I first encountered this game at Sak Comedy Lab, where it quickly became a personal favorite. It combines narrative, rhyming, and music, which are three improv tools that provide particular joy.
The Basics
One player (A) assumes the role of a medieval balladeer (think strolling minstrel or troubadour) with a pantomimed or approximation of a lute (we use an unstringed prop guitar). They sing verses of a narrative song that are then enacted and enriched by the remaining members of their merry troupe. As an homage to Chaucer, I enjoy eliciting the inspiration in the form of “The Tale of the Blanky Blank,” with the audience providing the missing adjective and type of person. If you’re familiar with the short-form game Typewriter, the mechanics are similar, only now the intermittent narrative is sung and tends to be more uniform in length and structure.
Example
The improvising musician provides a suitable play in as Player A pretends to create the music on their lute. The remaining members of the team wait in the wings but quickly step onto the stage as characters are introduced in the unfolding song based on the suggestion of “The Tale of the Lonely Farmer.”
Player A: (singing)
“Oh, gather round fair peasants all, a tale here I must tell
Concerning a sad farmer, all alone on a poor dell.
Her heart was barren, like her land, where naught took root and grew.
She sat this day, like those before, a-stirring her sour stew… a-stirring her sour stew. “
Player B enters during the first couplet. As the lights transition, the actor bemoans loudly into the universe.
Player B: “Oh, cruel world, what sin have I committed to warrant your angry indifference? Do I not faithfully toil on your land and tend your creatures? And yet you reward my efforts with famine and drought.”
Player C crawls on as the farmer’s loyal but equally distraught sheep dog. Player B lovingly greets the creature.
Player B: “I am afraid there is little more than a potato and rock in our pot tonight, dear friend, but I will share all that I have with you.”
Player B spoons out some of the modest meal as the music restarts and the lights return to the balladeer…
Player A: (singing)
“And so the farmer and her dog eat scraps in that sad place.
A watching angel saw their plight and changed that sweet dog’s face…”
The Focus
Avoid leaving heavily on gimmicks or shtick, and you’ll find this elegant structure actually enables compelling parables and narratives.
Traps and Tips
1.) For the musician. Think of the musical interludes as verses of the same song as opposed to individual and unique songs in their own right. This provides a level of predictability for the troubadour once a template has been established, which is helpful as the singer has a lot of lyrical machinating to juggle. That being said, there is still ample room to play: each verse could gradually modulate up from the prior, or gently increase in tempo, or feature new stylistic embellishments. And it could be a fun conceit to feature a bridge feel in a later offering if the scene is assuming a more sizeable length. After the initial verse, which might invite a more robust introduction to establish the mood and form, strive to launch into future interludes concisely so that the scene doesn’t lose steam every time it transitions back to the song. (Generally, I’d advise against underscoring the scenic pieces, but with clear dynamic shifts, this can add color and enable elegant transitive from dialogue to song.)
2.) For the balladeer. Just as it’s helpful for the musician to find and set a feel and structure, endeavor to honor your own initial melody and rhyme scheme. In addition to giving the song a more polished feel, it gives your fellow players a clear signal when the action is about to recommence. Target rhyming serves the game well, especially in your second couplet (if you follow the four-line verse structure illustrated above). While you’ll want your first verse to squarely focus on the audience’s suggested character or premise, I find it helpful to avoid the actual elicited words (“lonely” and “farmer”) in rhyming positions, so you have those in your pocket for the final button. It’s perhaps unavoidable that some mental energy will be expended on formulating couplets, but make sure you’re really watching the scenes so that you don’t miss or ignore rich offers (such as the arrival of the dog). Accept as much as you endow.
3.) For the players. Leap into the action. It’s a helpful device to preset and begin (in pantomime) as each verse is sung so that the moment focus is given, the enactment can spring to life. While it’s certainly good form to begin by honoring the balladeer’s choices, physicalizing and heightening the sung plot points, as in any narrated game, don’t be afraid of deliberately moving beyond the stated knowns and discovering your own inherent next step. In this manner, Player C need not wait to be introduced as a dog before bringing this helpful next step to the stage. If you’re playing this game in a short-form setting, there isn’t a lot of time for each vignette to find its footing, so be deliberate and disciplined: one or two strongly embodied choices will serve better (as always) than a scattershot of numerous half-baked ideas that will likely overwhelm the narrator who will be looking for an obvious and connected next step to sing about.
4.) For the team. Generally, the scene consists of four or five sung verses between three or four brief scenes, with song introducing and buttoning the scene as a whole. Subsequently, it’s helpful to think of each small scene as fulfilling one essential plot element. Whether you prefer the language of introduction, problem, solution, and resolution (as modeled in Four Sentence Story), or balance, ignition, rising action, climax, and denouement, you’ll find it incredibly helpful to keep some sense of greater structure in mind. This helps pace the narrative arc, ensures players aren’t working at cross purposes, and keeps the story helpfully marching forward. When the scenes meander or merely comment upon the verses (rather than bravely build upon them), the whole affair can become a little tepid. The scene needn’t end in song, but this often gives an opportunity to provide a nice moral to the story, which feels very in keeping with the base material, and if you can end on some variation of the story’s title, that’s a great finesse too.
In Performance
This form could easily become expanded into a lengthier affair (or provide the impetus for a more complex long-form). It’s likely that the material will include some modern satirical winks or commentary, but I’d generally advise against making the content of the scene itself modern (unless this is serving some greater artistic end). There’s something innately delightful about embracing the historical tone and language that makes this game stand apart from other offerings in the musical improv canon.
Cheers, David Charles.
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Photo Credit: Leesa Brown
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