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warmups physical sound symphony each person gets a sound/phrase/mantra. host conducts them, with vertical motions controlling overall volume, and horizontal fading different people in and out. option: mantras change over time, as plaers bounce their ideas off of each other. option: players evnetually all chant the same mantra sound/action circle players form a circle. one person makes a sound and action. around the circle, in turn, each person imitates it. when it gets back to the first person, he does it one more time, and then the next person in the circle starts a new action/sound. kinetic sculpture one player strikes a pose onstage. one at a time, remaining players grab on to him, or each other, creating a continuous body-scuplture. host chants move...move...move and each person, in turn, leaves from their frozen pose and joins the scuplture somewhere else. option: instead of chanting, host can move around and tag people to come off and rejoin. option: let audience chant "move", faster and faster. option: peridically, the host can make a comment on what the scuplture he sees represents for him ("love"), or he can prompt the sculpture to represent something ("show me pain"). one way to end this is to have the players eventually snake their way offstage, simply by having them rejoin the sculpture, say, on the north side every time, so that they move offstage like a centipede. enemy-defender ALL- each person secretly picks one person to be their enemy, and another to be their defeneder. When the teacher says "go" run to a position that puts your defender between you and your enemy. There is usually no equilibrium and everybody runs around a lot. creative word/phrase association first word or phrase that pops into your head. listen to previous ones and let them influence your choice. do not decide before your turn comes. circular or free-for-all. no saying "um" or "uh". try to go as quickly as possible. name 6 give the player to your right a category, like "sports cars". he must name 6 items in that category. keep going around a circle.

exercises who your character taxi ALL - round-robin. 2 players in a taxi. new player calls for a taxi, and driver rotates out. the new players comes in with a definite obvious character. other players must immediate become this character as well. variations: players keep their own characters, or adopt an opposite character. parkbench ALL - round-robin. 1 player on a parkbench establishes a charatcer. new player must enter with an opposite character. 1st player find a reason to leave, and new player enters, finding a character opposite to 2nd player, etc. variation: do this at a busstop. character walk/interview player walks around and is given physical characteristics. he picks a character and is interviewed by ALL. character endowment players start a scene, and make descriptive references to another character. new player must come in as this character. 3 minutes, 3 characters 1 player does 3 different characters in 3 minutes. monologues, or use another "anchor" player. This is actually very similar to the Saturday Night Live audition. secrets players do a scene with secrets - may be known, or must be guessed by other player or audience. age walk players walk around and greet each other. ask them to be different ages. go from 1-year-olds to 120-year-old by gaps of 10 years, then go backwards. then jump around randomly. ask them to pay attention to posture, speed, agility, ease of vocalization. monologues each actor does a monologue, somehow inspired from previous monologue. There are MANY reasons to justify a monologue (never just talk to the audience for no reason), i.e., talking to a psychologist, talking on the phone or leaving a message on an answering machine, filling out a job application or writing/typing a letter "out loud", talking to someone (put them in the audience), talking to yourself in the mirror (make it clear where the mirror is), talking to yourself (don't always justify this one with insanity), yelling at the TV set, etc. where your environment create-a-room 1st player enters a room, establishing one object. 2nd player enters, interacting with first object and establishing a second, etc. beat breakdown ALL - do an everyday activity, broken down into every tiny detail. very slowly. say "beat" for each movement. then replay in normal speed. should be much more detailed and realistic. arms players do a scene with their hands behind their backs. two other players, behind them, are their "arms". stage combat players find conflict in a scene and kick ass. important: slow-motion! players may say "slow-motion" or "slow-mo" if they wish, when the combat starts. freeze ALL - scenes. offstage actors yell "freeze", and the current scene freezes. The offstage actor must then tag out an onstage actor, take their exact physical position, and do a new, unrelated scene, justifying the physical positions of himself and the other frozen actors onstage. focus share the stage parallel scenes two scenes occur simultaneously. focus is given and/or taken. no "mouthing" of words. sound track players do a mute scene while other players do soundtrack music, sound effects, and/or dialogue. don't steal the scene! this is a difficult exercise; try adding each "channel" of the soundtrack, one at a time. agreement support your fellow actor ad agency players do a scene where they try to develop a new object to sell, or a new commercial, etc. uses the "yes, and..." philosophy. yes, let's ALL. Any person can say "Let's do x" and all say "Yes, lets" and do x. Repeat. he said, she said 2 players do scene of the form: "Hi" "...she said, combing her hair. Hello, how are you?" "...he said, folding his arms. Great. Ready to go?" counting sit in circle, random person says next number, count to about 20. harder: eyes closed. continuity a hint of longform character freeze Like freeze, but you keep your same character, and plot from previous scenes can influence new scenes, like a story.

