Improv Resource Center - Forums
hello,
a bunch of friends and I have been working on the harold for a few weeks now. I am, sort of, the coach. None of us ever had the chance to learn the harold. There are no schools to learn it in northern Germany, where we live ….
So now we try to work on it based on the books, blogs and forum posts I’ve read; the podcasts I’ve listened to and the harolds I’ve seen over the internet (the reckoning, trophy wife....).
At the moment we are trying to work on group games.
There is one exercise that makes perfect sense when I read its description. However, when we try to do it, it seems horribly complicated and confusing: the I AM game. (related to that I also have similar problems/questions concerning the pattern game. but that's probably for another post...)
The I AM game:
I’ve read about this in some forum post as well as Amey Goerlichs class notes, which are a very valuable ressource for me (thanks Amey!). I think this one is from a class by Kevin Mullaney.
The I AM game is presented as an exercise that leads to an understanding of how (some possible) group games work. And, as far as I understood it, it goes like this:
One player steps forward and says what they are and what can be done with them “I am a ______. You can _____ me and ________ me.” (Given Example: I am an orange, you can squeeze me and drink me. ) The next person steps forward and creates a pattern using the same structure.
This seems quite easy. However, yesterday we had quite a few problems. Either we are so literal in our pattern that the same word is used again and again and often we run out of things quite quickly... (Things that you can squeeze. So it’s always “I’m a __, you can squeeze me and ___ me). Sometimes that's even so general that it applies to nearly everything (things that you can clean...).
Or we are so abstract that it takes a lot of mental effort to come up with the next thing. And its also really hard to identify the pattern without discussing it. Which makes the whole thing even more cumbersome...
In her notes it says that one should find a pattern in all of the categories. Always? That seemed really hard. To do this the pattern had to be really abstract which made us think quite hard.
How long do you do that for one pattern? Until people run out of things to say? Or does the pattern shift and transform organically? How strict should i be as a coach if something doesn’t fit the pattern?
It's really hard to describe the problems we had. I hope you can relate to it. I hope some of you know this game...
thanks for your help!!!
a bunch of friends and I have been working on the harold for a few weeks now. I am, sort of, the coach. None of us ever had the chance to learn the harold. There are no schools to learn it in northern Germany, where we live ….
So now we try to work on it based on the books, blogs and forum posts I’ve read; the podcasts I’ve listened to and the harolds I’ve seen over the internet (the reckoning, trophy wife....).
At the moment we are trying to work on group games.
There is one exercise that makes perfect sense when I read its description. However, when we try to do it, it seems horribly complicated and confusing: the I AM game. (related to that I also have similar problems/questions concerning the pattern game. but that's probably for another post...)
The I AM game:
I’ve read about this in some forum post as well as Amey Goerlichs class notes, which are a very valuable ressource for me (thanks Amey!). I think this one is from a class by Kevin Mullaney.
The I AM game is presented as an exercise that leads to an understanding of how (some possible) group games work. And, as far as I understood it, it goes like this:
One player steps forward and says what they are and what can be done with them “I am a ______. You can _____ me and ________ me.” (Given Example: I am an orange, you can squeeze me and drink me. ) The next person steps forward and creates a pattern using the same structure.
This seems quite easy. However, yesterday we had quite a few problems. Either we are so literal in our pattern that the same word is used again and again and often we run out of things quite quickly... (Things that you can squeeze. So it’s always “I’m a __, you can squeeze me and ___ me). Sometimes that's even so general that it applies to nearly everything (things that you can clean...).
Or we are so abstract that it takes a lot of mental effort to come up with the next thing. And its also really hard to identify the pattern without discussing it. Which makes the whole thing even more cumbersome...
In her notes it says that one should find a pattern in all of the categories. Always? That seemed really hard. To do this the pattern had to be really abstract which made us think quite hard.
How long do you do that for one pattern? Until people run out of things to say? Or does the pattern shift and transform organically? How strict should i be as a coach if something doesn’t fit the pattern?
It's really hard to describe the problems we had. I hope you can relate to it. I hope some of you know this game...
thanks for your help!!!