(hyperlink)
The theatresports “Search engine” is a game that can change even the most basic suggestion from the audience (“swimming pool”) into something interesting.
Explain to the audience that they can test the new experimental theatresports search engine. It works like the search engines that they know from the internet, but the search results are not web pages but theatresports scenes.
The Search engine is played with 4 players, they take place in a row on the stage. One player asks the audience for a word or a phrase they want to put into the search engine, for example “swimming pool” or “forbidden love”. The input has to explicitly not be a question, because then people expect real answers. Remember the member of the audience whose suggestion you took.
The three players – or four if the input asker plays along – now do free association on the suggestion. This does not take more than 10 seconds. Afterwards they step forward from the row one by one and tell what association they made up with the suggestion. What a player says can be anything: The first (few) sentence(s) of a monologue, a single word, a wild phrase, etc. The presented ‘search result’ is not more than two sentences.
The audience member that did the suggestion is now asked which of the four search results they like best. The chosen search result is now used as an ingredient for a free scene. This scene can take any random form or game.
The only rule is that the text of the chosen search result is the first text in the scene of the player that made up the search result. This to really make that player owner of their text and also to prevent someone from just making up something in the hopes that their fellow players can make something out of it.
It is not necessary for the player whose search result was chosen, to also be the first to play or the first person in the scene to say something. With eyes on the fact that this player did come up with the search result, it makes sense, but nothing is set in stone!
If the chosen scene turns out to be quite short, the person who gave the input can be asked if they want to refine their search. In essence this means that the whole procedure is done again, but ideally elements from the previous scene are used in the new scene.
(This game is based on the “Hyperlink” theatresport ‘long form’ and has been put in the database by Bjorn Hermans van Badmutz)