(thing) by Footprints Thu Mar 23 2006 at 10:00:41

A Play Without Actors

Preamble and Preparation

This play is a play "without acting". The actors play the stage directions and other explanations written in the script, but not the role of the characters, as the characters have no speaking lines, and the story does not require any.

There are 10 actors, called for ease of reference 1 through 10.
They are each wearing a letter on the front and a letter on the back (this can be done in various ways - see * below).
They are wearing the following letters (front, back)

  1. S, E
  2. R, X
  3. O, E
  4. I, U
  5. T, N
  6. N, T
  7. B, C
  8. E, H
  9. A, S
  10. R, D

The play

The stage begins empty. The actors will arrange themselves on stage to spell words, in the following way: 3f means actor number 3 stands with his front facing the audience (showing the letter O). 7b means 7 stands with his back towards the audience (showing the letter C). They will stand in the order that I have written. Once they arrange themselves (which should take about 5 seconds), they stand still to let the audience read what is written for about 3 seconds and then rearrange themselves to form the next line. During the arranging, the actors which are not in the line leave the stage. I will not explicitly write who enters and who exits at each line, because it is obvious. I will leave it up to the director, or leader to decide exactly how this will be done. 
9f 7b 5f    4f
A  C  T     I

9b 7b 3b 5b 8f   4f
S  C  E  N  E    I

9f   7b 3f 4b 2f 5f
A    C  O  U  R  T

1b 5b 6b 3b 2f    7b 8b 9f 10b
E  N  T  E  R     C  H  A  D 

3b 6f 5f 1b 2f    10b 8f 7f
E  N  T  E  R      D  E  B

1b 5b 6b 3b 2f    7f 8f 9f 10f
E  N  T  E  R     B  E  A  R
The people spelling BEAR move offstage to the left, and the people spelling ENTER move to the (audience's) right and are joined by 4, and spell: 
1b 2b 3b 4b 5b 6b
E  X  E  U  N  T
The people spelling BEAR - 7f, 8f, 9f and 10f enter from the left, chasing the people spelling EXEUNT off the stage, until they have all exited on the right.

i.e.

Exeunt, pursued by a bear.

* This is, ideally, a letter printed on the front and back of a shirt. If not, then a paper/cardboard with the letter written on it, attached to the shirt somehow (stapled, for example). If not, then the actor could hold two pieces of cardboard - one in the front and one in the back. Last resort - a piece of paper with a letter on the front and a letter on the back - the actor remains facing the audience and flips the paper over to display the correct side.

Note that the actors spelling ENTE switch around for the 3 consecutive lines of ENTER. This is for comic effect (and not optional). It's amusing to see people changing places like crazy and ending up spelling the same word.

Note to the director: this is much easier to pull off than it may at first appear. All each actor has to remember is 7 positions. Also, I have arranged it so that the movement of the actors (except for intentional ENTE switching, which is very easy) is minimal. For example, between ACT I and SCENE I - 9 and 5 turn around, 5 moves a bit to the right and 3 and 8 enter. Likewise from ENTER CHAD onward, the two groups (1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7,8,9,10 stay distinct).

I like it! 4 C!s