Group and opening game

Pattern Game

From one suggestion, the group speaks free associations aloud, building chains of words and images with no scenes.

4 or more players · 6–8 minutes

Also known as: Word Association Opening

How to run it

1. Take a single word from the audience.
2. Stand in a loose line or arc facing out.
3. Anyone may speak an association — a word, an image, a short statement. No fixed order.
4. Follow the chain rather than returning repeatedly to the original word.
5. Let themes recur and deepen. After several minutes, someone initiates the first scene from anything that emerged.

What it teaches

Thematic thinking and shared attention. It generates the pool of material the rest of a Harold is built from.

Coaching notes

Del Close's preferred Harold opening. The common note is that groups stay too literal — push for the emotional and associative rather than the categorical.

Where it usually goes wrong

It becomes a list of synonyms, which produces scenes about the suggestion instead of scenes about what the suggestion evoked.

More group and opening games Another at random Read it on the site