Audience members are placed front and center in this scenic game that shares the fun and rewards of performance.
The Basics
Team members each select an audience volunteer who will serve as their double for the following scene: a three-person team and subsequent three-person group of volunteers works particularly well. Based on a suggestion, the three resident improvisers begin the action. When an offstage caller rings a bell, the scene pauses, and the awaiting audience members tag out their assigned improviser before taking on their exact poses. The story continues with the volunteers striving to pick up from precisely where the initial improvisers left off in terms of physicality, dialogue, and plot. After each entering performer has contributed and justified their positions, the caller rings the bell again, heralding the original improvisers back to claim their suspended roles. Once the volunteers have cleared the playing field, the story continues again. Several actor switches occur, marked by clear freezes and exchanges, until the scene reaches a natural conclusion. Unlike conventional Freeze Tag games, the characters and action are continuous and consistent pausing only for the pertinent cast shuffles.
Example
Players A, B, and C select audience volunteers X, Y, and Z and they are brought up to the stage for instructions. Before the scene begins, the volunteers are gently ushered to the side of the stage (where hopefully another unused improviser can tend to and guide them). The premise of “backstage after a rock concert” is offered, and the lights transition as Players A and B assume positions.
Player A: (with a high-pitched excitement) “The concert was amazing, Dad. I can’t believe you got us tickets and backstage passes to meet Hailee. She’s my favorite! You’re my favorite!”
Player B: (cautiously) “Now I can’t guarantee that she’ll spend any time with us, sweetie. These rockstars aren’t often as friendly in real life as they are on social media.”
Player A: “No one calls it ‘social media’ Dad. You’re not going to embarrass me, are you?”
Player B: “I think that is actually very likely, but it won’t be my intention…”
There is a flurry of movement and noise as Player C enters as the singer. She assumes a highly theatrical pose and is just about to speak when the caller rings the bell, causing the action to halt. The audience volunteers, X, Y, and Z rush on and assume A, B, and C’s positions before the latter move to the sides of the stage.
After a beat…
Player X: (mirroring A’s exuberance and unfreezing) “I can’t believe it’s you!”
Player Z: (smiling politely as the superstar with over-the-top generosity) “I always have time for my fans.”
Player X: “Can I have you autograph, Hailee. Hand me my t-shirt, Dad…”
The singer’s attention moves to the dad and there is a glimmer of recognition.
Player Y: “It’s nice to see you again, Hailee. I wasn’t sure if you’d know me after all this time.”
He hands his daughter the shirt just as the caller freezes the action again.
The Focus
The audience members will do what they’ll do, in spite of any instructions beforehand, so the onus is on the resident improvisers to really embrace every choice and happy accident in an effort to craft an engaging story.
Traps and Tips
1.) Audience selection. We’ll often instruct the actors to find their “doubles” in the audience as a playful conceit for acquiring the needed volunteers. This may result in some fun matches or, more typically, wildly unlikely choices that add even more to the fun of the whole event. Usual warnings in regard to volunteer elicitation apply; namely, avoid overly eager or evasive audience members, or those who are too inebriated to engage in controlled and appropriate behavior onstage. And make sure they understand that they will be replacing a specific actor (and character) each for the duration of the scene. Deploying a “handler” – someone assigned to assist and encourage the volunteers from the edge of the stage – helps a great deal, especially during the moments of transition.
2.) Improviser first moves. Start the scene with your company members so that there’s a better chance (at least theoretically) that the core CROW ingredients will quickly make it to the stage. It’s helpful to give each character a rather obvious deal, energy, physicality, voice, or objective in the opening salvos – such as the young girl’s excitement, dad’s self-deprecation, or singer’s flamboyance – so that the incoming replacements have something to hang their hats on. If everyone has just sort of been “standing around” without any discernable qualities or functions, you’re not setting up the volunteers for success. Similarly, while you don’t have to have every character onstage for every moment of transition, it can make audience members anxious if they’re missing from large sections of the scene. Hence my advice to keep the base number of characters small.
3.) Improviser later moves. I’ve played this game when the doubles have absolutely crackled and, frankly, added more to the story than their “professional” counterparts. Contrarily, I also seen and played it when the doppelgangers have struggled to make any moves of note or consequence (perhaps due to unhelpful choices on the part of the home team as well to be fair). You generally won’t know what type of guests you’re going to have until they’re up on stage and the action is underway. Regardless, however, of the volunteers’ actions, the resident players should work diligently to accept and utilize everything whether or not it was intended. Justify sudden and unexpected changes in a character’s energy or qualities. Explore where the accidental response or choice can lead. Mine your double’s dialogue and vocal qualities for all they’re worth. Obviously, you should be accepting the choices of your fellow castmates as well, but it’s particularly important that ideas emanating from the volunteers are viewed as critical. Anything less will make the guests look and feel like impediments rather than geniuses.
4.) Improviser final moves. There’s no reliable formula for the inner beats or climax of the scene, but the rule of threes will often prove helpful, and so you’ll want to start moving towards an ending before the third entrance of the volunteer doubles (especially if everyone has been involved in every transition). I’d gently recommend that players look to engineer the “out” for when the audience members are at the wheel for several reasons: this encourages the resident players to look for strong and active moments for the caller to use as the transitions, makes sure the guests are being empowered to craft powerful and meaningful choices, and offers up the accolades of the final button to the “underdogs.” If the scene becomes messy rather than resolute in these closing moments, a quick switch back to the players will hopefully afford an opportunity to succinctly land the missed ending as a last resort if it’s needed.
In performance
I have a standard caution for this game when it comes up as a possibility in the greenroom at Sak Comedy lab. We’re fortunate enough to have our performers use body microphones, so it can be jarring to move from amplified to unamplified voices and back again as you switch between company and audience members. Some colleagues aren’t as bothered by this as I am (which, frankly, might also be a sign of my increasing years and decreasing hearing…). Either way, if you’re playing in a particularly large venue (or a theatre with poor acoustics) you might want to think twice before slating this format.
Cheers, David Charles.
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Photo Credit: Sara Carroll
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