The Encyclopedia of Interactive Performance

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a method of post-show reflection for teams to engage in continuous improvement

The stakes of Navy SEAL missions are often life and death. The price of failure is high. This is why SEALs implement a practice of continual improvement, including an After Action Review. If you want to keep improving your work, take a page from the Navy SEAL playbook.

Exercises

Five players are given a simple product for which they develop the elements of an ad campaign: the product name, package design, slogan, spokesperson, jingle, target market, and marketing strategy.

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what is going on in a scene
Exercises

Two players play a scene in which Player A gets Player B speaking and engaged in an activity.

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to get spects initiating verbal and physical offers on their own
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an offer that involves doing something

It’s easy to fall into the trap of talking heads. Actional offers help avoid this trap. In addition to speaking, do things. Actional offers advance the story through the things you do and often introduce props into the story world. The props serve an immediate purpose and they can also be reincorporated later in the story.

Exercises

A scene is played in which Player A follows Player B’s offers by doing physical actions.

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a physical component within an activity

The activity of a scene is comprised of various actions. For example, the activity of a picnic includes such actions as finding a good spot, laying out a blanket, unpacking the basket, and eating the food. Exploring the different actions keeps the activity alive without falling into the trap of repetition.

Exercises

Speak a one-minute monologue in an overly-dramatic fashion. (If you don’t have a monologue memorized, speak song lyrics that you know by heart.) Try to be interesting and clever. Then repeat the the words in a completely relaxed fashion, without acting at all.

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a character’s vulnerability that justifies change

Resisting others raises the stakes, but your character also needs to be changed. If spects have trouble changing you on their own, it helps to create an Achilles’ heel. Endow something that the spect says or does as your character’s secret weakness.

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Encyclopedia of Interactive Performance