Improv Games
Games from Human Ping Pong Ball and the Improv Encyclopedia
Actor Switch - A scene is started, played by 2 to 4 players. Mid-scene the MC interrupts, and all characters are replaced by new players. The new players should take over the original characters, and stick to the story that was being developed.
Alien, Tiger, Cow - Fun game to warm up and to teach players some Chivalry .
Everyone in a circle. There are 3 things a player can be:
Backwards Interview - To play this improv game, ask for a topic for a TV interview. Then 2 players do the interview backwards. That means that the first sentence uttered is the last one in the interview, perhaps something like: Thanks for that enlightening explanation. (to the guest) To all of you viewers at home, thank you for watching, and see you next week. And then players work their way backwards. Various gimmicks can be played. For example, in your responses, you can pimp players. Examples would be: "Thank you for that very energetic answer to the question", pimping the other player to do something very energetic.
Beasty Rap - Everyone in e circle and get a beat running; use a beatbox, cd or mp3. First player starts rapping a line, any line, on the beat. Without skipping too many beats, next player adds a line that rhymes and so on until a player fails to come up with a line, misses the beat or fails to rhyme, after which everybody goes 'Dang', and the next player starts a next round. When the players not rapping feel the rhyme word of the active player coming, they all join in and yell the word together at the end of every line.
Blind Freeze - This one is just like Freeze Tag , but here the MC calls Freeze, and calls in another player. If you`re not using an MC, any player might call Freeze and call in any other player.
Many groups find this game more exciting than Freeze Tag , as players don`t know when they get pushed in the game, and hence are less prepared, and crazier, more exciting stuff tends to happen.
Borris - 2 players play an improvized interrogation scene. One is the interrogator, the other is a suspect. The interrogator randomly throws unconnected elements to the suspect, who needs to incorporate these and get himself into (even more) trouble. And then we have Boris, who is a nasty, huge, but invisible thug assisting the interrogator. Every time the interrogator does not like the suspect`s answers (and also when the suspect does not incriminate himself enough), the interrogator calls on Boris to torture the suspect, prodding him to confess or incriminate him even further.
Notes
Dating Game - This is played like a Blind Date show. One player leaves the stage, and the audience provides endowments for the 3 others. Examples might be No. 1 is stupid, No. 2 is a serial killer and No. 3 thinks he`s a macho.
4th player gets to ask 3 questions, and each of the others answers it. After the questions player 4 should guess what the endowments were.
Death in a Minute - 2 or 3 players play a 1 minute scene, in which one player must die.
Director's Cut - A normal improvized scene is played. At any moment a player not in the scene (or a player dedicated to this particular role) stops the scene ( see Cut ) and has the actors replay the scene with different emotions, characters, roles. Like a director instructing actors on how to play.
Disaster Movie - This is a Long Form format that can be played with a large number of players.
Audience suggests a type of disaster (flood, earthquake, alien invasion, you name it) and a location where the play will unfold, preferably a location where lots of characters can be found. Examples are a tropical tourist paradise, a big building. The story starts right before the disaster, usually some character foreseeing the disaster, discovering a bad omen or some foretelling sign. Next we see lots of characters in the given location. These should be the archetypical characters one finds in typical disaster movies. Examples are:
Do Ron Ron - 4 players sing a improvised song about a subject, given by the audience, on the tune of Do Ron Ron.
Double Blind Freeze - This is an extension of the Blind Freeze improv game: 2 players in scene, the others line up with their backs to the scene. Whenever the audience yells Freeze! the 2 players at the end of the line replace the 2 players on scene, and start a new scene, from the positions the original players were in.
Dubbed Movie - 2 or more actors play a scene, but they don`t speak, although they can move their mouths as if they are speaking. 2 or more players sit in front of the action, and provide the speech. The effect is (or should be) like watching a dubbed movie.
Ducks and Cows - Great silly physical warm-up. Everyone closes eyes and trainer divides the group in 2 subgroups. Tap on right shoulder makes you a duck, and tap on left shoulder makes you a cow. Then eyes are opened and on the "Go" sign both groups try to find each other, by quacking & mooing.
Duck Duck Goose - Invent a name for a non-existing but simple children`s game. As soon as you call out the name, all players start to play the game. They can use sounds and gibberish, but no real language.
See if the group can come to playing along the same rules. Variations: Just have the group start playing the game, and afterwards have the group come up with the name.
Emotional Family - Usually played with 4 players, but can be done with more or less players.
As a suggestion ask for a family activity, then start a normal scene. As soon as all characters and their relationships have been established, freeze the scene, pick a player, and ask for an emotion for that player. The scene then continues, and the player is overcome with that emotion. Repeat till all players got an emotion. The scene has to keep evolving after each emotion assignment, and of course players shall try Justifying the emotions.
Emotional Quadrants - Divide the scene in 4 quadrants, and allocate 4 different emotions to each quadrant. Players improvise a scene, but need to take on the emotion of the quadrant they are in. Notes: Encourage players to move about, in order to force changes of emotions. Don`t forget to justify emotion changes.
Evil Stick of Gun - This is a variation on Little Voice . In this game one character has a piece of gum in her mouth, and this piece of gum is capable of talking. The point is that other characters in the scene do not know about this piece of gum, and hence mistake the gum`s words for the characters. Since our piece of gum is evil, it tries to get it`s owner in trouble.
Firing Squad - All players, except one, the victim, form a long line. The first player in the line throws any word to the victim, who responds as fast as he/she can with the first word that comes to mind. The next player in the line then throws another word, usually unrelated to the previous word, and again the victim needs to respond as fast as possible. Repeat till everyone has thrown a word. Variations: This can be done as a continuation game: when done, the victim takes last place in the line, and the first player becomes the victim. You can even have multiple victims walking the line at the same time. Make sure there is enough `space` between the victims, otherwise, with the first hesitation, victims will start bumping into one another.
First Lin, Last Line - Get a line (any line) from the audience. Players play a scene that concludes with the given line.
Variations: Ask for a first line as well. Also known as First Line Last Line.
Fortune Teller - One player covers his ears while the others get `predictions` from the audience; one prediction per other player. First player then plays a fortune teller who must be endowed by the others to predict the given predictions.Variations: Off-stage players can "posses" (like as ghosts) the fortune teller and give him or her tips.
Freeze - 2 actors start an improvized scene. At any point in time another player can call Freeze. This player then tags out one of the 2 actors, and takes his place. Both players then start a new scene, justifying their positions.
Front Desk - We improvise a scene, set in the lobby of a hotel. One or more players play the receptionist(s) and the others play guests arriving or checking out, bell boys, repairmen, you name it.
Players construct the environment together - as soon as a door, a plant, a desk or whatever is `placed` by any player, all other players should respect it.
Funeral Service - This improv game handle can be used both as a Long Form format and as an exercise.
The stage is set up as a funeral, or a viewing the night before the funeral. One player is the deceased, bang in the middle and very visible in or on e.g. a table or a couple of chairs representing the casket. Audience suggests an odd or peculiar way to die, and then the death is played. Perhaps characters present during the funeral service were there at the time of death. After death, the dead gets back into her coffin and we return to the service. Then, taking turns, guests at the funeral service step up and present, in a monologue, their experience with the deceased. After each monologue what was described is played, like a flash-back.
Fuzzy Ducky - Silly concentration game and great warm-up. All players in a circle. We will count numbers clockwise, except that:
Group Mirror - Players per 2, facing each other. They can move (arms, legs, eyebrows) slowly, and the other player will mirror them. This is a game of give and take - no-one should be (continuously) leading. Keep movements slow. Variations: Do this with the whole group: everyone in a big circle, and everybody mirrors everybody else.
Guest Game - In this improv game we play a scene in which one player is a guest, somewhere. We do not know who he is, or why he is visiting, or what his relation might be with the characters at the location. All other characters in the scene behave strangely or suspiciously, as if they have a secret. The idea is that by the end of the scene we understand their secret. For example, a player might ring a doorbell at a house, ready to pick up his date. We never get to see the date, and all characters in the scene slowly provide hints as to what might have happened to the date. The game is over when e.g. we (the audience) discover that all occupants of the house have been hauling garbage bags out of the hous, all containing body parts of the date... It need not always be gruesome, though...
Ha Soh Kah - This is a fun warm-up game, and a good one to teach players to deal with failure.
We are going to say Ha-Soh-Kah; all players in a circle. The player that starts with Ha holds her hand, horizontally, near her forehead. The next player is the one her fingers are pointing to (left or right; first player can choose which hand to use and which direction to point to). Next player says Soh, hand horizontally, near the chin, pointing again, either to the left or to the right. The player the Soh points to does Kah, and points with both hands to the next player, who does a Ha again, and so forth. When someone makes a mistake, the whole group says rhythmically: "You are out of this game". Whoever is out steps out of the circle and tries to make the remaining players make a mistake.
Hall of Justice - Fun game for 5+ players, involving superheroes and villains. Get 4 suggestions from he audience, e.g. hammer, coffee, influenza and briefcase. This will give us 2 superheroes: Hammerman and his sidekick coffeewoman. We will also have 2 villains: influenzaman and his aide briefcasegirl. The other players play the villain`s victims. Villains and heroes should try and use as many attributes of their suggestion as they justifiably can.
Harold - Harold is a long format, and consists of a number of sub-formats. It basically consists of 3 components:
He Said She Said - Excellent game to show how Endowment works. 2 players; each player will state the action the other player must perform, followed by his own line.
Example:
Hitch Hiker - Use 4 chairs to build the interior of a car. One player starts driving the car, and another player becomes a hitch hiker, hiking a ride. The hitch hiker character has a particular character tick or particular emotion, which the driver takes over. Other hitch hikers join in, each with their own characteristics or emotions, taken over by the driver and the passengers in the car as the hiker joins. When the car is full, one of the players leaves the car to make room for the new guest. Notes: Don`t forget to justify leaving the car.
Jeepers Peepers - Everybody in a circle, watch the ground. On your sign, everybody lifts their head and either looks straight, left or right. Whenever 2 people look each other in the eyes, they scream as loud as they can, as if they`re startled, and then drop dead. Repeat till only one or 2 players are alive. Also known as Jeepers Peepers.
LCD - This improv game is called Location, Career, Death (LCD). One player on stage, the others off stage. The audience provides a location, an occupation and an object, only known to the player on stage. Second player enters and a scene is played in gibberish. Player one needs to communicate the location to player 2; as soon as player 2 thinks he`s got it, her claps his hands and spins around. Then player 2 needs to guess the occupation; clap and spin when you think you got it. Finally, the object needs to be revealed. As soon as player 2 has the object, he needs to kill player 1 with it. Then the next player comes on stage and the game recommences, until all players have played. Afterwards, line up the players and ask them where they think they were, what their occupation was and what the murder weapon was - usually quite far off the original suggestion, much to the audience`s amusement. Also known as LOW. (Location, Occupation, Weapon). Also known as Chain Murder. See also Hijacker for a similar game without the Gibberish component. Variations: Use a bell, every 10 seconds or so; at the bell players need to clap and spin and proceed to the next step, even if they are not sure about the where, who and what. Kind of LCD on speed.
Little Voice - One player plays an improvized scene. The other player(s) play the voice(s) of objects in the environment in which the first player plays. Anything can have a voice. Examples:
Lost Friend - All players start milling about the room. You then ask them to greet each other, perhaps just by shaking hands. Players just shake hands, move on, and greet the next player they meet. Then ask the players to greet each other in a more specific way. Possibilities are:
Scene Replay - Ask 2 players to play a short scene. One could limit the scene to 8 lines of dialog per player. Then ask the players to replay the scene, based on some audience suggestions for:
This variation is Also known as Countdown. Also known as Half Life. Also known as Emotional Replay. Other variations: Have the scene replayed by 2 other players or Insist that the dialog remains exactly the same.
Games
3 Series
Game Everyone in a circle. Pick a category (e.g. make of cars, girls names, kinds of food, kinds of plants,
Concentration Exercise
Look and Listen
whatever). First person states an example of the category, and points to someone else. Keep pointing. That someone else does the same, with a different item in the category, and so forth, until everyone points at one person.
Then repeat the pattern. Make eye contact when passing your item to the next person. Drop the pointing arms when everyone is comfortable and the series is collectively memorized.
Then do the same with a second category, and make sure the pointing pattern is different. Repeat till everyone is comfortable.
Then do the same exercise, without pointing, and running the 2 categories at the same time. Add a third, fourth category if you wish. No pointing arms any more!
The idea is not only to listen for the item right before yours in the series (so you know when it’s your turn), but also to make sure that when you pass an item to someone else, that someone else actually hears you. If not, then repeat your item, to ensure the series does not get broken.
3 some
Game Fun warm-up. One player offers something, e.g. I am a slice of cheese. 2nd player jumps in and
Association Warm-up
adds something to the offer, e.g. I am a slice of bread. 3rd player jumps in and again adds to the setup, e.g. I am a pickle. First player leaves, taking one of the others with him. Restart from the remaining player, who restarts by saying what/who she is.
Accepting Circle
Game Get everyone in a big circle. One player starts by making a little gesture, perhaps with a little sound.
Accepting Concentration Exercise Warm-up
His or her neighbor then tries and does exactly the same. And so on. Although we expect the gesture/sound not to change, it will.
Notes
Watch for movements that suddenly change left/right arm or leg. This is not really supposed to happen, but it will. Once happened, it should be accepted by the next player.
Also watch/listen for little moans or sighs that players might make before or after their turn - these should also be taken over by the next player.
Actor’s Nightmare
Game This one is played by 2 players, one of which gets their lines on paper (like a script). The other
Limitations Performance
player should justify whatever the scripted player says.
Notes
You can use existing plays for this, but also lines from comics.
Whoever gets the script should not forget to play/act - only her lines are defined, not what she does, or how she does the lines.
Also known as PlaybookG.
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Game
Limitations Performance
Game
Characters Exercise Introduction Look and Listen
Game
Concentration Energy Warm-up
Game
Exercise Group Warm-up
Adjective Scene
Ask for an adjective (e.g. sad). Play a scene in which the players are as sad as possible. Alternatively, give every player a different adjective.
Aerobics
This is a fun observation game.
Place all players in a line. The first player starts walking around the room, walking a large circle. The second player starts following the first one, and tries to move like the first player. After a few rounds, the first player goes to the back of the line, and the third player starts following and imitating the second one.
Notes
Tell players to be themselves; don’t try and walk around funny (it’s not the Ministry of Silly Walks after all).
Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves
Excellent warm-up. Everyone in a circle. We are going to establish a rhythm, by saying, all together ’Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves’. Keep repeating this.
One person starts making a gesture to this rhythm, say, tapping your head with you left hand. When the sentence is repeated, the player next to her takes over this gesture, while the first one starts a completely different new gesture. Third time the sentence is done, player three does the first gesture, player two does the second gesture and player one invents a new one again. And so on. This is also a concentration game, though it’s not really difficult. All one has to do is watch the previous player, and next time, take over her gesture. When you’re watching what everyone else is doing you’re going to get lost though.
Alien Tiger Cow
Fun game to warm up and to teach players some ChivalryK . Everyone in a circle. There are 3 things a player can be:
An alien: hold you index fingers up next to your head, as little antenna’s and say ’Bleeb bleeb’, bending inwards into the circle;
A cow: bend forward, hold your right hand on your tummy and go ’Moooo’
A tiger: push your right hand forward, imitating a claw and roar.
On your sign, every player decides to become one of the three. The idea is for everyone to become the same, which obviously won’t be the case, the first time. We re-do this until everyone is in sync.
Variations
Invent your own animals (or things) and let players become juke boxes, birds, whatever.
Play ’majority wins’: animals/things that are most in the minority drop out. Also known as Rock Paper Scissors G .
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Alliteration Introduction
Game Excellent game for players to get to know each other’s names.
Concentration Exercise Introduction
Everyone in a circle. A player starts the game by introducing himself by making a gesture, and alliterating to his name, e.g. "I’m Wonderful Wendy" or "I’m Smart Steve". The next player point to the first, repeats the previous player’s name, attribute and gesture, and does something similar about himself.
And so on. Game ends with the first player having to do each other player’s gesture, repeating their names and attributes.
Alliterations
Game You will need a tennis ball or a towel tied in a knot for this one. Everyone sitting or standing in a
Association Concentration Exercise Warm-up
circle. You give one person the ball, and ask him to name as many words as possible that start with a ’P’ (or any other letter), in the time it takes for the ball to get passed along the circle. Doubles don’t count, obviously.
Notes
Tell players not to watch the ball go round when they’re ’it’ - they’ll just panic and freeze. Tell them to try this with closed eyes.
Variations
Pair up the players and use a stopwatch. Ask the left players on the left to name as many words as possible starting with a ’t’, and ask their partners to count, for 15 or 20 seconds. Then switch.
Alphabet Circle
Game Great warm-up game to sharpen concentration.
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
Everyone in a circle. One player starts by throwing an ’A’ to another player. That player throws as fast as possible a ’B’ to someone else. And so on.
If you work with a large group, you can divide them into 2 circles, call ’em Team Gold and Team Silver, and time how fast they can get to ’Z’.
Variations
Any player has the option to change the sequence from A-Z to 1-10 and vice versa. Time it. Or change to 1-10
Alphabet Game
Game This is a scene consisting of 26 lines of dialog. The first line starts with a given letter (say ’R’). The
Audience Participation Die Performance Verbal wit
reply to that line must start with a ’S’, and so on, until the whole alphabet has been covered. After ’Z’ comes ’A’.
Players that hesitate, or use the wrong letter ’Die’, and are replaced by another player. The replacement needs to take over the character of the player she replaces.
Notes
Urge players not to ’stick’ to the game - if you can’t think of a good sentence to advance the story, it’s better to just ’die’ than to screw up the story (see ChivalryK ).
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American Idol
Game This is a spoof of the format of (American) Idol, the TV show in which new singers are discovered.
Performance SingSong
One player is the host, another is the bad judge, and 2 others are candidates. Both candidates introduce themselves (or are introduced by the host) and then sing their song based on an audience suggestion. Afterwards the judge tears them apart.
Animalistics
Game Ask the audience for animals. Players play a scene, in which the characters are based on these
Association Characters Exercise Performance
animals.
Notes
Players do not ’become’ the animals, they only take over characteristics of the animals. Characteristics may be physical, vocal or StatusK based. For example, ’chicken’ might inspire a player to a cowardly character, moving about jerkily.
Also known as TotemsG. - this can be played as an exercise: write totem names on slips of paper. Give every player a totem before they play a scene. You can extend the animal name; make it more specific. Play with things like Bald Eagle rather than Eagle; or Silver Moon, Sitting Bull, etc.
Animals
Game Make sure you have an even number of players. Give everyone an animal, but make sure that there
Characters Exercise
are 2 of each, and that nobody knows which other player is which animal. Then give a number of activities, which the animals perform. Try
Eating. Eating when you’re really hungry Drinking. Drinking when you’re really thirsty Lovemaking
Grooming
Fighting
Sleeping
At the end, ask the players to find the other animal of their kind. Ask the others if they found out who was which animal.
Variations
Let 2 players be humans.
Armando
Game This is a long form, named after its creator, Chicago Improv teacher and player Armando Diaz.
Long Form Performance
The format starts with a storytelling-style monologue, based on an audience suggestion. After the monologue, players play scenes inspired by the monologue, and the monologue may even continue, later on in the performance.
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Artist Model Clay
Game 3 players. One is a lump of clay - behind her is a second player who is a model. Model takes a pose,
Exercise Group
which the ’clay’ is not supposed to see. The third player becomes the artist, who will model the clay after the model. The artist is not supposed to touch the clay, can’t speak and it not allowed to show the clay what to do or to become.
When done, let the model inspect the artwork and see if details fit.
Variations
Limit the time the artist has to build to statue.
Asides
A scene is played, which any player can stop at any time by yelling freeze. At that point, the player Game steps out of the scene, and tells the audience what his character is really thinking, after which the
Performance
scene continues. The other characters of course are not supposed to know what players are thinking, but the players do, and should use this.
Notes
Players can use this to reveal their hidden motives. Other players can play into this, or purposely ignore this knowledge.
Gimmick: characters may actually have other things on their minds than what’s going on in the scene. E.g. a driver stopped by a cop may be thinking about the groceries his wife told him to get at the supermarket.
See also CommentingK . See also Scene PaintingG for another game that uses a similar technique.
Variations
The thoughts of the players can also be provided by players off-stage. Also known as Alter EgoG. Also known as ConsciencesG.
Assassin
Game Great warm-up for a group of 7+ people. Everyone picks someone to be their bodyguard, and
Warm-up
somebody to be their assassin. Don’t say out loud who picked who for what.
Game starts, and everyone tries to protect themselves from their assassin, by trying to keep their bodyguard between themselves and their assassin.
After several minutes of chaos everyone reveals who was picked for what.
Association Jump
Game This is physical association game. All plays mill about the room. At any time, trainer yells a player’s
Association
Exercise shouting ’directions’ (see Fast Food LabanG ) like ’horizontal’, ’up’, ’down’, ’sideways’, ’big’, ’small’,
Group Warm-up
’light’, ’heavy’.
The other players watch our subject jump into a position, and then build around that player, inspired by whatever the frozen position out subject jumped into. The end result is a still scene.
Tip: precede this exercise by JumpG .
name. That player ’jumps’ into a frozen position. Trainer can (but does not have to) sidecoach by
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Game
Audience Warm-up Performance
Audience Warm-ups
Often an improvised show starts with an audience warm-up. Here are some suggestions:
Do a Mexican wave (audience making fluent waves with their hands above their head).
Have he pianist/keyboard man make all kinds of sounds and have the audience imitate them Ask the audience to stand up and do some physical warm-up. Have them shake their arms and legs.
Have the audience introduce themselves to strangers, tell a secret their spouse/partner doesn’t know about to a stranger, have them hug a stranger, tell your neighbor waht you ate today, your pin code
Do an interview with the audience, where the MC is one character (say, a headmaster) and all of the audience another (say a naughty child). The audience needs to reply to the interview in one voice (all saying the same at the same time - see One MouthG ). Not an easy one, and if the audience does not feel like doing this it really sucks. When it works it’s a real thrill.
divide the audience in 3 or 4 groups, and give each group a sound. Rehearse the sound with each group. Then tell a silly story, and use these sounds as sound effects. (We saw a pretty gruesome one in which one group was a car (roar), another a dog (bark) and the third group got a kind of splashing sound. The poor dog got run over by the car... not exactly nice but the audience had fun with it)
Do a cheering competition between the men and the women.
Rehearse different kinds of applause (from the ’polite’ applause when a scene sucks, over an ’ooh’ applause for a touching scene, to a wild roar for a hilarious scene). Have them rehearse voting for a team by cheering the team name (if that’s your format). Rehearse a ’Die’ ( see DieC ) if i you’re going to be playing scenes in which the audience can decide to throw a player out of the game.
Give the men and the women a different sound and play with that. Tell them they are members of a wild tribe, the women go ’Ugh’ when you raise your left hand and the man go ’Hagawaga’ when you raise your right hand.
Automatic Storytelling
This is an exercise you can only do once with a group. Use the exercise to show that making stories is not all that difficult.
Split the group in 2. Half of the players leave the room while you explain the game to the others: we are going to make stories in pairs. We will tell the other players that we came up with a great story, and they have to guess it. The catch is that they can only ask yes/no questions, and we do not really have a story. We will answer ’no’ to every question that starts with a vowel or with a conjugation of ’to be’ (or some other criterion). In addition, after having answered 2 consecutive No’s we will always answer a yes.
Let the other players back in and pair them up with the others. Each couple starts guessing the story, unknowingly creating a story as they go. Continue till they get it.
Origin
This exercise is described by Keith JohnstoneR in Impro for StorytellersR . Back Dancing
Played in pairs. Actors stand back to back, and dance on different kinds of music. Back must stay in touch at all times.
Game
Exercise Narration
Game
Exercise Group Trust
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Backwards Interview
Game Ask for a topic for a TV interview. Then 2 players do the interview backwards. That means that the
Limitations Performance
first sentence uttered is the last one in the interview, perhaps something like: Thanks for that enlightening explanation. (to the guest) To all of you viewers at home, thank you for watching, and see you next week. And then players work their way backwards.
Various gimmicks can be played. For example, in your responses, you can pimp players. Examples would be: "Thank you for that very energetic answer to the question", pimping the other player to do something very energetic.
Variations
The ’backwards’ gimmick can be used to play any scene - Also known as Backwards SceneG. . In that way, don’t base your play on verbal wit only; use gestures and Object WorkK as well.
Balladeer(1)
Game One player is the balladeer, who starts singing a ballad about an audience suggestion. The other
Performance SingSong
players actually play what the balladeer sings about, in slow motion.
This is actually group story-building, as the players are inspired by the what the balladeer sings (obviously) but also, their actions can/should inspire the balladeer.
Notes
You’re not limited to ballads, of course. The same HandleK can be used for a Long FormC structure: see Balladeer(2)G .
Origin
The Improvoholics mailed us to claim they developed this game. Well thanks guys.
Balladeer(2)
Game This is like the short form version BalladeerG , but now as soon as the balladeer stops singing or
Long Form Performance SingSong
finishes the song, the characters start playing and talking independently. When their scene is done the balladeer starts a new song, and so forth.