shortforms ask-fors get an idea from the audience a location (no cities or counrtries - an environment that could be found anywhere). an occupation. a relationship (besides lovers). name a quality you look for in the perfect man/woman. a noun that couldn't possibly be used as a weapon. something you'd hate to have to tell grandma take this Yellow Pages, flip to a random page and give me a word/phrase/sentence. (Get one) what does this inkblot painting remind you of? (http://www.deltabravo.net/custody/rorschach.htm) how your parents may have met. an important event in a person's life. a famous song. an emotion. something you worry about. a number between 1 and 3. games and use that idea expert panel 4-5 players are experts in different (pimped) fields. host gets questions from audience, which experts answer. experts should never be in conflict; they can add on to each other's answers. auestions can be philosophical or specific, and usually not related to the fields of expertise. alphabet 2-3 players do a scene where each line starts with the next letter of the alphabet. ask audience for 1st and last lines. party quirks a host leaves room. 3-4 players are given quirks. host comes in and starts party. has to guess the quirks. tag line 2 players do a scene. they each have an audience member onstage, to the side. periodically, they tag the audience member for a random word or phrase, which they use in the scene, inserted right into the dialogue. blind line 2 players do a scene. pieces of paper with random lines are on the floor. players periodically pick up pieces of paper and insert thet line directly into their dialogue. conducted story 4-5 players in line face audience. host (seated in front of them and facing them) conducts a story - may be made up, or a given fairy tale. each player may be given a style or genre to use as well. rhyming couplet story tell a story, with each person taking 2 lines. - every 2 lines must rhyme with each other. actor's nightmare one player has script, other improvises. one-minute movie act out a given, real movie in 1 minute. world's worst ALL - take turns giving the world's worst example in a given category. asides in a given scene, players my pause the scene and make an "aside" to the audience. wizard 1 player ("the kid")asks for help with a problem from other players ("the uncles or aunts"). the uncles/auntss give horrible advice. eventually, the uncles/aunts finally remember the way they "usually" solve their problems: they ask the wizard. the "wizard" is a jar full of fortune cookies. players must open one and say the fortune, using it somehow to solve the problem. slide show one host leads a presentation on a suggested theme. 3 other players act out slides - tableaus. the host can describe the slide before they pose ("this next slide shows...") and then the players must form a pose based on his endowment, or can ask for a new slide ("click") and explain their new pose. telephone 4 players have one-half telephone conversations (we only hear their side), which are all unrelated to each other. the focus jumps from person to person, and each line is inspired from the previous. it's a good idea for each player to give another player an odd occupation for this one. just the thing 2 players get a location or situaiton. they develop a problem, then must solving the problem using a space object that they introduce into the scene at the last minute. 3-line scenes ALL players take turns doing the first 3 lines of a 2-person scene. relationship should be discovered.

