The Game Library includes several Freeze Tag variants – Blind Freeze Tag, Conducted Freeze Tag, Environmental Freeze Tag – but it seemed odd not to include the original version as well, so here it is in all its glory! This is the base model, if you will. Key advice also applies to the variants listed above, so forgive the repetition if you end up reading these back-to-back…
The Basics
Players (six to eight works well) form a line, usually at the rear of the stage or wherever your particular sightlines make practical. Two improvisers volunteer to begin a scene downstage based on an audience prompt. (It’s typical for only the first scene to feel obliged to incorporate this idea in any perceivable way.) Players watching from the backline can halt the action by calling, “Freeze.” Onstage players hold their physical positions until one of them is tagged out by the entering actor (who initiated the freeze). This new player assumes the exact pose and replaces their tagged teammate who quickly strikes and returns to the awaiting actor bank. A new scene begins that justifies the old positions in a completely different way.
Example
Players A and B begin a scene as pirates. The rest of the company forms a line upstage.
Player A: (looking through a spyglass) “A ship approaches on the horizon, captain.”
Player B: (while patting their trusty parrot) “Be they friends or foe, Benji?”
Player A: “They fly a flag that I have never seen before…”
Player B reaches for the spyglass only to be paused by Player E calling freeze. E quickly steps onstage, assess A’s position, and then tags them out before sliding into the same spot. A new scene begins that isn’t jazzercize, a game of Twister, or both characters involved in a hilarious super glue accident…
The Focus
Brave calls, swift transitions, and creative new justifications provide the lifeblood of this and all Freeze Tag variations.
Traps and Tips
1.) See an opportunity rather than a fully formed choice. One of the reasons I tend to favor the conducted or blind versions of this game is that when players can see the action and make their own entrance calls, they can have a tendency to unhelpfully hum and haw and stall as they look for the “perfect” pose that they already know how they’ll justify. Formerly well-paced Freeze Tags will grind to a standstill when played with this level of wimping forethought. Instead, just look for something dynamic, interesting, or new, freeze it, and then jump in without the pressure of believing you need to have solved the image beforehand.
2.) Leap into the fray rather than amble or saunter. Physical ability and limitations accounted for, strive to attack the stage. Especially if you’re playing this perennial improv game in front of an audience, lethargic transitions will drastically dilute the potential for lasting entertainment. Move swiftly to the stage, decisively make your choice, and contort your body to the needed position. The only moment I’d advise a smidgen of patience is right before you tag your partner out as you’ll want to make sure you’ve caught all the nuances of their pose so that you can mirror them. It’s always a bummer for the audience when a really cool or challenging pose becomes simplified by the entering player (or just quickly dropped or ignored as the scene takes shape).
3.) Risk the imperfect and partially formed rather than recycling stale bits. If you play any improv game a lot (and Freeze Tag games tend to get played a lot), it’s difficult not to develop a rolodex of bygone choices or tropes that have felt successful in the past. Relying on previously improvised material pulls the rug out from under the whole exercise a little as the audience is sentenced to watch players scramble to be the first to reuse “that cool bit” that was really funny five months ago. The same goes for over deploying stock scenarios – jazzercize, Twister games, superglue accidents. When this Freeze Tag becomes just one more installment of a longstanding serial of previous iterations rather than a unique and specific exploration of the unknown, boredom will soon follow. Use the poses to become inspired rather than as obstacles to be forced into familiar and safe premises.
4.) Think small or detailed rather than big or punchlines. I’ve written elsewhere about connecting this type of exercise with the concept of CROW, and the benefits of striving to efficiently construct scenic given circumstances in a playful and pleasing manner. With that in mind, unspecified “its,” “thats,” and “yous” rarely gift much for your partner to embellish (remembering that any remaining players must also justify their new context as well). It’s good etiquette to allow the entering player the first crack at justifying the premise, but that doesn’t mean they’re required to do all the work. Acknowledging that some out-of-left-field ideas might benefit from a little extra space and generosity, tags should still typically result in albeit brief scenes as opposed to inelegant monologues. A tendency towards the latter also can make the game feel like a punchline competition rather than a series of energetic scenes.
In Performance
Other advice worth repeating includes looking to shake up the physical poses (to avoid a string of talking heads scenes), avoiding having similar content or ideas back-to-back (so one ballroom dancing scene isn’t followed by a hip hop dancing scene,) and maintaining vigilant so that no one is left out – or possibly in – for too long (an offstage caller nominating be players after they announce a “Freeze” can serve as a safety measure to nudge fearful players into the game).
In my books (and blogs), the only thing worse than overplaying Freeze Tag is playing it so that everyone knows you’ve overplayed it. Consider experimenting with some of the other versions listed above if this base model needs an upgrade so as to renew your passion.
Find out about how you can get your copy of The Improv Dictionary (Routledge, April 2024) now on sale here.
Cheers, David Charles.
www.improvdr.com
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Photo Credit: James Berkley
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