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Exercises

Take a deep breath, then exhale and brush your hands across parts of your body. Work from the head down to the feet. Become aware of all parts of the body while releasing tension through the breath.

Exercises

Play a scene that is as boring as possible.

Exercises

Breathe in for five seconds. Hold for five seconds. Exhale for five seconds. Hold again for five seconds. During each five-second count, draw one side of a box in the air. Repeat the process for one minute.

Exercises

Stand in a relaxed and neutral stance for two minutes. Don’t do anything. Just stand there. Be fully present. Breathe. See. Feel. Just be.

Topics

Trying to be interesting seldom works. It places your perspective outside the scene and makes your performance feel forced

Exercises

Two players stand two arm’s length away from each other and look into each other’s eyes for one minute. Without breaking eye contact, they move to one arm’s length away for one minute. Then they move toe-to-toe, while still looking into each other’s eyes for another minute. Finally they move to where their noses touch, and stay there for one minute.

Exercises

Place your closed fist in your lap with the back of the fist facing down. Focus on your fist and uncurl it as slowly as possible until it is fully open Repeat with the other hand.

Exercises

Two players sit on side-by-side in chairs doing nothing. There is no setup or context. Neither one says or does anything until an impulse arises. When an impulse shows up in a player, it is acted upon. The other player doesn’t immediately respond, but rather soaks in what just happened. If soaking it in causes an impulse to arise, the responding player follows it. If not, they do nothing. This process of being present and responding to impulses as they arise continues until the exercise is stopped.

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Encyclopedia of Interactive Performance