longforms seeds it all starts from an audience suggestion (vague ask-fors) something everybody needs, besides sex (toilet paper, shelter, love) an unusual color (fuscia,teal,clear) a word with many meanings(ring,bear,card) a theme with signifigance(love,learning,hatred,popularity) something that nobody talks about(besides sex) something society is obsessed with. something you've always wanted to know (besides why is the sky blue or the meaning of life). something you'd never want to have to do. something you've always wanted to do, but haven't. something you've always wanted to have, but would never buy for yourself. overtures brainstorm that seed (these are described above) gibberish scenes (with edits) telephone kinetic sculpture word/phrase/character association conducted story rhyming couplet story world's worst slide show taxi scene formats what to do with these ideas triple play a three-act play, or rather three of them, in parallel. If the three plays (each with 2-3 different actors) are labeled A,B,C, then the ordering of scenes is A-1, B-1, C-1, A-2, B-2, C-2, A-3, B-3, C-3. There are many variations, including a final scene that includes many or all of the characters from all scenes, switching characters around at each act, and throwing in monologues or games in randomly. NOTE: I heard this was copyrighted by some people in LA, which is just rediculous. But fair warning. time dash similar to standard Triple Play, except that after each new act, a LOT of time goes by, usually many years. 5-4-3-2-1 start with 5 separate scenes. Audience votes on them and the least liked scene is dropped. This is repeated until one scene is left, and then it's over. Variations usually deal with the "dropped" actors, who sometimes aid the voting or become scenic elements (like trees or furniture) in the remaining scenes. explorations on a theme get a topic (like childhood, addiction, or college) and do free scenes with edits. A favorite brainstorm for this is a simple "contribution round" where each player takes the stage and makes a quick quote or statement about the theme. hyperlinks free scenes, but the only edit allowed is the call of "CLICK!", at which the issues/concepts of the previous scene are the suggestions to be twisted in the next, hopefully quite different scene. Variations include who says click (audience, host, or any player) and other "internet-inspired" ideas like pop-up ads and checking email. flip 3 teams of 2-3 actors. free scenes, but any offstage group can call "flip" at which point they take the stage (switching places with the team that had the stage), and the first line of the new scene is the last line of the old scene. Option - "challenge round", where an offstage team calling flip causes the other two teams to switch places. deconstruction 1-3 seed scenes, each with different actors are enacted. These scenes should be rich in relationship and references. Free scenes follow which "deconstruct" the seed scenes' concepts, issues, references, or even individual phrases. memento each new scene's ending feeds directly into the previous scene's beginning, so that the total plot line moves backwards, though each scene in itself moves forwards (see the movie). follow the leaver free scenes, but the only edit is when person(s) exit the current scene. As soon as they do, the next scene starts, and the person(s) enter, because the next scene is about where they went. close quarters a bunch of free scenes happening in the same area (restaurant, church, elementary school, etc.), and in the same time interval, from different points of view. See the movie "Go". Option: if the first scene had people shouting, then in the next scene, those actors can shout the same loud things from offstage, so that the audience can really see that it is the same time interval. Actors onstage should notice these things. Option: if in the first scene, actors exited, in the next scene we can see them enter at the same point they exited before, like that's exactly when they left and where they went. Option: in the first scene, offstage actors shout random things that they will then need to justify by actually saying them in context, in their onstage scenes. edits from offstage, add to or transition from the current scene cross in front starts new scene. All players onstage leave, so you're the only one in the scene. Other players should immediately come out and support you. Optional: describe the transition to audience as you cross, i.e. "Meanwhile, back at the party...", or "Ten years later..." tag-out starts new scene. Players tagged leave, you come on. If you tag out everybody, that means you want the scene to at least start with only you onstage. come in from behind or side join current scene. walk up the side to the audience scene goes into a soft freeze as you commentate on it or do a monologue. wave hand in front of a player "endow" a character with some description, delivered to the audience, i.e. "Johnny has a secret fear of clowns" or "Mary is wearing a wetsuit" run to downstage center "quick reference" - e.g, in the existing scene, somebody says "remember what happened last time we went fishing?", then 2 other actors can run to downstage center and quickly fill in what happened, then run back off. The existing scene should soft freeze. say "scene!" ends form. Usually used for shortform or single scenes.