Week 2: The Relationship Between "3 Things" and Creativity

Scene: The YSP crowd is jumping up and down. All is excitement. All is encouragement.

Jaymes: Laura!

Laura: Yeah!

Jaymes: 3 things you would wear to a fancy ball!

Laura: A squid!

ALL: [clapping once] One!

Laura: A poncho!

ALL: [clapping once] Two!

Laura: A tangerine!

ALL: [clapping once] Three!

…

The activity dramatized above is called “3 Things” (although, depending on how much time and how many people you have, you could do as many things as you please). One person picks another person in the group and asks them to list three things that pertain to some silly category that the first person makes up. The person that was chosen then has to list the first three things that pops into his or her head. After each thing, the whole group claps and counts. After the current lister lists three things, he or she picks a new person and a new category. Throughout the duration of the activity Laura and I prompt our actors to move around and “get excited” to encourage their cast mates’ contributions.

We play this game for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, it is fun. Because the first three things that occur to someone in such a fast-paced game are rarely relevant or sensible, this game usually provides a lot of laughter. This laughter makes the game fun and makes our actors able to genuinely get excited for the cast mates’ contributions. Because they are able to get excited, this game can provide a high-energy change of pace on days when we need to work with text for large chunks of time.

I love this game because it is more pedagogically sneaky than its super-fun exterior might suggest. I love this game because it allows our young actors to hone their creative instincts without even knowing they are doing so. I love this game because it reinforces all of our lofty ideas about creativity, and collaboration, and trial and error without us even having to mention them.

The process and outcome of 3 Things mirrors the creative process itself. Very often in the creative process, one comes up with a whole bunch of semi-coherent ideas that, with enough diligence and luck, work themselves into a major breakthrough. However, It is very difficult to maintain the clarity of mind and the strength of confidence that one needs when one’s semi-coherent ideas are being skewered by scrutiny, both internal and external. One needs support and thought to turn the initial ideas into the big breakthrough.

When we play 3 things we teach our young actors how to support the creative process. The person listing three things learns to follow their creative instinct, throw those half-formed ideas out into the open. They learn that they need not fear scrutiny and judgment for doing so. The counters learn to support and encourage even the silliest of answers. In the end, we show each other that even though the things we come up with in this game are silly and incongruous, they still have valuable creative significance.

Knowing that even their silliest and most spontaneous creative contributions will be accepted and encouraged conditions our young actors to actively participate in our rehearsal process. They become less afraid of offering even the most far-fetched interpretations of characters and scenes. In the Youth Shakespeare Project, we tell our young actors that they never have to get anything right the first time (or the tenth time, for that matter). By integrating activities like 3 things into our repertoire, we work towards normalizing error. That is what ensemble is made of.