Group and opening game

Invocation

The group explores a single word in escalating stages, from third-person description through to speaking as the thing itself.

4 or more players · 8–10 minutes

Also known as: Four-Part Invocation

How to run it

1. Take one word from the audience.
2. Stage one: describe it in the third person — "it is cold", "it waits".
3. Stage two: address it in the second person — "you never call", "you take everything".
4. Stage three: speak as it in the first person — "I am what is left".
5. Grow more physical and abstract with each stage, then edit into the first scene.

What it teaches

Depth rather than breadth, and generating emotional rather than literal material from a suggestion.

Coaching notes

Encourage physicality from stage two onward. Groups that stay in a line and recite produce openings that are poetry readings rather than springboards.

Where it usually goes wrong

Rushing the stages. Each one needs long enough to become uncomfortable.

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