This exercise pushes players to the limits of their physical abilities.
The Basics
Players scatter through the available space and claim an area as their individual stage. If you’re workshopping in a smaller room or theatre, improvisers can work in pairs with one person performing the activity for the other. (There is also an inherent value in everyone having a little audience to enjoy the process and offer up some feedback at its conclusion.) Improvisers self-select an everyday activity – such as washing the dishes, brushing their teeth, or wrapping a present – and, upon the facilitator’s signal, patiently mime their action for a minute or so. The facilitator then gradually increases the size of the objects involved, and the task is repeated until the objects have become absurdly unwieldy.
Example
Player A (partnered with Player B) mimes brushing their teeth with a typical-sized toothbrush, tube of toothpaste, sink, and faucet.
The caller increases the object size by 100%, so now the toothbrush more closely resembles a hairbrush, and the toothpaste a rolling pin. Player A endeavors to brush their teeth again.
Objects grow again. Now the toothbrush is approximately the size of a cricket bat… the activity is repeated.
The objects expand once more so that Player A must manipulate an oar-sized brush and tube that evokes a rolled up carpet…
When the objects have become truly enormous, Player A and B exchange roles, and B undergoes a similar process with their own action.
The Focus
Commit to the escalatingly absurd conditions. In the above example, it’s foreseeable that Player A will need to brush their teeth across the huge brush when it becomes too heavy to lift or move.
Traps and Tips
1.) Explore weight. As each object grows, make sure you are appropriately increasing its weight and adjusting your efforts accordingly. A hairbrush doesn’t weigh that much more than a toothbrush, but a cricket bat certainly does.
2.) Explore mass. Similarly, consider how each object’s inflating size necessitates your own physical choices and approaches. Keep the features of each item specific and nuanced. How do you need to grab and operate an oversized faucet? Does this require an entirely new strategy than a mere flip of the wrist?
3.) Explore energy. Exertion should increase alongside the size of the objects, so be wary of meandering through each reenactment without a proportionate change in your attack and energy. Squeezing a toothpaste tube is a rather simple affair for most of us under normal conditions; when the tube becomes the length and thickness of a rolled up carpet, a gentle push won’t do the trick and needs to become a full-bodied action.
4.) Explore creativity. While I tend to teach this game in classes with a physical focus, I’m always reminded that the results can unlock delightful playfulness, imaginative problem-solving, and engaging silent stories. When you add character, point of view, and emotion, the scene can become something surprisingly pleasing.
In Performance
Although I love the idea of crafting scenes in almost alien landscapes with enormous, mimed props, you probably won’t stumble into this opportunity often. However, most scenes can benefit handsomely from the increased attention to prop construction that this big little game fosters.
Cheers, David Charles.
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Photo Credit: Scott Cook
© 2023 David Charles/ImprovDr
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