Alternatively known as Liquid Freeze, I picked up this game at the Comedy Warehouse where it was some castmates’ favorite. It works best as a two-hander with limited set pieces in my experience (perhaps with some limited side support), but its conceit also strikes me as a cool dynamic to inspire or feature in a longer piece.
The Basics
Player may start from a suggestion or merely from “nothing” or a silent movement exploration (think mirroring or similar). When inspiration strikes, either player may initiate the first step of a premise or relationship. This scene continues until either player feels the need to cue a Liquid Change when the current poses or dynamic morphs and serves as the starting point for a new, typically unrelated scenario. (Some players prefer returning to the slow-motion dance-like exploration between each vignette and allow this to deepen and then launch the action.) Players explore multiple new relationships and premises in this fashion, perhaps electing to return to the initial dynamic to serve as the culmination of the greater scene.
Example
Players A and B explore the space in silent motion, allowing their physicality to shape and enrich each other’s energy and presence. When a suitably interesting pose emerges, with both players lying on the stage floor looking upwards, Player A initiates a scene.
Player A: “I’m just saying that I can’t ever seem to find the big dipper, no matter how many directions you give me, honey.”
Player B: (gently and lovingly laughing) “I appreciate that you keep trying regardless.”
Player A: “I’m sorry that you married a peasant who doesn’t share your nuanced understand of the heavens.”
Player B: “I married a wonderful person who tries to share my passion and interests. I am not complaining.”
They take each other’s hands.
Player B: “Can you believe that this time next year, we’ll be parents?”
Player A: “If everything goes to plan…”
Player B: (encouragingly) “Which it will…”
A few scenic beats later, when the couple have stood and are dancing to the music playing on A’s cell phone, both players let that energy naturally develop until they have struck a new pose with B’s hands flat against the “fourth wall” and B sitting huddled in a corner.
Player B: “They’ve definitely forgotten us. There’s no one out there…”
Player A: (rocking and nervously) “Anita said she would go and get help. She wouldn’t lie to us…”
Player B: (profoundly) “Unless they got to her.”
The scene continues through multiple iterations…
The Focus
Be open to exploring and moving through the space without trying to lead you and your partner to a pre-loaded idea. These interstitial moments of play should become generative and may be as interesting and entertaining as the scenes they jumpstart.
Traps and Tips
1.) Inspiration can come from anywhere. Don’t limit yourself or your instincts when it comes to finding each new scene. Yes, those movement sequences should likely inform your first moment (alongside, perhaps, an audience suggestion). Yes, your prior scenes will likely inform those that follow. Yes, the audience’s reactions will likely shape the borders of the map as well. And yes, your partner’s choices and initiations will certainly open up new vistas too. Enjoy that all of this is true and that there isn’t one solution.
2.) Enjoy and break emerging patterns. This game can prove to be a little diagnostic in that you might soon realize your own trends as a player. If you always feel the need to say the first contextualizing line, or you always assume parallel movement qualities to your partner, or you always rush to connect your current scene to those that came before in terms of content and theme, or your scenes always limp along slowly without any clear CROW ingredients, then you might want to at least occasionally explore the other side of the coin. I like using this exercise as an unobserved warm-up with pairs for this reason, as you get a lot of improvisation into one exercise and can learn a great deal about how you play with your partner.
3.) Unleash your inner sense of play. As the form is so loose and self-guided, there aren’t a lot of ways to be “wrong” – whatever that might mean to you. Scenes might last for a few minutes each – especially if you’re performing under parameters that can accommodate this level of patience. Or, you might have one or more quick hits or “blackouts.” Be wary of viewing the non-scenic moments as just “something to get through.” Firstly, this will all-but guarantee that the audience will feel the same. Secondly, these movement-based “dances” can and perhaps should be as much creative fun as the scenes themselves.
In Performance
As I revisit this dynamic, I can recall shows that use some iteration of this dynamic to frame a longer piece, especially when working with a smaller cast. Liquid Change won’t feel as fast or gimmicky as a lot of similar games in the short-form canon, especially as the transitions aren’t being marked or prompted by a sharp “Freeze” call (hence my preference for this name). Therein lies the power and potential of the format!
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Cheers, David Charles.
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Photo Credit: Gontran Durocher
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