🎬 The Director

Who plays who

• A — the Director: you call the actions out loud, in order. You are running this scene like a set, not having a conversation about it.
• B — the Actor: you do what you are told, and you say the lines you are given. Your job is not to improve them.
• A and B swap the Director seat at the midpoint of every act. Whoever is acting gets a turn calling the shots.

What you need

• The printed script below, or this page open on a phone between you
• A clear patch of floor or bed — you will be moving, and the space should not have hazards
• Something to mark beats with (a finger, a tap, a word)
• Water. Directing out loud is thirsty work.

Act 1 — 🕯️ Setup

Before anything is acted, walk the set. Both of you stand where you will stand, and say out loud what happens on each beat — in plain language, no script vocabulary. The point is that the first time you do this is not in the moment, when the pressure is on and nobody can think.

Beats

• A reads each beat of Act 1 aloud. B answers with "yes" / "soft" / "no". Nothing is performed yet.
• Both of you physically walk the three positions: A standing, B standing, B lying down. Ten seconds each.
• Agree three physical facts: where the phone goes, who can reach the light, and who can reach the water.

Exchange

• A: Beat one. You come up behind me. Beat two, your hands here, and you stay. Beat three, I sit down on your knee. Beat four, I stay there.
• B: Soft on beat four. I want to be holding you, not sitting.
• A: Then it's a hold, not a sit. Different beat. Re-number it.

Act 2 — 🔥 Build

Act the whole first act once, at roughly half the speed you would actually use. Directing is a skill and the first run is where you find out whether your instructions are followable. If a call does not work when spoken aloud, it will not work in the moment either.

Beats

• A calls each beat, numbered, with a pause between. "One. Two. Three."
• B performs. If a beat does not land, A re-words it — usually the fault is the instruction, not the Actor.
• Then swap seats. B directs the same act, A performs. The difference in the instructions is usually the interesting part.

Exchange

• A: One. Hands on my shoulders. Two — [pause] — turn me around. Three. Shirt off, slowly. Four. Stop. Five. Step back.
• B: I don't know what to do with my hands at five.
• A: Nothing. That's the beat. You just stand there and let me look at you.
• B: Okay. Say five again and I'll do nothing on purpose this time.

Act 3 — ⚡ Escalate

This is where the scene stops being yours. Hand the Director seat to the Actor, mid-scene, without warning — ideally at the exact moment the Actor least expects it. A scene where only one person directs is a scene only one person is present in.

Beats

• Mid-act, A stops calling beats and simply says "your turn" — and from that point B directs and A performs.
• B is given no script for what comes next. B calls whatever B wants, numbered the same way.
• If A finds themselves lost, that is the point. Hold it for ten seconds before either of you breaks.
• Swap back only when both of you have had a turn as Director, or when someone says "cut".

Exchange

• A: One. Two. Three. — your turn.
• B: …
• A: You can say anything. Or nothing. Both are fine.
• B: One. Stand up. Two. Take my hand. Three. Don't look at me while you do it.
• A: That's better than anything I had planned.

Act 4 — 💥 Climax

Runs vary. Pick the strongest thirty seconds from the last run and do that again, this time without the numbering. The first run is for structure. The second is for the part that worked.

Beats

• Agree which moment was best. Both of you have to name the same one, or you run both.
• Run it twice. First with numbers, then without.
• The second run should feel slightly uncomfortable. That is what "without the safety net" feels like, and it is the point.

Exchange

• A: Which part was it? For me it was when you went quiet.
• B: Same. That was the first time I wasn't thinking about what came next.
• A: So that's the one. Numbers this time, then none.

Act 5 — 🤍 Aftercare

The most common accident in scripted play is not a boundary problem. It is one person staying in character for twenty minutes after the scene ended, while the other is trying to have a normal conversation. Step out of the role deliberately, out loud, and confirm the other one did too.

Beats

• Each says "I'm out of the scene" and names who they actually are. It sounds silly. Do it anyway.
• Each names whether they want physical contact now, and of what kind. Different people need different things here.
• Name one beat from tonight you both want to keep, and one you would rather leave behind.

Exchange

• A: I'm out of the scene. That was fun and I'm me again. Do you want me to hold you?
• B: Space first. Then talk. Then maybe hold.
• A: Okay. I'll wait. I like that you said it instead of just going quiet.

Aftercare

Step fully out of role, out loud, both of you — "I'm out, I'm me" — and name what you want now. Then normal contact that belongs to your actual relationship, not the scene. Write down the one beat worth repeating; scenes you do not write down are scenes you do not remember having.

Ground rules and consent

• The Director's instructions are the same as any other request: the Actor can decline any single call without breaking the scene.
• Declining is done quietly, by saying "soft" or "skip" — the scene keeps running, the beat gets dropped.
• Nothing in the script is binding. A beat can be skipped for any reason or no reason.
• You can stop directing at any moment and the scene ends. No explanation needed.
• If either person gets genuinely uncomfortable rather than merely not-into-it, use "cut" — the difference matters and you do not have to explain which one it is.

Read Dirty talk that lands first if one of you wants more context.

Frequently asked