Editing Exercises

If you are doing a Theatre residency and are thinking about what your final performance might look like, here are two exercises which help students begin the transition from brainstorming / free-writing to finished material. They both inspire organization/prioritization of ideas and self-editing. Enjoy.

60-30-15 :
How to play: Player A and Player B perform a timed 1 minute scene (based on a suggestion from the class). They then perform the SAME scene in 30 seconds. They then perform the SAME scene again in 15 seconds. They then perform the SAME scene again in 7 seconds. They then perform the SAME scene again in 3 seconds. This is a great way to get students on their feet and doing improv without them worrying about ‘floundering’. It also helps students EDIT, by extracting the most important elements of a scene. This process can be modified and applied to student’s individual work (scenes, monologues, poems, etc).

Paper Airplane:
This can be a sort of first playmaking assignment for students. Instruct the students to take out a piece of paper and something to write with (this may elicit groans, since it will be the first thing we have done that is close to their ‘regular’ class work). Once the students have their paper, tell them to make a paper airplane. On that plane they are to write five things about themselves that people don’t know (or 5 things they are proud of, etc.) Then tell them they will have the opportunity to read what they have written out loud, but they only have as much time to speak as their plane can stay in the air. They have to think about what is most important of the things they wrote and how they can say it succinctly enough to get in out while their plane flies. Gather in a circle and let each student have their turn flying and speaking. They have now completed their first task as a playwright: they conceived of an idea, edited it, decided what was most important, and performed their work. Again this process can be applied to editing their original classroom work (scenes, monologues, poems, etc).