Group and opening games
Pattern Game
From one suggestion, the group speaks free associations aloud, building chains of words and images with no scenes.
Also known as: Word Association Opening
How to run it
- Take a single word from the audience.
- Stand in a loose line or arc facing out.
- Anyone may speak an association — a word, an image, a short statement. No fixed order.
- Follow the chain rather than returning repeatedly to the original word.
- Let themes recur and deepen. After several minutes, someone initiates the first scene from anything that emerged.
What it teaches
Thematic thinking and shared attention. It generates the pool of material the rest of a Harold is built from.
Coaching notes
Del Close's preferred Harold opening. The common note is that groups stay too literal — push for the emotional and associative rather than the categorical.
Where it usually goes wrong. It becomes a list of synonyms, which produces scenes about the suggestion instead of scenes about what the suggestion evoked.
Related reading: long form and the Harold.
See it played
We do not link individual videos we have not watched end to end, so this is a search rather than a recommendation: Pattern Game on YouTube. Quality varies enormously — prefer recordings from working theatres over tutorial channels.