Status is an attitude, an expression of personality and general demeanor displayed in the physical behavior of the character.
Status is not based on economic or social standing.
We all use status: sometimes we are aware of it, many times we are not. Once we recognize and understand it, we see it at work everywhere.
Status has particular actions and attitudes that differentiate one from another. At the extreme ends are High status and Low status.
Brenda describes what it means to be a high status character |
As Brenda describes low status characters, the audience “tries on” these attributes on themselves. |
“I Own This Place” is an improvisational exercise used to teach the concept of status. Anywhere from 3 to 10 players can take part in the exercise. Each player picks a playing card with a number on it from ace to 10. An ace represents the lowest status of 1, a 10 represents the highest status. Each person is allowed to use this line of dialog, “I own this place” which can delivered as many times as possible in whatever way they seem fit.
At the end of the exercise, the test of how well each status was played is whether the audience can identify who is who.
Here is a virtual implementation of "I Own This Place" showing how interaction between characters of different status. |
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A status 1 and status 5 |
Three status 5s |
Try and guess their status: |
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Black 10, Blue, 8, Red, 3 Rollover here to see the answer: |
Rollover here to see the answer: Black 5, Blue 6, Red, 6 |