A circle game adapted from "Se Murio Chicho" in Tecnicas Participativas Para La Education Social Vol 1. (The sentence is from a scene in the John Sayles film "Passion Fish" http://youtu.be/hkcIBvJU8Uk)
Good for: fun, expression, loosening up, paying attention to details.
Setup: people sitting in a circle
Number of people: at least three
Materials: none
Time: 30 mins.
Flow:
- Sitting in a circle, the joker starts the game by saying to her/his neighbor "I didn't ask for the anal probe." The joker says the phrase with a strong and clear emotion: joy, sorrow, terror, anger, shock, disgust, disinterest. If anal probe is a bit too much, feel free to use any other sentence, but probably best to start with something pungent and a bit unexpected.
The neighbor reacts with the same emotion, ad libbing her/his reaction, "No! The anal probe? Why?!"
If the neighbor reacts with a different emotion, the joker repeats the phrase until s/he feels the neighbor's reaction matches her own emotion.
Then the neighbor tells the person next to her, and so on, each time keeping the emotion the same, until it returns to the beginning.
Watch for:
Stereotypical reactions. If the sentence has a strong quality, like "I didn't ask for the anal probe," a mixture of shock and disbelief tends to dominate. Start with a round of that, but then try to shift the emotions to help people develop more of a range.
Stumbling on personal issues. The activity this is adapted from uses the line, "Chicho is dead." That can be funny, but it can also be a problem: has someone in the group recently had a traumatic experience? A death in the family, an accident, a diagnosis of serious illness? You may want to start with a different phrase, and you should watch carefully for uncomfortable reactions. Of course, you can stumble upon trauma in just about any participatory activity, but in games in which people take on roles and emotions you need to be particularly sensitive.
Variations:
Change the emotion with each player -- the listener reacts with the same emotion as the speaker, but then turns and uses a different emotion.
Magnify or shrink the emotion -- like in the activity I second that (e)motion.
Show the clip from Passion Fish: http://youtu.be/hkcIBvJU8Uk