Barney
Game Silly warm-up game. Everyone in a circle, one person as a ’caller’ in the middle. Caller yells a letter
Concentration Exercise Spontaneity Warm-up
to one of the players; that player must come up with a name of a person, an object or a service that can be sold, and a location, all starting with the letter given. Example would be ’B’ which leads to "Barney sells Bread in Bulgaria". Anything goes, as long as it comes out right away; if not the player becomes caller.
BarPro
The (slightly negative sounding) name is attributed to Keith JohnstoneR and refers to shows Game consisting of short games, played in small rooms, like bars and tiny comedy clubs.
Format
In this simple format, a limited number of players (4-6) play improv games, introduced, and usually directed by an MC. In certain troupes the players take turns MC-ing and/or directing.
There are usually no judges, no score boards and no prizes to be won. Suggestions are taken from the audience, drawn out of a hat or provided by the MC.
Due to the lack of space, there are usually no props or attributes, except for perhaps a coat hanger with clothes and a couple of hats; players typically mime their props.
As far as we know the name BarPro is not copyrighted.
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Game
Performance SingSong
Game
Die Limitations Performance
Game
Association Exercise Spontaneity
Bartender
Ask for a silly problem. Player 1 goes into a bar and explains his woes to the bartender in a song. The bartender then fixes the problem in another song.
See also Three MelodiesG .
Beatnik Poet
Tell the audience we are going to improvise a bad poetry night at pseudo- intellectual coffee house. Ask for 2 unrelated objects or concepts. All players perform a poem that has both suggestions. If they miss out a suggestion or if they don’t rhyme, the audience yells Die! and the player commits suicide on stage.
Become
This one can be player with all players at a time, or you can ask the group to watch as players come up with different ideas on how to do this.
Ask the players to become
A jar of mayonnaise A pack of cigarettes Dentures
At first, this will probably not lead to much. Add side coachings, like:
You are a jar of mayonnaise. Opened or not? Full or empty? Fresh or not? Show it.
You are a pack of smokes. Empty or full? Filter cigarettes or not? Where are you? In someone’s pocket or on a shelve in a shop? Show it.
You are a flower. What kind of flower? Blooming or not? In a vase or in a field? What color? Freshly picked or not? A present to a lover or at a funeral?
You are water. Still or not? In a glass? A jar, a puddle, a lake or an ocean? Fresh or dirty?
You are stone, air, sand, fire.
Your are blue, red, green. You are a clock. Big Ben or grandfather clock? Working or not. Is your time right or not? A watch? Who is wearing you? A nun or a pimp? How could you show that?
You are French fries. McDonalds or Wendy’s? Hot or cold? Any ketchup? On a plate or in a cardboard box? Eaten or not? Yummy or yuck?
After a while, players should be able to come up with the side coachings for themselves. Encourage the players to try out different kind of stuff, see what they come up with.
Before or After
A short scene is played. After that the host asks the audience whether they want to see what happened before this scene, or what happens after this scene. This is a variation on Fast ForwardG .
Bidirectional Satellite TV
Fairly difficult combination of Satellite TVG and Satellite RadioG : players in pairs, establish a beat. Every beat, player 1 offers a movement and player 2 offers a word of a story. At the same time, players mirror each other, with a delay of 1 beat.
Game
Continuation Performance
Game
Exercise
Look and Listen
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Big Blob
Game Players perform a scene in a location that contains an enormous blob of blubber. Something yukkie.
Exercise Limitations Performance
Players must walk or move through this blob as the scene continues, but their characters are not supposed to acknowledge that this Big Blob is there.
Big Booty
Game Everyone in a circle. One player is Big Booty. The others, going clockwise, are numbered: 1, 2, 3
Concentration Warm-up
and so on. Now Big Booty establishes a 4-beat rhythm, saying Big Booty, Big Booty, Big Booty (followed by a rest) - repeat this until everyone got the rhythm. The game then goes as follows: Big Booty passes the buck to someone else, saying Big Booty to 7 (say) (this takes 2 beats, one for saying ’Big Booty’ and one for saying ’to 7’). Number 7 then passes in 2 beats to, say number 2, saying ’7 to 2’. It then continues until someone makes a mistake: if and when that happens everyone says (in 2 beats) ’Oh Shit’, after which we repeat Big Booty Big Booty Big Booty (+ rest on 4th beat), twice. After that, the player that made the mistake becomes Big Booty, and everyone’s number changes. New Big Booty starts the game again.
Big Fish Small Fish
Game Fun energizer game. Everyone in a circle. We are going to pass a pattern along the circle. Everyone,
Energy Exercise Warm-up
at their turn does either:
Say Big Fish, and hold both hands in front of you, about 3 inches or 10cm apart. "It" then passes to the next person in the circle.
Say Small Fish, and hold both hands in front of you, about 15 inches or 50cm apart. When this is done, the direction changes.
Players that miss (e.g. say Small Fish and keep your hands too close together or say Big Fish and move hands wide) do a forfeit, or die with a loud noise.
Bippety Bop(1)
Game Silly warm-up to get the blood flowing. A players in a circle, one player in the middle. The player in
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
the middle closes his eyes, holds right hand pointing in front of him, and spins around. When done spinning, open your eyes and say, as fast as you can ’Bippety Bippety Bop’.
The player you’re pointing to, and his 2 neighbors, need to build an elephant in less than the time the middle player needs to say ’Bippety Bippety Bop’. An elephant consists of a trunk, made by the middle player, by holding your nose with one hand, and extending your other arm through the arm that holds the hand that holds the nose (does this make any sense?). The neighboring players each form a big ear, using both arms. Don’t forget to attach the ears to the elephant’s head.
Any player that cannot get his/her part done by the time the middle player does ’Bippety Bippety Bop’ becomes ’it’ and takes place in the middle of the circle.
Variations
You can really invent any object or create to replace the elephant. Try
a car, with 2 wheels and a set of wind screen wipers
a cow, with an udder and 2 horns
a washing machine, with 2 players building a ’box’ with both arms, and the middle player waving her arms in a circle in front of her. All go ’rumble rumble’
a bunny, with 2 paws (middle player) and 2 rabbit ears (neighbors)
Also known as Also known as Bappety BooG. . See also BunnyG . See ElephantG for a more elaborate version of the game. See Bippety Bop(2)G for a variation that goes by the same name.
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Bippety Bop(2)
Game This is a variation on Bippety BopG : all players in a circle, one player in the middle who is ’it’. This
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
player picks a player in the circle and yells ’bippety-bippety-bop’ at her. If he manages to get to ’bop’ before she can say ’bop’, she becomes ’it’.
Other possibilities are:
Just say ’bop’ if anyone else reacts, that person becomes ’it’
Say ’Elephant’, after which 3 players build the elephant: the player picked does the trunk (hold nose and squeeze your other arm through) and her neighbors doe the ears. If any of the 3 players screws up or does not react he or she becomes it.
Say ’mixer’: the player in the middle becomes a mixer, holding arms up in the air, sort of horizontally, while her neighbors position themselves under her hands, and turn around their axises
Say ’toaster’ : the player in the middle becomes a slice of bread, and her neighbors become the toaster, by ’building’ the toaster with their arms around the bread. The slice of bread pops up an down too when done!
Feel free to invent other objects (suggestions can be found under Bippety BopG ). Black Box
Game This one is played by 2 players. One holds a (mimed) black box, which has 3 buttons, one of which
Performance
is red. These buttons control a player; one button might be the ’jerk your leg’ button. The exact functions of each button are not defined.
The other player enters and asks if he can play with the box. Player 1 agrees, but adds something like "Whatever you do, don’t push the red button".
Player 2 begins to play with the buttons, controlling player 2. Then, we slowly work up to the use of the dreaded red button, which will make player 2 do something not-so-obvious. This can be anything, but it should not be preconceived. The red button might become a Mood swing button, a Start Screaming, Start Giggling, Sing Opera, or Switch-to- GibberishC button.
Blind Association Circle
Game This one starts just like Free Association CircleG : players in a circle, establish a rhythm, and freely
Association Exercise
Look and Listen
associate on previous player’s word. As this is going on, the trainer will tap all players gently on the shoulder, at 3 times:
first tap: players close their eyes but continue the free association, sticking to the rhythm second tap: everyone starts walking around (carefully!), eyes still closed.Players have to recognize the voice of their ex-neighbour in the circle to know when it’s their turn.
Third tap: all players, still eyes closed, and still associating, try to reconstruct the circle.
Exercise is over when everyone is in a circle again. Trainer should keep an eye on players to make sure they don’t run into things. It helps if there’s not too much clutter around, of course.
Blindfolded Scene
Game Players are blindfolded and then play a scene. Limitations
Performance Trust
Variations
Have the players play barefoot and have mousetraps on the stage. Not very nice but we’ve seen it done. Also known as MousetrapsG.
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Game
Association Exercise Performance Warm-up
Game
Exercise Limitations Long Form Look and Listen Performance
Blind Freeze
This one is just like Freeze TagG , but here the MC calls Freeze, and calls in another player. If you’re not using an MC, any player might call Freeze and call in any other player.
Many groups find this game more exciting than Freeze TagG , as players don’t know when they get pushed in the game, and hence are less prepared, and crazier, more exciting stuff tends to happen.
Blind Harold
This is really a listening exercise, though it has been performed as a Long FormC for audiences. Basically, this is a HaroldG , played with all players sitting down with their eyes closed. For a performance one would turn all the lights off in the theater.
See also The BatG .
Blind Lead
One player is blindfolded, and the room is filled with obstacles (put a couple of chairs everywhere, leave all kinds of junk on the floor). The idea is that the rest of the group will lead the blindfolded player through the room, by talking.
Also known as AirplaneG. A helpful reader offered us an explanation for the name ’Airplane’: The blindfoldee (or just eyes closed) is led through a maze composed of furniture and the other actors. He is an "Airplane" lost in the fog being talked down by the "Air Traffic Controller", who must remain in his/her "Tower". Standing on a chair/rehearsal block lends visibility for the controller. The airplane also only has a limited amount of fuel left (1-3 minutes, whatever) to reach a safe landing (arriving at the Tower). The airplane is also allowed two "brushes"-limited contact with an obstacle. The third brush or a direct hit or stepping on something directly causes a "crash". They may step around, over or under the obstacles. Also, the airplane can only fly forward. It can turn in any direction, however. The directions must be given from the pilot’s point of view; a good exercise for fledgling directors. You can also destroy all the trust you’ve built up in your class by completely clearing the deck and torturing the Pilot. Believe us, someone will suggest it.
Also known as Obstacle CourseG. See also FingertipsG for a similar exercise. Blind Line Offers
Line up the players, give’em each a number. Call out 2 numbers. Those players step on stage immediately, with a physical OfferK (do something, eat an apple, wipe the floor, whatever) as well as a vocal offer (say something).
The idea is that the players accept and explore each other’s offers and figure out what the scene is about.
Blind Line Up
This one is like Group OrderG , except that everyone keeps their eyes closed, and no talking is allowed while the group lines up.
Notes
This is more a group exercise than Group OrderG (which is more about agreement), so initially you probably want to take it easy on the silly stuff, like line up by order of mental health... Always interesting to see what strategies the group comes up with.
You can’t really use alphabetical order if the group does not really know each other.
Game
Exercise Group Trust
Game
Exercise
Game
Group Introduction Warm-up
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Blind Musical
Game This is like a musical version of PocketsG : ask the audience to write simple sentences on slips of
Performance SingSong
paper. Hand each player 2 or 3 slips (they’re not allowed to read them yet). Play a scene or series of scenes. Players draw slips of paper at random, and every time they do, they start a song that starts with the sentence on the slip.
Try to integrate the info on the slips into the story, of course!
Variations
Leave the slips of paper on the stage for players to pick up.
Blues Jam
Game Ask the audience for 5 things that give them the blues. Then improvise a blues jam about those
Performance SingSong
elements.
Body Hide
Game Excellent exercise to get to know each other, and to learn to trust and touch each other. 5
Exercise Group Introduction Trust
volunteers. 4 of these must try and hide the fifth person, using nothing but their bodies. The other students stand around the group and try and see pieces of the fifth’s clothes, shoes, skin.
It’s great fun for the other students to watch and try and find uncovered pieces of person. Don’t tell them they go next, with one person less.
Variations
Try this game with less and less ’hiders’. If the task becomes impossible, tell them they can use parts of walls. Using a corner is easiest, of course, but let them figure that out themselves.
Bong Bong Bong
Game Silly game, inspired by a Korean TV show (so we’re told).
Guessing Limitations Performance
4 players, 3 stand with their ears closed, backs turned to the scene. The 4th player gets as a suggestion a common expression.
The idea is that this player has 1 minute to communicate this suggestion to the 2nd player, using only mime and GibberishK . Number 2 then communicates (what he has understood) to number 3, who does the same to number 4. At the end yell Bong Bong Bong and have players 2, 3 and 4 explain what they thought they understood.
A similar technique is used in LCDG .
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Boris
Game 2 players play an interrogation scene. One is the interrogator, the other is a suspect. The interrogator
Exercise Narration Performance
randomly throws unconnected elements to the suspect, who needs to incorporate these and get himself into (even more) trouble.
And then we have Boris, who is a nasty, huge, but invisible thug assisting the interrogator. Every time the interrogator does not like the suspect’s answers (and also when the suspect does not incriminate himself enough), the interrogator calls on Boris to torture the suspect, prodding him to confess or incriminate him even further.
Notes
we do not establish the crime beforehand
the suspect mimes being tortured by Boris
the investigator can tell Boris what to do (break his leg), but it is more fun to leave the choice of torture up to the suspect
if the torture does not go far enough to the investigator’s taste, he can always call in Boris’ evil twin brother, Igor (also invisible)
as a gag, the suspect can also incriminate Boris (who can turn out to be a witness/accomplice to the crime).
Origin
Attributed to Keith JohnstoneR . Bucket
Game Before the show ask the audience to write simple sentences on slips of paper. Those go in a big
Audience Participation Limitations Performance
bucket.
A scene is played, and at random moments the players don’t just invent a line of dialogue, but use a line off a piece of paper drawn from the bucket. Anything said is accepted, heigthened and integrated.
Bunny
Game Extremely silly game, to pump up the energy. Get everyone in a circle. One player becomes the
Energy Exercise Warm-up
body of a bunny - this is done by holding both arms in front of your chest, elbows touching your rib cage, and letting hands hang. Her 2 neighbors become the ’ears’ of the bunny, by waving a hand next to the middle player’s ears. All 3 say ’bunny bunny bunny’ together, until the middle player ’throws’ a ’bunny’ to another player in the circle. This player becomes the bunny body, and his neighbors get to do the ears.
Play this game at a high speed. Mumbling ’bunny bunny’ en masse gives a nice energy boost.
Variations
Play in slow motion. Hilarious!
Alternatively, you can really invent any object or create or replace the bunny, as long as you invent a sound along with it. Try
a car, with 2 wheels and a set of wind screen wipers, going ’vroom vroom’
a cow, with an udder and 2 horns, going ’moo moo’
a washing machine, with 2 players building a ’box’ with both arms, and the middle player waving her arms in a circle in front of her. All go ’rumble rumble’
an elephant, with 2 big ears and a trunk, making an elephant sound (if you don’t know what an elephant sounds like, just invent a sound).
See also Bippety BopG . See also Killer BunnyG .
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Call from Ray
Game A scene is begun. At some point in the scene an onstage player has to receive a "Call from Ray" (or
Limitations Performance
any other name agreed upon). The call can come in any form, like phone call, SMS, smoke signals, telepathy or whatever, and Ray himself may not appear in the scene.
Variations
You can come up with any sentence that needs to come up. A variation would be to use "I’ll have a coke" - Also known as I\’ll have a cokeG. .
Cards
Game Ask the audience to write short sentences on cards. Give 2 players 3 cards, which they put in their
Performance
pockets. Then they play a scene. At any point in time, instead of saying whatever they think they might say, they take a card, and read what’s on the card. Whatever is said should be justified. See also Actor’s NightmareG .
Card Status
Game Excellent Status K game.
Endowment Limitations Look and Listen Performance Status
Notes
Set up a location where status is important. Examples would be a Royal Palace or a highly organized bureaucracy (the White House ?).
Variations
players can only see their own card, but not the others’
give players multiple cards, and let them switch cards in the middle of the scene. Statuses (statii ??) should change accordingly.
as an exercise, let players play a scene and then ask them to line up in status order to see if they ’got’ their status right.
Cat and Mouse
Game All players in pairs. One player is cat, one other player is mouse, and all others stay in pairs, arms
Energy Warm-up
hooked together. Cat chases mouse; when mouse is caught then mouse becomes cat and vice versa. However, mouse can escape chase by hooking into any pair of other players. At that point the player at the other end of the pair becomes cat and the cat becomes mouse.
Catch’em
4 players. Ask an audience member to pick 4 cards out of a deck, and attach a card to each player’s forehead, so that players can see each other’s card, but not their own. Use a rubber band or a piece of string for that.
The idea is to play a scene, in which the status order of the characters is defined by the cards. Evidently, players don’t know their own status, so the other players will have to endow them.
Game One player is ’it’ and stands at one end of the room, facing the wall. The other players at the other
Concentration Energy Exercise Warm-up
end of the room. Players need to try and get to the player who is ’it’ without ’it’ seeing them move. The player who is ’it’ can turn around at any time - at that point everybody else needs to freeze. Anyone who is caught moving is out.
Also known as Bear of PoitiersG. (see Games for Actors and Non-actorsR )
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Circle of Knots
Game Form a circle, holding hands. Then, any player can start moving about, making knots in the circle. Do
Exercise Group
this gently, and keep holding hands.
Variations
Try a line instead of a circle
Try with eyes closed or blindfolded
Circle Sitting
Game Have everyone stand in a circle, really close to each other, facing inwards. Then ask everyone to
Group Trust Warm-up
make a quarter turn left. Make everyone stand even closer to each other. When ask the whole group to sit down. If everyone is really close, they will end up sitting on one another’s knees, and the whole construction supports itself.
If well done it’s even possible to make the circle walk. Indicate which foot to start with ;-)
Clap Snap Association
Game This one is like a Free Association CircleG , except that the rhythm is more explicit. Here’s how to do
Association Exercise Warm-up
the rhythm: each beat consists of 4 phases: Slap both hands on your thighs
Clap your hands
Snap your left hand fingers
Snap your right hand fingers
With every right hand snap, a word should be thrown to your neighbor. Once the rhythm is established, you can leave out the snaps - that’ll make things more understandable.
Variations
You can use this for both Last LetterG games or Free Association CircleG .
Try this with two circles. Have one circle associate freely, and another circle on Last LetterG . Whenever a player misses a beat she should switch circles.
Notes
If you do this with 2 circles, you will probably find that the rhythms for both circles synchronize.
Clap Snap Stamp
Game All players in pairs, facing each other. We’re going to count from one to three, each player one
Concentration Warm-up
number at a time, and we keep repeating this. So player number one would go one, three, two, one, three, and so on.
Once they get this, we replace the ’one’ with a ’snap’ (snap your fingers).
Once everyone is into that, we replace the ’two’ as well, with a hand-clap.
Finally, we replace the ’three’ as well, with a stamp of the right foot. Play at high speed!
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Click Bang you’re dead
Game Description: all players sit in a circle. Only one player should know how to play and what the secret
Concentration Exercise Introduction
is; this player is the leader at first, until others catch on. This person points at random people in the circle each time saying either "click" or "bang"; they should make it sound and look like what theyâre doing has to do with math or the order they are going etcâ¦
The secret: it really doesnât matter who is pointed to, what is said, when they are pointed to, who it begins with or who it ends with, it just depends on who speaks first after the clicks and bangs are done. So the person who begins (the one that knows whatâs going on) will declare whoever talks first dead by saying "youâre dead". That person isnât "out" or anything, itâs just for effect. The game continues until the players catch on. If somebody thinks they get it, the leader gives them a chance to say the clicks and bangs and they get to announce who is dead; the leader will then be able to tell if they understand the secret if they announce the right person as being dead.
Make sure that once the players begin to catch on, they donât spoil it for the others by letting the cat out of the bag. Also, the game is best if played with ten or more people.
Contributed by Jeannie Smith from Hawai. Thanks for that Jeannie!
Columbian Hypnosis
Game Played in pairs. One player holds her open hand, fingers upward, about 2-3 inches from her
Exercise Trust
partner’s face. She then starts moving her hand about slowly, while her partner tried to keep his face at exactly the same distance from her hand, like her hand is pulling of pushing his face about. Switch sides and partners after a couple of minutes.
Notes
This is really also an exercise for the hypnotized, as she needs to ensure that her partner is able to follow her.
Variations
Use both hands.
Origin
Described in Augusto BoalR ’s Games for Actors and Non-actorsR .
ComedySportz
ComedySports was started by Dick Chudnow in 1884 in Milwaukee. It’s a format of competitive Game improvisational comedy that resembles Keith JohnstoneR ’s TheatresportsG . The format is currently
Format
played by a dozen-plus teams all over the USA, united in the Comedy League of America.
In a ComedySportz show 2 teams complete for points given by the audience. A referee oversees the match, times the games, calls fouls and gets audience suggestions. A match consists of something like 7 to 12 games, drawn from a repertoire of over a hundred games (you’ll find most of these games in the Games section of Improv Encyclopedia).
In terms of gimmicks, you have the ’brown bag foul’, which is a brown paper bag placed over the offending player’s head.
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Game
Characters Environment Exercise
Coming Home
Ask players to think of someone they know. Then ask them to play how that person would come home from work. Players need to pay attention to
The environment: what does that person’s house look like? Is it neat and tidy or is it a mess? Big house or small apartment?
What does he do? Does the character change clothes or showers or has a beer first? Does he eat? If so, what? Microwave dinner, carryout, pizza delivery or cornflakes?
What mood is that character in? How was work today?
Variations
You can come up with other situations in which characters enter a location.
Commercial
Ask for a product (existing or non-existing). Then play a commerical for that product.
Variations
you can do this as a radio commercial. Cut the lights in the theater. ( see Scene in the DarkG . you can play the whole development of the commercial, starting with the brainstorming by the marketing guys, the work of the production company coming up with a slogan, jingle, etc. You can even play the bloopers at the actual taping of the commercial.
Complete Bodies
Players in pairs. One player takes a position, using all parts of her body. The other player completes that position, by folding over/in/around the first player, without touching her. First player then completes second player in another pose, again without touching.
As a next step, do the same, but tell a story, one sentence at a time, providing a sentence every time you move.
Concentration Circle
Place all players in a circle and number them sequentially, starting with a random player. The players then establish a rhythm, for example by swinging their left hands up and down. Have player 1 start; when her arm is up she shouts/throws a number. The player with that number needs to throw another number at the next beat.
Players that fail (if they did not recognize their own number) or that break the rhythm become the last player in the circle, and that changes the numbers for a bunch of players. Restart with player one. See also Big BootyG .
Confessions
Not exactly theater but fun when played well. The MC gets a bunch of ’confessions’ from the audience. These can be really lame, like e.g. ’I vote democratic’, ’I used to be a man’, ’I sold a kidney’, whatever.
Then players line up. One player steps forward, and gets a confession from the host. Player utters the confession in a character, and immediately another player jumps in and offers a witty reply. Do this as long as players have ideas for replies. Then replace the first player by a new one, give her a new confession and repeat ad libitum.
Game
Performance
Game
Exercise
Look and Listen
Game
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
Game
Performance Verbal wit
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Continuing Emotions
Game A ’neutral’ scene is started, and is then interrupted (frozen) several times by the MC. The scene is
Continuation Performance
then continued but all characters switch to an emotion provided by the audience.
Continuing Styles
Game A ’neutral’ scene is started. This scene gets interrupted several times by the MC, and then continued
Continuation Performance
in a film/ literature/ drama/ TV-program style provided by the audience. The platform and the story need to continue flawlessly.
CopyCat
Game CopyCat goes like a verbal Freeze TagG . A scene is started. At any time, a player at the side can
Association Exercise Performance
step forward (the playing players hold off for a moment) and repeats a line that was said in the scene. Whoever originally said that line, steps aside, and the remaining players start a new scene starting with the line that was repeated.
Variations
Feel free to actually continue the ongoing scene rather than to start a completely new one. Feel free to replace all the players instead of just the player who said the last line.
Rather than just stepping in and repeating a line, you might want to call ’FLIP’ (or freeze). This variation is known as Also known as FLIPG. .
Crabtrees Conundrum
Game This game is taking from Mrs. Crabtree from South Park. 2 players start a scene and every now and
Limitations Performance
Game
then a player will say "What’d you say?" And the other player must come up with a completely different phrase that rhymes with the one just said.
For instance. Christine, I think you are as sick as a dog!! What’d you say? I said I think we should go for a jog, it’s a really nice day.. and so forth. See DingG for a similar game.
Crime Endowments
[ Endowment Guessing Performance
One player is endowed as the head of a criminal organization and gathers with the others to plan or act out the crime. He is endowed with âsomething to steal, hijack or kill, âa method or weapon, and some wild card such as a code word or i a disguise.
This is sort of a generalisation of HijackerG .
