Restaurant
This is a great game for teaching verbal focus.
The actors are scattered around sat in pairs at tables as if at a restaurant, maybe throw in a couple of waiters or waitresses too. They pre-decide who they are, get them to pick big characters and topics.
Only one of the couples talks at a time. Any other couple can then take over by repeating the last line they heard and using it in their different conversation. Also if a couple stop talking then another couple have to take over immediately, repeating the last thing they said.
Sometimes focus is given by a couple being quiet suddenly. Sometimes focus is taken by a couple just starting to talk.
Some conversations last a couple a lines, some longer. Sometimes there is a rapid change in focus, sometimes it’s a more leisurely pace.
Encourage the actors to be bold – either they are in focus or they aren’t, there must be an immediate change so don’t hesitate. The worse that can happen is that there is a little bit of hub bub with a couple of people talking at once, which is fine.
As it goes on you might find patterns form in the conversations, even though they are talking about different topics.
