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Status (High / Low)

Keith Johnstone, 1960s-present

Johnstone's technique in which every performer plays a relative status to their partner — not socioeconomic rank, but a pecking-order posture that shapes behavior.

Known for

Johnstone's discovery: ordinary conversations on stage became interesting the moment actors played slight status differentials.
High-status signals: less movement, steady gaze, slow speech, spatial command. Low-status: fidgeting, self-interrupting, yielding space.
Status is fluid within a scene — transactions are where drama lives.
Unique to Johnstone's school; rare in UCB/iO curricula, heavily taught at Loose Moose and in European schools.