Crisis Situation
Game Great exercise for spontaneity. 2 players on stage approach each other with a crisis, and an object
Exercise Spontaneity
unrelated to the crisis. After each has presented his or hers, each solves the other’s crisis with their own object. Replies must be instantaneous and may be ridiculous.
Example:
Player A: My wife left me and I’m stuck here with this t-shirt Player B: I got robbed and all I have left is my good looks.
Player A: Here’s my t-shirt; you can sell it and make some money. Player B: Erm... Marry me.
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Cross Circle
Game Perfect game to learn each other’s names.
Concentration Exercise Introduction Warm-up
Cut
Game This Long FormC game is played with 6 to 15 players. 2 players start a scene, perhaps based on an
Format Long Form
audience suggestion. In the middle of the scene, any other player can call ’Cut’, and start another scene, dragging one or more other players in the scene.
All scenes are interrupted this way, and the idea is that all scenes come together in one story. Cut scenes can be continued later. Usually, every player sticks to one character.
This game can be played with or without a director. Also know as Also known as SoapG. .
Variations
Usually, we decide on a category before the start of this game. Possible categories are Soap series, like The Bold and the Beautiful, Dallas, Eastenders
Hospital drama, like E.R.
Cop drama, like Hill Street Blues
Romantic Comedy, like The Love Boat Crime series or murder mysteries
Dating Game
Everyone in a circle. One person (A) starts by calling another person’s name (B). At that point, A starts walking towards B. Before A gets to B, B needs to call another name (C), so B frees her spot in the circle, for A to take. C then needs to call yet another name and start walking, so B can take C’s spot.
Variations
Instead of calling names, players can pick another player by making eye contact (and nodding to acknowledge that eye contact has been made). This demands a lot of concentration.
You can have more than one cycle going, if the group is big enough. Also known as Name GameG. Also known as Shriner’s Warm-upG.
Game This is played like a Blind Date show. One player leaves the stage, and the audience provides
Endowment Performance
endowments for the 3 others. Examples might be No. 1 is stupid, No. 2 is a serial killer and No. 3 thinks he’s a macho.
4th player gets to ask 3 questions, and each of the others answers it. After the questions player 4 should guess what the endowments were.
Day in the Life
Game The MC picks a member of the audience and interviews this person about their average (work) day.
Audience Participation Performance
Questions asked may include ’What is your job?", "Where do you live, with who?", "What are your hobbies?", "How do you get to work?", "Who are your colleagues?", and more. The players then improvise a day in the life of this audience member, based on the elements provided by the interview.
See also Ding DongG .
Variations
Instead of playing a real day, play a nightmare - Also known as NightmareG. . Host can ask what the audience member is afraid of or does not like.
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Deaf Replay
Game 2 players play a scene while 2 others watch the scene, with their ears covered. When the scene is
Limitations Performance Replay
over, the 2 others re-play the scene. Obviously they’ll do the same movements, but the dialogue will be different.
Death and Retriever
Game This one is like ScorpionG , but in this version killed players are not ’out’, but can be revived.
Exercise Group Trust
Everyone eyes closed, one player becomes the killer (tap him on the shoulder) and another one becomes the retriever. The retriever gets a towel of a scarf around her neck.
Dead players scream when they are killed, keep their eyes closed and stand still. When the retriever bumps into someone that does not move (a dead body) she can revive the dead by rubbing them with the towel.
When the retriever gets killed, she screams and stops moving. When another living person bumps into the retriever (recognized by the scarf), the retriever is revived, and the one that revived the retriever becomes the new retriever.
Play till everyone is dead or bored.
Death in a Minute
Game 2 or 3 players play a 1 minute scene, in which one player must die. Limitations
Performance Timed
Notes
Tell players to take risks. Why not just drop dead after 5 seconds and leave it up to the other player to justify the death.
Deconstruction
Game This is a Long FormC format. It starts with one rather long scene, which is followed by other,
Long Form Performance
probably shorter, scenes that somehow connect to the first scene. Possible connections are: Characters return
Characters of situations mentioned in the first scene appear in the subsequent scenes
Subsequent scenes take place in the same environment as the first scene
The reason why the first scene should be fairly long is that it should provide enough information for other scenes to build on. The name ’Deconstruction’ can be interpreted as "Take a first scene, and then deconstruct it by using characters, locations, situations, played or referred to, and play/re-use those in further scenes".
Origin
Deconstruction originated at ImprovOlympic in Chicago.
For a long discussion about the format and its origin see Chicago ImprovR .
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Diamond
Game 4 players in a square; 2 in front, 2 behind them. The MC or host asks for an audience suggestion for
Continuation Performance
the 2 players in front. Then the host asks the players to turn the square (to the right or to the left). So now we have a different combination of players in front. These 2 get an audience suggestion. Turn again and ask for suggestion again and do this once more. Then have players take their original position.
The game is played as follows: the 2 players in front start a scene; the 2 players in the back move to the side to clear the stage. Players play until the host yells "Call", at which time all players step back to their original positions in the square. MC then calls Right or Left, and square turns accordingly. The 2 players in front start playing a scene based on their suggestion until MC calls again.
This is repeated. When 2 players are up front for the second or third time, they continue their previously played scene. They can either plainly continue it, or continue at some time in the future (a day later, a year later, a century later). Also known as RevolverG. Also known as Pan Left Pan RightG. Also known as TurntableG.
Ding Characters
Game This is like DingG : players play a scene. When a bell is rang, they both need to drop into a
Characters Exercise
completely different character, but the scene continues.
This exercise is unlikely to lead to good scenes, but it’s a great help to teach players to drop into clear and varied characters instantly.
Ding Dong
Game This is a variation on Day in the LifeG : pick an audience member and ask her some questions
Audience Participation Performance
Ding
Game A scene is played. Whenever the MC ring a bell (or yells ’Ding’), the player that is doing
Exercise Performance Spontaneity
something/saying something needs to say/do something else.
Notes
Doing ’something else’ is quite often interpreted as doing/saying the opposite of what you did before. One can be more creative, e.g. repeat what was said in a different emotion.
If you use this as an exercise on SpontaneityC the trainer can ’Ding’ quite often (very frustrating for the players, but they will come up with stuff they never would have thought of before). Disadvantage of this is that the story/characters tend to get lost. Use sparingly for performance. Also known as Other ChoiceG.
about her day. Then play that day. Every time the players ’guess’ something incorrect the volunteer says ’Dong’. Players try to correct until they get a ’Ding’.
Example. Player is in bed in the morning and the alarm clock goes off: BZZZ. You get a ’Dong’. Try again and alarm clock starts playing the radio. Another ’Dong’. Try again and player is woken up by the neighbour drilling a hole in the wall. ’Ding’. You got it. Continue with breakfast, and so on.
Director’s Cut
Game A normal scene is played. At any moment a player not in the scene (or a player dedicated to this
Performance
particular role) stops the scene ( see CutG ) and has the actors replay the scene with different emotions, characters, roles. Like a director instructing actors on how to play.
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Disc(1)
Game Tell the players to imagine the stage is a disc, only supported right in the center of the stage. We are
Exercise Limitations
going to play a scene, in which the disc needs to be balanced at all times. Anytime a player moves, or a new player enters, the others need to rebalance the disc, and every move needs to be justified.
Notes
Also known as PivotG. There is another version of this game - see Disc(2)G . Disc(2)
Game Imagine the stage is a large disc, supported in the middle. The goal is to keep the disc balanced.
Exercise Limitations
Game starts with a player entering the disc; he is the leader. As soon as the leader stops milling about on the disc, another player must jump in and restore the balance. The new player becomes the new leader, and the previous leader becomes a follower.
As soon as the balance is restored, the leader can start walking around; the other player stays where he is. As soon as the leader stops again, the follower(s) move and restore the balance. After that, the leader becomes one of the followers, and a new leader jumps in.
The group of followers may split into groups of equal size, and restore the balance that way. Keep in mind that followers don’t start moving until the leader stops.
See also Disc(1)G .
Dissociation
Game This game can be done individually, or you can have one player do it in front of the class. Players
Association Exercise Warm-up
say as many words that have nothing to do with each other, until they start associating. Restart as soon as you’ve got an association.
Example: cat, deodorizer, house, green, grass. Here we restart, because grass is obviously an association on green.
Notes
You can use this game to show that association is natural, and that it is actually difficult not to associate. See also MalapropismG .
Distance Game
Game Two players stand a few feet apart facing each other and have the most boring 4-line interchange
Exercise Limitations
possible. They then each secretly pick a specific distance they want to be from the other person and repeat the interchange while maintaining the distance. The maintaining of distance automatically seems to affect people’s emotional commitment and inflection. The key is to have a specific distance in mind down to the inch. If one person picks 1 foot but the other picks a foot and a half. You will see some interesting conflict because of that extra half a foot.
Variations
Play a scene where the players are connected by a stick, a piece of rope or wood. You can even use a match stick.
Distorting Mirror
Game This is a variation of the classic MirrorG exercise. Played in pairs, one player is designated as the
Concentration Exercise
mirror. This mirror distorts the image; perhaps it blows everything up, makes everything wider, taller, smaller, narrower, prettier, uglier.
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Doors
Game Excellent introductory exercise for building environments and PlatformK . All players in 2 rows. 2
Environment Exercise
facing players play the exercise, the others watch.
Player 1 sets a (part of a) platform by miming a door. As soon as player 2 has an idea about where player 1 might be, player 2 steps into the scene and offers a line of dialog, expressing where we are. Player 2 answers player 1, acknowledging player 1’s offer. This ends the scene.
The audience should know after these 2 lines of dialog where the players are, and who they are, or what their relationship is to one another.
Notes
’Doors’ can be anything that separates one physical location from another. Players can mime real doors, but also gates, curtains, you name it. Encourage players to try out as many types of ’doors’ as possible. Use sound to enhance the platform, e.g. a door in a submarine makes a different kind of noise than an elevator door.
See also Three Line EnvironmentG . Doo Wop(1)
Game This is another structured song format, sung as a 1950’s doo-wop. It can be structured in various
Performance SingSong
ways.
Here’s one in 5 beats: ask for an object. Then
Lead singer sings verse about the object
All sing Chorus, in the style of I love my (object)
Verse 2: explain how you found your object
(all) chorus on how you love your object
Verse 3: That fateful night ... explain how you lost your beloved object. This can be done as a parlando (i.e. you speak to the music, rather than sing)
(bridge) Explain how bad you miss your object
(all) chorus on how you miss your object
Verse 4: explain how your replaced your object by a new (or other) one
(all) chorus on how you love your new object (finale!)
Feel free to drop e.g. the first of second chorus if you feel it drags you down. Feel free to modulate after the bridge, or not.
Notes
Here’s a possible chord progression:
Verse: C Am Dm G7 (3 times) C Fm6 C G7
Bridge: G7% Am% (3 times) D7% G7 Ab7 (modulate to Db) Chorus: C C/E F G (3 times) C Dm7b5 C
Doo Wop(2)
Game This is another structured long form. Get a topic, line up the players, and start improvising a song
Long Form Performance SingSong
around the theme, usually without using a piano player (it would get too structured and cluttered if you so). Use the suggestion to improvise instruments (or their sound) with. Players can offer bits of NarrativeK by singing over the ’music’. Once the narrative patterns are clean, any player can step out of the song and start a scene based on what was established.
When the scene is done the ’music’ resumes till someone else starts a scene. Nice if the scenes start to connect, or if characters from different scenes meet and interact.
Notes
This is a bit like a HaroldG but without the games. Or like a French BraidG where the glue between the scenes is the song.
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Game
Performance SingSong
Game
Limitations Performance
Game
Endowment Look and Listen Narration Performance
Do Ron Ron
4 players sing a song about a subject, given by the audience, on the tune of Do Ron Ron.
Variations
Invent your own choreography and have the players dance as they sing.
Double Blind Freeze
This is an extension of Blind FreezeG : 2 players in scene, the others line up with their backs to the scene. Whenever the audience yells Freeze! the 2 players at the end of the line replace the 2 players on scene, and start a new scene, from the positions the original players were in.
Double Endowment
Another great game to train listening skills.
Pick a place where a scene will be played, and 2 players. Tell each player what they need to get the other player to do, without the other player knowing this. Players are not allowed to explicitly tell the other player what to do.
Example: an arena in ancient Rome. Player 1 needs player 2 to taste the sand in the arena, and player 2 needs to get player 1 to tie a knot in a lion’s tail.
Notes
Works best is players take risks. If they to the ’wrong’ thing the audience will probably just laugh, and that should be enough to signal the player he’s going the wrong way.
Double Opening
2 players each make a (strong) opening sentence, at the same time. After that, adhering to both openings, find the scene that makes sense for both.
Variations
Do the same, but have both players react to each other’s opening simultaneously. Then have the original players react to the reaction simultaneously. Rather difficult, but teaches the importance of listening to one another.
Dry Cleaning Bag of Death
We need three or four players. During the scene, one player is always off-stage, with his head inside a dry cleaning bag, slowly suffocating. He is not allowed out of the bag until some other player finds a way to to exit the scene and ’liberate’ the suffocating player. New player puts his head into the bag until freed by another player, and first liberated player finds a way to justify his entrance into the scene.
Variations
Use a bucket of water instead of a dry cleaning bag. Also known as Bucket of DeathG. . Also known as Head in BucketG. .
Game
Exercise Limitations Look and Listen Narration
Game
Limitations Performance
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Dubbed Movie
Game 2 or more actors play a scene, but they don’t speak, although they can move their mouths as if they
Performance
are speaking. 2 or more players sit in front of the action, and provide the speech. The effect is (or should be) like watching a dubbed movie.
Duck Duck Goose
Game Invent a name for a non-existing but simple children’s game. As soon as you call out the name, all
Exercise Group Warm-up
players start to play the game. They can use sounds and gibberish, but no real language. See if the group can come to playing along the same rules.
Variations
Just have the group start playing the game, and afterwards have the group come up with the name.
DVD Special Edition
Game Start off with a trailer, narrated by one of the players, followed by some quick scenes, maximum 5
Long Form Performance
lines per scene. Then show the cast (every character in the movie), and follow with the whole movie. This can be done with out without director.
After the movie you can do the special features. You can do deleted scenes, bloopers, you name it. A nice format for those transitioning from short form to long form, as the start of the performance is a bunch of short scenes.
Eights
Game Excellent game to warm up those muscles.
Warm-up
Everybody scatter around, stand up relaxedly. Ask the players to make an ’8’ movement with their left big toe, then their left foot, then whole left leg. Repeat with right toe/foot/leg.
Repeat with left index finger, left hand, left lower arm, left arm. Repeat with right hand/finger/arm. Try both arms. In opposite directions.
Make 8-shaped movements with your pelvis. Try horizontally and vertically. Try changing direction. Ditto for left shoulder, right shoulder, both shoulders. Ditto for your head.
End exercise by making eights simultaneously with as many parts of your body as possible.
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Elephant
Game This one is like an extended version of Bippety BopG . Start with 3 things:
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
an Elephant, consisting of a trunk, made by the middle player, by holding your nose with one hand, and extending yo ur other arm through the arm that holds the hand that holds the nose (does this make any sense?). The neighboring players each form a big ear, using both arms. Don’t forget to attach the ears to the elephant’s head. Make an elephant sound.
A palm tree: the middle player is the tree, her neighbors become the waving leaves of the tree. Make windy noise
A car: the middle player holds the steering wheel, the neighbors do the wheels. Make car engine noise.
One player in the middle. Point to a person and yell Elephant (or Palm Tree, or whatever was agreed). Then choose another player and yell something else. Do this at high speed.
Now for the extension: when someone makes a mistake, look at what the person does, and add that to the list of possibilities. For example, someone might be waving their arms incorrectly in from of them, trying to build the trunk of the elephant. If the group things this resembles, say, a swimmer, we decide on adding a swimmer to the list of options. Say the middle player does the arms and her neighbor do the legs.
Repeat until you have so many options that everyone goes wrong...
Emotional Family
Game Usually played with 4 players, but can be done with more or less players.
Limitations Performance
As a suggestion ask for a family activity, then start a normal scene.
As soon as all characters and their relationships have been established, freeze the scene, pick a player, and ask for an emotion for that player. The scene then continues, and the player is overcome with that emotion.
Repeat till all players got an emotion. The scene has to keep evolving after each emotion assignment, and of course players shall try JustifyingK the emotions.
Emotional Mirror
Game Players in pairs, facing each other. One starts talking in gibberish, with a specific emotion (angry,
Concentration Exercise Gibberish Warm-up
happy, in love, you name it). The other instantly copies the emotion of the first player, and speaks in his own gibberish. No need to try and copy the other player’s gibberish, and both players keep talking, no pauzing allowed. After about 10 seconds, the second player changes emotion, and the first one immediately follows her.
Emotional Quadrants
Game Divide the scene in 4 quadrants, and allocate 4 different emotions to each quadrant. Players play a
Limitations Performance
scene, but need to take on the emotion of the quadrant they are in.
Notes
Encourage players to move about, in order to force changes of emotions. Don’t forget to justify emotion changes.
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Emotions Characters
Game Players in pairs, arms loosely hanging (not folded, not stuck in pant pockets). Players look at each
Characters Exercise
other with pity. No words or sounds allowed, and no use of hands.
Ask everyone to change partners. Players are asked to look at each other lustfully.
Change partners again. Players are asked to look at each other joyfully.
Then yell any of the three emotions. Players need to find back the partner with which they did that emotion and do it again. Repeat this several times. Then ask players to walk around the room. When they meet one of their 3 partners, they return to the look that went with that partner. In between partners they stay neutral.
You can try more or different emotions, of course.
Endowments
Game This is a general handle for a ton of endowment games:
Endowment Guessing Performance
one player leaves, the audience gives an occupation, and this player need to be endowed with that occupation. Game is over once the occupation is guessed - Also known as Occupation EndowmentG. .
audience provides a location and a murder weapon (and perhaps an occupation for the victim as well). Player that was sent out needs to guess these - Also known as Murder EndowmentG. . Attention - this is not the same game as LCDG .
Audience provides 3-5 objects. Players try to endow the other player to use those object - Object EndowmentG .
2 players. Audience provides a secret for both; players do not hear their own secret but know the secret of the other. Then they try to endow the other players with their secrets - Also known as Secrets EndowmentG. .
Audience provides a new brand of superhero. E.g. toothbrushwoman. Audience also provides 2 strengths and perhaps 1 weakness for this superhero. Others try to endow player one with the name, strengths and weakness of the new brand of superhero - Superhero EndowmentG .
Energy 1-10
Game Everyone in a big circle, squatting down. We will count 1 to 10, all together, moving up, with
Energy Exercise Group Warm-up
increasing energy level. 1 is hardly audible, 10 is as loud as possible, everyone standing straight, hands reaching up.
It’s important to watch each other, to ensure we’re all at the same energy level. Also make sure that the increase in energy is nicely gradual.
Evil Stick of Gum
Game This is a variation on Little VoiceG . In this game one character has a piece of gum in her mouth, and
Limitations Performance
this piece of gum is capable of talking.
The point is that other characters in the scene do not know about this piece of gum, and hence mistake the gum’s words for the characters.
Since our piece of gum is evil, it tries to get it’s owner in trouble.
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Evil Twin
Game 4 players. 2 will play a scene. The other players are the other’s evil twins. At any point, the ’twins’
Performance
can shout ’freeze’ after which they tag out their twin, and continue the scene and do something evil. After that, they move out again, and the original twin brother needs to justify the evil, correct or repair the damage done and continue the scene.
Notes
Great setups for this game are things like first dates, or meeting your in-laws for the very first time.
Exaggeration Circle
Game All players in a circle, or a long line. One player starts a little gesture, with or without a little sound..
Energy Exercise Warm-up
The next player takes it over and makes it bigger. The last player does the whole thing to the extreme.
Notes
Make sure the players stick to the original gesture/sound, and don’t just do their own thing. We should be able to see the movement grow organically.
Excluding
Game 4 players play a scene, in which one of the players gets excluded. Exercise
Group
Notes
This is a group exercise, in the sense that players should be sensing where the majority of the group is going (see Alien Tiger CowG ).
Tell players not to be afraid of ’being nasty’ - be extreme in your exclusion (that makes it easier, also for the player that is excluded - see Mr. Nice GuyK ). Whoever gets excluded should gladly accept this and react accordingly.
Excluded players can go to extremes to be re-included - hilariously funny if even this is thoroughly ignored by the others.
Variations
Let the exclusion evolve; allow a player that got excluded to get 2 others to join him and exclude the fourth one. This only works if the excluded player first allows herself to be excluded (a little ChivalryK here).
Also known as AlliancesG. . This game was originally created as a pattern game for long form shows at the Theatresports London Impro Lab in the late 1980’s. The whole point of the game is NOT to actively try and exclude anyone. The exclusion of one player should happen as a result of the other players making alliances with one another. If you don’t do this the scene doesn’t form very good patterns and the players get too competitive. You also miss the slow, sliding status drops and the desperate attempts to hook into an existing alliance, that happen when a player is starting to realize that they are being excluded.
A good way to start this game would be:
Start in a black-out seated round a table
While the lights are still down the entire ensemble starts to laugh (as if someone has just told the punchline to a hilarious joke)
The lights slowly fade up as the cast’s laughter winds down and the alliances begin to form By the end of the scene, which climaxes in a final, dramatic exclusion, we usually end up with four to six threads and a clear protagonist
Big thanks to Alan Marriott of Crunchy Frog Collective and Grand Theft Impro (London, England) for the additional info on Alliances.
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Family Portraits
Game Fun game to get everyone to work together.
Association Group Warm-up
Players are going to ’build’ family portraits. Ask for e.g. Family of accountants, bean counters
Family of fat/skinny people
Family of Pop Stars
Family of snakes, rats, cats
Family of garden tools
Tell the players you will want to see who’s who in the family. We also want to see who gets along with who, who’s the black sheep of the family, and so on. This only works if players watch each other closely.
Famous Last Words
Game MC asks the audience for famous (living or dead) people, or characters in movies, cartoons or
Performance Verbal wit
songs. Players line up and invent ’famous last words’ for the subjects given by the audience.
Famous Person Endowment
Game 1 player gets a number of famous persons; one for each other player in the scene. Then a scene is
Endowment
played with all players, and player 1 endows the others with the personalities given by the audience.
Guessing Sort of the inverse of The PartyG . Performance
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Fast Food Laban
Game Laban was a movement theorist, and this exercise is based on (a simplified form of some of) his
Characters Exercise
ideas. Take 3 categories:
Timing: Sudden or Sustained Weight: Heavy or Light Space: Direct or Indirect
Then try and make characters that behave/speak following combinations of the 3 categories: punching : sudden / heavy / direct
slashing : sudden / heavy / indirect
wringing : sustained / heavy / indirect
stroking : sustained / light / indirect dabbing : sudden / light / direct smoothing : sustained / light / direct pushing : sustained / heavy / direct
Notes
The attributes go with the characters, not necessarily with the actual performer’s body. A heavyset person may move about delicately.
Variations
You can introduce this in a fairly simple way, by asking the players to move about the room, according to directions or orientations:
be a ’horizontal’ or ’vertical’ person be downward, or upward
be light or heavy
Then experiment with these: be suddenly light (bird taking off from a tree) or continuously light (be a cloud).
You can do this using different kinds of music. What direction / weight / movement does a certain song or theme inspire?
Then try to experiment with characters: who or what would be vertical person be (a general?). What/how would be continuously light person be (stoned?). Suddenly light (flirty?). See also Fast Food StanislawskiG .
Origin
Attributed to Keith JohnstoneR . See Impro for StorytellersR .
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Fast Food Stanislawski
Game Have 2 players perform a scene, perhaps give them a title or a location, but also give them a subtext
Characters Exercise
for their character. Subtexts might be: you want to seduce the other you are a nerd
you like to make people laugh you want to impress others
you are a nasty person
you try to be ordinary
you are an optimist/pessimist
you will never find a girlfriend/boyfriend
Notes
If you are using this in a workshop it might be a good idea to ask the players how one would behave given a certain subtext. Stress that you are looking for TruthfulnessK .
This is an excellent technique to find a character. You can actually use this for performance - just give yourself a subtext when you jump onto the stage and see what happens.
See also StatusK .
Origin
Described in Impro for StorytellersR : the book contains an appendix on how to play for different subtexts.
Fast Forward
Game For this handle we need a ’director’, or the MC can take on this role. A scene is started. The director
Continuation
Performance story is then continued in that time. This technique can create flash backs. Also known as RewindG.
can at any point interrupt the scene, and fast-forward (or backward) to another point in time. The See also Director\’s CutG .
Feature Film
Game This is a collection of scenes, all based around (the making of) a movie. One character we definitely
Long Form
have in this format is a Director, who can direct the players to re-play poorly played scene, and who Performance can offer parts of the storyline or TiltsK . before they actually get played.
Apart from seeing the scenes from the movie itself, we can (but don’t have to) see scenes of what is going on behind the scenes (so you can have a totally different sub-plot going on there, if you want). Some groups also involve the guy that actually wrote the script (as in TypewriterG ).
Also known as At the MoviesG. . Also known as At The OscarsG. : where we start the performance with an Oscar nomination (or win) for the Director.
