Only Names
A scene built from a single vocabulary — names. The exercise develops mutual understanding without text and vocal expressiveness through intonation and emotional delivery.
Full description
Setup and Launch
Position participants in pairs on the playing area. Explain the rule: all lines in the scene are names. It's allowed to say your own name, your partner's name, or names of people who are not in the scene. Emphasize that delivery is what matters — tone, timbre, intonational changes, and overall emotional charge — and ask them not to compensate for meaning with gestures: that too is a form of language.
How It Works
Launch the scene while adhering to the single linguistic resource — names.
- Start: participants enter into interaction, saying only names — their own and/or the partner's.
- Development: convey intention and relationship through variations in tone, timbre, intonation, and emotional intensity.
- Expansion: if necessary, use other names (of people absent from the scene), staying within the "only names" rule.
- Form discipline: avoid gestures and any non-verbal "hint" of meaning.
Key rules
Speak only names: your own, your partner's, or absent people's — no other words.
Don't substitute meaning with gestures: pantomime and facial expressions are considered a rule violation here.
Create meaning through speech delivery: tone, timbre, intonational nuances, and emotional intensity.
Context
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