Sleep Over
Also known as: The Sleep Over, Choose Your Own Adventure
A mono-character form: each actor plays one character from start to finish of the show.
Full description
Flow
Sleep Over mixes elements of the Monoscene, the Deconstruction and La Ronde. The Monoscene is one scene in one place and one stretch of time. The Deconstruction takes one long two-person scene and spends the rest of the show pulling it apart. La Ronde is a structure built on characters.
1. Mantras
First, you get a suggestion of words of advice. It inspires some sort of inner truth or want. Each actor chooses their own phrase and repeats it, mantra-like. This goes on until everyone is onstage and each is repeating their own.
2. Retreat to the back wall
One by one, actors retreat to the back wall until only two are left. Those two repeat their mantra one last time and begin the scene.
3. Editing through statues
The whole back line edits the scene — the actors at the back wall step forward together, hold a pose and repeat their original mantras. One of the two characters then selects one of these statues, and that statue initiates the scene. This is very important: it means the statue cannot pre-plan an initiation.
4. Every scene after that
This scene and all subsequent scenes are edited in the same way. The person selecting the statue can be anyone who has already been activated for a scene.
5. Mixing
Once everyone has been introduced, characters mix and match with each other.
Context
Resources
What to try next
Similar formats, so you can keep the rehearsal moving without stopping to search.
La Ronde
A character-based improv structure. Played both as an exercise and as a longform.
Monoscene
A long form made of one scene: one location, one span of time, no external edits.
Deconstruction
A long form where one long two-person scene becomes the foundation, and the rest of the show takes it apart.
Harold
Long form: a single audience suggestion unfolds into a collage of scenes that interweave and connect by the end.
Montage Ending
A handle for ending a long form. The players bring back bits and pieces of previously played scenes and end them all at once.
Convergence
Long form. Several long scenes with a small cast have nothing in common at first, but by the finale they weave together and reveal the connection between them.