Midnight Society

Midnight Society is an opening or short form game developed by Kate Zelensky based on the Nickelodeon show Are you afraid of the dark?

Contents

• 1 Purpose
• 2 Instructions
• 3 How It Works
• 4 Example

Purpose

Midnight Society is a game where we tell spooky, weird, or silly stories as if we’re sitting around a campfire. The goal is to tell three different stories based on a suggestion and act out little scenes from each one.

It’s great for practicing stage picture, verbal edits, strong initiations, and building on details. It can be used as a warm-up, an exercise, or an opening for a show.

Instructions

• Get a suggestion of anything at all.

• Make a Crescent of Doom: Players initiate a campfire scene

• A player starts by telling us that they have a scary story to share and gives us the basic premise of the story in a line or two.

• Other players add on to the story. Everyone behaves as if this is the scariest story EVER.

• Once we have the basic gist of it, a player steps out to make the story scenic. We see a three to four line scene, moving the action along.

• Players physically move back to indicate a return to the Crescent of Doom. Another player tells us about another scary story - based off the original suggestion.

• We tell three stories.

• Remember after the little scenes to comment on the new details discovered.

• At the end of the third detail discussion, we all say together: "submitted for the approval of the midnight society, we give you.... (SUGGESTION)!"

How It Works

First, get a suggestion of anything at all: a word, a phrase, whatever comes to mind.

Once you have that, everyone forms the Crescent of Doom, standing in a semi-circle like they’re around a campfire. Use object work to sell the setting. Pretend to warm your hands, poke at the fire, or hold a mug of something hot, etc.

You can establish some fun, tropey campfire characters. For example, someone might act brave, another might be a scaredy cat, and someone else could be the know-it-all who swears the stories aren’t real.

Someone starts the first story by naming the story in the form: “The tale of…” followed by an A to C of the suggestion. Then they give a quick setup for the tale, a line or two. Everyone else adds to the story as if they all know it to establish who, what, and where, one at a time, as if they’re sitting around the fire. Everyone treats it like the scariest thing you’ve ever heard, even if the story is silly or weird. Call out what’s strange about it, but act like it’s terrifying.

When the story has enough to work with, a player edits by stepping forward to start a mini-scene. As soon as they move, at least one other player steps forward with them right away, don’t wait! It can be more than 2 people. Players not in the scene move to the backline. The 3-5 line scene shouldn’t restate the story we just heard. It should move things forward, showing what happens next, adding new details, heighten, or exploring something implied in the story.

To end the scene, everyone transitions back to the Crescent of Doom. Either the players on the backline re-initate the campfire and move back into the circle, or the players in the scene return to the Crescent and continue the storytelling from there.

Repeat this process for three different stories. After the last scene, the whole group dramatically says, “Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, we give you… (suggestion)!”

Example

Let’s say the suggestion is “a broken clock.” Everyone forms the Crescent of Doom, pretending to be around the fire.

Player 1 holds their hands out as if at a fire "Hand me some marshmallows"

Player 2 "Wait did you hear that. I think there's something out there"

Players 3 "It's just an owl, ghosts aren't real"

Player 1 “Let's get to business... I have a story... it's The tale of… the ticking clock!”

Everyone else "Oh no!" "Whoa" "That one's the scariest!!"

Player 1 continuing “There’s a clock in the old library downtown. It stopped ticking fifty years ago, right when old Mr. Jenkins vanished.”

Player 2: “Mr Jenkins vanished but here's not the only one. Some people say that if you walk past the library at midnight, you can hear the clock ticking again… but only for a second.”

Player 3: “And if you hear it, something bad happens to you. Like… really bad.”

At this point, Player 4 edits by stepping forward to start the mini-scene. Player 5 immediately joins to stand with them. Everyone else quickly forms a backline or sidelines off stage.

Player 4 “It’s midnight. Why did you make me talk the shortcut past the library?”

Player 5 : “Shhh! Did you hear that? I think it’s the clock!”

Player 2 makes a ticking sound from the backline

Player 4 "It's the ghost of old man Jenkins!!"

Player 2 walks into the scene "And that’s why no one goes to the library anymore!" signalling for everyone to move back into the Crescent.

Everyone acts scared.

Player 3 starts “You think that's scary? what about about The tale of… the librarian’s watch! It’s even scarier than the clock…”

And the game continues with a new story. After three stories, one player initiates the line “Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, we give you…" and everyone says "broken clock!”