🎬 The Audition

Who plays who

• A — the audience: you watch, you do not participate, and you give one note at the end. One.
• B — the performer: you do the thing you find genuinely difficult, in full, without stopping for feedback.
• Swap at the midpoint. Watching is harder than doing, and the person who rarely is watched is the one who needs it most.

What you need

• A visible timer, thirty minutes per half — this scene is about the doing, not the time
• The safeword and the parking word, agreed before either person starts
• Something for the audience person to do with their hands. Hands are the problem. Give them a job.
• One note, written down, not spoken until the end

Act 1 — 🕯️ Setup

Audience roles fail in silence, because watching with nothing to do becomes evaluating. Give the audience person a job: hold something, write, time, keep hands busy. The scene is not about being watched; it is about doing something hard while someone is present.

Beats

• Agree what the audience person physically does the whole time. Writing with a timer is the reliable option.
• Agree the one note is about craft, and say the word "craft" out loud so the promise is on the record.
• Agree the two words, and say explicitly that the performance is not evidence about the person.

Lines to say

• "You will write down the time and one word per minute. Nothing else. Do not look at your phone."
• "The note is about craft. If I say something about you rather than about the scene, call me on it."
• "This is not evidence about anything except this. Say that back."

Act 2 — 🔥 Build

The performer's half. Pick the thing you find genuinely difficult — not the thing you are good at, the thing you avoid — and do it all the way through, once, without stopping for feedback.

Beats

• The performer names, in one sentence, the act they are going to do. No negotiation, no softening it.
• They do it, in full, for the agreed time. The audience person does their job and does not speak.
• At thirty minutes, the audience person reads the note. One note. Then the roles swap without discussion.

Lines to say

• "Mine is: the one where I have to be loud. I am going to be loud for four minutes."
• "…[writes, says nothing for four minutes]"
• "My note: you were loud for the first ninety seconds and then you got quieter. Craft only."

Act 3 — ⚡ Escalate

The midpoint. The audience person says, out loud and once, the thing they were writing down — not the note, the reaction. This is the act the whole scene is built toward, and it is much harder to hear than to write.

Beats

• The new audience person says, in one sentence, what actually happened to them while watching.
• The other person receives it without explaining, defending, or improving it.
• Nothing else. One sentence, heard, then the second half begins.

Lines to say

• "Watching that made me feel something I was not expecting, and I do not want to explain it."
• "Thank you for saying it. I do not need to respond to it."
• "One sentence is enough. I heard it."

Act 4 — 💥 Climax

The second half has an audience now: someone who has watched once and said one honest thing. Do the difficult act again, and this time it is not a first attempt — it is a revision.

Beats

• The new performer does their act again, knowing the first one has been seen and one note given.
• The new audience person does the same job — writing, no speech, thirty minutes.
• At the end, each gives the other one note on the revision specifically, not on the original.

Lines to say

• "Again. Same act. I know you have seen it once now, so this one is the edit."
• "…[thirty minutes of writing, no speech]"
• "Note on the revision: the ending is different and it is better. Keep it."

Act 5 — 🤍 Aftercare

This scene is about being seen, and the hardest moment is the minute after, when someone has seen you do something difficult. Say the plain thing, out loud, once, and then close the evening normally.

Beats

• Each says one plain thing about the other that is true and was not obvious from outside the relationship.
• Each confirms they are out of the audience role, and the other is out of the performer role.
• Normal evening from here. No debrief, no analysis, no checking whether it was good.

Lines to say

• "I did not know you needed it that much until I watched you need it."
• "I did not know I was doing it for an audience until there was one. Thank you for the note."
• "I am out of the audience. Are you out of the stage?"

Aftercare

Each says one plain, true thing the other could not have known from outside the relationship, and then the evening stops being about the scene. If either person is still performing — still being watched in their own head — name it and stop; that sensation is common after this one and it passes. Do not debrief what worked. The scene already said it, and explaining it out loud makes it smaller.

Ground rules and consent

• The audience person may stop the performance at any time without being asked why, and does not owe a reason.
• The performer may stop at any time, and stopping does not end the person's turn — they come back when ready.
• The one note at the end must be about craft, not about whether the other person is attractive enough, wanted enough, or trying hard enough.
• A refusal to watch a particular act is a complete answer and the scene moves on without discussion.
• Neither person's performance is evidence about anything except the performance. That has to be said out loud, twice.

There is a fuller guide in Roleplay for beginners, if you want it.

Frequently asked