People go pair by pair and improvise scenes with three lines in total. Either actor says the first line, then there is a response, then a response to that. Whatever is said is then wildly applauded.
A nice way to introduce performing scenes for the first time and helps to get people get used to improvising in front of an audience.
Variations
There are endless variations to three line scenes and they are very helpful for teaching different things. We tend to work on just one thing at a time, so might do one round of emotional 3 line scenes, then one round of everything starts with Yes And etc.
- Just say anything – helpful for warming up.
- Gibberish scenes – to help people express physically instead of just with words.
- Positive – all the scenes are about people who know each other and like each other and nothing is going wrong.
- Observing the other person and giving an offer based on what they are doing.
- Establishing where you are.
- Establishing character.
- Establishing relationship.
- Identifying and naming each other.
- Bringing in emotions like happy, sad, fearful or angry.
- Bringing in reactions.
- Tempo.
- Movement.
- Genres.
- Voice.
- Status.
Remember to just work on one thing at a time, and do feedback on only that one thing, otherwise these get really confusing.