If you have a penchant for speaking verse or constructing lyrics both bold and terse, then saunter closer and now stand in view, for I just might have the right game for you…
The Basics
Players construct a scene in which they create (and share) rhyming couplets.
Example
A teacher and parent (Players A and B respectively) sit awkwardly in two undersized desks and chairs as their conference begins.
Player A: “Thank you for honoring my recent request…”
Player B: (nervously bouncing their leg) “You’d like to talk about my son’s last test?
He said that it was an anomaly…”
Player A: “He’s said something rather similar to me.”
Player B: “By your tone it seems you don’t believe him…”
Player A: (examining their gradebook) “Tom’s future in my class is looking grim.
I just don’t think that he’s doing the work…”
Player B: (standing) “I’m starting to see why he thinks you’re a jerk…”
The Focus
Language games can tend to place players in their heads, so keep your body engaged and seek physical actions to help ground the story.
Traps and Tips
1.) Embrace the pace. While you shouldn’t be afraid of earned silences and pauses, the poetic nature of the game benefits from a reasonably predictable rhythm, especially once a couplet has been started. Arguably, this requires you as a speaker to often leap into dialogue without a strong sense of where your line might go. This heightened level of risk and abandon is largely the gift of the game! Yes, some well-placed target rhymes (especially when they’re pitched to your teammates) certainly have a place, but you don’t want every verbal choice to become painfully measured and rehearsed in your brain before hitting the stage.
2.) Share lines and rhymes. It’s okay for a player to construct their own couplets, providing both the setup and its corresponding rhyme, and often this is a helpful way to start the scene just so that everyone can find their grove. However, if every couplet is constructed in this way, characters tend to become language islands, offering and playing largely their own individual games. When couplets (and even lines) become shared between the characters, the dialogue tends to become more dynamic, evolving, and dangerous, especially as a third or fourth character enters the fray. You’ll want to make sure that focus shifts are clear and directed to enable this level of attack so that lines aren’t left dangling without an obvious (and prepared) next speaker.
3.) There’s strength in lengths. I’ve loosely modeled iambic pentameter couplets in my example, and while this particular poetic structure isn’t required or necessary, it is important that you don’t throw out wildly erratic lines of varying meters and lengths as these will seldom hit the audience’s ear as a “couplet” which is part of the game’s title. If “I just don’t think he’s doing the work,” is completed with “Jerk!”, or “Look, I don’t think this is an appropriate style of teaching, and you’re starting to develop a reputation for being something of a jerk…” it will become difficult for those watching (or playing) to sense where you are in the poetic exchange. Setting more syllables (or poetic “feet”) as your standard norm can help establish a viable cadence as well. Too few, as in my first response here, will start to make your scene sound like a Dr. Seuss book. Too many, as in my second response here, will make it difficult to make each setup with its rhyme.
4.) Break the patterns. And sometimes the most memorable fun occurs when you break the patterns. If you’re playing fearlessly, you will hit the end of a line occasionally without arriving at a strong rhyme, or any rhyme at all, or may find yourself inventing a word, or just repeating the setup word. Some of this is part of the built-in joy. Similarly, a one-off “Jerk!” response is likely to land beautifully, especially if everyone knows this is a deliberate and powerful breach of the preestablished norms. (The key then becomes getting back on the rhythm horse as soon as you’re able.) On a more micro level, it’s also advisable to break rhyming patterns. If you keep circling back around the same word or sound, then it can prove challenging to find new territory and material. Whenever possible, it’s nice to consider a pair of rhymes “burnt” when they’ve been used in the scene (unless, of course, the game becomes weaving back to the same target sound again and again…).
In performance
I like to use this game and technique as a primer in many of my musical workshops and classes as it’s clearly a great way to introduce lyrical structure and organization. If you add it to your genre or Shakespeare scenes, you’ll find that you unlock whole new elements and energies as well.
New to ImprovDr.com or the Game Library? You can find the ever-expanding collection of games, exercises, and warm-ups here.
Cheers, David Charles.
www.improvdr.com
Join my Facebook group here.
Photo Credit: Tony Firriolo
© 2025 David Charles/ImprovDr
Game Library Expansion Pack I
ImprovDr.com 