One Line At A Time
OVERVIEW
One Line At A Time is a drawing exercise that allows participants to practice many of improv's most important concepts in a different and unique format. Often appears in workshops with focuses like:
Collaboration
Creativity
Listening
Storytelling
Team Building
REQUIREMENTS
Number of Participants:
Minimum: 2 participants / Maximum: 8 participants
Time Required:
Minimum: 15 minutes / Maximum: 20 minutes
Materials Needed:
Paper and pen and a hard surface to write on. Can also be done with a marker and posterboard on an easle, or blackboard or any presentational writing surface.
EXERCISE INSTRUCTIONS
Players work in pairs or small groups.
Tell each group they are going to draw an image, one line at a time. Each player gets a turn to draw one line and then it is the next player's turn. If working with a larger group it can help to organize them in a circle and have order go counter clockwise.
The game's first phase is completely silent. No talking. No planning. No correcting or directing each other, for instance, “Not like that,” or "Give the older duck eyebrows."
The other big rule is you only draw one line at a time. What does that mean? If your pen leaves the paper, your turn is over. Straight line, wobbly line, curve—it’s all fair game. If you try to change direction mid-line or retrace what you have already drawn, that means your turn is over.
You then pass the paper to your partner.
They add one line, and so on. If everyone tacks a turn and the drawing isn't done, that's fine, just keep the same order and go around the circle again.
Repeat until your “masterpiece” emerges.
It can be fun to give the drawing a focus, like draw a character or draw a location. Anything the instructor selects is fine.
Once the drawing is complete you can add a second phase. For example, have players tell a One Word Story about the drawing. If it is a portrait maybe you tell a story about that character's backstory. Or do a Yes And scene with the characxter in the drawing or just a general scene using the drawing as inspiration. Or you can have each group work as a writers room building out a story about the drawing.
If the drawing is a tableau you can set a scene there or learn about the people who live, work or own whatever the tableau depicts.
If you include a story element, you want to tell the groups to say yes to every idea suggested, just like you do with Yes And Conversations. Don't worry if that means your idea doesn't fit. Once a story is fleshed out you can set it aside and build a new one. Then the group can decide which of the stories they like best.
If groups are building scenes from their drawings, great, have them share the scenes with the whole workshop. If they are building stories ask the groups or pairs to share their favorite stories with the entire workshop.
Oh, also it is always fun to give your creation a title and to sign it like it belongs in a museum!
If using for a storytelling workshop it is common to quickly review each group's story, asking them what they like about the creation along the way. Then ask groups to retell their story one line at a time, focusing on what they liked and deemphasizing what was less impactful. Then review stories again and rewrite as many times as you feel useful. Depending on the overall workshop size you may need to review the stroies of just a few groups for time.
INSTRUCTOR DISCUSSION POINTS / LEARNING TAKEAWAYS
COLLABORATION
This exercise is about saying yes to each other's ideas. It can be hard not to correct or criticize a players contribution to a drawing. Explain to the workshop that the point of the exercise is to say yes to each others ideas and to fight to present those ideas in the besty possible light.
This is the meaning of the improv saying TREAT YOUR TEAMMATES AS POETS AND GENIUSES. If a teammate draws a line you don't like or don't understand, assume that's because they are a poet or a genius.
Another tactic is to ask yourself what you like the most about your teammates contribution and then to use your turen to emphasize or to repeaty that component. Workiung this way we don't have the opportunity to dislike a contribution since we are only asking what we like the most.
CREATIVITY
Creativity can flourish when we are surprised. When we feel uncreative it is often because we think we know everything that can or is about to happen. But people are typically not very skilled at drawing in tandem so surprises are boiund to happen.
Encourage players to adopt a "how can this be possible" attitude. If a line or contribution surprises a player, tell them not to fight it but to instead embrace it!
LISTENING
Just like One Word Story it is hard to know what to contribute if you haven't really taken in what has been already contributed. Encourage players to give each contribution an equal amount of focus, just as much as they gave the first line contributed.
It can be easy to start thinking you know where a drawing (or story, or plan) is headed and to ignore elements that don't fit a prescribed direction. Explain that it is fine to have an idea of where things are headed, but that if we want to truly listen we need to be ready to abandon that idea with new information.
Just like all our physicisrts are currently abandoning their commitment to the BIG BANG theory. :)
STORYTELLING
When writing it is easy to fall into the trap of focusing on what feels wrong with your story. Working this way nothing you write seems good enough. This is the origin of writer's block.
Improvisers learn to focus on what they like in their scenes instead. This allows them to effortlessly create scenes about things they love rather than scenes that try to be perfect. Working this way allows for the fast creation of new ideas which can be better evaluated once you have a number of options.
You can demonstrate the power of writing what you like using this exercise. At the last stage ask teams what they liked about the story they created and then ask them to retell the story one line at a time. The most common result is an improved story that focuses on the important elements of the original while avoiding distractions.