The open scene round
One of the changes being introduced to the competition this year is a new ‘open scene’ round for the SENIOR DIVISION only.
What is an open scene?
An open scene simply means a scene which is not a game. The team will be given an offer by the MC and will perform their scene without having to follow any game rules or handles.
For example. if a team is given the offer of 'Cows’ they might choose to do a scene set at a cattle farm in which two farmers are looking for their missing cows. Or they might do a scene as cows discussing trying to figure out a way to avoid being taken to the slaughterhouse, etc.
What offers will teams get?
Teams will be given simple offers to inspire their scenes. Offers will be:
A location (eg shopping centre, park, the moon)
An activity (eg mowing the lawn, going to school)
Characters or a relationship (eg two siblings, a policeman, a boss and the new hire)
A short scenario (eg principal calling parents into their office to talk about their child, trying to get tickets to a concern)
How to approach an open scene
Open scenes allow teams to focus on storytelling without having to jump through the hoops of game rules. There is no trick to performing open scenes.
Teams should focus on:
Establishing a clear start to the scene (give us a clear sense of the scenes setting)
Introduce a tilt or a problem in the scene
Have the characters react to offers or events in the scene and be changed
Build to a resolution
For example, a scene with the offer cattle farm might go something like this:
Start or platform: Two farmhands are getting ready to muster cattle to send them to market.
Tilt or problem: The farmers can’t find the cattle who have disappeared.
Reaction or building of tension: One of the farmers reveals if they don’t find the cattle the farm will have to be sold.
Conclusion: The farmers find the cattle (with possibly the rest of the team rushing on as a herd of cows)
How to train for open scenes
Below are a few simple activities teachers can run with their students to help them prepare for open scenes.
Emotional activity
Two students start on stage doing an activity . The students must do the activity together but cannot talk about the activity. They can talk about anything else however.
These scenes will be less frenetic than games but will teach students to slow down and build connections with the other character.
Variation: Students perform the activity with an emotion (this can be an offer given to them or it can be given to them by the teacher or audience).
Order a coke
One player must order a coke during the scene. The other player needs to have a very strong reaction to this (eg a strong emotional response like joy or fear) and then explain why.
Try to coach the students to have the emotional reaction and THEN explain the reaction (versus trying to explain it ahead of time eg “I hope no one orders a coke, I am terrified of cola drinks”).
Scenes are driven forward by characters being changed and this teaches student to realise that anything can be a driver of change if you react to it strongly enough.
Variation: You can given the students any activity which isn’t ordering a coke.
Scenarios
Give students simple scenarios to set up their scenes with give them a direction for the scene. For example, a boss firing a new employee, a teacher getting a student in trouble, a child telling their parent they crashed the car. This gives students a clear setting, starting characters and a direction for the scene.
What open scenes are not
Open scenes are not a ‘truth’ scene or a monoscene. Teams are not required to play the scene realistically or without any scene changes. Teams can apply any theatrical techniques which are not otherwise a game handle or rule. For example, teams can use narrators, call 'time changes, sing etc.
Teams can perform in any theatrical style but cannot use a genre which is otherwise a theatresports game (eg Shakespearean scene or musical).
We want to see what teams do when they are given the freedom to respond however they want to an offer.
Why the change?
Open scenes give us the chance to evaluate teams core impro skills. There will be no difference to how this round is scored compared to other rounds.
This is a change from previous years and some teams may find it challenging to perform a scene without the in-built structure or dynamic that a game provides. However, open scenes are not significantly different than genre based games (such as Shakespearean scene, Musical, Film Noir). It also will teach teams how to transition the skills they use in games to other theatre settings (such as devising content, creating sketches, and scripted work).