This is one of the favorite exercises for Ridgewood students and is often a solo exercise, performed one at a time in front of the rest of the group.  It can be adapted to incorporate more actors (having characters react and interact with the person entering the room) or even as a rehearsal tool (clarifying a character’s given circumstances and deepening the actor’s understanding of their role).

If you have a stand-alone door/frame set piece (see here), this is the exercise for which it was made!  If you don’t, you can use the studio door or any other method available of “coming into view.”

One at a time, players come “into the room.” This can be done with some kind of physical task for them to accomplish in the room, or with established circumstances from the room they just left.  The circumstances can be decided on by the player (and guessed upon by the audience) or dictated by the instructor and combined with New Choice, especially when used during rehearsal.

This game addresses the delicate moment when a new character comes into view onstage – as an audience can (and will) assess many things about someone new during the first 15 seconds of experiencing them, this game forces actors to make quick, clear, precise and apparent choices so the audience understands about the character what the actor wants them to understand.