Deconstruction
An opening scene is established and then systematically taken apart: backstories are explored, time shifts forward and backward, secondary characters get their own scenes, and themes are examined from new angles.
About
Deconstruction is a long-form format that treats the opening scene as a single piece of a much larger puzzle. Each subsequent scene examines a different facet of the world established at the start - a character's past, a relationship's origins, an event's consequences, a theme's opposite. The form demands structural thinking and an ensemble that knows when to go deep rather than wide.
How to Play
- 1
Two players open with a scene from an audience suggestion. The scene should be emotionally specific and establish clear characters, relationships and a world.
- 2
The ensemble identifies what is interesting: a relationship, a theme, an unresolved tension, a moment that held energy.
- 3
Subsequent scenes explore that material from different angles: a character's backstory, a parallel relationship, a future consequence, the same event from another perspective.
- 4
Scenes can move through time freely - ten years earlier, the following morning, a generation later.
- 5
The form ends when the original scene's themes feel fully illuminated, sometimes with a return to the opening characters.
Variations
- -Musical deconstruction: each new scene is introduced with a live musician playing a motif that connects back to the opening.