. It won’t be exact; it will evolve, but it will evolve organically because they are attempting to do it exactly.
• If you’re ever lost, return to what was done before – engage a rule again. Restart the sequence. Going through a game again will build clarity and simplifies the amount of stuff in play.
• After they have a great game, they are likely to have a game become super sloppy because they got too excited and stopped leading by following.
• Trust the pattern – don’t overcomplicate. The sooner everyone is on the same page, the sooner we can heighten and evolve collaboratively.  My favorite aspect of the video above is how the group clearly starts to have fun with a very simple progression simply because they know how to play and can just play.  We tend to overcomplicate unnecessarily.  And then we end up in our heads trying to figure out how to navigate all our complications.  Keep it simple and have fun with it.

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Here’s a video of me teaching the group the Kick The Duck, Red Rover exercise that culminates in the clip above.  It’s long, containing many iterations of the exercise by the group with lots of rambling by me in between those iterations.  But talk about a progression!  Watch them grow:

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”