I just woke up from a dream with an exercise I would like to try sometime with 8 or more players. (In the dream, I think that it wasn’t an exercise, but rather some horrible thing that was happening.)

Everyone stands still, somewhat scattered along the stage.

Each player should be trying to make eye contact with another player. But players must move their eyes to someone else on every beat. (Rhythm should be somewhat quick: beat | rest | beat | rest | beat | rest | etc.)

One person will be instructed to say a sentence the first time they lock eyes with another player. The subject is part monolog, part story that can be continued– but the player may say only one sentence.

Regardless of where that person’s eyes land when they finish the sentence, the next person to speak will be the person with whom the first player had locked eyes for a beat when he/she began speaking. As soon as the first player finishes a sentence, this person will want to add a sentence, but cannot begin speaking until a beat on which he/she locks eyes with a third player. The third player will know to speak next when the second player begins speaking while they have locked eyes.

No one may speak the next sentence until they’ve locked eyes with someone who will become the next speaker. They may lock eyes again while finishing the sentence, but the next speaker is the person they were looking at when the sentence began.

The object of the exercise is to get the group telling the story as quickly as they can without having locked patterns of who is looking at whom.