Silent Cuts

An Exercise to get good at making Cuts that relate to the original scene in an imaginative way.

Two people sit in the wings while two other people do an Open Scene. One of the people in the wings is the designated Cutter. At some point, the Cutter enters the stage and taps out one or both of the original players, and motions for the other person to come in. They do an Open Scene that relates somehow to the first Open Scene. When they enter, they do not announce what they're doing: no "flashback!" or anything like that.

When they're done, the first two players might or might not return for a new Open Scene. (If the second scene had a really good closer, then that's probably a good time to stop.) If they return, they might pick up where they left off or they might play a scene at a different time and/or location. Other players might enter, too. When you start a scene, you are free to motion for new players.

Keep it to no more than three scenes, though, at least if you want it to be an exercise you can do several times in one night and give everyone a chance to play every role.

This is good preparation for the Harold or other multi-scene games. Since you have to start the new scene by just starting a scene, you are open to an extremely wide variety of ways to relate to the original scene. Also, since you don't say what the relation to the original scene is, both you and your scene partner have to discover it by improvising, not by thinking ahead or calling out.