As a decider or skills drill, The Chair offers an opportunity to polish your justifying and accepting.
The Basics
Players are divided into two teams and stand on either side of the stage or workshop space. One volunteer sits in a chair placed in the middle of the playing field, and a time limit is set (usually a couple of minutes, but definitely sufficient for everyone to get at least one turn each). One at a time, members of the opposing team try to provide offers that will result in the sitting player revoking their position in the seat. (No overt physical moves are allowed such as shoving or lifting the chair itself.) While all offers must be accepted in terms of the premise and details, the seated player may artfully justify their ongoing position when they’re able. If the challenger ultimately proves successful, they occupy the chair and the other team becomes activated. If the challenger is skillfully and appropriately foiled, they return to their side, and a fellow teammate enters the gauntlet. Whichever team occupies the chair when the countdown ends wins the game.
Example
Player A sits in the central chair as the countdown begins.
Player B: (entering in a frenzy) “Your house is on fire. We need to put it out!”
Player A: (not budging) “I know. I’m the one who set it on fire…”
Player B: (after a moment’s thought) “But the flames are spreading to your neighbors’ houses…”
Player A: “Just as I hoped…”
Player B returns to their “side,” perhaps prompted by a caller or instructor. A fellow team member, D, steps forward, miming that they are an octogenarian looking for a seat on a public bus…
Player D: “Would you mind terribly if I sat there? I have been on my legs all day.”
Player A: “Then maybe you should have gotten to the bus stop sooner, grandpa…”
The Focus
The seated player should earnestly cling to their objective of remaining seated but also vigorously accept the endowments and scenarios of their fellow players. If participants become lackluster or uninvested, the game will quickly sag.
Traps and Tips
1.) Use a caller. There are likely to be many close calls in the game, so it’s helpful to have a designated judge who’s empowered to quickly and resolutely determine ownership of the chair and provide time warnings. If in doubt, I tend to defer to the incoming challenger just to keep both teams engaged in the action.
2.) Accept each premise. It’s incumbent upon Player A to accept that their house is on fire and then that they are occupying the last seat on a bus. That being said, it’s up to them to frame those choices however they see fit, so it’s in the spirit of the game for them to become an arsonist or a disrespectful youth. The game becomes more exciting when these justifications are nuanced and strongly connected to the initiations rather than just some tepid or generic attitude of “I don’t care.” Eliminating players for reusing exact tactics or phrases can help in this regard, too.
3.) Limit the exchanges. The power to win can be strong in many, so it’s helpful to set some agreed upon limits to each improv parlay. I’ve found that giving the challenger one right of response (and their opponent a second counter) generally provides a nice balance and flow. Challengers need to accept and justify the seated player’s stated reality too, so it’s not in the spirit of the game to insist that Player A is not an arsonist or that they are a very well brought up teenager who loves their grandparents.
4.) Play to play. Don’t play to win. Explore the unformed idea, accept the inexplicable judge’s call, and embrace each elimination with good cheer (pun intended). No one really wants to watch a group of angry improvisers care too much about a silly warm-up.
In Performance
Keep the flow of entrances strong and energized. It can become tempting to recycle old motivations and premises, but this will do little to sharpen and enhance your spontaneity.
Cheers, David Charles.
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Photo Credit: Kalani Senior
© 2023 David Charles/ImprovDr
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