Final Freeze
Game This is an extension of Blind FreezeG : players try to do callbacks from previous scenes in the
Limitations Performance
Freeze. Recycle characters, situations, or even continue scenes that were frozen before.
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Finger Applause
Game Have the audience clap not their hands, but start with 2 fingers. Then gently add more fingers until
Audience Warm-up Performance
the whole hand is used.
Variations
Try folks clap hands with their neighbors. Left hands up, right hands down; so every person claps his right hand into his neighbor’s left hand and vice versa.
Fingertips
Game Played in pairs. Players touch all ten fingers, and one player closes her eyes. The other player leads
Trust
the blind player by his fingertips. Make sure you have some obstacles in the room to navigate around/over/under.
See also Blind LeadG for a similar exercise.
Firing Squad
Game This is an association game, sometimes used in workshops to ’punish’ a silly or inattentive student.
Association Warm-up
All players, except one, the victim, form a long line. The first player in the line throws any word to the victim, who responds as fast as he/she can with the first word that comes to mind. The next player in the line then throws another word, usually unrelated to the previous word, and again the victim needs to respond as fast as possible. Repeat till everyone has thrown a word.
Variations
This can be done as a continuation game: when done, the victim takes last place in the line, and the first player becomes the victim.
You can even have multiple victims walking the line at the same time. Make sure there is enough ’space’ between the victims, otherwise, with the first hesitation, victims will start bumping into one another.
Five Four Three Two One
Game This is a long format, origin unknown, and has resemblance to a HaroldG .
Format Long Form
5-4-3-2-1 can be played with 4 to 12 players. In this format the audience provides 5 different themes, objects, emotions, locations or situations. Then, the game is played in 5 rounds.
In the first round 5 scenes are played, each based on one of the audience suggestions. These scenes are totally unrelated. After the first round the audience decides which of the 5 scenes seen should be discontinued.
In the second round, the 4 remaining scenes are continued, and links start to appear between these scenes. Again, after this, the audience decides which scene to dump.
This continues until after 4 rounds there are only 2 scenes left. In the fifth round these scenes come together in one final scene. This format can be played with or without props and/or director(s).
Variations
This can also be played without dropping a scene line. In that case you’d probably use 3 rather than 5 scenes. Also known as TriptychG . Also known as TapestryG .
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Five Things
Game One player leaves the stage while the HostK asks for an everyday activity. Then, audience and host
Gibberish Guessing Limitations Performance
will change 5 things about that activity. Example: suggestion is feeding the cat. One might change the following:
change the cat into something else, say a tiger
change the verb into some other verb, say deep frying
change the location from where one might feed the cat. Say the Vatican. change the character. Say character changes from cat-owner to postman add interaction with a famous person, say Elvis.
After that the 1st player is brought back in and a scene is played in GibberishK . The other players have exactly 5 minutes to make the first player guess each of the five things.
Depending on the original suggestion, feel free to change whatever.
Flock Dance
Game This is a physical warm-up. The group forms a pyramid: one player becomes the top, 2 players
Exercise Introduction Warm-up
behind her, 3 players on a third line, and so on.
The top player starts moving about the room (perhaps use music to guide the players). The second line follows the first player, and mimics her movements, and the third line follows the second line. The top player can alternate however she wants (and can be guided with e.g. a change in the music).
The top player can even turn around, and face the second line. Confusion will be complete. Other variations can happen when the top player bumps into the last line, and takes over their movements. See also AerobicsG
Follow the Leader
Game All but one in a circle, one player in the middle. The middle player closes her eyes, and the rest of
Exercise Group
the group quietly chooses a leader.
Middle player opens her eyes and tries to find the leader. The whole group follows the leader, in everything he does. As soon as the middle player finds out who the leader was the game is over. This only works if movements are clear, not too fast, and if the group ’follows the leader’ as fast and as precisely as possible.
Follow your Nose
Game Silly physical warm-up. Have everybody mill around the room, and shout a body part. Players then
Exercise Warm-up
start moving around as if they are leaded by that body part. Continue with another body part. End the game on a really silly note by leading with e.g. your internal organs. Also known as Foot Soldiers G .
Foreign Movie
Game 2 players play a story in GibberishC , 2 others translate. The idea is to build the story together: the
Gibberish
Performance Also known as SubtitlesG.
’actors’ give elements to the translators, and the translators can help steer the action for the ’actors’.
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Fortune Cookie
Game Open a fortune cookie, read it aloud. Then play a scene based on the fortune. Limitations
Performance
Variations
Give every player a fortune cookie; each player then need to show that fortune in his or her character.
Fortune Teller
Game One player covers his ears while the others get ’predictions’ from the audience; one prediction per
Endowment Guessing Performance
other player. First player then plays a fortune teller who must be endowed by the others to predict the given predictions.
Variations
Off-stage players can "posses" (like as ghosts) the fortune teller and give him or her tips.
Free Association Circle
Game Everyone in a circle and we establish a rhythm, by swinging a hand. Once a rhythm is established,
Association Exercise Warm-up
one player starts by tossing a word to his neighbor, who associates on the word and tosses another word to his neighbor.
It’s important to stay in the rhythm. Tell the players to just say ’banana’ if they feel they can’t think of a word, as long as the rhythms does not get broken. See also Word BallG and Clap Snap AssociationG .
Variations
Try this in combination with Last LetterG . See Blind Association CircleG for another variation. Free Association
Game This is the classic association exercise. There are various ways of playing this (see Variations and
Association Exercise Warm-up
see other games in the AssociationC category.
The Basics
In a free association we will ask players to say the first thing they think about when hearing (or seeing, feeling, smelling or tasting) anything another player provides.
It should be stressed that anything is valid, as long as it is not preconceived: the association should be based on what the previous player has offered.
Variations
Here is are list of Free Association games: Free Association CircleG
Free Association LinesG
Walk-over AssociationG
Word BallG Firing SquadG
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Free Association Lines
Game Yet another way to play association games. Place all players on 2 lines, facing each other. One
Association Exercise
player starts walking to another player in the other line. Just before he gets to that other player, he throws her a word. The receiver starts crossing the line towards someone else, and the first player takes her place in the line. The receiver now becomes the thrower, throwing the first word she can think of to another player, who then starts walking, and so on.
Variations
Try with 2 or more walkers at the same time. Many players, especially new ones, tend to find it easier to freely associate when there are multiple walkers: they feel less ’on the spot’ (as no-one is watching them in all the commotion) and they don’t really have the time to get in their heads.
Can be combined with Last LetterG .
Free Falling
Game Nice, but a bit dangerous exercise to build trust. In it’s simplest (and safest) form all players stand in
Exercise Trust
a circle, one player in the middle. The player in the middle closes her eyes, slowly turns around, and then lets herself fall backwards (or forwards). The other players need to catch her.
Variations
Be careful with this: have one player stand on a chair or a table , the others in front of him. Player closes his eyes and lets himself fall, hopefully he will be caught by the others.
Freeze Tag
Game 2 actors start a scene. At any point in time another player can call Freeze. This player then tags out
Association Exercise Performance Warm-up
one of the 2 actors, and takes his place. Both players then start a new scene, justifying their positions.
Notes
The way this game is played quite often goes a bit against good improv, as many groups hardly take the time to develop a story line. If played this way, it’s more a game of wit, and you would probably use it early in a show as an audience (and player) warm-up.
Alternatively, you can take your time and play every scene for several minutes, see what develops, and only at the end of each scene tag into another scene.
To avoid preconceptions, see Blind FreezeG . See also Space JumpG for an extension of this game. French Braid
Game This is a very simple format, which consists of a number of (unrelated) scenes, that get interrupted,
Format
Long Form Performance
and then continues at a later point.
It is played as follows: 2 or more players start a scene. At any time, when another player or players enters the stage, the scene is interrupted (or fades out) and the new player(s) start a new scene. This is repeated until all players have played.
Then the series is restarted with the first scene. This scene continues, or starts at a later point in time (or later in the story, like a Fast ForwardG ). The scene gets interrupted again, and so forth. The whole is repeated several times.
This is typically played without a director - the players decide when to interrupt an ongoing scene. Players typically play one character.
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Front Desk
Game We play a scene, set in the lobby of a hotel. One or more players play the receptionist(s) and the
Characters Environment Exercise
others play guests arriving or checking out, bell boys, repairmen, you name it.
Players construct the environment together - as soon as a door, a plant, a desk or whatever is ’placed’ by any player, all other players should respect it. See also Group EnvironmentG .
Fruit Basket
Game All players but one sitting a circle, one person in the middle. The person in the middle calls out a
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
category or some descriptive that might apply to some or all of the other players. E.g. all women, all blondes. When called, if a player matches the description must leave her chair and find another chair. Person that doesn’t find a chair becomes the next in the middle.
When ’Fruitbasket’ is called, everyone changes chairs.
Fusillade
Game Great exercise in fast thinking, but seen done in performance as well. Would be an excellent
Energy Exercise Performance
challenge for a theater sports match!
All players line up in 2 lines, facing each other. MC or trainer yells a word/title, and next player in line gets 30 secs to do his or her thing, based on the suggestion. After 30 seconds new title/word is given and next player goes.
Fuzzy Ducky
Game Silly concentration game and great warm-up. All players in a circle. We will count numbers
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
clockwise, except that:
any number that is a multiple of 3, or contains a 3 (like 13) becomes ’Fuzzy’
any number that is a multiple of 7 or contains a 7 (like 17) becomes ’Ducky’
any number that is a multiple of 3 and 7 (like 21) or contains both 3 and 7 (like 73 and 37) becomes ’Fuzzy Ducky’)
Any player that ends up muttering ’Duzzy Fucky’ is put in front of the Firing SquadG . Game-O-Matic
Game This is like ’invent-your-won-game’ : ask the audience for the name of an unexisting improv game,
Performance
then invent the rules on the spot, and play it.
Kind of risky, but if the group has been playing short form improv games for quite a while, coming up with rules is easy.
Gibberish Commands
Game Another exercise on JabbertalkK : players in pairs. Have each play issue a command to her partner,
Exercise Gibberish
in Gibberish. Players can’t move on until the command is understood and executed. Simple things will do, like ’pass me the salt, please’ .
The idea is not to mime the command, but to try and make it obvious for the way the command is issued, and the environment that has been set.
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Gibberish Expert
Game One player is an expert on a subject, often provided by the audience. Furthermore, he’s from a
Experts Gibberish Performance
foreign country (perhaps also supplied by the audience). The expert gives a lecture in GibberishC and a second player translates.
Variations
Have the expert tell a story, instead of giving a lecture.
Gibberish Malapropism
Game This exercise flexes your mind and is a good exercise for GibberishC games. Have the players walk
about in the room, point to any object, and give it another name in JabbertalkK .
Exercise
Gibberish See also MalapropismG .
Give and Take
Game This is a variation on Walking by NumbersG : all players find a position the room. One person must
Concentration Exercise
always make sound and one person must walk. This can be the same person who is walking and making sound but it could be one person walking while a different person is making sound.
The focus can be given (i.e. a walker stops walking) or can be taken (i.e. someone else starts walking; the original walker must stop then). Feel free to try with multiple walkers.
Goalie
Game Great high-tempo exercise. 1 player up front. He’s the goalie. The other players all think of an
Accepting Characters Exercise
opening line for a scene, and a character. When everyone has their opening line and character, we bombard the goalie with these offers, one at a time. Goalie needs to react right away to an offer, acknowledging the opening and character, snap into an opposite character and reply to the opening. Immediately after that the next player comes up with his or her offer.
This exercise is good for teaching players to react right away, and to snap into a character almost without thinking.
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Goon River
Game This is a format that consists of monologues. The story is not played, but told. The players (typically
Long Form Performance
3 or 4) line up in front of the audience, Based on a single audience suggestion they all tell the same story, each as their own character in that story.
The play usually starts with every character introducing him or herself. The order in which characters speak is not really important, as long as they all speak.
After the introductions, things start to happen. Every character reflects on what is happening from their own perspective, and each character adds elements to the story.
Keep going (and make sure that every character keeps contributing) and ReincorporatingK as long as things stay interesting.
Also known as Also known as Spoon RiverG. , Also known as Moon RiverG. , Also known as Goon RiverG. and Also known as Spork RiverG. .
See also Voices From HeavenG for a short form game version which is really based on the same handle.
Origin
Origin unknown, but the story goes that the name of the format would be inspired by a book Spoon River by Edgar Lee Masters (hop on to www.outfitters.com/illinois/fulton/masters.html for more info on Spoon River).
Notes
This is a great way of exercising monologues!
Referring back to the work of Masters, many groups tend to end the format with the death of (one or more of) the character(s).
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Gorilla Theatre
Game This format is played with 3 experienced players, one MC and another player, dressed up as a
Format
Gorilla. The Gorilla is the prize to be won; the best player of the evening gets to spend a week with the Gorilla, and of course this is quite a privilege!
The Gorilla enters with last week’s winning player (real or faked). The MC explains that the score for the evening will be counted by means of bananas; the player that end up with most bananas at the end of the game wins another week with the Gorilla.
The audience is trained to ’vote’ by yelling ’Banana’ (for a good performance) or something else, like ’Die’ or ’Forfeit’ for a bad performance.
Each scene is then played by 2 players, and directed by the third. The beauty of it all is the fact that not the players are judged by the audience, but the director.
Players take turns directing, and after each game the audience either awards the director a banana, or a forfeit. Bananas are pinned on a scoreboard, or pinned onto the winning player’s costume - cardboard bananas are preferable in the latter case.
A forfeit is like a punishment for a poorly directed scene. Possible forfeits might be calling your mom and explaining why you’ve been such a lousy director, or having to sing a song about your bad scene. A list of Gorilla forfeits can be found in the Lists section on ImprovlandR .
The director gets to choose the scene or the game to be played. Perhaps a list of games to be played this night is on the stage, and directors can write their names next to the games they want to direct. The director directs the scene, gives players side-coachings, can interrupt the scene, introduce tilts or make the players repeat (part of) the scene. To ensure that bad scenes don’t drag on forever, or to prevent directors to play tons of 30-second scenes in order to improve their chances, certain troupes limit the amount of time for directing to like 20 minutes per player.
This format can be played with or without attributes and props. The Gorilla might even be used as a prop, or even as a player, although the Gorilla should not try and steal the show. The Gorilla is a player, so he too should be prepared to take risks, and he’s supposed to be naughty.
This is a fairly advanced format, as the players not only need to play well, they also need enough insight to effectively direct scenes. This is also a rather nice format, as players are not rewarded; 2 players playing well together generate a banana for the director, and this way the format prevents competition between the players.
Origin
Attributed to Keith JohnstoneR , and described in Impro for StorytellersR . Greetings
Game All players start milling about the room. You then ask them to greet each other, perhaps just by
Exercise Introduction Warm-up
shaking hands. Players just shake hands, move on, and greet the next player they meet. Then ask the players to greet each other in a more specific way. Possibilities are:
greet each other like you greet a long lost friend greet someone you don’t really trust
greet an ex-lover
greet someone you really hate
someone you have a secret crush on someone you had a one-night stand with someone that sold you a crappy used car someone with bad breath
greet someone like you are a cowboy, a soldier, a nanny, a Russian farmer,... Also known as HelloG. Also known as Lost FriendG. See also PresentsG .
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Group Environment
Game This is a group exercise in building environments. One player starts by entering a ’space’ through a
Concentration Environment Exercise Group
’door’, and then leaves that space, through the same or through another door. Any doors placed remain where they are, and the characteristics of the door are not to change.
Then another player enters the same space, and places a mimed object in that space, either by physically placing the object (carrying, wheeling or pushing it into the space, or by just ’using’ it, for example by hanging her coat over a chair. Second players leaves the room, either through one of the established doors, or by placing a new exit.
This continues until every player has done their thing. Each player needs to respect, and perhaps use all objects placed by previous players.
Notes
Watch for players GaggingK - anyone placing a jukebox in what has clearly been defined as a church is just trying to be funny and screwing up the scene.
Group Freeze
Game Everyone starts milling about the room. Any player may decide to stop walking at any time. As soon
Concentration Exercise
as one player stops walking, everyone needs to freeze in position. As soon as everyone is froze, start walking again.
Obviously, the idea is for the group to freeze as quickly as possible.
Variations
Let all players make noises, hum, whistle as they mill about. The noisier, the more challenging the exercise becomes. Also known as StatuesG. See also Walking by NumbersG .
Group Order
Game Nice warm-up exercise to help the group function/agree as a whole.
Exercise Group Warm-up
Everybody starts milling about the room. You then ask them to line up , according to various criteria. Examples are:
order by age
order by weight
order by shoe size
order by mental health
order by personal hygiene order by number of ex-lovers order by blue
Notes
Keep the silly criteria (order by blue) till the end. Usually, the players will start realizing that it doesn’t really matter what the order is, as long as the group agrees on the order.
Criteria like mental health or personal hygiene are quite interesting to train on ChivalryK .
See also Blind Line UpG .
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Guest Game
Game In this game we play in scene in which one player is a guest, somewhere. We do not know who he
Narration Performance
is, or why he is visiting, or what his relation might be with the characters at the location. All other characters in the scene behave strangely or suspiciously, as if they have a secret. The idea is that by the end of the scene we understand their secret.
For example, a player might ring a doorbell at a house, ready to pick up his date. We never get to see the date, and all characters in the scene slowly provide hints as to what might have happened to the date. The game is over when e.g. we (the audience) discover that all occupants of the house have been hauling garbage bags out of the hous, all containing body parts of the date... It need not always be gruesome, though...
Hall of Justice
Game Fun game for 5+ players, involving superheroes and villains. Get 4 suggestions from he audience,
Performance
e.g. hammer, coffee, influenza and briefcase. This will give us 2 superheroes: Hammerman and his sidekick coffeewoman. We will also have 2 villains: influenzaman and his aide briefcasegirl. The other players play the villain’s victims.
Villains and heroes should try and use as many attributes of their suggestion as they justifiably can.
Handicapped Fairy Tale
Game Very silly but very effective. Ask the audience for a fairy tale. Then give every player one or more
Limitations Performance
characters in the story. Ask for a handicap or peculiar state of mind for each character and play the fairy tale.
Hand Slap
Game All players in a circle, down on the floor. Cross arms, and then put hands flat on the ground. Each
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
hand in turn pats/slaps the ground, in order. Hands that miss are eliminated.
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Harold
Game Harold is a long format, and consists of a number of sub-formats. It basically consists of 3
Format
Long Form Performance
components:
Scenes, with 2 to 4 players Games
Monologues
The format starts with a suggestion from the audience - this could really be anything. Players will start associating around the suggestion, and then an opening game is played. In this game, a lot of associated elements round the audience suggestion are presented. The opening game might be a song, a monologue, or simply a group association based on the audience suggestion. The idea is to use the elements and themes that come up or about in the opening game in what follows.
Then follow 3 rounds of scenes, all based on the themes found in the opening game. Each round exists out of 3 scenes, all unrelated, but each loosely based on the themes and associations form the opening game. Since these themes originated for the same audience suggestion, the audience will (hopefully) feel some links between the scenes.
After the first round of 3 scenes, an improv game is played; this game is unrelated to the 3 scenes played before. Then, in the second round, each of the 3 previous scenes is continued, and more or less obvious links between the scenes start to emerge. This is again followed by an improv game, and then the 3 scenes are played into a conclusion.
It’s quite possible that in the third round not every scene is continued; scenes may disappear or even merge with one another.
A Harold can be played with a decent number of players (up to 12 or so), players can act in multiple scenes, as the same or as different characters. A Harold can be played with or without props, with or without directors.
Whether one sticks to the 3 rounds or not is really not relevant; anything and any combination of games and loose scenes that finally more or less come together can be considered a Harold.
Origin
This is an American format, described in Del CloseR ’s book Truth in ComedyR . We’re not sure whether it’s copyrighted - if you know please let us know.
Hat Continuation
Game Start a scene, and identify each of the characters by means of a hat. The MC will interrupt (freeze)
Continuation Performance
the game from time to time, and switch the players’ hats. After the switch each player becomes the character that previously wore his or her hat.
The story needs to continue and should make sense.
Notes
A gimmick is CommentingK on the fact that characters ’jump’ in space when the hats gets switched. Use sparingly.
Also known as Bermuda TriangleG.
Hats
Game A very silly game. 2 improvisers put on hats, preferably similarly sized. Scene ends when one player
Performance
grabs the other player’s hat or tries to do so and misses. Any grab, move to grab or defensive movement needs to be fustified. Try and play the scene for reality.
Variations
Start with a 20 second window in which no grabs are allowed, so that the scene and the relationships between the characters can evolve.
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Heave Ho
Game This is like an extended version of TossingG to be played with 16+ players. All players but one form
Group Trust
2 lines, facing each other, and link hands to form a platform, which is used to heave the last player from one end of the line to the other.
Best to remove shoes, coins, and any other objects that might fall or hurt someone.
Helping Hands
Game Scene played by 4 players, playing 2 characters. Each character consists of one player, who does
Limitations Performance
the voice, holding his hands behind his back. Another player stands behind player 1, and provides the ’hands’.
The story should be a give and take between voices and hands. Also known as Arm GameG. .
Variations
Have 2 players provide the arms, one each.
He Said She Said
Game Excellent game to show how EndowmentC works. 2 players; each player will state the action the
Endowment Exercise Performance
other player must perform, followed by his own line. Example:
1: "I want a divorce"
2: "She said, while grabbing a knife from the kitchen table." At this point player 1 needs to take a knife. Player 2 continues with his own line. "Sure Honey"
1: "He said, while turning to the sports page of the paper". Now, it’s quite clear that player 2 should be paying more attention to the paper than to his wife. Player 1 continues with her own line. "You’re not listening to me"
and so on.
Players refer to each other as ’he’ and ’she’, and endow each other with the next action to take. This can be quite funny, if you endow your partner to do crazy or not-so-nice things to you (or to themselves, but that’s would not be Mr. Nice GuyK ).
Variations
Can be done with 4 players: 2 provide the lines, and the 2 others provide the ’directions’ - each director provides the action for one of the 2 talkers.
Can also be one with 3 players: one provides directions and both other players do their own dialogs.
Notes
Keep the action do-able and active. Making someone else ’think about something’ is hard to play, and not very active. Also known as He Said While SheG.
Hesitation
Game In this game a scene is played, in which at any time, any player may ’hesitate’, and ask the audience
Limitations Performance
for help. Anything provided by the audience must be justified and incorporated. Examples:
James, hand me that .... (signs the audience for a word) -- Lollypop.
Ah, I was sailing the 7 seas in my .... Newspaper. Yes, Newspaper, finest vessel ever built by ..... (martians)
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Hijacker
Game Excellent game to train listening skills.
Endowment Guessing
Look and Listen Performance
Notes
Works best is players take risks. If they to the ’wrong’ thing or use the wrong object the audience will probably just laugh, and that should be enough to signal the player he’s going the wrong way.
Hitch Hiker
Game Use 4 chairs to build the interior of a car. One player starts driving the car, and another player
Characters Exercise Performance
becomes a hitch hiker, hiking a ride. The hitch hiker character has a particular character tick or particular emotion, which the driver takes over.
Other hitch hikers join in, each with their own characteristics or emotions, taken over by the driver and the passengers in the car as the hiker joins. When the car is full, one of the players leaves the car to make room for the new guest.
Notes
Don’t forget to justify leaving the car.
Honey Walk
Exercise Warm-up
water, oil, honey, Jell-O, wet cement to hard cement.
End the game by having them ’frozen’ in cement and break out with a big bang.
Notes
Coach the players to imagine really moving about these substances. They should be able to ’feel’ the mist between their fingers, the honey in their hair.
4 players, one leaves the room. Pick a means of transportation, and an object. The idea is that player number 4 needs to guess the means of transportation, and then use the object to hijack the others. Finally pick a goal for the hijacker to achieve.
The players need to provide hints to the hijacker, but they cannot explicitly tell the hijacker what to do, with what or why. Also known as Rebel without a ClueG.
This is a group exercise. Tell the players they have an oxygen mask, and then talk them thru the Game exercise: players are to move about in successively thicker substances. Go from thin air, mist, warm
Horoscope
Game Take a magazine with a horoscope. Ask an audience member for their birthday, read their
Performance
horoscope and then play a scene based on that horoscope. Can be combined with Day in the LifeG .
Hot Spot
Game All players in a circle. One player steps into the circle and starts singing a known song. As soon as
Group SingSong Warm-up
this player shows any signs of stopping (because she doesn’t know the lines any more, gets tired or embarrassed) another player needs to step in and take over (singing a different song).
Notes
This exercise is not about improvising songs, but more of a group thing. Players need to know that the group will support them when they’re out of breath. The idea is to keep singing.
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Game
Environment Exercise Group Performance
Human Props
Excellent exercise for building environments. Ask one player to start doing an activity that somehow defines (broadly) a location. E.g. when someone starts typing she might be in a (home) office. The other players then become the other objects in the environment.
Notes
Tell the first player she can start using the props built by other players in the environment (if she recognizes them). Tell players to go for the obvious: in just about any room you could be a plant, a door or a table, after all.
When done, ask the first player to name any ’object’ built in the environment.
