Teaching Harold with Cameron D

You are welcome to take inspiration from these notes for personal use, but don't copy what I've written.
- Cameron D

Harold is a foundational long form improvisation. It normally takes about 25 to 30 minutes with a defined structure.

Notes from 2025-08-12 Session 3/8

Warm up was Knife, Gun, Baby, Selfie. Random walking with a knife being thrown from player to player. When hit with the knife, the player pulls it out and throws it at another player. Second level, any player can call "I have a gun", everyone cowers until that player has been knifed. Third level, any player can have a baby, everyone must come and see the cute baby. Fourth level, any player can take a selfie and everyone must get into the shot. Figth level, any player can call out anything and all players must respond, e.g. Dance party!
We practiced three group games in a row: Campfire, We See 8 and Vox Pops.
We used those three games together to create an opening that took about 3 minutes. The players self-directed their way through the games without my prompting.
We practiced two full Harolds using the 3-game opening. The players chose their own second and third group games.
We had extra time so we started scene painting with ideas from our real experience.

Warm up is 5 personal things. Player 1 stands in the middle of the circle and shares five things about themelf. The group counts the things after each thing.
We practiced 4 rounds of Harold.
The opening group game is a creative sprint. 100 small, quick steps achieves more than a couple of big leaps.
The 2nd and third group games are palette cleansers. They should not rely on the content of the show up to that point. Find something tangential.
Opening group game is We See 8. Get a one-word suggestion from the audience and we hear opinions/points-of-view from the players in any order. E.g. I am a flower. I grow in the sunshine. Weeds are taking my job. I got stung in the eye by a bee.
2nd beat group game is Group Object. Players enter the stage in quick succession. They become parts of a single object. They can look around and move position until they feel the object is clear. As a fun exercise, all players said what they think the object is at the same time.
3rd beat group game. One player becomes a tour guide giving a tour of a museum of something that has been mentioned in the show but not invesitgated. E.g. I'm your tour guide at this museum of yummy cakes. The challenge of this game is that there are two points-of-view on stage but lots of players. One point-of-view is that of the tour guide who thinks the museum is worthwhile, and the other point-of-view is the group of visitors. The group needs to express the same opinion and not talk over the tour guide.

Warm-up was Hep
Our goal is to perform Harold, so we practiced the form 4 times.
I conducted the games and scenes.
The scenes and Harold were not the full length, we shortened them to focus on the structure.
This worked well and made the structure understandable through experience.
Opening was campfire where players get a one-word suggestion, which inspires real stories and opinions. E.g. "fire". I put out a fire when I worked at the Hilton Hotel.
2nd beat group game is Vox Pops. One player interviews the man on the street, played by other players. They can pick one question to ask, or ask questions about a topic. Choose something that expands the world, something tangential. E.g. What do you think about penguins living amongst humans.
3rd beat group game. Everyone get in here. One players says "bears get in here" and discusses some topic with all the bears. E.g. We need to poop somewhere else, the woods aren't working. I need ideas.