Description
You can do this only once with a new group. Tell them they are all chickens in a henhouse, and a nuclear bomb is about to drop on the henhouse within 30 seconds, Ask the players to play the chickens as truthfully as possible, then give them the start signal. Any chicken that shows acknowledgement of the incoming bomb, fails the exercise. Chickens have no clue what a bomb is.The goal of the exercise is to show the difference between the reality of the player and the reality of the character.
Origin
Attributed to Stella Adler (the only known American to study directly with Russian Master Konstantine Stanislavsky). The story goes that Marlon Brando got it and simply went about laying an egg while the other chickens went in a frenzy.
Longform and shortform are the yin and yan of improv: opposite, equal and complementary -- (found on www.YesAnd.com bulletin board)