Variations
You can use this as a handle for a performance. When a player is asked to sit down, and there are no chairs on the scene, another player can become the chair for the first player to sit on. Other examples are ticking clocks in haunted houses, cabinets and closets, you name it.
ID
Ask a number of Ids, driver’s licences from audience members. Play a scene in which the characters are based on the Ids. The host may ask these folks questions about their lives. See also Day in the LifeG .
I Love You
A simple song structure for 2 singers. Singer 1 sings 4 lines; the first 3 are about the other character; line 4 is simply "I love you". Then player 2 does the same about the first character. May rhyme but that’s not a must.
After that, the 2 parts are repeated, but interweaved, one player at a time, and ending, singing together, with "I love you".
Example:
Player 1: You sing so well, You dance so great, You act so fine, and I love you
Player 2: Your voice is so deep, your lips are so full, you move with grace, and I love you Interweaved: You sing so well (player 1), Your voice is so deep (player 2), You dance so great (1), your lips are so full (2), you act so fine (1), you move with grace (2), and I love you (together)
Game
Audience Participation Limitations Performance
Game
Performance SingSong
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Imitate
Game This is an exercise for characters. 2 players will play a scene in a shop. The quality of the scene is
Characters Exercise
irrelevant here, really; just get into the shop, order what you need, pay for it and off you go. Give us an object (a carrot) and we got a scene in a carrot shop. One player is designated as shopkeeper, and the other will play the customer.
The idea is to give the ’customer’ a basis to build a character. She will enter the shop in that character, and the other player (the shopkeeper) tries to imitate the character as closely as possible. Use the following tricks as stepping stones for building characters:
Ask ’customer’ to talk to you in different voices. Pick one of these and there she goes.
Ask the ’customer’ to pull different kinds of faces. Pick one and there she goes.
Pick a body part (elbow). There she goes; taking the suggestion ’elbow’ as inspiration for her character.
Pick an emotion and there she goes.
Ask her to move around a bit, dance and let her freeze. The position in which she is frozen is her inspiration for the customer character.
This is an exercise for both players, but what is exercised is different for both:
for the customer, the exercise is building a character out of a silly suggestion. Note that there are not good or bad characters; anything in the position/suggestion given to the player can be used as inspiration, even if the ’link’ between the suggestion and the actual character is not obvious. The only goal is to come up with interesting, strong characters.
for the shopkeeper this is a listening/watching exercise. The idea is not for the shopkeeper to build a character based on the suggestion; it is for him to imitate as closely the character treats of the customer.
See also Opposite CharactersG .
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Impro Match
Game This format does not have a specific name and is mainly popular in French speaking countries.
Format
There seem to be leagues in just about every French speaking country; there’s even a league playing this format in the Congo! These leagues meet every year to play a world championship. The game is modeled after an ice hockey match: 2 teams of 6 players, 3 men and 3 women, perhaps with one coach per team play each other during 3 30-minute rounds, in a ’ring’ resembling an ice hockey field. The game is lead by a referee and 2 aides.
The referee draws challenges out of a bin; challenges can be mixed or separated. A mixed scene is played by players of both teams; a separated scene is played twice, each time by players from one team. Challenges consist of:
Title for the scene: can be anything
Number of players per team: can be unlimited, or specified. In some countries they may even specify the genders, like ’2 females for the red team, unlimited for the blue team’
Category: could be anything, but examples would be Science Fiction, Drama, Dostojewski, Western, Musical, Opera, Without words or Without sound, or To Be Continued. For the latter one, the scene played by the first team is to be continued by the second team
Duration: a number of minutes, ranging from 20 minutes to 30 seconds
During the scene the referee walks though the scenes, and blows ’faults’ on a whistle. Possible faults would be: Dragging (slow play), Invalid number of players, Violation of the theme (or title), Confusion, Obstruction or Foul Play, Blocking, etc. Every fault is indicated by a particular gesture. When entering the theatre, the audience receives a ’fault card’ explaining which gesture indicates which fault. Fault can be awarded to an entire team, or to individual players. When a team collects 3 faults, the other team receives an extra point. When a player collects 3 personal faults, he or she is expelled from the game for 5 or 10 minutes.
Every member of the audience also receives a slipper. This can be thrown into the ring when the audience doesn’t like a scene, or even better, at the referee, whenever he or she makes an unpopular decision.
After each round the team captains may ask the referee for an explanation on the faults that were blown, and then the audience gets to vote. Every team has a color, and the audience gets colored cards to vote with.
After 3 30-minute rounds we know which team won the match. Finally, a celebrity or local hero gets to award ’stars’ to the 3 best players.
This is a very rigid format, in which just about anything, except the scenes themselves, are fixed. There is a whole protocol to be followed to play a match, and even the number of separated and mixed scenes is set in stone. The idea is that the rigidity of the format contrast well with the anything-is-possible concept of the improvised scenes.
This is a difficult format, as teams really play against each other. Quite often even players in the same team will play against each other, as everyone wants to get awarded a star at the end of the night.
Origin
This (copyrighted) format was developed by 2 Canadians: Yvon Leduc and Robert Gravel.
In-Out
Game Every player gets a word from the audience. When that word is said by any player, this player must
Performance
leave the scene if he’s in it, or enter the scene if he was not in it (yet). Entering and leaving the scene must be justified.
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Game
Association Exercise
Game
Performance
Game
Long Form Performance
Game
Performance SingSong
Game
Look and Listen Performance Trust
Introducing Association
This little technique can be used to show a new group how natural associating really is. You can only do this with a new group, that has not played any association games before.
Place all players in a circle. Ask one player to say a word, no matter which one. The player to her right then says no matter what word, and so on. Do not tell them they should try and ’associate’.
You (and hopefully the group) will notice that patterns of ’related’ or ’associated’ words emerge. Use this as an introduction to show how natural associating is to humans, and then proceed with the other association games.
Invisibility
Scene in which one oe the characters in invisible to the audience. Characters act and behave as if this invisible character is visible to them.
Variations
One player off-stage provides the voice for the invisible character.
Invocation
This is a kind of OpeningK for Long FormG . It goes in three steps.
Get a suggestion from the audience. Then this suggestion is praised by each player in turn. Same suggestion is praised again, but now EndowingK with human attributes, naming the ’suggestion’ as humans.
Expand the language to something. Go poetic, gibberish-french, whatever.
After that, the players take on the characters that evolved during the previous rounds.
Then, the Long Form is played using those characters.
Irish Drinking Song
4 players sing a song about a subject, given by the audience, on an Irish-souding tune, one line at a time. 4 lines makes 1 verse; after the frist verse, a second verse is started by player number 2; and so forth. After 4 verses every player has both started and ended a verse and the song is over. Played quite often in Who’se Line is it Anyway. You’ll find plenty of examples on YouTube.com.
Variations
Invent your own choreography and have the players dance as they sing. See also Do Ron RonG for a similar structure.
Janus Dance
This is can be used as a TrustC exercise, as well as in performance.
2 players perform a slow dance together; each with their head on the other’s shoulder. Hence they are not looking at each other. While dancing they perform a 2-3 minut scene.
This gives for great listining practice, since players aren’t looking at their partners. If is also good for overcoming (physical) awkwardness between partners that are not familiar. And it is a great exercise for physical work in the dance, as in physical expression of the character’s feeling.
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Jeopardy
Game This games is not unlike Worlds WorstG : have the players close/cover their ears. Then ask the
Performance Verbal wit
audience for questions and answers. Examples would be:
What is the color of an American school bus? Yellow.
What is dyslexia? Not being able to make words out of letters.
Write down the answers, not the question.
Then give the players an answer and let them come up with questions that might be answered correctly by that answer. It’s kind of like ’what would the worst/sillies/funniest question be that could have this answer?’
Jump
Game This is at times a physical Warm-upC , a physical association game, and a game for character work.
Association Characters Exercise Warm-up
The game is played individually but all players can do this simultaneously.
All players mill about the room. At any point the trainer yells "Yes!", at which point all players ’jump’ into a position. Trainer can (but does not have to) sidecoach by shouting ’direction’ (see Fast Food LabanG ) like ’horizontal’, ’up’, ’down’, ’sideways’, ’big’, ’small’, ’light’, ’heavy’.
The idea then is to let the position into one has jumped inspire the player to a character, a situation. The inspiration comes from associating the position with, euh, well, whatever comes to mind.
See also Association JumpG for an extension of this exercise.
Just Gibberish
Game Excellent exercise for players that suffer from chronic WafflingK .
Association Exercise Gibberish Narration Performance
Play a scene, completely in gibberish, no translations provided. The scene should be perfectly clear to the audience - we should be perfectly able to translate every gibberish sentence, and the story should make sense.
Notes
This will only work if the stories are extremely simple, and if the PlatformK is made clear right from the start.
Some players tend to do this as a scene without words, but that is not the idea of the exercise.
Killer Bunny
Game This is like BunnyG except that at any time, the middle bunny is allowed to lift her hands above her
Energy Exercise Warm-up
head, lunge to either right or left side and eat one of her own ears, after which the ear player would be out. However, any other player in the circle can prevent any ear from being chewed by yelling Die while bunny’s arms are up in the air, in which case the middle bunny would be out.
Silly, indeed.
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King Game
Game One player is the king or the queen. Other players are to try and pleas his/her Royal Highness. They
Exercise
do this by entering the room, and offering something. The queen either tells them to continue, in case she’s interested.
die, in case the queen is bored
freeze, if the queen might be interested
Players that are allowed to continue may approach the queen and the queen may unfreeze frozen players at her discretion. The game is over when a player is close enough to actually touch the queen.
Notes
The queen can kill a player for any reason: she may not like the message, or she may not like the way the message is presented. The queen can give hints why she does not like the offer: "You know I don’t drink coffee, so die!". The queen should be really difficult..
Also known as Queen GameG. . This is a PC site/document after all.
Kitty in the Corner
Game Classic children’s game. 4 to 6 players stand at corners of the playing area, one player in the middle.
Concentration Warm-up
Ksss
Game Nice warm-up, easier to play than to explain. Players in pairs. Establish a beat (by slapping your
Concentration Energy Warm-up
thighs). Once beat is established every player has the choice between 4 different movements: Move both hands up
Point both hands left
Point both hands right
Point both hands down
So, every beat goes like, slap, point, slap, point and so one. Except, when the 2 players happen to make the same movement (i.e. in the same direction) then after the next slap they both make a 5th movement: point both hands towards the other player, miming a gun, and say ’psssst’. Next beat they do what they want again.
La Ronde
2 players try to make eye contact, and then switch places, while the middle player tries to capture a corner.
The faster the pace, and the higher the stakes (make diagonal eye contacts!) the more fun.
Game This is another Long FormC format. The name is based on a novel by Arthur Schnitzler, called
Long Form Performance
Traumnovelle, in which a series of characters sequentially bed each other, from first to last back to first.
The format is fairly simple: we play scenes in which at every scene switch, the ’oldest’ character disappears and a new scene is played with the remaining character, and a new one. The form ends when the circle closes and the last and first characters do a scene. Obviously, there is no need for all characters to bed each other!
Switching scenes is done by tagging out (like in Freeze TagG ). The idea is to see different aspects of a character, in different situations, interacting with different characters.
For a long discussion about the format see Chicago ImprovR .
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Game
Association Exercise Warm-up
Game
Audience Participation Die Limitations Performance
Game
Limitations Performance
Game
Endowment Gibberish Guessing Performance
Last Letter
This is an AssociationC game, where instead of naming the first word you think of upon hearing a previous word, you name the first word you think of starting with the last letter of the previously heard word.
Variations
Try in combination with Walk-over AssociationG or Word BallG . Last Letter Scene
A scene is played, in which every next line spoken needs to start with the last letter of the previous line.
Last Line
Get a line (any line) from the audience. Players play a scene that concludes with the given line.
Variations
Ask for a first line as well. Also known as First Line Last LineG. . LCD
This game is called Location, Career, Death (LCD).
One player on stage, the others off stage. The audience provides a location, an occupation and an object, only known to the player on stage. Second player enters and a scene is played in gibberish. Player one needs to communicate the location to player 2; as soon as player 2 thinks he’s got it, her claps his hands and spins around. Then player 2 needs to guess the occupation; clap and spin when you think you got it. Finally, the object needs to be revealed. As soon as player 2 has the object, he needs to kill player 1 with it.
Then the next player comes on stage and the game recommences, until all players have played. Afterwards, line up the players and ask them where they think they were, what their occupation was and what the murder weapon was - usually quite far off the original suggestion, much to the audience’s amusement.
Also known as LOWG. (Location, Occupation, Weapon). Also known as Chain MurderG. See also HijackerG for a similar game without the GibberishC component.
Variations
Use a bell, every 10 seconds or so; at the bell players need to clap and spin and proceed to the next step, even if they are not sure about the where, who and what. Kind of LCD on speed.
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Lets Not
Game Excellent game to train narrative skills, but a bit controversial.
Narration
Play in pairs: start with a location (e.g. a beach). One player give the suggestions (e.g. let’s find a talking crab). The other player either accepts the offer, and both play accordingly, or refuses the offer. When an offer is refused the first player needs to make a better offer.
Notes
This is a bit controversial in the sense that players may object to refusing offers; after all, we teach players to accept offers. Explain that the goal of this exercise is twofold:
teach players to drop their own ideas (see ChivalryK ) and happily change course in their story teach players which offers are ’fun’ and which ones are not. The player accepting or refusing the offers should accept any offer that ’feels good’ or that advances the story, and only reject offers that don’t sound like fun or don’t seem to offer any potential for an interesting story.
See DingG and Yes Lets - or Rather NotG for similar exercises. Letter Number Name
Game Warm-up game that’s also good to get to know each other’s names.
Concentration Exercise Introduction Warm-up
Everyone in a big circle. You start by ’giving’ your neighbor your name. Just lift your right arm and call your name to your neighbor. He does the same to his neighbor, and names run around the circle.
Then do the same with the letters of the alphabet. Give an ’a’ to your neighbor, making a ’giving’ gesture with your right hand. Your neighbor continues by passing a ’b’ to his neighbor, and so on. Ditto with the numbers 1 to 9. Use another gesture, e.g. pass the number by tipping your right foot in the direction of your neighbor.
When everyone’s got this, try all of this at the same time. Start by passing your name, and as soon as the name thing has advanced 2 or 3 players across the circle, set a letter thing in motion, and then a number thing. If you have enough players, just mix and match.
Notes
Pay attention to how much gets lost - does everything you set in motion eventually get back to you or not? You can coach players by saying they only need to pay attention to what their neighbor does, not what’s going on elsewhere in the circle.
Variations
Feel free to pass other things, each with it’s own gesture. Possibilities are: months of the year;
notes (like ’do’, ’re, ’mi’, ....)
Line Mirror
Game This is an extension of the MirrorG game. Have all players line up in two face-to face rows, about
Exercise Group
three feet apart, holding hands (within a row). All players can slowly start moving, but keep holding hands, and all movements get mirrored by the other row.
Variations
If you have enough players, form one long U-shaped row, so that the ends of the U face each other. The repeat the exercise as described above.
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Little Voice
Game One player plays a scene. The other player(s) play the voice(s) of objects in the environment in
Performance
which the first player plays.
Anything can have a voice. Examples:
a player walks in a forest and an ant starts talking to him
a player is in the bathroom and his toothbrush starts talking
Variations
You can script the text of the little voice, and have the player justify anything that is said. See Actor’s NightmareG . See Evil Stick of GumG for a different variation.
Notes
Make sure players immediately make clear what exactly is doing the talking. Either the voice makes this clear, or the other player:
Oh my god, a talking duck with a machine gun!
Bet you’ve never seen a talking couch, have you?
Play Name the MonsterG in combination with this game. Also known as SpeckG.
Location
Game Get a location (say the Post Office). The whole long form is played in one and the same Post Office.
Limitations Long Form Performance
Different characters wander in and out, you can even do time shifts and playbacks, but the environment of the scene is limited to the location given.
Lotus
Game This is just a series of scenes in which each new scene evolves out of the dynamics of the previous
Long Form Performance
scene. Divide the stage in 3 playing areas. Put at least 2 players in each area. Then in each area a scene is played. The first group starts with nothing. As soon as the second pair or group understands the dynalics of the first scene, they start theirs. Ditto with the third group or pair.
This is done 3 times, to yield 9 scenes. Every time a group or pair starts a new scene, the previously created characters are used again.
Variations
Start with 3 monologues.
Lounge Singer
Game Ask for an unlikely place to find a lounge singer. One player does a solo song, Frank Sinatra style.
Performance SingSong Solo
You’ll get something like "Welcome to the pediatrician’s Office". Great opener!
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Machines
Game MC/trainer comes up with a (real or invented) machine. The players make the machine; every player
Exercise Group Performance
becomes a part of the machine. We want to see/hear the machine work.
Variations
Tell the players the machine goes into overdrive, until it explodes. Or tell the players the power’s out, and the machine slowly grinds to a halt.
Make More Interesting
Game Simple exercise, useful for players that are too verbal.
Exercise
One player starts a scene. As soon as the trainer claps his hands, the player needs to make whatever he was doing more interesting, without advancing. If our player was opening a briefcase at the clap, he needs to make ’opening a briefcase’ more interesting; he is not allowed to take something out of the briefcase, as that would be advancing; player needs to stick to ’opening the briefcase’.
Notes
Simple to explain but not so easy to play. When done well you move into the clownesque. Think about Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy or Mr. Bean.
Variations
At a second clap, allow the player to advance the scene. Also known as Advancing and Expanding G .
Making Faces
Game ’ A silly handle attributed to Keith Johnstone. A number of players sit, forming a line. The middle
Performance
player is the Master; the others are his servants. The master is planning something (a party or whatever) and is giving his servants instructions. Whenever the master is not looking at a particular servant or servants, these try to make faces behind the master’s back. If they are caught they are fired and replaced by another player.
The idea is for the servants to take really big risks; and for the master to play this very strict, showing no mercy, creating a sense of danger.
Malapropism
Game This game flexes your mind. Have the players walk about in the room, point to any object, and give it
Association Warm-up
another name.
Notes
You can use this game for players that have difficulty with association: it shows that association is natural, and that it is actually difficult not to associate. See also DissociationG .
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Man Overboard
Game This is a nice elimination warm-up. Everyone spreads out in a staggered line, like in an aerobics
Energy Exercise Warm-up
class. Then someone calls one of the following:
’Land ahoy’ - and everyone hops on one foot, doing a salute with one hand
’Hit the deck’ - all down on the floor in a push-up position
’octopus’ - make groups of 2, one person on hands and knees and someone else over him or her in the same position
’Man overboard’ - groups of 2, one bending back and knees and the other on the first’s back (piggy-back style)
’two three four’ - all sit down and start rowing
Whoever is last drops out. Repeat till all but one are out.
Mantra
Game Let the players play a short scene. Then ask them to repeat the following mantra in their head, and
Exercise Spontaneity
replay the scene ’I’m so happy, I’m so happy’. In many cases, you will find that the whole scene becomes happier.
Variations
Try with other mantras, like ’I hate you’, and see what the effect is.
Let players choose a mantra, and then play a scene.
See Mantra IntroductionG for more about mantras. See also Impro for StorytellersR for a discussion on the use of Mantras.
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Mantra Introduction
Game Here’s a way to make a point about blanking one’s mind, subconscious thinking and spontaneity.
Exercise Spontaneity
Have all players sit down comfortably, if they want to close their eyes they can do so. Then ask them to blank their mind, to try and think about nothing at all. Let them do this for 2 minutes or so. While they do so, make sure to walk around, to make some minor noise (blow your nose, clear your throat, walk around) - but don’t overdo this. If you can hear cars drive by in the street, or other people in the building, or hear birds sing then you don’t even have to make a noise.
Then ask the players who managed to think about absolutely nothing at all. Ask those who say they did whether they heard the birds, the cards, you clearing your throat. If they did, weren’t they thinking about that, then?
Now ask the players to close their eyes, and to keep repeating the sound ’mihad’ in their heads. Have them do this for about 3 minutes. Then ask them again who thought about nothing but ’mihad’. If they are honest they should all admit they thought of all kinds of stuff.
The point is that our minds just never stop working. Even if you’re trying to concentrate on a repeating sound in your head - a Mantra - your mind will still wander.
We are all capable of thinking about several things at a time, some people can keep up to 7 lines of thought going in their minds. Who has never driven a car, being perfectly concentrated on the traffic, without thinking about work, the groceries, the kids ?
You can use this exercise to show students they never need to be afraid of a brain freeze - our brains manage to come up with so many things all the time - if you let them.
Mantras are used as a technique for (Transcendental and other) meditation. The idea is to keep the most active part of your consciousness busy, and at the same time let unconscious processes and lines of thought surface. This is similar to what happens in our dreams, but it has been proven (we’ve been told) that these meditation techniques can be more relaxing or cleansing than sleep. Don’t take our word for that, though.
Notes
You can choose any gobbledygook word for a mantra for this exercise, as long as it’s not an existing word (don’t use ’banana’) or strongly resembles an existing word (’banano’ wouldn’t do either) - that could trigger people to think about monkeys, or a jungle, or whatever.
Don’t use ’mihad’ if you’re working with a class of Muslim fundamentalists; they might start thinking about a Jihad ;-)
See also MantraG for examples how you might use Mantras to play scenes. Marriage Counsel Endowment
Game One player is sent out of the room while the host gets 2 relationship problems from the audience. 2
Endowment Guessing Performance
other players play a couple with these problems, and player one is the therapist. Players need to get the therapist to figure out what the relationship problems are.
Marshmallow Mania
Game Play a scene in which the audience is not supposed to laugh. Any player who provokes a laugh, gets
Limitations
Performance See also The GerbilG .
a piece of marshmallow in his/her mouth. Players are allowed to chew, but may not swallow.
Variations
Use grapes instead of marshmallow.
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Game Begin with 2 players, each on a chair. In character they start to talk about what happened to them in
Long Form Performance
the past. Players take turns talking.
Then follows a series of scenes, and for every new scene location the chairs are moved. When returning to a scene location played before, return the chairs to the position they were in in the original scene in that location.
End with the 2 chairs back front stage, as in the beginning of the play. At the same time (of course) conclude the whole story. Usually played with 2 players, but more is possible.
Origin
Attributed to Dan Goldstein.
Massage
Game Place all players in a circle. Have everyone put their hands on their right neighbor’s shoulders and
Group Introduction Trust Warm-up
give ’em a shoulder massage. Turn directions after a minute or so.
Variations
Use some judgment to see what is appropriate; that will depend on the group/ the people you are working with. You can place players in pairs, and have everyone massage the other’s temples, calves, etc.
Master Servant Disaster
Game 2 players, one is the master, the other is the servant. The master will ask the servant for something
Exercise Narration Status
simple. The servant always blocks the question, and explains why this should not be possible. The master always accepts this, and asks for something else (which turns out to be impossible as well). Every time the servant has to explain why this should not be possible, the situation gets worse, until the whole thing turns out to be a disaster.
An example:
Perkins, get me a glass of brandy.
Yes sir. Oh, sir, that won’t be possible sir, we’re out of brandy. Well, get me a glas of whisky, then.
Yes sir. Ah, sir, um, we’re out of whisky too, sir.
Oh? Well get my any kind of alcohol, then.
Ah sir, we’re out of alcohol sir.
Perkins, have you been drinking again?
Well, the staff had a little party last night, sir.
I see. Well get me a glass of water from the kitchen then.
Yes sir. Ah, sir, the water pipes are bust sir, sorry.
Well, get me some water from the pond then.
Ah, yes, sir, uh, sorry sir, the pond is dry, sir.
And so on, until it turns out that the staff had a little party, accidentily set the kitchen on fire, used the water from the pond to fight the fire, and so on. Eventually, the only room still standing is the master’s study, the rest of the castle has burnt down and all staff are dead. And all this for a perfectly logical explanation.
The idea is for the servant to connect all elements the master brings up, into one and the same disaster. In this respect this game resembles BorisG .
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Mega Replay
Game Divide the players in 2 groups. A scene is played by the first group from a well known story, fairy
Performance Replay
tale, historic fact. This scene is then replayed by the other group, in a different emotion, age or style. After that the first group replays as well, again in different emotion, style or age. You can repeat this several times.
See other replay games like Scene ReplayG and Replay GibberishG .
Mexican Name Wave
Game Players in a circle. Let them do a Mexican Wave: one player lifts both arms in the air, and down
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
again. When his arms are totally up, his right neighbour starts doing the same, so a ’wave’ of hands circles around the circle.
When they’ve got this, at the same time, pass your name around the circle, going the other way. Names are passed by pointing to your left neighbor and saying your name.
Confusing, indeed!
Micetro
Game Pronounce as ’Maestro’. Comparable to Gorilla TheatreG , but a bit easier, and can be played with a
Format
fairly large number of players (up to 20), and 2 directors. The names of all players are on a big score board. The directors choose for every game the appropriate number of players, perhaps by fishing name tags out of a hat. The directors explain the game, perhaps ask the audience for suggestions, direct and correct the scene.
After each scene the audience decided, by cheering or applause how many points the scene should be awarded. Each player gets as many points as the scene he or she played in was awarded.
Once everyone has played in a scene, the players with the lowest score drop off, and the whole thing starts again. The directors ensure that (certainly with large groups of players) that there are more group-scenes at the start of the evening, and more 2-person scenes or even monologues toward the end of the evening.
