* A line of three chairs, or a bench, is placed in the centre of the room.
I often use a park as the location, but the bench can be situated in any other public environment where characters from all walks of life could meet.
* Next, I ask all of the participants to think of a character who might visit this location and why they are there. We are then ready to run the scene.
* As soon as I call out a group member's name, their character enters the scene and reacts to the other characters or situation.
* If I call their name a second time, it means they have to leave the scene. The only rules are that the chairs must stay together and the characters must think of a reason to leave the scene when they are called out.
This exercise is a good one to use as you can tailor it to the size of your group and give each participant an equal turn. It also provides a good basis for variants. You could conduct these character encounters as a mime exercise so that the group concentrate on movement and actions, the performers could try out contrasting characters, or the scenes could even be performed in gibberish. If it is a group that I really trust, I might not call out who should enter and leave the scene (my only condition being that there should be no more than four participants at any time). If a new person steps in, an existing performer has to find a reason to leave. The variations are endless.
With Ella's group I used this game as a character development exercise for their end-of-term performance. Over the weeks she built up a very funny portrayal of a clipboard-wielding charity worker accosting people on street corners.
