Favorite Formats

kristin · Post by **kristin** » January 11th, 2007, 11:58 pm

DollarBill wrote:Everyone starts out riding on an elephant (instead of an elevator) and then we spin off and see their stories.

HerrHerr wrote:You have, say, the last eight players of a hard body contest with their hands on the 'truck." Then you spiral off into scenes from these characters' lives.

Hands on a Hard Elephant?

HerrHerr · Post by **HerrHerr** » January 12th, 2007, 12:08 am

kristin wrote:
DollarBill wrote:Everyone starts out riding on an elephant (instead of an elevator) and then we spin off and see their stories.

HerrHerr wrote:You have, say, the last eight players of a hard body contest with their hands on the 'truck." Then you spiral off into scenes from these characters' lives.
Hands on a Hard Elephant?

Ha! Who says it cannot be an elephant?

Wesley · Post by **Wesley** » January 12th, 2007, 9:21 am

I love the danger inherent in the Truth Chair.

kaci_beeler · Post by **kaci_beeler** » January 12th, 2007, 12:32 pm

Wesley wrote:I love the danger inherent in the Truth Chair.

Except no one wants to ask a girl in the Truth Chair any hard-hitting questions.

kbadr · Post by **kbadr** » January 12th, 2007, 12:39 pm

kaci_beeler wrote:Except no one wants to ask a girl in the Truth Chair any hard-hitting questions.

Really? I will. I'm a bastard with no sense of decorum.

Wesley · Post by **Wesley** » January 12th, 2007, 12:53 pm

I've been asked a few doosies before, and I'm proud to say I always stuck to the rules and answered honestly.

Next time we hang out, we'll dub your chair a truth chair and ask the hard hitting questions. Or we'll just all get drunk and play Never Have I Ever.

Jules · Post by **Jules** » January 12th, 2007, 12:55 pm

I never?
Oh, I've got to see that.

vine311 · Post by **vine311** » January 12th, 2007, 1:31 pm

Wesley wrote:I've been asked a few doosies before, and I'm proud to say I always stuck to the rules and answered honestly.

Next time we hang out, we'll dub your chair a truth chair and ask the hard hitting questions. Or we'll just all get drunk and play Never Have I Ever.

Sounds like a good party game. Let's play Saturday at my house.

TexasImprovMassacre · February 12th, 2007, 5:44 pm

York99 wrote:For a real CUTTING EDGE new format, check out SCISSOR, Chris Trew's and my new show with a format never seen before.

this is the most underrated pun on the forum.

Wesley · Post by **Wesley** » March 20th, 2007, 6:21 am

Has anyone ever done a jigsaw-like show format? Where you do one straight long-form, but all out of order? Not straight-up backwards, but randome scenes at random times that could all be put back into one long piece if you wanted? Like scenes: B, F, H, C, G, E, D, A...
If so, how'd it go?

York99 · Post by **York99** » March 20th, 2007, 3:01 pm

I've done a time dash where there is one event and you start every scene by saying something like "five minutes after the party", "two hours before the party", "fourteen years before the party", etc. Those are pretty fun.

Marc Majcher · Post by **Marc Majcher** » March 20th, 2007, 3:28 pm

Wesley wrote:Has anyone ever done a jigsaw-like show format? Where you do one straight long-form, but all out of order? Not straight-up backwards, but randome scenes at random times that could all be put back into one long piece if you wanted? Like scenes: B, F, H, C, G, E, D, A...
If so, how'd it go?

That's kind of how our Cutting Room format was supposed to work, but we always wind up doing them more or less in order. Things will jumble more with repeated attempts, I reckon.

beardedlamb · Post by **beardedlamb** » March 20th, 2007, 4:37 pm

there is a directed johnstone structure called cutting room where the director calls out which scene to jump to and where it comes in the story. this is kind of what i based our play format on where a director helps create the story of the play within the play by saying things like, "okay, let's move to the scene where the bank robber gets caught" even though a bank robber has not been mentioned yet in the show.

i'm guessing what wes is talking about is doing it without being so on the nose with the fact that it's out of order. i think the one justin described could work really well, especially if you do the party scene and then the rest of the show is all jumpin around the event. that could be cool. without being so obvious as to where you are chronologically, the audience and the players could get confused unless it was pulled off really well.

it would also be cool to do it out of order and then somehow do it in order in the second half. maybe that's more of a rehearsal tool.

York99 · Post by **York99** » March 20th, 2007, 6:43 pm

In the one I was talking about, I don't think the event ever takes place. (Of course you can do it however; it's improv.) Part of the point is that the events surrounding the event either affect it or have been affected by it. Perhaps doing the event at the end as kind of a reveal of all the hint scenes around it... I'm a bit foggy there.

That's just how I learned it anyway.