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Exercises

Players each take a playing card without looking at it and put it on their forehead so others can see it. Players then assume characters and mingle with one another as they would at a reunion. Everyone tries to determine their positional status by how others engage with them. After mingling for a while, without looking at their cards, players line up from low (Ace) to high (King). Then players look at their cards to see how well status was communicated.

Exercises

A character is grilled by an interrogator about the character’s perspectives and details from the character’s life. Questions come hard and fast. Answers are given immediately without allowing time to think.

Topics

An expert is anyone who has specialized knowledge. As an inter-actor, you play people from many professions and walks of life. It might be a senator, a scientist, or a psychic. The more you know, the more you have to play with, but you can’t know it all. Here are some ways to play experts with limited knowledge.

Exercises

Players choose an animal to become. They move about the room, embodying the animal with their bodies, voices, and attitudes. They begin as 100% animal. After fully inhabiting the animal, players become 80% animal, and 20% human. They move around in this state for a while. Then they become 60% animal and 40% human. The process continues until the players are 100% human, while still embodying the essence of the animal.

Exercises

Think of an object that seems like your character. Identify three qualities of the object, two positive and one negative. (E.g., a shoe: comfortable, laced up, stinky.) Mingle with a group, playing as a character who embodies the qualities of the object.

Exercises

Using an unfamiliar object or photograph, tell a story about it as though it were part of your life.

Exercises

Live as your character in one of the following ways.

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Encyclopedia of Interactive Performance