
In every scene, something is going on.
Nigel comes up behind Lenny and flicks his ear. Lenny turns around and Nigel knocks his books to the ground. Nigel says, “Cough it up,” and Lenny hands over his lunch money. Nigel lunges, Lenny flinches, and Nigel walks away laughing.
What’s going on here? There are lots of actions: flicking the ear, knocking down the books, demanding and handing over the money, lunging and flinching, and leaving laughing. Together, these actions comprise the activity of “bullying for lunch money.”
It helps to define an activity with a title, for example, “picking out an engagement ring” or “taking a cigarette break.” The title is the overall concept of the activity which is comprised of moment-to-moment actions.
Activities can be initiated by a character (cleaning up the house) or happen to a character (getting a speeding ticket). The first is proactive and the latter is reactive. Strong stories need proactive protagonists who initiate activities. This can be tricky when protagonists are played by spects who don’t know what to do. It’s easy to fall into the trap of engaging in activities that happen to the spect because you’re the one who initiates them. To put spects into the driver’s seat, you need them to be the ones initiating activities.
How does the spect initiate an activity if you’re the one who came up with it? It begins with framing the activity as something the spect is doing. Instead of asking, “What am I doing?”, answer the question, “What is the spect doing?” This makes the spect’s character the initiator. If the activity is “flirting with the barista,” the spect is doing the flirting, and you are the barista.
Once the activity is seen from the spect’s perspective, you still need a way to establish it. How you backlead spects into an activity depends on the style of interactive performance you’re engaged in.
If you’re playing edit scenes, start in the middle. Begin the scene by behaving as though the activity is already in progress.
To establish the activity of “waiting for the doctor,” Ravi behaves as though the spect has just submitted some paperwork. Reviewing the papers, Ravi says, “OK, Mr. Helberson, your information looks all in order. If you’ll have a seat, the doctor will be with you shortly.”
When playing in real-world environments, the activity can be implied by a combination of the location, assumptions, and oblique offers.
The spect is stepping into a scene in a nursing home, but she doesn’t know anything more than that. As she enters the facility, a nurse greets her. “Hi, Lorna. You’re dad’s doing well today. He’ll be glad to see you.” In this way, the nurse establishes Lorna’s activity of “visiting dad at the nursing home.”
If an activity is interpersonal, you can endow the spect has having behaved in a particular way (even when they haven’t) and respond accordingly.
Unbeknownst to the spect, the activity of the scene is “flirting with the barista.” When the spect orders an espresso, the barista, inquires, “What’s the name?” The spect answers, “Brandon.” The barista responds as though Brandon just said that she has beautiful eyes. She looks shyly down and a little smile appears at the corner of her lips as she writes his name on the cup. “OK…Brandon.” She bites the corner of her lip and glances coyly back up. “It’ll be ready in just a minute.”
The further you get into the story, the less activities need to be backled. The journey of the story leads to scene goals which become the activities of the scenes.
Engaging in activities doesn’t automatically produce good scenes. In fact, sometimes activities can be problematic.
Action isn’t activity – When starting a scene from nothing, it’s good to begin with an action. Just don’t mistake action for activity. “Washing hands” is an action, but not an activity. When the action doesn’t serve a larger activity, it’s just a way to mark time. If you’re doing an action, but don’t know the activity, complete this statement: “I’m doing this action because I’m ____.” The way you complete the statement gives you the activity. For example, “I’m washing my hands because I’m getting ready for dinner.” Once you’re engaged in an activity, there’s still something more you need to do.
Activate the spect – The purpose of an activity is to give the spect something to do. If you’re busy doing and the spect is just watching, the activity hasn’t served its purpose. Engage the spect in the activity as well. Don’t ask or instruct. Use backleading techniques to engage spects without telling them what to do.
Subtitling – Another hazard when establishing an activity is talking about what you’re doing, also known as subtitling. The activity isn’t what the scene is about. It’s a backdrop against which the scene is played. You can avoid the trap of subtitling by walking and chewing gum—engage in the activity while talking about something else. This removes redundancy, makes the scene feel layered, and allows you to play the activity as subtext.
Games and teaching – Although any activity can serve as a foundation for a scene, teaching and playing games can be a bit tricky to pull off. If you are really playing a game or teaching something that a person truly doesn’t know, there’s no problem. But when you’re pretending to play a game or teach a topic, it seldom works. If you find yourself in this position, you can use the activity as subtext to illuminate the relationship or stop the activity entirely and address what’s really going on between the characters.
Activities are an important part of context. When you establish an activity, you let spects know what’s going on and give them something to do.
Updated: July 23, 2024