The Harold

 Overview

The Harold is a form for creating, developing, and connecting themes. There are lovely infographics here and here, and plenty of excellent resources exist that will explain the big picture better than me. So instead of explaining at a high level, I’m going to focus on some of the specific techniques I’ve found helpful when executing each of the beats.

What’s interesting to me is not so much the form in itself, but the techniques required to pull off a good Harold. Each beat of the Harold requires a different style of scene work than the others. Different styles are served by different techniques, and these techniques transfer over to any other longform you might do. When teaching, I prefer to emphasize the techniques and de-emphasize the rigidity of the form. If a team gets good at the techniques, they should be able to perform a good Harold with little effort.

It’s common for people to feel constrained by the form. The Harold, after all, is quite rigid in structure. However, there’s a “why” behind the structure. The Harold imposes constraints on your set, but constraints can help you be more creative. You can either feel trapped by the rigidity of the structure, or you can feel free to explore within it. I write more about forms and their constraints here. Basically, each form makes it easy to do some things and hard to do other things. If you want to create, develop, explore, and connect themes, then the structure of the Harold is going to help you. If you want to focus on a small world of characters, then the structure of the Harold will get in your way, and you might prefer a La Ronde or Monoscene. When teaching the Harold, I like to emphasize the way in which the structure empowers players to explore themes in a way that would be difficult in a montage.

 Components of a Harold

Aside from asking for a suggestion, everything you do during a Harold is going to be one of these five things:

Notice that each component has a goal. When you’re doing a first beat scene, you have an agenda. That agenda is different when you’re doing a second beat scene. The beats serve purposes, and it’s often helpful to modify your scene work to better serve that purpose.

Each component has techniques that make it easier to pull off.

 First Beats

First Beats are complementary – when you’re on the backline, you should be watching the other first beat scenes and thinking “what haven’t we seen yet? what’s something new I can bring to the next scene?”

Your agenda in the scene is to create a compelling game (relational dynamic between two people) or theme (an idea made tangible through a person).

First, you can follow the Annoyance style described in Mick Napier’s book Improvise. Do something, anything, then ask yourself what you just did and why.

Then there are some specific techniques you can use to take a little idea and turn it into a big idea:

1. Viewpoints help us make meaning out of physicality.
   1. You start with any Stage Picture, which is the physicality of the actors on stage. For instance, you and your scene partner are far apart, and you’re on the ground while they’re standing.
   2. You interpret it through the Viewpoints linked above. Spatial Relationship – you’re far apart. What does that mean? You aren’t comfortable with each other, or there’s something keeping you apart. Shape – you’re sitting and they’re standing. What does that mean? You’re low status and they’re high status, perhaps.
   3. Now, just from a stage picture, with zero lines of dialogue, you can intuit a relationship dynamic.
2. Non-Sequiturs introduce new ideas into stuck scenes.
   1. You’re in a teaching scene or a transaction scene and you’re stuck and it’s not going anywhere.
   2. Unleash a total non-sequitur. Lots of tips in the linked post.
   3. You now have a bold new idea, and the question becomes, how do you integrate it into your scene?
3. Metaphors help us derive points of view from objects, object work, or the environment.
   1. You’re talking about an object, or about object work you’re doing, or about the environment. It’s great that you have these things, but the scene can’t be about them.
   2. Lot of tips in the linked post, but briefly, interpret them metaphorically to arrive at a point of view. For example, maybe snowboarding really means “I’m largely not in control of my life and just trying to stay as upright as possible.”
   3. Now you have a point of view that you can use to other character choices. For example, how’s your marriage going, if you treat that relationship like snowboarding?
4. Therapy helps us figure out our point of view from over-analyzing a small behavior.
   1. You have a behavior. Could be big or small. Let’s say you shook someone’s hand for just a little too long.
   2. Now you play therapist with yourself. What did you do? I shook someone’s hand for a little too long. Why? Because it felt good. Why? Because I have someone’s attention while I’m shaking their hand. Why is that important to you? Because I need people’s attention to feel validated.
   3. Now you have a point of view – I’m only valid when I have someone’s attention – that can inform character choices.
5. 5 Things takes a general idea and generates some specific details.
   1. You have a general idea. This birthday parting is boring. Okay, but how?
   2. Play 5 Things in your head. What are 5 ways this birthday party is boring? There’s no food, there’s no music, there’s enforced quiet time – oh, I like that!
   3. Now you have a specific detail – this birthday party is boring because there is enforced quiet time. Your scene partner responds, of course, it’s a birthday party for monks – and now you’ve got a scene.
6. Oscar Winning Moment takes a cold scene and infuses it with emotion.
   1. You have two people, but they don’t feel quite human. How do they feel about each other? How are they impacted by each other’s actions?
   2. Pretend it’s the short form game Oscar Winning Moment. Deliver a bold monologue (to your scene partner) about your feelings. Win an Oscar.
   3. Now you have rich emotions you can explore.

Note that with some of these you can also go in reverse, although the table might be a little contrived:

For instance, if you are losing power in a scene, you can go through the Viewpoints in your head and figure out how to reflect that change in status physically, perhaps by shrinking to the back of the stage. Or if you have a point of view, such as “I like imposing order on a chaotic world”, then you might use Metaphor and decide that you carry around a jar of unshaken oil and vinegar, which represents the defeat of entropy in your eyes. You could also reverse-therapize yourself and ask “what behaviors would someone who likes imposing order do” and decide you will comb your scene partner’s hair.