Subtext, physicality, and high stakes all provide essential ingredients for this emotionally powerful exploration.
The Basics
The climax of each of these variants consists of a similar dynamic – players performing a tense or rich relationship in silence. These three different launches, however, offer contrasting energies and frames.
Variation One: Players (typically a pair) obtain a scenic ask-for, and a scene is improvised without any dialogue at all from beginning to end.
Variation Two: Players (often a pair) are provided with an inspirational theme or word. The team is provided time for a quick brainstorming session (about a minute) and roughly decides upon a CROW that would support a highly emotional encounter. A silent scene uses this information as its foundation.
Variation Three: Players (perhaps a pair) elicit an ask-for and begin an improvised scene in the usual fashion. When the dramatic action reaches a zenith, a caller rings a bell, and the remainder of the scene continues in silence.
Example
Half of a separated couple, Player A, waits anxiously on a train platform, looking intensely at each face in the passing windows of the slowing cabins only to be met by one stranger after another. There is a sense of hopelessness as the train finally pulls to a stop, and Player A has to navigate a sea of arriving bodies. Just when the train seems to have emptied, a figure, Player B, appears on the platform behind Player A, holding a duffle bag heavily over their tired shoulder. As B recognizes their lover’s silhouette, Player A finally turns. Neither character has the words to describe their relief or love; Player B drops their bag and steps slowly forward until the couple embraces, at last.
The Focus
All three variants clearly demand a heightened sense of physicality and commitment to patient specificity; this scene also necessitates crafting emotionally evocative material and scenic arcs that simultaneously justify and earn the profound silence.
Traps and Tips
1.) Avoid insincerity. The silence restriction can push players to a broad and demonstrative style of play that can lose all subtlety and sense of realism. There can certainly be a value in exploring highly stylized scenes, but the challenge of this format resides in its commitment to honest and powerful emotions.
2.) Avoid approximating. Give each moment full attention, especially in the rising action, as if you gloss over choices in pursuit of that “big ending,” you’ll likely undermine the journey as a whole. These scenes invite a little luxuriating so that one specific detail can naturally evolve into the next even more intense detail.
3.) Avoid rushing. Speaking of luxuriating, especially if you’re unaccustomed or uncomfortable with a more body-centric style of play, there can be a temptation to forge ahead regardless of the potential of the here and now. Perhaps it’s a little predictable that our couple will reunite on the train platform, but it’s the artful suspension and complication of this climax that elevates the encounter to a scenario worthy of being beyond words.
In Performance
As is the case with most subtextual games of this ilk, while players should avoid dialogue, strategic utterances – a gasp, sigh, cough – are fair game. Just be cautious that such choices are building suspense and energy rather than diffusing it. I personally use the first two variants most frequently in the improv lab as they can unlock a powerful and emotionally vulnerable style of play. While the third variant is perhaps the most “audience friendly,” it can easily morph into a Scene Ending in Slow Motion, which is a fine game in its own right, but tends to encourage a broader and more comical performance.
Cheers, David Charles.
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Photo Credit: Tony Firriolo
© 2023 David Charles/ImprovDr
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