This is a fun format that can be played with mixed bunches of experienced and not-so-experienced players. Since players are immediately judged, it is perfectly possible to pitch a start player after the first round. Since this system is basically somewhat unfair, and everybody knows this, no one should take elimination too personal (well, that’s the idea anyway).
For beginners it’s a nice format, as the directors will correct obvious blunders. And since all players in a scene get the same score, this format limits competition between players in a scene.
Origin
The (copyrighted) format is attributed to Keith JohnstoneR , and also described in his book Impro for StorytellersR .
Millipede
Game Great fun but be careful not to hurt each other. Make sure there are no objects along the walls of the
Group Warm-up
room. All players in a circle, linking arms. Then move the circle to one of the walls, and ’squash’ the circle, until it becomes 2 lines, one line of players with their backs to the wall, and another line in front of the first, players facing each other.
Have this whole construction wheel along the walls of the room at high speed. Tell players to be careful and not to make fists or they might slam into someone’s face.
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Mirror
Game Players per 2, facing each other. They can move (arms, legs, eyebrows) slowly, and the other player
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
will mirror them. This is a game of give and take - no-one should be (continuously) leading. Keep movements slow.
Variations
Do this with the whole group: everyone in a big circle, and everybody mirrors everybody else. Also known as Group MirrorG.
See also Line MirrorG .
Montage
Game This is just a name for the most generic form of Long FormC : a Montage is just a series of scenes,
Long Form Performance
connected or not.
More or Less Game This is a nice show format.
Performance
Any number of players from 5 upwards. Every player takes turns presenting a scene. First player starts, asks audience suggestions if needed, and directs the scene to the extent needed. After a couple of minutes the director asks the audience: more or less. Audience yells their preference, and if More sounds loudest, scene is continued. If audience yells Less then the scene is not continued and another player presents another scene.
Origin
Originated at the Loose Moose Theatre in Calgary, Canada.
Move and Speak
Game Play a 2-player scene, in which no-one is allowed to talk unless they create a new object and a
Concentration Environment Exercise Limitations Performance
movement along with it. All created objects stay where they are, and moving a previously created object does not lead to permission to talk.
See Touch to TalkG for a similar game.
Movie Review
Game 4-10 players. Ask the audience for a movie title. 2 players will do an interview: one will be the
Narration
reviewer. As the movie is discussed, other players play parts of the movie.
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Mr. So and So
Game This is a game that’s more suited for rehearshal than for performance, though I can work on stage as
Characters Endowment Exercise Performance
well. Here is how it works.
Players call for new characters, by giving them names that refer to character or physical traits. Things like: Ah, here comes mr. Bad Irish Accent; I think we need Mrs. Pathological Liar for this one; Dear dear, if that isn’t Sir Eats-People. And so on.
The idea is to challenge the other players with weird and unexpected suggestions, and forcing htem to come up with an extravagant character right away. In a sense this is really institutionalised PimpingK . Another game in which a similar pimping is used would be SupermenG .
My Fault
Game You need 2 plastic bottles, each with a little bit of water (not too much or they’d be too heavy). Make
Energy Exercise
sure your bottles are sturdy. or everyone will get wet.
Have everyone walk around leisurely, and hand 2 players the bottles. The idea is to make eye contact with someone. As soon as a player has eye contact with a player with a bottle, the bottle is thrown. If at any point the bottle is dropped, both the thrower and the receiver lie down on the floor and shout ’My Fault’ as loud as possible. After than, one of them picks up the bottle and the game continues.
Side coaching: tell the players to take risks, to try and make eye contact with a player at the other side of the room.
Variations
Tell the players the bottle is red hot, and they need to throw it as fast as possible, or they’ll burn their hand.
The bottle becomes extremely light, or extremely heavy, and the players act accordingly.
Name 6 Circle
Game You will need a tennis ball or a towel tied in a knot for this one. Everyone sitting or standing in a
Association Exercise
circle. You give one person the ball, and ask him to name at least 6 (or any other number, depending on the size of the circle), in the time it takes for the ball to get passed along the circle. Things to ask for might be
sour tasting fruit foreign makes of cars names of seas B-movies
Italian foods
Variations
Have one person in the middle of the circle. This person provides the category, and indicates how many replies are expected from a player in the circle. If that player does not live up to the challenge, he takes the place in the middle of the circle.
Notes
Tell players not to watch the ball go round when they’re ’it’ - they’ll just panic and freeze. Try this with closed eyes.
Don’t ask for 1940’s Nobel Prize winners, or simply ’emotions’.
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Game
Narration Spontaneity
Name the Monster
Play in pairs, one word at a time (see Word at a Time SceneG ). Choose a location (e.g. walk in the forest). Players must meet a monster, give it a name, and run away from it.
The ’monster’ can be anything: an evil witch, a dragon, a frog with a machine gun, a smelly French cheese, anything.
Variations
Take this game a bit further, and ask the players not to run away from the monster, but do something. Fight it, beat it, get eaten (and continue in the monster’s stomach or in heaven/hell), make friends with it, tame it, capture it, ride it, whatever.
Notes
The real goal of the exercise is to get used to explicitly naming the problem (the ’monster’ in this case).
Use this game e.g. in combination with Little VoiceG , to teach players to actually name whatever is talking to them.
Name Volley
Divide the class into 2 groups, maximum 6 players per group. We are going to play a mimed game of volleyball, in which every player, as they pass a ball, shouts the name of another player, who then needs to catch and pass the ball.
We want to be able to ’see’ the ball at any point in time.
No Doubles 1-10
Nice concentration game.
Everyone in a circle. We will count from 1 to 10. Any player can start by saying ’1’. Then any other player can say ’2’ and so one. If 2 players say a number at the same time we start all over again. Also known as DigitsG.
Non Sequitor
Place players in pairs, let them hold a casual conversation about their work, the weather, anything. There will be 4 signals (hand clap or blow a whistle):
First signal: keep the conversation going, but behave strange, make bizarre gestures and jerky body movements
second signal: keep the strange movements going, and continue the conversation in gibberish third signal: keep calm, but continue the conversation in gibberish
forth signal: stay calm and talk normal
No P
Players play a scene (perhaps based on an audience suggestion) but they cannot use the letter ’P’ (or any other letter). When a player uses a ’P’, the audience screams ’Die’ and the player is replaced by another on. The scene continues, and the new player needs to take over the character of the player he replaces.
Game
Exercise Introduction
Game
Concentration Exercise
Look and Listen Warm-up
Game
Concentration Exercise Gibberish Warm-up
Game
Audience Participation Die Limitations Performance
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Nuclear Bomb Chicken
Game You can do this only once with a new group. Tell them they are all chickens in a henhouse, and a
Characters Exercise
nuclear bomb is about to drop on the henhouse within 30 seconds, Ask the players to play the chickens as truthfully as possible, then give them the start signal. Any chicken that shows acknowledgement of the incoming bomb, fails the exercise. Chickens have no clue what a bomb is. The goal of the exercise is to show the difference between the reality of the player and the reality of the character.
Origin
Attributed to Stella Adler (the only known American to study directly with Russian Master Konstantine Stanislavsky). The story goes that Marlon Brando got it and simply went about laying an egg while the other chickens went in a frenzy.
Object Morphing
Game Good exercise on object work: players in pairs. First player builds an object, as precise and careful
Environment Exercise
as possible, then hands it over to the other. Second player accepts the object, being as truthfull to what the first player built as possible. After having acknowledged this, player 2 starts morphing the object into something else. This can be done by bending, breaking, twisting, extending, shrinking, you name it. When the new object is complete it gets passed back to player 1, who accepts and then morphs it.
Variations
You can do this in a circle, passing and morphing objects around the circle.
Object Narrative
Game Place one chair on stage. The group sits or stands to the sides so they can see what is going on.
Characters Exercise Narration Performance
Someone chooses an object from the room and places it on the chair. (Or get an object from the audience in a show) That object is your suggestion.
One at a time, three members (or how ever many you decide) do a short monologue off that object. One person starts and when they are done, they leave the object on the chair for the next person. Whoever is inspired jumps up next adding their part of the story/situation from another character’s point of view. and the third person completes the cycle.
This exercise is extremely character based. The first character sets the story in motion and then the other two people find a way to be another interesting character that will accept and heighten the first initiation. The challenge is to not be totally predictable with the follow up character choices (avoid immediately choosing to be the spouse when you could be that person’s mailman...or manicurist instead). At the same time you still want to support the story line and justify what the previous characters have already established. The characters don’t have to know each other, but they must have connections (if only through the object).
This exercise helps:
listening (you must listen to the characters before you to know how you can fit into the story/situation and justify it.)
character work
TruthfulnessK (try not to focus ’just’ on the object. It’s about the relationships and connections between the 3 different characters.)
Reincorporating K
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Objects
Game Divide the class in 2 groups. Give one group the name of an object, and they become, as a group,
Exercise Group Warm-up
the object. Other group guesses.
Old Job New Job
Game Play a scene with 2 players, and give them a job (or let the audience provide the job). Then tell them
Characters Performance
what job they had in a previous life.
The idea is that somehow in the scene players reflect their previous jobs in their actual life. The idea is not to ’play’ the old job, but to show character traits of someone with the old job while performing the new job (are we making sense here?)
One Duck
Game Everyone in a circle. We are going to say a pattern, one word per player, going clockwise. It goes
Concentration Warm-up
like:
One Duck, two Legs, Quack
Two Ducks, four legs, Quack Quack
Three Ducks, six legs, Quack Quack Quack
And so on, till someone misses.
Variations
Try with an insect instead of a duck (6 legs per insect), or a spider (eight legs) and invent a sound the insect might make.
One Eighty Five
Game Not really improv theater but done by a quite a few troupes, and fun when done well. Get a term, e.g.
Performance Verbal wit
’Elephants’. The lines go like
185 elephants walk into a bar
The bartender says "Sorry but we don’t serve elephants here" (witty line that’s the reply of the elephants )
Players basically come up with an instant joke about 185 whatevers that enter the bar. As we said, not really theater...
One Line Scene
Game Play a one or two minute scene, where only one line of dialog can be spoken. Indicate to the players
Exercise Limitations
when they have, say, 20 seconds left.
This exercise teaches players what can be communicated using non-verbal communication. Things like, ’thank you’, ’I love you’, ’I appreciate this’, ’I’m sorry" and so forth can all be communicated non-verbally.
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One Mouth
One player (or the MC) is going to interview all other players, but the group of other players are Game really one character. This character answers the questions, but all players provide the answer at the
Exercise Group Performance
same time, as if the character is speaking out of many mouths simultaneously. The answers should make sense (at least grammatically) and should be clear. If one player starts answering a question by saying ’YYYY’ no-one should try and turn that into a ’No’.
Notes
works best if everyone goes for the obvious and simple answers.
don’t try to speak too fast, but take your time to let the answer organically grow.
coach players to take the lead if the answers is sagging, and to happily give up the lead as soon as they feel they got the lead.
move players that stubbornly always take the lead to another position in the group (at the back or at the ends).
Variations
You can try and use this as an audience warm-up, and try to get the audience to talk to the MC out of one mouth. This is suggested in Impro for StorytellersR .
One Two Three Four
Game Ok, this is harder to explain than it is to play. This game is a repetition of 4 movements:
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
1 : touch your head with both hands
2 : touch your shoulders with both hands 3 : touch your hips with both hands
4 : slap right foot with right hand
We repeat this 10 times, as follows:
just say 1,2,3,4 - no movements, do this twice
touch your head (on ’1’ but don’t say ’1’) and say 2,3,4. Repeat twice.
touch head (on ’1’) touch shoulders (on ’2’, but don’t say ’1’ or ’2’). Follow by 3,4, spoken. Repeat twice
touch head, touch shoulders, touch hips (on the rhythm on 1,2,3, but don’t say 1,2,3). Say ’4’. Repeat twice
touch head, shoulders, hips, slap foot. Don’t say anything but stay in the rhythm and repeat twice
Then just start all over again by saying 1,2,3,4 twice. Increase tempo as you go along.
Only Questions
Game A scene is played, in which any sentence used by the players must be a question. Players that use
Audience
Participation
Die
Exercise
Limitations
Narration Although questions are quite often frowned upon in improv (see QuestionsK and WimpingK ), in Performance
statements instead of questions are boo-ed out by the audience (audience yells ’Die’) and are replaced by other players. New players need to take over the character of the players they replace.
Notes
this game the idea is to build a story. That implies that any question should be giving information, and should be (implicitly) advancing on the information already available. Evidently, the next player should implicitly accept any information that was given in the previous question(s).
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Open Offer
Game One player starts a scene by making an offer that is not ’complete’, in the sense that it is vague
Accepting
Association PlatformK . Exercise
Exercise Spontaneity
something fall out of the sky, right into their hands. Let them name the object in their hands, set it aside, move on and open their hands again.
Notes
Some people find this a bit of a scary game, as if they are afraid they are not going to come up with anything. Explain that there are no wrong answers.
Some players will complain that everything that falls out of the sky is a dead bird (or whatever). Explain to them that this is fine too. Most players, if reassured that they really can’t go wrong, move on to other stuff after 10 dead birds or so.
Variations
You can tell players they can vary the way they extend their hands or hand. They can hold hands in front of them, above their head or close to the ground. See if different stuff shows up.
A slightly less difficult version of this game can be done by having players put their hands in their pockets and take something out. Make sure they all got pockets if you want to play this game. This version is slightly easier, as anything in their pockets, like dust, or the way the fabric feels, can trigger and idea; when holding your hands out there is very little to trigger an idea.
Origin
Keith JohnstoneR describes similar games in his book ImproR . Opposite Characters
enough not to define the who/what/where right away. Another player steps in and completes the
Notes
Although in performance we probably want to establish our PlatformK as early as possible, this game teaches players how to quickly build platforms as a group or a team.
Open Your Hand
Game Let the players walk around the room leisurely. Then ask them to stop, open their hands, and let
Game This is basically the opposite to ImitateG : for the shopkeeper, rather than imitating the customer’s
Characters Exercise
character, try and build a totally opposite character.
As a side coaching, point players to the following character treats:
voice (loud/soft/harsh ? intonation?)
StatusK (high/low?)
Age? Occupation?
Way the body moves? (take a look at Fast Food LabanG for more on movement)
Note that this is also a looking/listening exercise for the shopkeeper!
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Opposites
Game Let the players walk around the room in silence. Ask them how they would classify themselves:
Characters high or low StatusK
Exercise
loud or silent
caring or careless
strong or weak
tall or small
secure or insecure
clumsy or perfect
happy or sad
introvert or extravert
basically anything that would be a character trait
Then ask them to imagine they are exactly the opposite of all these character traits. Ask them to move about like such a character. Then play scenes in which the players ’become’ the opposites of their own characters.
Overload
Game Excellent exercise to train listening skills by means of sensory overload. 4 players. One plays and
Exercise
Look and Listen
stands centrally. This player has to:
answer simple arithmetic questions posed by left player answer simple personal questions posed by right player mirror the movements made by the player in front of her
If the central player misses something, or fail to answer a question, the player who is not followed keeps saying ’Beep beep beep’ until the question is answered or the movement is mirrored. Rotate players after a few minutes so everyone gets their turn.
Parallel Universe
Game Audience provides 2 different environments/locations. Then 2 pairs of players play 2 scenes, one in
Limitations Performance
each environment, but the scenes are played at the same time (on the same scene, of course). Players do not acknowledge characters or events that do not happen in their scene.
Be careful to allow both pairs for ’scene time’.
Pass Ball
Game All players in a circle. Ask the players to pass a mimed ball to others (one ball at a time). Then
Exercise Warm-up
side-coach: the ball becomes heavier, until it weighs a ton, or extremely light, extremely big (and light or heavy) or extremely small (and light or heavy).
We need to ’see’ the ball’s characteristics in the way it gets passed.
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Pass Clap
Game Classic warm-up. Everyone in a circle. One player starts by throwing a hand clap to her right
Concentration Energy Exercise Warm-up
neighbor, and the neighbor passes the clap to his right neighbor.
Play this till the clap really flows nicely around the circle. Then tell the group that players may decide to pass the clap back to the neighbor they got it from. Try it and notice how disruptive this can be.
Variations
Try these for variation:
when receiving a clap, first clap back to the sender, then turn to your neighbor to pass it on; pass claps either high (bending down) or high (above your head)
combine both of the above.
Try clapping twice, three times or 4 times when you pass the clap. Make movement doing that (like clap 4 times, low to high as you pass the clap)
Try clapping (simultaneously) in pairs, 3 or even 4 players at a time.
See also Synchro ClapG . See also Pass YesG . Pass Yes
Game This is a bit like Pass ClapG and all it’s variations. One player starts by saying ’Yes’ to her lefthand
Concentration Warm-up
neighbor. Neighbor does the same, passing the ’Yes’ to her lefthand neighbor. Or she decides to say ’No’, after which it’s her right-hand neighbors turn.
Try and pass the ’Yes’ along the circle as fast as possible.
When everyone’s got this. Do the same but with eyes closed.
Patterns
Game This is a bit like Free Association CircleG , except that player are not to freely associate on the
Association Exercise Warm-up
previously heard word, but on the ensemble of what has been heard, thereby heightening is. Example: grass, plant, flower, tree, forest, jungle. Restart as soon as you can heighten any more.
Pecking Order
Game Every player picks a number between 1 and the number of players in the scene. Numbers are kept
Performance Status
secret, so doubles are possible and allowed. Then a scene is played in which each player tries to play the status picked; 1 being the highest status. Obviously they don’t know which numbers the others picked, so each player will have to choose how to position his or her status with respect to each other player, and this choice can be wrong.
Most fun if several players pick highest or lowest status.
Peruvian Ball Game
Game Everyone starts milling about the room, miming a particular kind of ball. It can be light or heavy, have
Concentration Exercise
a texture, whatever, as long as it is particular. At the trainer’s sign, everyone passes their ball to someone else. This is done a couple of times, after which everyone tries to find back his or her ball.
Origin
Described in Augusto BoalR ’s Games for Actors and Non-actorsR .
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Pillars
Game Put one member of the audience on stage (the pillar). A scene is played, but each player can at any
Performance
point stop his sentence and ask the Pillar to provide the next word.
Play Tag
Game Just play tag. Excellent physical warm-up. Tell players to take risks, see how close you can get/stay
Warm-up
to the tagger without being caught.
See SloMo TagG for an exercise to follow this one.
Pockets
Game Before the show, ask the audience to write simple sentences on slips of paper. Anything goes.
Audience Participation Limitations Performance
The game is played by 2 players. Ask for a location, or a profession, and have every player draw 3 of these slips. Players put these in their pockets without reading them.
Then a scene is played, in which at any point in time, players replace what they might have said, by whatever is on the piece of paper they draw out of their pocket. Try to incorporate/justify whatever is your line into the scene.
Notes
Try to avoid thinks like ’My granny always said’ - you want your character to say whatever is on the piece of paper - don’t try to put those words into someone else’s mouth. See also a game called BucketG that uses audience lines as well.
Poetry Corner
Game You may want to practice this one: 1 player starts with the first line of a poem; player 2 adds second
Performance Verbal wit
line, and so forth.
Try different formats: limericks, sonnets, haikus etc...
Poet Translator
Game A simple translation game. The setup is a foreign language poet, who performs some of his work in
Gibberish Performance
GibberishK . The translator translates. Nice is number of lines, metrum, and rhymes are kept.
Point of View
Game Play a simple scene. Then the scene is replayed, from the point of view of one of the characters.
Performance Replay
You can replay several times, from several POVs.
Make sure the scene is such that the relationships between the characters allow for clear POVs. A scene about dryly buying a pair of shoes does not lead to exciting POVs... Also known as RashomonG. - after the movie by Akira Kurosawa, that follows different points of view as well.
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Popcorn
Game Everyone finds themselves a nice spot, and squat down. The teacher now talks the group through
Energy Exercise Group Warm-up
this exercise. Everyone is a piece of corn, the floor is a big pan, and we’re going to make popcorn. We slowly start heating the pan; as the pan gets hotter, corn starts to ’pop’. A player can ’pop’ by jumping up, clapping hands above their head, and saying ’pop’.
Make sure the ’popping’ starts gradually, ’popping’ is a group thing, and in the end, ’popping’ should stop.
Variations
Forget to take the pan off the fireplace, and have the popcorn start charring.
Presents
Game Great warm-up exercise that helps you blank your mind. Good for control freaks.
Exercise Spontaneity Warm-up
Players stand in pairs and give each other presents. To give a present, you just open your arms/hands to indicate you’re holding something. Don’t try to think about what you’re holding, but give it to your companion.
Upon receiving the present, you give it a name, the first thing that comes to mind. You say something like ’Oh, thanks, a little dead bird’. You promptly ignore your present and return something else to your companion.
This game works best if it’s played fast, so players really don’t have the time to preconceive. It’s also nice and positive, as everybody is always extremely happy with their presents, no matter what they are.
If players complain they always receive the same present ("It’s always a book") tell them this is quite ok - they should be happy to receive so many books. See also SpontaneityC for related games.
Press Conference
Game 3 to 8 players. One player leaves the room, while the audience provides the name of a famous or
Endowment Performance
historical person. The ’absent’ player will give a press conference, but he does not know who he is. The other players are journalists, whose questions should provide indications to who the mystery guest might be.
Game ends when our player guesses who he is.
Notes
The ’journalists’ should really play journalist characters. They can take photographs, or have a fight about who gets to ask the next question.
Variations
Instead of a famous or historical person, choose an expert. The game is over when the ’expert’ figures out what he or she is expert in.
Primal Screams
Game All players in a circle. On player steps into the circle, making a big gesture and a loud sound. Player
Warm-up
Energy
Exercise Try and do this with open sounds, as loud as possible. As Keith JohnstoneR says: "Yelling ’en
then steps back, and the rest of the circle imitates the sound and gesture. masse’ is good for the soul".
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Props
Game In this game the players need to come up with an original/funny use of a prop. They cannot use the
Association Performance
prop the way it is supposed to be used for, obviously.
Notes
You could really use any object as if it were a cell phone, but that is not the idea of the exercise. Look at the object (or it’s parts) and see what inspires you. We once saw a player, given a chair, who turned into a prisoner. The back of the chair became the bars of this cell.
Protest Song
Game Ask the audience for something that pisses them off. Then improvise a song about it, like the 70s
Performance SingSong
screw-the-government type characters. Typically done as a Vers-Chorus type song.
Notes
Here’s a suggestion for chord succession (but by all means feel free to improvise something ale yourself if you’re an improv musician):
Verse: G Am D D (4 times)
Chorus: D C G% (4 times)
You can do this in a Verse Verse Chorus Verse succession. Or improvise something else.
Puppets
Game 4 players. 2 players will be puppets; these players offer the lines of dialog in the scene, but they
Audience Participation Performance
are not allowed to move about themselves. The other 2 players are the puppet masters, that will provide the movements for the puppets.
Variations
Some groups use audience members to play the puppets or the puppet masters.
Rash
Game Make sure you have as many pieces of paper as there are players. Write ’cure’ on all but one, and a
Exercise Group Warm-up
disease (like ’rash’) on one. Each player draws a piece of paper, but no-one knows who’s got the disease. Then find the disease and cure it.
Variations
Have one ’cure’ and all the others the same disease.
Real Estate Broker
Game One player is a real estate broker and shows a second player (or multiple players) around a space,
Environment Exercise
given by the audience/trainer. Each player can create whatever they wish in the space, and questions are not allowed. Any object created should be justified (by the broker or by the others). And obviously any object created stays where it is (unless explicitly moved).
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Game
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
Receiver Right Clap
Nice concentration and warmup exercise. All players in a circle. Players can throw a ’clap’ to any other player by pushing their hands together in front of their chest (like a praying gesture), and then pushing both hands towards the receiving player, opening up their arms as they do so. Sending a ’clap’ makes a ’Whoof’ sound; receiving a clap makes a sucking sound.
The receiver receives the clap by making the inverse gesture, and uttering a sucking sound.
Once a clap is received, the player to the right of the receiver sends a new clap to any other player. And so one.
Once everyone’s got it, switch to left-hand side player of the receiver to send the next clap.
Variations
If all players are really concentrating, and this game goes particularly well, try ’skipping’ a neighbor. E.g. the second player to the left of the receiver sends the next clap.
Repair Shop
One player leaves the stage (or gets a headphone). Audience provides an object, and something not-so-obvious that is wrong with the object. Example: an airliner for which the keys to open the door have been lost. In the game the player that is ’it’ needs to solve the problem, without knowing what the problem is. As soon as she finds out the game is over.
Variations
Bring the object back to the shop where it was purchased. Shopkeeper should give hints as to what the object is.
Instead of an object, use an animal that is sick, dead or does not do what was promised. Like a parrot that refuse to speak - Also known as Veterinarian EndowmentG. .
Invert it - have the shopkeeper guess what it is.
Repeater
Listening exercise. Any player that wants to offer a piece of dialog needs to repeat the entire dialog the last player did (ignoring that player’s repetition of previous dialog) before she can offer her own input. Obviously not for performance.
