Agreement and listening

Three-Line Scenes

Scenes exactly three lines long, run in rapid succession, to isolate the moment a scene becomes about something.

Agreement and listening · 2 at a time players · 15–20 minutes

Also known as: Three Line Drill

How to run it

1. Two players step out. Line one initiates with a statement carrying information.
2. Line two responds — this line must establish or reveal the relationship.
3. Line three confirms the relationship or raises the stakes.
4. The scene ends there regardless of how promising it was. Two new players step out.
5. Run at least twenty in a session.

What it teaches

That the second line decides the scene. Nothing demonstrates it faster than doing it twenty times consecutively.

Coaching notes

After every fifth scene, ask the group what the relationship was. If they cannot say, line two did not do its job. Ending scenes that were going well is part of the point.

Related reading: listening and the second line.

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: Three-Line Scenes on YouTube. Quality varies enormously — prefer recordings from working theatres over tutorial channels.