Narrative

Day in the Life

An audience volunteer is selected to tell the story of their day, or alternatively you could ask for a specific type of story.

The interviewer or backline should feel free to ask clarifying questions or to ask for more details if the story teller is a little more timid.
After the interview, the ensemble will perform this persons day.
The goal is not to recreate the story as is, the goal is to use the characters, ideas, situations, and general structure from the story to create a fun scene.

The interview section will force improvisers to listen intently.
This is a good exercise to teach the basics of premise based long form, like listening for specifcs in an opening and bringing them into a scene.

Members from the backline should feel free to become inanimate objects in sections of the scene where there are no secondary characters present.
Don't be overly indulgent in the interview section, we don't want to alienate the audience member by constantly interupting them for jokes. The improvisers can be funny during the scene.

The host sets up the game. Two improvisers will perform an entire story in just one minute. They can riff a little about how movies today are too long, people don't have long attention spans or whatever.
The host then gets a suggestion. It could be an existing story or movie title, a made up title, a genre, or any basic suggestion.
The two improviers then perform that scene, trying to create the entire story in one minute. The host will time them and call scene at one minute.
Then the host will point out that it's still too long and set them up to do the same scene in half the time.
This pattern continues doing the same scene in half the time going from 60 to 30 to 15 to 7 to 3 to 1 second(s).
Each time the scene is replayed it's distilled and/or sped up further until the final one second scene.

Try to move around the stage and use object work to help you remember the flow of what happens in the original scene.
It probably won't be an extremely compelling narrative but try to have a beginning, middle, and end.
Play up dramatic and film tropes.

One player is the narrator of the story and sits or stands on stage miming like they are writing a story on a typewriter.
The narrator speaks aloud what he is "writing".
Improvisers will enter the scene to play the characters the narrator mentions and begin playing the scene normally.
The narrator can give and take focus at any time.

Narrator: The mystery of the missing moose. Chapter one, the forest sleeps. A cool chill hung in the early morning air as Park Ranger Mitchel and his young apprentice Carl began their morning forest inspection hike.
Two improvisers step out miming preparing for their walk.
Carl: It's freezing out here Mr. Mitchel. Maybe we go back and sit around the fire until it warms up a bit.
Ranger Mitchel: I'm sure everything's fine Carl. But it's our responsibility to make sure all the forest creatures are safe from anyone who would do them harm.
Narrator: But everything wasn't fine in the forest that day, and it wouldn't be long before the ranger noticed something out of the ordinary.
Ranger Mitchel: Oh my god. Freeze boy.
Carl: Why? What is it Mr. Mitchel?
Ranger Mitchel: You see that? It's a moose egg. Not usualy for them to be left alone like that. Momma's gotta be nearby.
Narrator: A large, brown, and furry egg lay nestled in a bed of pine needles surrounded by trees in every direction. A trail of crimson staining the forest floor lay before them leading into the thickest brush of the woods.
Carl: Wait... Mr. Mitchel. Is that blood?

Be sure improvisers are using give and take to share the spotlight. The bulk of the responsibility shouldn't fall on the narrator or the actors.
The narrator can take advantage of the format by establishing tone and using scene painting.
Yes and the narrators decisions including the physical reality of the space.
The narrator can always jump forward in time, to a new location or rip up a page and start over. They don't have to write the story in sequential order.
Focus on telling a good story rather than doing bits. Bits can have their place though.