World Class Indifference Performance Games
Audience Directs
Number of Actors: 3
Audience Input: Location, such as grocery store or battlefield; actions for the scene
Two actors start on stage performing a scene. At some point, the director will stop the action, and ask the audience for the next thing to happen in the scene. At some point in the scene, usually after the 2nd stop, the third actor will come on stage, and the director will stop the scene, and ask the audience who he is. The scene then continues with 3 actors, and the director will keep stopping the scene for more input from the audience, until she decides to end it. The actors try to set-up stops for the director by way of actions and contrasting view-points, while the director asks the audience for the next action with questions that are neither too leading nor too vague.
Director’s Choice
Number of Actors: 2
Audience Input: Location, like a desert island; two emotions or states of being, such as happy or frustrated (after the first scene); one or two movie styles, such as a musical
The two actors first do a short neutral scene. The director then gets two emotions or states of beings from the audience and assigns one to each actor at their choosing. The actors then repeat the exact same scene, but color it with the emotions given. The director then gets a movie style (sometimes two if it strikes his fancy), and the actors must repeat the scene once more in that movie style. Most audiences love the western, but sadistic directors love the cross between science fiction and a silent film. The game is ended by the director.
Dysfunctional Office
Number of Actors: up to 8 (boss, secretary, and up to 6 employees)
Audience Input: Different types of quirks for the each employee (obsession, annoying habit, physical, moonlighting job, super-power, famous person); type of business
The boss is first sent out of the room with his secretary. The director then gets the quirks assigned for each actor and the type of business. The actors leave the stage, and the boss is brought back by his secretary and only told what the business is. One by one, each employee comes into the scene to help the boss with his project, but their quirk usually gets in the way of them being much help. The boss must guess their quirk, within the flow of the scene (avoiding continuous guessing). Each employee must stay in the boss’ office until their quirk is guessed. Employees should let others have the focus some of the time, but they must keep busy – there's no such thing as a free lunch at this company!
Emotions Swap
Number of Actors: 2
Audience Input: 8 to 10 emotions or states of being, such as hatred or nausea, written down by the director on a piece of paper; relationship or activity like fixing a car
The two actors start the scene neutrally. The director then calls out an emotion for one of the actors, who must then take on that emotion, justifying the change from what has happened in the scene previously. The director takes turns calling out emotions for the two actors. After the first two calls, each actor will constantly have an emotion, and must carry it until the next one given to them. Of note, Melanie is required to take the emotion of lust if the audience offers it. The game is ended by the director.
Expert Interpreter
Number of Actors: 2 (expert and interpreter)
Audience Input: area of expertise and fictitious language
Expert talks in gibberish language about his topic. The interpreter interprets what he has just said. Expert should be intense about his subject and try to communicate his views through physical movement and realistic fake speech. The interpreter will vary interpretations between the obvious and contrasts.
Fake Expert
Number of Actors: Up to 5 (One expert, 4 audience members)
Audience Input: area of expertise
Experts talks about his given expertise. The other troupe members pose as zany audience members and ask the expert dumb-founding questions. The expert ends the game.
Freeze Tag
Number of Actors: Whole Troupe
Audience Input: One audience member sculpts the first two actors into a position
The actors do a scene inspired by the position sculpted by the audience member. At some point when they are in an interesting position, an off-stage troupe member who’s not going in next freezes the scene and the next actor comes into the scene, tagging out one of the actors and taking their physical position, but starting a brand new scene justified by that position. Game ends when all actors have gone into the scene. Actors should try to be as physical as possible in scenes, and make sure to change starting positions, to give points for freezing.
Jerry Springer Show
Number of Actors: 5 (Jerry, bouncer, 3 guests)
Audience Input: Stupid Reason for two people not to like each other like leaves the cap off the toothpaste
Jerry introduces the first guest, who has the beef with the other person. That person is then introduced and they give their side of the story. The two guests start to argue. A third person comes in that is described by Jerry, and they usually escalate the conflict. Scene ends with an all-out brawl.
Lines from a Hat
Number of Actors: 2
Audience Input: Lines of Dialogue, written and collected before the start of the show; relationship at the time of the game, like tech support and customer
The two actors perform a scene and at random moments pull lines of dialogue from the hat, and must incorporate the line into the reality of the scene, no matter how unrealistic that line may be. Hilarity ensues. The game is ended by the director.
