Bring the energy and excitement of an action movie to your improv stage with Stunt Doubles!
The Basics
Select a suitably dramatic location and divide your team evenly into “actors” and “stunt doubles.” Actors provide the dialogue and scenic work until they hit a suitably intense moment in which their contracts demand the use of trained doubles. When this occurs, the action freezes, and the onstage players call, “stunt doubles.” This cue (usually accompanied by a dynamic soundtrack) brings each actor’s body double to the stage who quickly tag out their counterpart, assume the exact prior pose, and then perform a breathtaking stunt in super slow motion. When this feat of brilliance is complete, the stunt people freeze and call “first team,” which reverses the process so that the actors now find themselves in new poses from which they continue their dialogue and story. Typically, the action pauses for three “impressive” stunt interruptions.
Example
The movie is set on a cable car high in the Swiss Alps. Players A and B begin as two battling spies.
Player A: (clinging to the side of the car) “You may have stopped these cars from running, but now we’re both trapped in here.”
Player B: (laughing menacingly) “Do you not think this was my plan all along, Mr. Payton? Only one of us will leave this mountain alive, and if I was a betting man…”
Player A: (pulling out a recording device) “I’ve already captured your plan and broadcast it to the authorities.”
Player B: (laughing again) “And I have been jamming every signal from this mountainside for the last thirty minutes.”
Player A: “Then you give me no choice…”
Player A mimes rocking the gondola just before both actors freeze.
Players A and B: “Stunt doubles!”
Players C and D tag A and B out respectively and mime an accompanied slow-motion fight in the rocking gondola that results in C (A) gaining the upper hand and sitting astride their nemesis.
Players C and D: “First team!”
The actors return and assume the exact positions of their doppelgangers as the music fades.
Player B: (not laughing) “Well, it would seem the tables have turned…”
The Focus
Embrace the style and size of the scene (although it can also prove entertaining to use the same tools for a very mundane scenario)!
Traps and Tips
1.) For the actors. Don’t approximate the details or reality of the base scene. The more specifics you include (character mannerisms, scenic elements, available props), the more your stunt doubles can reincorporate into their mimed action. Yes, there is a structural need to move from one stunt opportunity to the next, but this needn’t be pedestrian or predictable, and there can be enormous fun gleaned from the actors truly discovering what obstacles could require trained intervention. Also, strive to build the stunts in terms of challenge and impressiveness. (I may have made this more than a little difficult with my example above.) A simple, perhaps even benign, offer to start – such as the villain taking off their jacket – can leave ample room for more complex feats later.
2.) For the doubles. Don’t carelessly approximate the details of the stunts. The more precise and careful you are with each element (tracking injuries, incorporating nuances of the setting, getting and stowing props from assigned places), the more the mimed activities will take on a life of their own. Yes, you’ll want to keep safety at the forefront of your mind during these moments, and make sure you’re considering consent and the safety of your scene partners as well. To this end, working in true slow-motion is absolutely key. But look for the exciting path even (especially) when you’re performing reasonably commonplace tasks. Often, the biggest gift resides in the unintended step or move.
3.) For the transitions. And don’t neglect the delight of the transitions themselves. As is the case with all Freeze Tag games and derivatives, the devil (and the angel) is in the details. Take that extra second to assess your assigned partner so that you can mirror more than the gist of their pose. It’s joyful to watch actors trying to recreate the physical twists and turns that their stunt doubles wind up in and then justifying these final positions through their dialogue. And the same holds true in the opposite direction, too, as the doubles work to incorporate expressions, emotions, and physical quirks into their silent choreography.
4.) For the singers. If you have strong singers in your company (and, perhaps, those who find much less joy in the act of singing!), the related Musical Stunt Doubles might provide an option suited equally to everyone’s tastes. Here, the basic premise above holds true, but now the dialogue pauses so that “stunt singers” can leap onto the stage and provide musical excerpts. I don’t think this variant quite has the same oomph as the original due to the decrease in physical finesse, but it’s still worthwhile in its own right.
In performance
There are certainly opportunities for both casts to mess with each other in this dynamic by setting up whimsical or unappealing challenges and then leaving actors in perhaps compromising positions to justify. I tend to prioritize storytelling above this style of play but will acknowledge that in this particular game, some strategic cheekiness adds considerably to the adventure.
Cheers, David Charles.
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Photo Credit: Olivia Skvarenina
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