Replay Gibberish
Exercise on JabbertalkK . Have 2 players do a short scene (1 minute or so). Then have them replay the scene in gibberish.
Reverse Chair Dance
You will need music for this exercise; provide a tape deck or a ghetto blaster, and a bunch of chairs. Start by placing chairs in a circle, one chair less than the number of players. Play music, and have the players dance around the chairs. When the music stops, everyone should find a chair to sit on. The player that doesn’t find a chair needs to find some other way to get his/her feet off the ground. Remove a chair and repeat. In the end, all players will have to find a way to not to touch the ground, by climbing and clinging on to each other. Make sure you got sturdy chairs; we’ve known chairs to collapse under the weight of 10 players ...
It’s important not to side coach - the group needs to figure out themselves how to solve the problem.
Game
Endowment Guessing Performance
Game
Exercise
Look and Listen
Game
Exercise Gibberish Replay
Game
Exercise Group Introduction
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Game
Performance Verbal wit
Game
Audience Participation Die Limitations Narration Performance Verbal wit
Game
Performance
Game
Accepting Association Exercise Warm-up
Game
Exercise Warm-up
Game
Reverse Trivial Pursuit
Like most of the games in the Verbal witC category, no exactly theater, but fun if played well. Ask the audience for statements or facts, to which the players need to come up with the funniest question to which the statement/fact might be the answer.
Example:
Statement: "Green Bananas"
Question: "What is best avoided if you got constipation?"
Rhymes
Scene played in verses. The idea is that the first player offers a line, and the second player rhymes to that. Then the second player offers another line, with which the first player needs to make a rhyme.
Players that hesitate or forget to rhyme ’die’ and are replaced by other players. The idea is to keep the story going, so players that can’t find a good rhyme that would advance the story better die than screw up the story.
See also VersesG .
Rituals
Get an everyday activity from the audience. Then play this activity as if it were a ritual.
Notes
Think about religion, voodoo, sports, a NATO summit, whatever. You’ll realize a lot of what we do is ritualized, just heighten that.
Rumors
Everyone in a circle. One person starts by saying "Did you hear about ..." and points to someone else. That player immediately replies affirmative and heigthens. After which everyone gasps or giggles. Person left to the second person restarts.
The blanks can be anything: something as simple as soup, or something as convoluted as the white bear who ate a Russian kid for lunch in Novosibirsk last Thursday.
Samurai
This is an excellent physical warm up. All players in a circle. One player is the Samurai - she starts by lifting her Katana (sword), making a Japanese- sounding grunt. She keeps her sword up in the air, and her 2 neighbors "slaughter" her, by swinging their swords into her sides, again grunting enthusiastically and in pseudo-japanese. When the neighbors retract their swords, the Samurai lowers her sword; while doing this she makes eye contact with another player, when then becomes Samurai, and everything starts all over again.
Start slowly, and then increase the tempo.
Satellite Radio
Excellent listening exercise. Players in pairs. Establish a beat. Player 1 provides a story, one word per beat. Player 2, within the beat, repeats the story, but with one beat delay (like the delay we have on a satellite radio).
Try with 2 or 3 beats delay as well. See also Satellite TVG for an variation on this exercise.
Exercise
Look and Listen
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Game
Exercise
Look and Listen
Satellite TV
Same as Satellite RadioG , but with movements. Players in pairs. Establish a beat. Player 1 makes a new movement on every beat. Player 2 mirrors the movements, but with a delay of 1 beat.
Try a delay of 2 or 3 beats as well. See also Bidirectional Satellite TVG for an extension of the exercise.
Scene in the Dark
Fairly obvious: a scene is played in the dark. See also The BatG . Look and Listen Notes
If the theater is really dark, then moving about on the scene can make quite a lot of disruptive noise. You may want to do a ’radio play’, where all players just sit on the stage, and provide the words and (background) noises for the scene.
Scene Painting
Game Technique for building/advancing scenes. To be used sparingly.
Game
Limitations Performance
Performance
The idea is that any player can stop the scene by yelling freeze, step out of character, and describe something within the scene, without interrupting what is going on in the scene. After the comment, player unfreezes the scene and steps back into character.
Example. 2 players in a scene where a backpacker is looking for a bed at a house where an old lady lives. Backpacker comments on the fact that the house is chock full of stuffed animals, an little pictures of backpackers, thereby implying that the old lady kills and stuffs backpackers (idea stolen from a short story by Roald Dahl).
See also AsidesG for another game with uses a similar technique. Scene Replay
Game Ask 2 players to play a short scene. One could limit the scene to 8 lines of dialog per player. Then
Performance Replay Timed
ask the players to replay the scene, based on some audience suggestions for:
a particular emotion. Also known as Emotion ReplayG.
an era. Also known as Through the AgesG. Also known as Historical ReplayG. a different location
a film / TV / literature style. Also known as Style ReplayG.
in GibberishC
backwards. Also known as Backwards SceneG.
Variations
You can time the scene to 1 minute, and then replay in 30 seconds, 15 seconds, 7 seconds and 3 seconds.
This variation is Also known as CountdownG. and Also known as Half LifeG. .
Other variations:
have the scene replayed by 2 other players
insist that the dialog remains exactly the same See also Replay GibberishG .
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Scene To Music
Game A silent scene is played, in which the characters’ emotions are controlled by the music. Performance
SingSong
Scorpion
Game A number of players stand in the middle of the room, eyes closed the others stand by the walls. One
Exercise Trust
of the middle players is tapped on the shoulder, she become the ’killer’ or the ’vampire’. The trainer give a go-sign, and all ’blinded’ players start milling around the room. When the killer bumps into someone, she squeezes that persons forearm to ’kill’ him. When a victim dies, he utters a scream, opens his eyes and is ’out’.
Game is over when all potential victims are dead.
Audience by the walls make sure that blind players don’t bump into stuff or hurt themselves.
Variations
When a ’vampire’ runs into a victim, the victim becomes a vampire too
When 2 vampires bump into one anther, they become normal mortal souls again
Also known as Blind HuntG. Also known as ScreamersG. Also known as Haunted HouseG. Also known as Blind StalkerG. Also known as Vampire GameG. See also Death and RetrieverG
Sculptors
Game Works best with an even number of players. Split the group in 2. One half forms a circle in the middle
Exercise Group
of the room, facing outwards. The other half positions themselves, each player in front of one of the players in the middle circle.
The middle players are clay, or stone, and the outsiders are sculptors. Let each sculptor do something to his lump of clay, then make the sculptors rotate clockwise. Everyone now stands in front of someone else’s block of stone or lump of clay. Have them work some more on the sculpture and rotate again. Repeat till every player is in front of his original piece of stone again.
Then ask the sculptors to introduce their work, and give it a name.
Variations
Each statue or sculpture has a built in voice chip that can utter exactly one sentence. Let the sculptors switch on the voice chip at the end of their explanation.
Notes
Excellent exercise to try with a new group to see who is Mr. Nice GuyK . Players that keep placing the sculptures in positions that are impossible to maintain or physically painful can easily be spotted with this exercise.
Other thing to watch for is which players undo the work the previous artists made. The idea is to build art together, not to destroy previously done work in order to push your own ideas. Make this clear by asking the sculptors, when they’re in front of their original work again, to what extent the works still looks anything like what they started with.
Seven Up
Game Everyone in a circle, start counting to 7 while waving right arm up and down to the same rhythm
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
you’re counting. After 7 switch to the other arm, then the right leg, then the other leg. At the end of the last leg of 7 go back to the original arm and do the same thing counting to 6, and so on down to 1-1-1-1.
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Shootout
Game Excellent game to get to know each other’s names.
Concentration Energy Introduction Warm-up
Everybody’s a cowboy or cowgirl, you get them in a circle and ask them to test their revolvers. Have them shoot up in air, not at each other (yet). Then ask the group to concentrate; when everybody’s quiet, call someone’s name. That person needs to drop to the floor as fast as he can. His neighbors take a shot a him; if he’s not down fast enough, he dies (making grueling sounds). If he’s down before a gun is fired, the neighbor who fired last dies.
Insist that for every shot there should be at least one victim. If’s there’s any confusion about who shot first, they should all spontaneously die.
Repeat till only 2 players are alive. Place those 2 back to back in the middle of the room, and give them a sign to start walking away from each other. When they hear you drop a coin (or a key ring, or whatever) they turn around as fast as they can and shoot the other. Again, at least one victim, and if they’re not sure who shot first they should both gladly die.
Variations
A shot can only be fired after a player has made a 360 degree spin.
Notes
This is really a game about ChivalryK and not about winning. Use this game early in a workshop to spot the students that stubbornly refuse to be shot and correct them. You could consider your moment of death you moment of glory - show off how willing you are to accept you own death, and die with enthusiasm.
Sideways
Game In this game we play a scene, in which the back wall is the ’floor’, and the floor is a wall. So, if you
Limitations Performance
are ’standing’ in the scene, you would be lying on the floor, and if you’re lying down, you’d really be standing against the back wall.
This setup allows players to so all kinds of weird things, like defying gravity, or become a bat that’s hanging upside down off the wall.
Silly Stinky Sexy
Game 4 players. Each player endows each of the other players with either sexy-ness, silly-ness or
Endowment Performance
stinky-ness. Have them play a scene in which people come together, at a party, a picnic, in church. Afterwards, ask the audience if they could see who endowed who with what.
Simon Says
Game You are Simon, and you tell the players to do exactly what Simon tells them to do, but only if Simon’s
Concentration Exercise
sentence starts with "Simon says". Any time a player does what Simon tells her to do, without preceding that with "Simon says" is out.
Tell the players the game starts when you say "Simon says the game has started". Then try to trick them into doing stuff they’re not supposed to do. Ask them e.g. if they understand the rules; whoever nods is out. Try telling players that are out they can join in again; if they do they’re out again.
Simple Continuation
Game A scene is started, played by 2 to 4 players. Mid-scene the MC interrupts, and all characters are
Continuation Performance
replaced by new players. The new players should take over the original characters, and stick to the story that was being developed.
Also known as UnderstudyG. Also known as Actor SwitchG.
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Sitting Standing Lying
Game Silly game to teach fast acting.
Concentration Exercise Limitations Performance
3 players play a scene. At any point in time, there should always be one player standing, one player sitting and one player lying down. As soon as a sitter stands up, the stander needs to sit down.
Try to justify the moves !
Variations
Improv troupe Icebox called in with the following variation: Glad Sad Mad. Same handle.
Six Episodes
Game Excellent game to teach group storytelling. Give a big task, like ’The launch of a new flavor of coke’,
Accepting Exercise Group Narration
or ’Building a new clubhouse for the girl scouts’. The players get 1 minute to prepare 6 scenes, in which the given task needs to be completed. After 1 minute there is no more discussing, they just play the 6 scenes.
Time it and see if they can make their minds up. Quarreling will just slow them down, so this will only work if players agree; they should be immediately AcceptingK any usable ides.
Slappy Face
Game A simple word association played in pairs. If a player is too slow, of goed ’Erm...’ the other slaps him
Association Concentration
in the face (gently). Adding the notion of danger helps some people to say whatever comes to mind.
Slap Take
Game Very silly. But hey we’re an encyclopedia; some folks really do this on stage, so here we go: 2
Performance
players do a scene. Every time a player makes the audience laugh the other slaps her. See also Spit TakeG . See also Marshmallow ManiaG .
Slide Show
Game Give one player a big activity, perhaps a trip through the jungle, or the construction of a home. This
Exercise Group Narration Performance
player needs to present a slide show; the other players will play what’s in the slides.
Notes
The idea is that the story is built both by the presenter, and by the images the other players present in the slides. Sidecoach players not to simply just ’build’ what the narrator has described, but to extend it, to build/show the sequel or next step in the story.
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SloMo Samurai
Game Tell the players they are Samurai, and their right forearm is a poisoned sword. Then have them do a
Exercise Warm-up
slow motion sword fight.
The only way to fend off a ’sword’ is by blocking it with your right arm. If another player’s sword touches your body on any other part than your right forearm, you die a gruesome death (also in slow motion).
Notes
Players should not speed up when they are about to get ’killed’, but rather ’let themselves be killed’. Good game to teach a little ChivalryK .
Also known as Poison ArmsG.
SloMo Tag
Game Play tag, but in slow motion. Immensely entertaining if played well; players are not to escape the
Concentration Warm-up
tagger by making a sudden movement, and the tagger cannot lash out to tag another player. Tell players to breathe, scream and groan in slow motion.
You may want to have the players exercise walking in slow motion first, to make sure they are aware of how they (naturally) move, and learn how to stick with that in slow motion.
Soap Series
Game Play an episode from a soap series. This can be done as a Long FormC , but can also be used in
Long Form Performance
short form. The idea is to use (and abuse) the techniques used in soap series. Typically this involves several story lines running at the same time, each story progressing in tiny steps. Other elements that can be used or spoofed are:
poor acting
settings like oil industry, hospitals, fashing industry
situations where everyone is involved with everyone, including weird plot twists where characters suddenly discover they are related.
Solitaire
Game All players but one spread along opposing edges of a wide surface. The player in the middle runs
Group Trust
from one end of the space with closed eyes. The others prevent the runner from deviating too much left/right, and catch the runner at the end.
This is more difficult than it sounds - it’s like after a couple of steps most people start sensing a looming wall in front of them.
Solo Doors
Game A SoloC exercise. Enter, as a character, through a door. Make the environment clear (by means of
Characters Environment Exercise Solo
the (kind of) door. In that environment, address your character as a different character, then one of the characters (you again) leaves (through the door, or through another door/window/hole/whatever). Do this fairly fast and long enough so you run through your easy characters. You can shelve any interesting characters you discover of course.
Excellent exercise to help you establish the PlatformK . This is like a solo variation on Ding CharactersG .
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Sound Circle
Game Everybody in a big circle. One player starts the game by making a gesture and a sound to his right
Accepting Exercise Spontaneity Warm-up
neighbor. The neighbor immediately imitates gesture and sound, then turns to his right neighbor and makes a totally different gesture and sound.
Tell players not to preconceive, ask them to throw themselves into this exercise.
Variations
Instead of passing the sound/gesture to your neighbor, players can pass it to any player in the circle.
Try the game without imitating the sound/gesture received; just have players turn around and throw a new gesture/sound to their neighbors as fast as possible.
Also known as Pass CatchG. Sound Effects
Game A scene is played, and one or more off-scene players provide all the sounds. Players on scene are
Performance
allowed to speak, but cannot make other sounds. The idea is that the FX folks add to the scene, not merely support it.
Sounds Like a Song
Game Play a scene (or series of scenes). At any time, anyone can stop the scene and say ’Sounds like a
Performance SingSong
song’, after which the player(s) sing a song based on the last line that was spoken, or last action that was done.
Space Jump
Game This is like an extended Freeze TagG game.
Association Performance
4 players. One player starts miming an every day activity or routine. A second player (or the MC) calls Freeze and the first one freezes. Second player builds another scene based on the frozen position of the first player.
The other 2 players enter the same way. Once players 3 and 4 are in, as soon as Freeze is called, 2 and 3 take on their positions in which they were frozen, and continue their scene. And so on backwards.
As soon as player 1 is back alone in his activity, he needs to finish it and that ends the game.
Variations
When a scene is continued, keep adding players until everyone is in, then work your way backwards. When a previous cene is continued, the players continue in the future, perhaps in a new location, and they fustify their new physical positions - Growing and Shrinking MachineG .
Spit Take
Game Very silly. But hey we’re an encyclopedia so here we go: 2 players do a scene, each holding a glass
Performance
of water (or coke, or beer). After every sentence players take a spit. Or take a spit after the other player said a line. Or both.
See also Slap TakeG .
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Split Screen
Game Divide the stage in a left and a right half. The right part becomes the left and vice versa, and the
Characters Limitations Performance
division in the middle becomes a ’wall’.
Then play a scene with 4 players and only 2 characters. When a player leaves the stage to the left hand side, his character, played by another player, should enter from the right.
The character should stay the same, even though it’s played by a different player.
Notes
The center of the stage cannot be crossed as it is a wall. As a gimmick one might decide to make a hole in the wall, but stepping through this hole would make the character appear at the other side of the ’room’ - hard to justify...
Sportz Center
Game 3 players, and an every day activity (brushing your teeth, washing your car).
Performance
In this game, the every day activity is performed as if it were done at the olympics or at a world championship. One player is the athlete, and the two others are in a TV studio - one is the interviewer who interviews the athlete’s trainer, as the athlete performs the task.
Usually, something goes wrong and the athlete fails miserably. Gimmicks may include:
Interviewing the athlete on the field after the win (or the disaster) Asking for a replay of a particularly dramatic moment
Asking for a replay with a different camera (different angle)
Also known as Also known as SloMo World ChampionG. . Squeezer
Game Get everyone into a circle, holding hands. One player starts the game by squeezing the hand of one
Exercise Group Warm-up
of his neighbors. The receive then squeezes the hand of his other neighbor, thus generating a ’squeeze wave’ through the circle.
Variations
Squeezes can run in different directions, and you can have more than one squeeze wave cycling through the circle at a time
Instead of squeezing, you can make players communicate by pressing (or even slapping) hands together
Squeezes can run at different rates - this can be controlled by letting nobody squeeze their neighbors as long as the squeeze they receive is not over yet
You can have one player try to ’detect’ the squeeze (try and squeeze as unnoticeably as possible)
Also known as HandsG.
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Story Spine
Game This is an idea about the spine of any story. It goes like
Exercise Narration
Once upon a time ...
And every day ...
And every day ...
And then one day ...
And because of that ... And because of that ... And ever since that day ...
This little structure teaches performers to advance a story by changing things. There are hundreds of v ariations known to this, one of which we’ll present here as well:
The balance: Once upon a time ... and every day ...
The un-balance: But then one day ...
The quest for a resolution: ... and because of that ... and so ... until finally .... The new balance: ... and ever since that day ....
Story Story Die
Game Players form a line on the stage. A title for a story, and a story genre is obtained from the audience.
Audience Participation Die Narration Performance
The MC starts the game by pointing to a player, who needs to start telling the story. At any point in time the MC can switch to another player, who needs to continue the story flawlessly, even if the switch happened in the middle of a sentence or even in the middle of a word.
Players that hesitate, or whose sentences are not grammatically correct or don’t make sense, are boo-ed out of the game, by the audience yelling ’Die’. The last player left ends the story.
Also known as Conducted StoryG. . Story To A Chair
Game A SoloC character exercise. Tell a story to a few chairs. Any story, and the story does not really
Characters Exercise Solo
matter. Then, as you go, start playing all the characters. Feel free to narrate in between.
Make your story such that it becomes easy to establish the character. Start with something like ’Jodi didn’t really like leaving the house’ -- which would point yourself to playing somebody with an outdoor phobia.
Stretching
Game As a warm-up, let’s do some simple stretching exercises. Everyone in the group shows a stretch of a
Warm-up
body part, and that is then done by all others. Repeat until the whole body has been stretched.
Notes
On a silly note, try stretching unstretchable body parts: eye balls, ears, hair, noses, toenails.
Stunt Double
Game A scene is played by 2 players. Every time a player needs to do something difficult/unpleasant,
Performance
another player jumps in as a stunt double. When done, the stunt double freezes the scene and the original player continues the scene.
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Sung Story Die
Game This is like Story Story DieG , but sung. Get a suggestions, and sing a song to that suggestion.
Audience Participation Die Performance SingSong
When the host points to another player, that player continues the song. Both music and lyrics should fit flawlessly, otherwise the player is out.
Can be done with an without a musician. Without is a bit easier as the rhythm can be broken a bit more easily. Then again, continuing the musical line can be more difficult.
Superman Jam
Game Divide the audience into three groups; label them Group 1, 2, 3, (or any other labeling). Each group
Audience Warm-up Performance
gets their own phrase to sing (or yell); it’s important that the rythm and length of each phrase is identical.
Group 1 sings "Superman, Superman, Superman, Superman"
Group 2 sings "I want to jam with Superman. I want to jam with Superman." Group 3 sings "I want to jam; I want to jam; I want to jam with Superman."
Then, the MC directs the audience through singing the song, first one group, then two, then all three, then just two, then just one, then two, then another loud, another soft, etc.
Supermen
Game A great PimpingK game. 4 players. First player gets from the audience a silly little problem, like My
Characters Performance
Shoelaces are Untied, and a simple object, say a kitchen cabinet.
First player starts a scene in which the Problem arises, and her character is unable to fix the problem. Hence she calls in (explictly) the help of Kitchen Cabinet Man. This is a SuperHero, like Superman, Spiderman, you know that kind of cartoon-character heroe types.
Our Superman comes in with lots of brou-haha (high StatusK ) only to make the problem worse (and a status switch to low status). So our hero calls in the help of yet another Superman. Use whatever you can think of first. Say Toothpaste Man. Again this hero comes in high status, screws up even more, does a status switch and calls in yet another hero, who finally fixes the problem.
The game is really pimping folks into playing outrageous superheroes. The status switch from high to low after screwing up is pretty important too here.
See also Mr. So and SoG for another PimpingK game.
Supernova
Game Nice energy builder.
Energy Exercise Warm-up
All players dispersed around the room, have everyone stand up comfortably, feet apart, eyes closed. Ask your players to imagine they’ve got a ball of energy hiding in their chests, radiating warm light. Ask them to imagine this light and energy starts filling their chest, their arms and legs, their hands and feet, their head, their whole body.
Then ask the players to imaging this light starts shining out of their bodies, through their eyes, their fingers and toes, filling the whole room. Then imagine the light starts filling the whole building, the street, the city, the country, the whole world.
Finally, imagine this warm light starts reaching into the skies, up to the moon, overpowering the sun, filling the whole of the universe.
End the exercise by asking the players to open their eyes.
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Game
Association Exercise Spontaneity
Game
Audience Participation Concentration Die
Exercise
Look and Listen Performance
Surprise Movement
Have everyone walk around leisurely. Tel them to stop and start make a movement, a gesture, a sound, anything really. Let the players repeat the gesture until they know what they ’are’.
The idea is not to preconceive, but to let it happen. Players may turn out to be dish washers, ushers, lawn mowers, ping pong balls, whatever. Explain that there are no wrong answers.
Tell the players just to acknowledge what they ’are’ for themselves, and then move on, stop again and make another gesture/movement/sound.
Survivor
Four to six players play a scene. Then the audience chooses one of the players to get "voted off the island." The remaining players do the scene again, covering everything that happened the first time. Then another person gets voted out, and so on until one person has to act out the scene all by themselves.
There are various ways of re-playing the original scene, even when only one player left: player can do a monologue, can play all original characters herself, you name it ...
You can play this for an audience, but it’s also a great listening and paying-attention exercise.
Origin
The Improvoholics mailed us to claim they developed this game. Thanks guys!
Swedish Sculptors
This one is an extension of SculptorsG . Divide the class in 2 groups, same number of players in every group. One group is clay, and they close their eyes. The other group are sculptors.
The sculptors build one sculpture out of all the ’clay’ players. The sculpture is finished when all of the players touch someone else (so all are connected to the sculpture). The artists cannot ’push’ the clay into position - they need to ’pull’ parts of the clay into position without actually pulling. ’Pulling’ is done by touching a body part with an open hand, and then moving the hand about. They ’clay’ players need to ’follow’ the moving open hands.
As soon as the sculpture is finished, the sculptors moves away, and re-build the statue, themselves now becoming clay. The (original) clay players keep their eyes closed. As soon as the imitation sculpture is finished, the clay players, eyes still closed, try to find ’themselves’ in the imitation. When everybody has found themselves the game is over, and the clay players assess to what extent they found ’themselves’ and to what extent the imitation is exact.
Origin
Described in Augusto BoalR ’s Games for Actors and Non-actorsR . Switcheroo
This is like Simple ContinuationG , except that the MC interrupts the scene several times, and at each interruption all actors in the scene get switched; no new actors join in, and no actors leave. Also known as Actor SwitchG. . See also Hat ContinuationG .
Switch Gibberish
JabbertalkK exercise: let a player tell a store. Whenever you ring a bell (or clap your hands) player switches to GibberishC - the story should continue and should make sense.
If you do this as an exercise, try sidecoaching with different kinds of gibberish. Try any language you don’t know (Mongolian, Italian, Russian, Chinese, you name it).
Game
Exercise Group Trust
Game
Continuation Performance
Game
Exercise Gibberish Performance
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Sybil
Game This is basically a one-person Long FormC . In this format the player plays all characters. The play
Long Form Performance Solo
typically starts with a character monologue and then goes into scenes alternated with more monologues.
One could summarize the ’rules’ as:
you play all the characters and their dialogue in the scenes
monologues are either internal (to the character) or to the audience, addresses as a group (a minister preaching to a church, a person introducing himself at a job interview).
Origin
The format is attributed to Andy Eninger. The name is based on a book with the same title, about Sybil Dorsett, a survivor of child abuse who was diagnosed with the first multiple personality disorder. She alledgedly played host to 16 separate personalities.
More info can be found on www.sybilization.com.
Synchro Clap
Game All players in a circle. One player starts the game by making eye contact with another player. Then,
Concentration Energy Exercise Warm-up
both clap their hands simultaneously. The ’receiving’ player then makes eye contact with another player, and they synchro-clap. And so on.
