Artist Toolbox: The Queen's Rules

A quick improv game to add to your toolbox. This one was taught to me by a student and I love it! But the students love it even more!!

It's a great warmup and helps with getting students out of their shells.

The Queen's Rules

How to play:

One student sits on a chair or 'throne' in the middle of the stage, as the Queen or King. Leave half of the class in the audience to watch and then the rest line up next to the stage. These participants are the Queen's servants. To stay in the game they must do her biding without making a mistake.

As the first servant enters the stage, the Queen announces "You are dead, because you didn't (do something)." 

e.g. "You are dead, because you didn't bow to me when you entered."

or

"You are dead, because you didn't present me with cake."

The servant then leaves the stage and joins the back of the line. The next servant must remember to complete the Queen's task (bow/give cake, etc). Once they have done this, the Queen announces to this servant the next rule, e.g. "You are dead, because you didn't fly in on a broomstick before you bowed." They leave the stage and the next one enters. (note: the Queen needs to be quite specific about her instructions. She must specify when in the order the new rule happens. She can increase the difficulty by adding rules into the middle of the routine sometimes, instead of always at the end of the list.)

Now the new servant must now fly in on a broomstick and then bow. They are killed and a new rule is added. The rules can involve telling jokes, completing elaborate series of actions, acting like a complete buffoon; whatever the Queen wishes. However, if a servant forgets a step of the pattern they are eliminated from the game.

Keep playing until you're down to the last surviving servant or until is time to switch the audience for the actors and start all over again with a new Queen or King.

Fantastic fun!