- Have a hat or bowl with slips of paper. On each slip is printed a character description.
- The performance area is set up with a few chairs in a straight line, as if they are a bench at a bus stop.
- Have an ‘offstage’ area where 4 or 5 actors can prepare by picking a slip of paper from the hat and getting into character.
- One at a time the participants enter the space and wait for their bus. They can interact silently, offering their seat or nodding ‘hello’.
- As characters enter from the offstage area, replenish them with people form the audience area.
- Once three people are on the stage, the one that has been there the longest leaves on their bus or exits for some other reason.
- As people exit, new characters enter so there is a constant population of 3-4 characters on the stage at any time with another small group always in the offstage area waiting to make their entrance.
- Continue this until all the participants have gone once.
VARIATIONS: Depending on the age of the group, you can create simple or complex characters. For example, simple characters can be a five year old child, a businessperson, a grandparent. A more complex character might be a young professional artist who is nervous about going to a job interview and showing her portfolio.