Workshop Games and Exercises - page 2

master/servant

Faustus and Mephistophilis by Carol Chilcott

Mephostophilis and his servants

Keith Johnstone has an excellent section on status and master/servant games in his book "Impro for Storytellers" pp.219-241. It is so informative and comprehensive that to try to condense it here would not do it justice. Here are some exercises from ideas by Keith Johnstone that the players have used and adapted in their own rehearsals:

• Down the Line 1

Set up a line of people. Each person in the line is the master of the person on their left - the person at the far left, therefore, has no servant. The first person gives an order, eg. "Sit down." Each person in the line has to repeat the order to the person on their left, but using a different emotion, tone of voice or physical expression - whispering, shouting, jumping up and down, and so on.

• Down the Line 2

Try this again, but each person, when given the order to sit, must decide whether or not to obey, depending on how the order was given. If they sit, their challenge is to make the standing person next to them obey their order. Status is not dependent upon physical position. A person in an apparently subservient position can still be the person with the power and status.

• The Power Click

An improvisation involving a master and a servant. The master wants the servant to do something for him, eg. make him a cheese sandwich. The servant has to find as many ways as possible of not giving the master what he wants while not letting the master know what he’s doing. If the master gets irritated or realises that the servant isn’t doing what he wants, he can click his fingers. The servant dies, to be replaced by a new servant and a new task. How long can each servant survive before being "clicked"?

• Playing Card Game

You will need a pack of cards with jokers. Thirteen volunteers each have a playing card stuck to their foreheads. Each person can see each other’s cards, but not their own. Now, set up an improvisation where the volunteers are people at a party. They offer each other food and drink, or ask/demand it, according to the cards on other people’s foreheads. After this has run for a while, as the volunteers to arrange themselves into the order of the suit of cards, where ace is high and joker low. Each person guesses their position by the way other people behaved towards them. Any observers are only allowed to help if the participants get really stuck.

exercises

This exercise will help you to understand the process that the Portway Players go through when they work on a text.

• Divide into groups of approximately six people. Pick a piece of text - Marlowe, Shakespeare or Webster would be good choices (Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, Duchess of Malfi, etc.). Try to pick a text that tells a story, preferably in monologue.

• Discuss this text as a group: what is the playwright saying, where is the action set, identify themes and ideas; which characters are introduced.

• Try re-telling the piece in your own words, at the same time think of where you would like to set it and what you may need to help an audience to understand it, eg. props, stage set, costume, etc. Keep it simple.

• Start to think about how you would stage the text. Get the group to read and demonstrate at the same time. Will they all read parts or will some people be doing something else to show the action?

• In the large group, look at each performance. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses in a positive way. These be used to make the piece stronger; remember weaknesses can sometimes be far stronger than strengths when it comes to making a performance. Also remember that everyone must feel comfortable with what they are doing.

• Look at direct challenges or questions you could ask the audience within your interpretation to make them think more about the piece of text and you, the people presenting the performance, eg. do you want to challenge people's perceptions of young people? Try to make these questions and challenges integral to the piece, not tacked on but relevant to what you want to say in your interpretation.

• Keep discussing this as a group, getting everyone's ideas. Keep doing the scene, change it if you need to, discuss it, do it again, change, discuss.

• When you feel you are ready, find an audience and show them what you have done. Get their feedback. Did they understand what you were trying to say and show? Did you challenge them in any way? Could you change the piece to take on board their feedback?

Remember: keep it simple, it is your re-telling and the interpretation of the text that is important not elaborate costumes, props, stage set, etc.

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