Magic Words
Number of Actors: 3
Audience Input: 3 Words; location like the library
Each actor is assigned a word. Whenever that word is said, they must either leave the scene if they are on-stage, or come into the scene if they are off-stage. Actors should justify why they are coming or going and must pay attention to when their word is said (otherwise the scene gets confusing). Actors can torment each other by yanking them on and off-stage with their words, or torment themselves by saying their own word. Creative reasons should be found for saying the words. Scene can either be ended by the director or when the last actor is on-stage and says his word.
Movie Critic
Number of Actors: 4 (two critics, two movie actors)
Audience Input: Name of fictitious movie such as “Criminal Capers”
The two critics introduce the show, set-up the scenes, comment on the action, and end the game. The two actors must perform whatever scene that the critics dictate. The critics make the actors impersonate famous people, with wacky scenarios such as Sylvester Stallone singing “I could have died in your arms tonight” at an Afghanistan karaoke night.
Occupation Game
Number of Actors: 2
Audience Input: Activity like driving to work; List of Occupations
Director gets list of occupations from audience before the start of the game. The two actors start the scene neutrally. The director alternates calling out occupations for the two actors, who then have to start acting like someone who has that occupations, justifying it by what has happened in the scene previously. Actors never lose who they are or become that occupation, they are just influenced by it. Director ends the game.
Olympic Events
Number of Actors: 4 (2 announcers, 2 competitors)
Audience Input: Common Household activity (before explanation of game), like ironing or painting the house
The game begins with the announcers describing the location, competition, and the first competitor. The first competitor performs for about one minute. The second competitor is then introduced and performs for about one minute. The announcers then award a winner at their discretion and end the game. The competitors stay mute throughout the game and the announcers comment on the action when they perform, usually poking fun at them. The competitors give it their all, trying to be the best ironer or toaster that they can be, but they often fail miserably.
Sound Effects
Number of Actors: 2
Audience Input: Location, such as bank vault; one audience member to come up on stage to participate.
Actors perform a scene, with the audience member at the side of the stage providing sound effects over a microphone. The two actors try to do as many actions as possible that are sound producing. For some reason, not matter where the scene takes place, James has a saw handy. The game is ended by the director.
Speed Alphabet
Number of Actors: 2
Audience Input: Location, like a lunch line or graveyard (advanced version: get starting letter)
The two actors must do a complete scene in less than 60 seconds with each line of dialogue starting with consecutive letters of the alphabet. The director gives them warnings when there are 30, 15, 10, and 5 seconds left, and the game ends when time runs out. The actors try to move the scene forward with concise lines and inventive uses of starting letters.
Take Back
Number of Actors: 2
Audience Input: relationship, like boss and secretary
The two actors start a scene. At some point, the director will click the clicker, and the actor who just spoke must “take back” the last part of the line he just said, replacing it with a new line, which becomes the new reality of the scene. The directory may click the actor as many times as possible, forcing the actor to keep “taking back” his line. The actors try to set-up their lines to give the director something to click, usually by ending on lines on interesting nouns, actions, or noises. The actors also try to “put back” lines that are as creative as possible, usually having nothing to do with what was said before, because the absurd is often funny. The game is ended by the director.
Topic Circle
Number of Actors: Entire Troupe, but one main actor
Audience Input: Topic, like weddings
One main actor starts in the middle. One by one, each other troupe member comes into the middle and initiates a scene with that actor based on the topic. A new actor will then tag out the actor who just entered and initiate a new scene, based on the topic, with the original actor in the middle. Each scene should be short, usually 10 to 20 seconds. New scenes can either be complete new takes on the topic or riffs off of previous scenes.
Vacation Slides
Number of Actors: Up to 8 (2 Presenters, Up to 6 slides in two groups of three)
Audience Input: Favorite vacation place and 5 things to do there
Presenters write down audience input while the slide actors are out of ear-shot. Slide actors come back on-stage. The Presenters introduce the slide-show of their vacation. Before each slide, they give a click, giving time for the actors to get in a random position to make a slide. The presenters must justify their positions for the vacation activity given by the audience. Slide actors try to put themselves in as crazy positions as possible, that they can hold for a minute. The presenters try to develop a story for their vacation and come up with creative justifications for the positions.
What the Blank!?
Number of Actors: 2
Audience Input: Relationship, such as farmer and bank manager; two audience members to come up on stage to participate.
The two actors perform a scene. At random moments, they point to one of the audience members (who are sitting on stools on either end of the stage), who have to complete the actor’s line. The ending line becomes the reality of the scene. The actors try to set-up their lines so that the endings asked for aren’t too specific or too open-ended. The game is ended by the director.
