Teaching "Game of the Scene"

start with the vocabulary

The game of this scene is “the dragon is too scared to attack the villagers.” Rocky Strobel as the dragon. photo by Sarah Claspell

How should someone teach “game of the scene?”

Let me issue a disclaimer right away: I don’t have a simple one-stop solution for this, but I’ll share some thoughts.

Step One: Start With the Vocabulary

I find that simple terms get people interested. So I start with terms.

There’s the base reality (who/what/where) and there’s the unusual thing(s).

Once we get an unusual thing, we want to heighten it (make it more absurd) and explore it (what’s the story around it).

When we heighten and explore we are playing the game.

One more: when characters are first bringing up unusual things they are framing them. (alt terms: underlining, highlighting, signposting). Someone might go “Whoa, that’s weird when you do this.”

That’s all you need to start.

Base Reality And Unusual Thing

Game is all about seeing what’s unusual. So I’ll talk a bit about what we mean by base reality and unusual thing.

Base reality is a very simple description of the situation. “Two friends hanging out” is a base reality. “A doctor’s appointment” is a base reality.

The base reality is just so we know what counts as unusual.

An unusual thing is anything striking or interesting or unusual we want to focus on. Let’s say the base reality is a checkup at the doctor’s. The unusual thing could be very small at first (See my essay on the eyebrow test). If the doctor brings up a sports team twice, that might be enough for us to start. If the patient seems extra apologetic about not dieting properly, that might be it.

It could be hugely unusual, like the doctor prescribing that the patient go kill a bear. But it’s easiest if the unusual thing is real and relatable.

Step Two: Uh, Why Are We Doing This?

After I’ve said the basic terms, I’ll tell them why they might want to learn to play game.

We learn to play game so we focus on the unusual thing. We play game so we don’t get lost in plot, drama or stakes — unless those are funny/unusual. We want to agree on a game (unusual thing) and play it.

Game Over Plot

I’ll give a simple example of focusing on game instead of plot.

Let’s say you have a scene where someone is renting a car. And the person renting the car says “at our company we only rent cars to people who can prove they were popular in high school.”

You’d probably want to explore that idea. You’d want the customer to react to the unfairness of that, or to question why. Or maybe the customer is familiar with this policy and has brought documentation to prove they were popular in high school.

What you would NOT want to do is for the customer to say “When are we going to talk about our divorce?”

That would be ignoring the game in favor of relationship, drama, stakes. I bring this up because people who have not learned about game think a scene isn’t working unless there are high personal stakes.

Not necessarily. We look for unusual things however they come.

Please note: if the divorce move came first, we WOULD explore that. Like if the scenes starts with a customer renting a car and they say to the rental agent “When are we going to talk about our divorce?” you’d want to explore that. It would then be bad form for the other person to be like “At this company we only rent to popular people.” You’d be ignoring the divorce move.

Step Three: Coach Names The Game

Next I have the group do a series of two person scenes. After each one I say the base reality, unusual thing and possible games.

When the group does these scenes, they shouldn’t worry about game. They should just listen and yes-and.

After each one I will try to say the game as simply as I can. I’ll say something like “the base reality is two friends talking about their kids. The game is they’re really competitive about who’s kid is cooler.”

I’ll describe the games very simply, stuff like this:

• The game is “the math teacher is very intense.”

• The game is “Dad hates the new boyfriend.”

• The game is “the employee is lying about being sick.”

People will be like “that’s it? The game is just that the math teacher is intense?” And I’ll say “yes.”

I’ll use the words “heighten” and “framing” a lot. Like I might say “Then the mom really heightened what their kid was doing and said they got straight A-pluses. They are really framing how good they think their kid is.”

When people start to get a whiff of games, they really over-heighten and start way too big. I point it out lightly, but largely let it go. I’ll say something like this:

“Then the next mom said their kid is dating Harry Styles. That’s funny but it’s so big it breaks the reality of the scene. We don’t need a move that big yet.”

Step Four: What Should I Have Said?

Students will soon start asking “what was I supposed to say?”

They’re starting to get self-conscious. They’re worried there are right moves and wrong moves. Start planting seeds to remind them that THEY are in charge, not the game.

The answer to “what should I have said” is ALWAYS THE SAME: play it real.

Even if it seems to kill the game. Play it real.

They need to do what the character would do. Don’t think. Just be the person and react. Say what that person would really say. Leave the scene, ask a question, say you don’t care.

This is the real trick. Keeping an unusual thing alive in a believable world. This is the real final phase of playing game. The unusual thing exists but the world is still emotionally real.

It’s very hard and takes practice.

If the game has gotten so big it’s not real, you don’t have to honor it.

Play it real.

Here’s some common situations in which students will ask “what was I supposed to say?” and what you could tell them.

Reacting To A Huge Move: Play It Real

Someone makes a hugely move (because they are over-heightening). Like someone playing a doctor says “I prescribe you to go kill a bear.”

The other person is like “what am I supposed to say to that?”

You are always allowed to play the reality. Just say what you would say. Say “I don’t believe that.” “That’s ridiculous.” “I think I want a different doctor. “

That is all okay and in fact probably really good.

Both People Get Crazy: Stay Committed

Let’s say the doctor says “I prescribe you to fight a bear” and the other person goes “Great, I love that. I have my gun right here.” And the doctor says “oh great, and I see a bear right out the window.” And the patient holds up their gun and goes “Bang! Got ‘em!”

Then they run out of stuff to do. They ask “What should we have done next?”

The note here is the world was not real enough. The agreement is good but the reality is soft. The actors are not committed to their huge moves.

If the patient feels the right move is to agree with this big prescription they can do it — but they have to commit in a real way. They need to adjust internally to this world where it’s normal to do such things. They won’t just pick up their gun and shoot right there. They’ll react like a real person who is now planning to kill a bear in order to get healthy.

If the acting stays committed, then it’s all good.

One Person Steers Too Much: Let Go Of Control

And the most common one is: one player — usually a cerebral writerly type — with endow the OTHER person with being very unusual. What should they say?

Suggestion: “crayon”

First person: “Hey mom, why are you using my crayons? I think I’m the one who’s supposed to use those.”

And then the other person replies “That’s right, I think you’ve been using them too much and need a break.”

But the initiator was expecting a different response and so they try, from within their character, to change it. They might say “Oh I thought you were just playing with my toys instead of me.”

And after the scene the first person says to the coach. “I didn’t know what to say. I was expecting them to have withheld the crayons for a different reason.”

And so you explain that “framing” is not “telling each other what to do.” The initiator gifted the other person as a parent who kept the crayons for themselves, the person playing the parent accepted that, and therefore there is no problem. You find a game later in the scene.

Agreement and Reality is Way More Important Than Game

You’ll have to remind people many times: saying yes is more important than playing the game.

Drop the game if you have to. But always say yes (improv wise) and play it real.

Game doesn’t mean writing each other's parts. It just means you are on the lookout for unusual things.

Lots of Reps

That’s the beginning. The next step is heightening and exploring. I wrote a bit about this in the second half of this article. But I will return to this subject soon! Ish?

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