Thank You For Playing: How Group Creative Experiences Boost Mental Health

There is an improv game called Search Party, in which each player is impacted by a request from another player, e.g. Player 1 initiates by making a specific request to another player, and in that initiation identifying who the characters are to one another.
Player 1: “Dad, I don’t have a nice suit to wear to prom. I’m hoping you can help me get one somehow.”
Player 2: Yes, of course! First I have to make a call.
Player 3 joins “Dad,” who has to assign a role to this new character and ask them for something he needs in order to help out Player 1’s character.
Player 2: Mary, I need to come over and go through those boxes I stored in your basement. I hope I can do it today.
Player 3: Yes, sure, I just have to make a call first and I’ll get right back to you. Mary to Player 4: I was really looking forward to today but I have to cancel. My brother is coming over to go through some boxes and he doesn’t know we are seeing each other.

And this goes on until everyone in the group has taken on a role in this interconnected network of needs and relationships. New roles and connections can be made until it circles back to the original “ask” which might be rewarded in some unusual way that could never…