This is a common form or exercise, but here we’re going to do it with a focus on being changeable.
Basic structure
The basic structure is inspired by an old play called, yes, La Ronde, where every scene has two characters, one of whom was in the previous scene. The actual play is about sexual politics in 1890s Vienna, with scene titles like “The Whore and The Soldier” followed by “The Soldier and the Parlor Maid.” The improv version just borrows the structure and not the focus on sexual politics. If you have five people, it goes like this:
First scene has Person A and Person B
Next scene has Person B and Person C.
Next scene has Person C and Person D.
Next scene has Person D and Person E.
Final scene has Person E and Person A.
It creates a sort of circle.
You don’t pick ahead of time who does which scene, and you don’t pick which character. You get a suggestion, and then two people just step out and do a scene. After a few minutes, someone tags out one of the two. Whoever is tagged out becomes Person A and stays on the back line until the last scene.
1. Everyone should try to be a simple character with a simple “thing,” meaning one of the following:
2. you’re a very familiar archetype (e.g., “schoolteacher” or “drill sergeant”);
3. you have a clear point of view (“perky idealist” or “grouch who hates young people”);
or
4. you have a clear emotional temperament (“cheery” or “sad”).
5. Then, whenever someone tags in, your goal is to put the character from the previous scene into a place that we would never expect to see them. If the first scene is a drillsergeant yelling at a soldier, someone could tag in as a yoga teacher—and thus we see the angry drill sergeant in a yoga class, i.e., a situation we would not expect for that character.
Everyone ends up doing two scenes. You stay the same character in each of your scenes. It’s implied that everyone lives in the same universe, though that may not matter. Focus on being changeable The trick here is that when the character gets put in the new situation, they must like it. They still behave the same way they did in the previous scene, and the actor comes up with a reason why they like this situation. If you’re the drill sergeant who was yelling and screaming at the soldier, and then you’re in a yoga class, you do the poses with the same angry grunting and yelling that you did in the previous scene. You have some reason why you like yoga. (“I CAN FEEL MY HEART CHAKRA OPENING, MAGGOTS!”) You’re not surprised to be there, and you don’t say you’re being forced to do it.
Meanwhile the yoga teacher is being very typical for a yoga teacher, talking in a soothing voice, moving in a slow, fluid way. Then the drill sergeant gets tagged out, and we see the yoga teacher at a heavy metal concert with a heavy metal fan. The yoga teacher loves it and waves his body around and cheers happily in a very soothing way for the heavy metal band.
If this seems hard, it’s not. In real life, we often focus on the parts of an experience which we relate to, and ignore the rest. Maybe the drill sergeant is really into the discipline of yoga, and just doesn’t pay attention to the peaceful aspect of it. Maybe the yoga teacher likes the “inner truth” of heavy metal and doesn’t pay attention to all the violent imagery.
Generally, you keep your tone and your behavior but apply it to a new world. You keep your music, and you change your lyrics. You say “yes” without giving up your central way of behaving