Mr. White by Livia Malossi Bottignole is a game piece, a genre of experimental music that can be considered as controlled improvisation. Mr. White is inspired by the game ‘Undercover’, a social deduction game that models a conflict between two groups: a minority (the Undercover), and a majority (the Civilians). At the start of the game, each musician is secretly assigned a role affiliated with one of these teams and a secret musical material, which is the only clue for them to discover their identities and oust their enemies. The game has two alternating phases: first, a day role, during which they must carefully give away information about their fragment to try to find out who is on their team and who isn’t, and second, a night role, in which players debate the identities of players and vote to eliminate a suspect. Through multiple rounds of elimination, they will discover their own identities and oust their enemies. Rounds are shown also to the audience via projections and images, who are the only ones aware of all the identities of the players.

This piece can be played by any number of musicians and instrument types, and the length of the piece is not pre-determined and can be set by the ensemble. While working on the piece, the creative team realised that there was a demand from musicians to explore and build new skills in game pieces and controlled improvisation works. Therefore the project team has developed a workshop series to explore effective improvisation and  'playfulness' as a directive for performers, and hopes to explore social dynamics and communication through music and non-verbal means.