List of Games #5 with focus on Status games II

Length: 2 hours

Done on 02.06.2018

• Samurai
• Kitty in the Corner
• Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves: Repeat the gesture of the lst player in the circule saying “Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves”
• Group stop with milling
• Catch`em moving
• The slowest race of the world: Groups of five players start raining as slow as they can. There are obstacules and the moderator may use music.
• Knife Baby and Angry Cat: Walking around these objects are thrown
• The cat without the chair: Every player takes a chair and walks randomly around the room. Then the moderator applauses, they sit where they are. The moderator chooses someone who must stand up and go to the other side of the room. Then he *walks* slowly to the free chair and tries to sit. The group tries to sit on the free chair before them and keep him walking to the new empty chair. If the standing player sits, the player without the chair must start the game again.

• Loser Ball
• Picking gifts It can also be done in pairs.
• I am a tree

None was done this time

• Say something nice/nasty: All players are sitting in a circle. Ask them to say something nice to the person beside them, and then to say

something nasty

• They are surprised to find that they often achieve the wrong effect
• Some people won't realise that they never really say anything nice or really nasty
• Discuss the term status and its implications

• Saying hello with status: The players start walking randomly and saying “hello” to each other. After a while ask them to hold eye contact for a momen, break it and glance back. Some people will be dominant while other submissive
  • Discuss the impression in the group. They will be puzzled by the strength of the sensations

• Using "er" on your talking: The moderator starts using differents “er” at the beginning of each sentence and asks the group if they detect any change. They will probally say that he look “weak”. Now the moderator moves the “er” to the middle of each sentence and asks again.
  • Experiment with an longer “a” in the middle and at the beggining of the sentence. The moderator may be perceive as strong
  • Now the moderator changes the way he sits and holds eye contact longer
  • Finally the keeps his head still. Officers are trained not to move the head while issuing commands

• Entering the wrong room: One player leaves the room and comes in through the real door and acts like entering the wrong room. You remind the players that entering the wrong room is an experience we all have and that we always know what to do, since we do ‘something’. You explain that you are asking them just to do what they do in life. As soon as the ‘wrong room’ exercise becomes ‘real’ they understand that a change of status is involved.
  • A more complex version of this exercise is really a little play: One character, a teacher for example, arrives late carrying the register and a pair of glasses. He says something like ‘All right, quiet there, now then’, treating us as the class. As he is about to read the register he puts the glasses on, and sees not his class, but a meeting of the school Governors. He apologises, dropping in status frantically, and struggles to the door, which sticks. He wrestles with it and after about ten seconds it comes free. The actor feels a very great drop in status when the door jams. It takes him back to feelings he may not have experienced since childhood: feelings of impotence, and of the hostility of objects. Once outside, the actor either stops the exercise, or if he feels brave, re-enters, and plays the scene again and again.

• Reclamation
• Speak and stay: Four players are on stage. The moderator points to one of them using his arm, he starts talking until the moderator's arm is up. Then a second player continues the story. The public proposes the title of the story
• Dubbing: Two players play without speaking while two players behind them speaking the scene. Dubbing the olympics is better
• Story Spine 6 People tell a story randomly using the following words to start their part
  • Once upon a time…
  • Every day…
  • But, one day…
  • Because of that… (many times possible)
  • Until, finally…
  • And, ever since then…

Cards for the game “Story Spine” (for printing with Libreoffice Draw): Libreoffice Draw File

Introduction

• Traffic Light training body language awareness
• Guess the status: One or two player choose a status and the public decides if it was high (10 points) or low (1 points) or something between
• Card Status: With or without status change
• Pecking Order: Using the cellphone to give the numbers.
• Status Chain (in German): The person coming has always low or high status. At any time only two players are on stage. A variant is to have all the players on stage, only two playing at the same time and talking to the direct status on their sides in a situation like a restaurant
• Klassischer Statuswechsel In German
  • When actors are reversing status during a scene it’s good to make them grade the transitions as smoothly as possible. Tell them that if you took a photograph every five seconds, I’d like to be able to arrange the prints in order just by the status shown. Learning to grade it delicately from moment to moment increases the control of the player¹⁾

The group enjoyed these games