Once a firm rhythm is established, start accelerating slowly.
TellTales
In this format a cast of five gets one ask-for each at the top of the show, and then each person is Game free to play solo scenes with invisible characters, addressing the audience, musing to themselves,
Long Form
speaking on the telephone, just being physical and so on until another player enters, at which point they have to leave. Over the course of the performance a complete play is done. The actors can play multiple characters if they want.
Origin
Attributed to the Spontaneity Shop (London).
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Theatresports
Game Theatre Sports is really a collection of formats. We’ll summarize the general rules, and then describe
Format
the variations for the different sub-formats:
The game is introduced by an MC, who does a warm-up and then introduces the judges and the 2 teams
The game is lead by judges
Each game has a fixed duration
A toss decides which team starts with a challenge
Challengers go first. Possible challenges are the classic games, but anything goes. One might challenge the other team to play the dullest scene possible.
Teams can protest or baulk at a challenge. The judges may accept the baulk, in which case the challengers need to come up with a new challenge. Reason for baulking at a challenge might be "we’ve already done this game tonight".
The judges carry a horn, which they use to issue a warning for boring. After a warning the scene should be concluded ASAP.
Judges can issue penalties, for e.g. obscenities, smart-assing or whatever. A punished player gets a basket over his head for a number of minutes
Scenes must end on time; the judges indicate the time, and warn the players e.g. when they got 30 seconds left. Or they honk a warning for boring, after which the scene must end.
After each challenge (played by both teams) the audience decided by means of cheering, yelling of applause which team won, as interpreted by the judges. Winners get 5 points, losers get nothing.
The whole show lasts about 45 minutes.
Variations
Some troupes let the judges issue the challenges. Other troupes allow the winning team a free scene.
Danish variety: in this format there is only one judge, called an Ombuds. The Ombuds is both Commentator, MC and scorekeeper.
This format is quite often played with props, in a décor. Sound and light effects are also used. The Danish version is a bit simpler, and can be used to play with beginners.
Some troupes start an evening off with a 20-minute Danish game, and then play a 45-minute full version after the intermission.
Theatre sports are played all over the world, and teams from different cities and troupes quite often meet in competition.
Origin
Theatresports is a registered trademark by Keith JohnstoneR . A complete overview can be found in his book Impro for StorytellersR .
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The Bag
Game This is a group exercise for building CharactersC . One player on a chair, up to 5 other players sit in
Characters Exercise
front of her. The player on the chair starts by taking something out of a big mimed bag. She holds the object in front of her and names the object - anything that comes to mind is just fine (see WarehouseG , Open Your HandG or PresentsG ).
The other players start asking the middle player questions about the object, why she has it, what it might mean to her. After a few questions, she is asked to take another object from the bag - again, this can be anything and need not be related to the first object that came up. This prompts more questions, and more objects.
Continue until we know the character that is sitting on the chair.
Notes
The idea of the exercise is to construct the character as a group. Both objects, questions and answers to the questions will provide cues to who the person on the chair might be. Avoid very leading questions, although any element in the questions should probably be accepted.
As soon as the person on the chair has an idea of who she might be, what her state of mind might be, how old she might be, what her StatusK might be, she should start showing these qualities, until she really ’becomes’ the character. Use voice and body language to express this.
The Bat
Game This is a Long FormC format based on Blind HaroldG . It is basically a long form played with the
Limitations Long Form Performance
lights out in a theater.
You can download mp3 files of a couple of Bat performances off the website of the Impatients .
Origin
The format was created by Joe Bill of Annoyance Theatre in Chicago.
The Gerbil
Game Invent a silly dramatic story, and explain it to the audience. Classic example is the following: "After
Performance
fixing the roof, Roger decided to clean the house, including the cage of Mary’s gerbil. He put the animal in a frying pan, from which it escaped to the roof, where it got stuck in some fresh tar. Roger put it back in it’s cage, where it got smothered by the fresh woodchips. Roger tried to use a solvent to clean the creature, but the solvent fumes cause the creature to die of a cardiac arrest. At that point Mary walks in".
This is when the scene starts: Roger needs to explain what happens, but as soon as the audience starts laughing Roger is replaced by another player who gets a new shot. The idea is to try and play the scene without getting the audience to laugh.
Notes
Don’t stick to the gerbil story - you can invent any silly story for this game.
Origin
Attributed to Keith JohnstoneR and described in Impro for StorytellersR .
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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Advice
Game 3 players, form a line (or sit down). The audience provides questions or problems for which they
Audience Participation Die Performance Verbal wit
need advice. The 3 players provide good, bad, and really bad advice.
Have the MC choose who provide what advice, so everyone can have a stab at really bad advice. If the ’bad advice’ is really bad, then the Ugly advice should be even worse.
You can play this as a DieC game - if a bad advice is not followed by an even worse advice, replace the last player by another one.
The Magnet
Game Played in pairs. One player becomes a sculpture, standing still, while his partner closes her eyes.
Concentration
She needs to explore the statue, with her eyes closed, and then tries to become the same statue.
Exercise See also Swedish SculptorsG for a similar exercise. Group
Trust
The Party
Game One player plays a character that is having a party. The other players will be the guests, and the
Endowment Guessing Performance
audience provides us with who the guests might be. Of course the host does not know who the guests are. His task is to guess who the guests might be, based on hints the guests offer.
The games is over as soon as the host has guessed all guests.
Variations
Use quirks instead of characters - Also known as Party QuirksG. The Scream
Game Everybody in a circle, watch the ground. On your sign, everybody lifts their head and either looks
Energy Warm-up
straight, left or right. Whenever 2 people look each other in the eyes, they scream as loud as they can, as if they’re startled, and then drop dead.
Repeat till only one or 2 players are alive. Also known as Jeepers PeepersG.
Three Line Environment
Game Played with 2 players. They get 3 lines (first player gets 2 lines, second one gets one line). Using no
Environment Exercise
more than 3 lines (A-B-A) they need to establish their PlatformK ; who they are, where they are, when and why.
See also DoorsG .
Three Line Solo
Game This is a SoloC exercise. Play a 3 line scene with 2 characters. Play both characters yourself.
Characters Exercise Solo
Repeat at high speed so you run through your ’easy’ characters fast.
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Three Melodies
Game Ask for 2 occupations. Then do a 4-beat scene as follows:
Performance SingSong
Player 1 sings about how great and satisfying her job is, but she’s missing something critical, or has a minor little problem with it (melody 1)
Number 2 does the same (to a second melody)
Both characters meet in a bar, complaining about their problems. They summarize their problem in one line each (to finish their song), something like "I got plenty of x but I’m missing y"
Then they solve each other’s problem (fitting each other’s x to the other’s y), they do this in a
duet to a third melody. See also BartenderG .
Three Noses
Game A fun and silly game. Let everyone walk leisurely around the room. When you shout ’3 Noses’ the
Energy Exercise Introduction Warm-up
players must form little groups, each group consisting of 3 touching noses.
Use your imagination - as for 7 left big toes, 2 earlobes, 9 fingers, 4 nipples, 5 bellybuttons. Repeat till everyone is giggling.
Notes
This is a great game for new groups, as it lets the players get a feel (literally) for each other.
Three Rules
Game Get 3 rules from the audience, e.g. players have only one arm, players can’t use a word that
Limitations Performance
contains an ’s’ and after every question uttered players needs to yell ’Yess!’. Players then play a scene, obeying the 3 rules. For examples of what else might be used as a rule see the other games in the LimitationsC category.
Also known as Ahab and the WhaleG. (beats us why)
Three Sentence Story
Game 2 players. 3 unconnected sentences are provided by one player; the other builds the shortest
Exercise Narration
possible story incorporating the 3 sentences.
Timed Scenes
Game Here are a couple of different ways to time scenes (apart from using your watch)
Performance Timed
time a player can keep his head immersed in a bucket of water
time it takes the audience to throw 20 socks onto the stage
time it takes for an audience member to finish a beer (or a series of beers) time it takes a player to go get a burger
See also Scene ReplayG for timed replayed scenes. Timeline
Game A scene is played, number of players unlimited. The scene starts in prehistoric times, and evolves
Limitations Performance
through the ages, till it ends in the future.
The idea is to stick to one and the same story line, but as time progresses, characters may take on characteristics or use attributes appropriate to the ’time’. Of course, every characteristic and attribute needs to be justified and take the scene forward.
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Tossing
Game Eight players form 2 lines, facing each other, and mesh their forearms together, to form a platform to
Group Trust
’launch’ another player up in the air and catch him again. Do make sure that your platform is sturdy (holding the other players by the wrists seems to be most solid).
See also Free FallingG and Heave HoG for similar games.
Touch to Talk
Game In this handle players play a scene in which they can only use speech when they touch each other. Limitations
Performance
Notes
Fun when played in locations when people don’t usually touch each other, like a confession chair, a sauna.
Don’t go for the easy option of just touching your partner’s forearm or shoulder - there are so many ways to touch each other. Try hugging, fighting, baptizing, tickling.
Translate Gibberish
Game This is best played with an odd number of players. Everyone in a circle. The first player gives a
Association Exercise Gibberish Spontaneity
gibberish word to her right neighbor, who translates the word. The next player provides the next gibberish word, and so on.
Variations
The receiver can provide both the translation, and a new gibberish word. You may want to add the origin of the language along with the translation.
Notes
Any gibberish word might be translated as ’banana’ of course, but that is not the idea of the exercise. For your translation, use the first thing that comes to mind. You may be inspired by the whole sound of the word (it might sound like something ’known’), or parts of the word (only the vowels, or only the consonants), or by the intonation of the ’giver’, or even by her expression or body language.
Try gibberish in different ’languages’ or ’accents’. Also known as Gibberish DictionaryG. Translation for the Deaf
Game We need 3 players for this game. One will be an expert on a topic provided by the audience; another
Experts Performance
will be the interviewer. The third will provide simultaneous translation for the hearing impaired, using ’sign language’.
Notes
This works best if the interview itself does not go too fast, so the translator has plenty of time to translate. Also helpful are returning keywords that the translator can always translate the same way. A gimmick is to translate everything literally, even ’dummy’ words, like ’oh’, ’great’, ’hm hm’.
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Triple Play
Game This is really a series of 3 3-act plays mixed. Three separate plays are played, each based on
Long Form Performance
different audience suggestions, and not related at all. We first see the three first acts for every play, then the three second acts, and finally the three final acts.
Variations
Some folks play each act in a different style, usually a kind of play (say Shakespeare), a kind of movie (say a spaghetti western) and something musical (say a musical or an opera).
Origin
We believe this is copyright by LA Theatersports. But we’ve also seen in played in Germany. If you know more about this please let us know.
Trivial Pursuit
Game MC asks the audience to pick Trivial Pursuit cards. Players line up, and the MC reads questions from
Performance Verbal wit
the cards picked by the audience. Players invent the funniest answer to these questions.
Notes
The MC needs to screen the questions; a question like ’In what year electricity was invented’ should be avoided. As there are 6 questions on a card, go for the question that is vaguest and offers most options.
Variations
Read the answer, and let the players come up with the question. See also Reverse Trivial PursuitG . Tug-O-War
Game Divide the class in 2 groups and have them mime a Tug-o-war fight. See if
Accepting Exercise Group
the mimed rope does not stretch or shrink
somebody wins (i.e. one group gladly looses (see ChivalryK )
Variations
Do 2 per 2. Or try men against women.
Turning Circle
Game Fun game to warm up those muscles and get the blood pumping.
Concentration Warm-up
Everyone in a circle. The circle starts running (slowly) clockwise. As soon as anybody shouts ’go’, the circle changes direction, without anybody bumping into someone else.
TV News
3 players, who play characters in a TV newscast. One will be the lead anchor, another will do the
Game weather, and the third is a reporter at a location. Then, a newscast is played. Performance
Variations
Ask for an audience suggestion for a central theme in the newscast.
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Game
Narration Performance
Typewriter
This is a nice handle to structure scenes. One of the players is the Narrator. He has a (mimed) typewriter and starts the scene by reading aloud as he types. As soon as the Narrator has given a few elements, the players take over and start playing the scene.
At any point, the Narrator can take over again, perhaps switch to another location, introduce new character, provide tilts or flashbacks.
Variations
When a scene goes bad, the Narrator can mime ripping a couple of pages of his story apart, and restart the scene (or the story).
Verses
Scene is played in verses, that is, every player need to rhyme to herself. Nice handle to combine with a Shakespeare style.
See also RhymesG .
Virus
Use one empty plastic soft drink bottle. Whichever player has the bottle is the virus. The virus can move around and infect other players, but only the player with the bottle can infect new players. All infected players chase the healthy players, till all are infected. Evidently, the infected payers need to pass the bottle around in order to be able to infect new players.
Voices From Heaven
Excellent game for building characters and group-storytelling.
4 players, ask the audience who they are, what their occupation would be.
These 4 characters have died together, and they are going to tell us how that came about. Players line up. The game is played in 3 rounds. In every round, each player offers some information about how they happened to die. At the end of the thirds round, they should all be dead.
Notes
It’s fun to take risks - if in the first round each of the players just offers what they happened to be doing the day they died, and where. It is quite a challenge to get these 4 stories together, including the deaths of all characters, by the end of the third round. Also known as Death ConG. .
See also Goon RiverG for a more open, more free Long FormC version of the same HandleK .
Walking by Numbers
Every player finds himself a spot in the room, make sure players can see each other. When you give a sign, exactly 1 person starts walking. Whenever that person halts, one person, and only one person starts walking.
Gradually increase the number of walkers. See also Group FreezeG .
Game
Limitations Performance
Game
Energy Warm-up
Game
Characters Exercise Narration Performance
Game
Concentration Exercise
Look and Listen Warm-up
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Walkout
Game You need at least 3 players for this one. Give each player a word. Start playing a scene with 2
Limitations Performance
players. As soon as a player hears her word, she has to leave the scene. As soon as she hear her word again, she needs to walk into the scene again. Walkouts and re-entrances need to be justified. Also known as Exit GameG.
Walk-over Association
Game Another way of playing association games. Place all players at one end of the room. Ask them to
Association Exercise
name, for themselves, all the things they think of when you throw them the word ’Banana’ (or anything else).
For every word they come up with they can take a step. They should keep thinking of stuff until they reach the other side of the room. Then throw them another word.
Notes
Watch for players that take unreasonably big steps. Ask them if they are afraid they will run out of ideas.
Variations
You can combine this with Last LetterG . Warehouse
Game Let the players walk around leisurely. Tell them they are in a big warehouse, with lots of shelves and
Exercise Spontaneity
cabinets, packed with junk.
Let the players reach out, take something from an shelve, and name it. Players should not preconceive, just open their hands and mime taking something from a shelf, and see what it becomes. Once they’ve named it for themselves, they place the object back, move on to another shelf and pick up something else.
Notes
If players find this difficult, have them play PresentsG first. See also Open Your HandG .
What are you doing
Game This is really a DissociationG game, but fun to play.
Association Energy Exercise Warm-up
Everyone at one end of the room, form a long line. The first player of the line steps into the room and starts miming an activity. As soon as the activity is clear, player 2 approaches player 1 and asks ’What are you doing’.
The first player answers something that has nothing to do with what he’s actually doing. E.g. if player 1 is cutting someone’s hair, when asked what he’s doing he might say "I’m reading the newspaper". First player moves away, and the second player starts miming the activity stated by the previous player. A third player comes up to player 2, asks what he is doing, and so on.
Play until everyone has mimed something, and has answered the question.
Variations
You can also play this at super high speed, with 2 players. We mean super-super high speed. As soon as one of the players says ummm, hesitates, or uses an offer that was used before in that session, that player is replaced. Great for warm-up and energy!
Notes
Other dissociation games are MalapropismG and DissociationG .
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What Happens Next
Game One player in the middle, the others sit aside. Any person can give the middle player a task, which
Exercise Group Narration
she performs, and then she asks ’What happens next’ ? Any player may suggest what needs to happen next, but the idea is for the group to construct a coherent story.
Notes
The player in the middle should only and strictly be doing what she’s told; it is up to the players at the side to construct the story.
Also known as And ThenG.
What Has Changed
Game Played in pairs. One player observes another closely. Then she closes her eyes, and her partner
Concentration Exercise
Look and Listen
changes three things in his appearance. She open her eyes again and tries to discover what has changed.
What would she be if
Game Choose one player and let her stand in front of the class. Then ask the whole class to think what she
Association Exercise
would be if she were a car, a flower, a building, a era, a foreign country, a mineral, a beverage, your name it.
Notes
Tell the group there are no wrong answers. You may want to ask players what triggered their responses - the answers will probably vary widely.
If you are doing a series of workshops, it may also be interesting to play this game early on, before people know each other, and then again after a couple of weeks, when everyone has gotten to know everyone a bit better. See if the answers are any different.
Whoosh
Game Everybody in a circle. Start with one person, who waves both hands to his/her neighbor, saying
Energy Warm-up
’Whoosh’. The next person passes the Whoosh to his neighbor, and that way the Whoosh is passed around the circle.
There’s 4 other sounds/movements that can be made.
’Wow’: indicated by saying Wow, and moving both arms down. A Wow changes the direction of the Whoosh
’Zap’: instead of passing the Whoosh to your neighbor, it gets zapped to the person you point to. The receiver continues with either a Whoosh to his neighbor, or another Zap to another person. A Wow after a Zap returns to the Zapper.
’Groooooooovelicious’: for this one the whole group bends down and up again in a kinda groovy way, all saying Groooooooovelicious. Afterwards, the person who started the Groovelicious sets the Whoosh in motion again, in any direction.
’Freakout’: indicated by waving both hands in the air. Everybody starts screaming and moves to the center of the circle. When everybody’s freaked out a new circle is formed, and the starter of the Freakout sets the Whoosh in motion again (or Zaps, or does a Grooooooovelicious).
Variations
You can invent other sounds and gestures. You might replace Whoosh by a kind of Vroom-Vroom, as is you’re in a car, and replace Wow by the sounds of brakes (’iiiii’) etc. Also known as Zip Zap ZoopG.
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Who Where Why Am I
Game One player leaves the room. The audience provides:
Endowment Performance
where we are, and when (what era)
who the player will be (can be a person, or just his occupation) a physical handicap for the player (perhaps he’s blind ?)
a problem the player has
Then a scene is played, in which the other players need to coach player 1 into guessing each of the items above, without giving any explicit clues. Example: scene is played on the Red Square in Moscow, in 2050, where a limping salesman of vacuum cleaners never sells any vacuum cleaners, since his prices are quoted in rubels instead of Euros (Russia is obviously part of the Eurodollar zone in 2050).
See also HijackerG . Without Sound
Game A scene in played, in which no talk of no sounds are allowed.
Limitations Performance
See also Without WordsG
Without Words
Game A scene is played, in which the players are not allowed to talk. Sounds, like slamming doors, running
Limitations
Performance See also Without SoundG .
water, singing birds, echoing footsteps are allowed.
Word at a Time Expert
Game 3 players: one is the interviewer, and the other 2 are an expert on a subject chosen by the audience.
Limitations Performance
The expert is really one person, with 2 heads, and answers to the interviewer’s question are provided word by word, one word at a time per player.
Also known as Two-headed ProfessorG. . Also known as OracleG. ; use an ancient Greek oracle instead of an expert, and have the audience ask the oracle questions about life & love.
Variations
The interviewer can raise the stakes, e.g. by pimping the expert into a Word-at-a-Time-SongG Word at a Time Letter
Game Play in pairs. The 2 players will compose a letter, one word at a time. Have them actually write down
Exercise Narration
the letter. Anything, even ’where’ on the paper one starts writing, is an offer.
No need to sidecoach, but the possibilities are endless; thing about greeting cards, love letters, legal stuff, promotional letters, suicide notes, etc.
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Word at a Time Scene
Game This is like Word at a Time ExpertG , but with a bit more scene work. 2 players, speaking one word
Limitations Performance
at a time, alternating between the players. The scene is starting by stating who they are, or where they are. Example: "We-are-on-a-sunny-beach". The players then actually play that, and build a story, word at a time, and actually playing the story at the same time.
For example: "We-see-a-dead-whale"; the players should actually see the whale, and do something with it. There is no need to ’say’ everything before doing it ( use our motto: Play it, don’t say it).
Notes
Players have an adventure together; the story needs to happen to both of them, they are not to play against each other.
As many players tend to verbosity, use a director that ’cuts’ the scene and tells the players what to do. Example: "Give the whale mouth-to-mouth".
Variations
Allow a third character to enter the scene, playing against the two others. Now the lines are done word per word, by 3 players, but we have 2 characters. This gets extremely silly/messy - to create some order out of this chaos make sure the third player (i.e. the second character) has a different voice (different accent or pitch). Unlikely to produce interesting stories, but quite hilarious. Also known as Ping PongG. .
Word at a Time Song
Game This is like Word at a Time SceneG , but here the players improvise a song. Song can be sung to a
Limitations Performance SingSong
known melody (makes things a bit easier), or on a tune played on the piano. Tell the piano player not to play too fast, though.
Word at a Time Story
Game This is an exercise to train group narrative. All players sit in a circle. We are going to tell a story one
Exercise Group Narration
word at a time. Each player provides one word of a sentence. End of a sentence can be indicates by a player saying ’period’, although that is not necessary.
Notes
This is more difficult than it sounds, especially with newbies. If you’re working with novice players have them try a familiar story. like Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs first. Summarize the story before they get started, to make sure they’re all on the same story. Don’t be surprised if gagsters manage to smuggle atomic bombs and crashing aircraft into the story. Ask the group if they can see/understand the reasons why their story sucks.
You can also play this a challenge with newbies: divide the group into 2 circles, and have them compete each other - see which group can finish the story first.
Word Ball
Game Another association game. All players in a circle. One player starts by tossing a word to another
Association Exercise Warm-up
player. The receiver associates on this word, and throws his association to yet another player.
Variations
Try this in combination with Last LetterG or Free Association LinesG
Instead of just tossing word, have the players throw a soft ball, or a towel tied in a knot to each other
try with multiple ’tossers’ at once.
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Game
Performance Verbal wit
Worlds Worst
Not exactly theater, but fun if played well.
Players line up, and the audience provides verbs, hobbies and occupations. The players need to come up with the worst possible way of doing/being what the audience suggests.
Yes Lets
Excellent warm-up, and great introduction to AcceptingK .
Pick a group activity, like throwing a party or organizing a picnic. One player starts, saying "Let’s ..." filling in what she wants to do. Then she starts actually doing what she said she wanted to do. A second player jumps in, saying "Let’s ..." do something else, to advance the group activity. Both players say "Yes, let’s do that" and start doing whatever suggested. Third player jumps in, suggests what to do, and again all players loudly agree to do it, and actually do it. Continue till everyone has suggested something.
See also Yes Lets - or Rather NotG for a more advanced version of this exercise.
Yes Lets - or Rather Not
This is a bit controversial, and you probably don’t want to do this with newbies.
This one goes a bit like Yes LetsG : all players on stage, someone provides a location, e.g. a beach. One player suggests an action. All players that like the action yell ’Yes, Let’s do that’ and start doing it. Whoever does not like the suggestion steps out sits down. Game continues till only one player is left.
Notes
This one is a bit controversial as players will object that (one of) the main ideas in Improv is to accept, and in this game one can reject a suggestion.
The idea behind this exercise is that we want our players to be Mr. Nice GuyK - players should try to make their co-players happy. The problem is to learn what suggestions are ’good’, which suggestions make our other players happy. And that’s what we’re trying to learn with this exercise. Attitude is important for this one:
players should not feel inhibited to step out (i.e. they should not feel that they are not accepting players should not feel rejected when others step out. Be happy about that - you are learning which suggestions make others happy! (see ChivalryK ).
You
Everyone in a circle. Everyone raises their right hand. The 1st person points to someone in the circle with their hand up and says "you." They do the same until everyone’s hand is down, and the last person has pointed back to the 1st person, thus completing the circle. Important: This is a pattern that never changes. Repeat the pattern until it feels comfortable. Then switch places in the circle. Repeat the pattern. Close your eyes, and repeat the pattern.
When everyone is comfortable with that, everyone raises their hand again. The same 1st person begins. Name something: a favorite tv show, food, whatever. Don’t point to the same person that you did last time. Once you feel comfortable with this pattern, you begin both. Start with "you" and add the next level. (Ex: "you, you, you, string beans, you, corn, pizza, you, etc.).
If you feel that this is becoming too easy, add a third pattern, switch places in the circle, close your eyes.
Variations
More of a challenge, start two patterns, and then add the pattern of pointing to someone, and saying the name of the person to your right. Once that pattern is good, switch places in the circle.
Game
Accepting Exercise Group Warm-up
Game
Accepting Group Narration
Game
Exercise
Look and Listen
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You’re Fired
Game This is a scene with 2 players, in which the lines are scripted. Here’s the script:
Characters
Exercise
Limitations
Performance (1) {Indicates she does not know why}
Concentration Performance
The audience provides a central theme, and the MC will ’zap’ through the channels. Miraculously, all broadcasts cover the same theme.
Zoom-In Zoom-Out
(1) {Knocks on a door}
(2) Come in. You know why I called you?
(2) {Hands 1 a (mimed) piece of paper}
(1) I thought you wouldn’t take that into account? (2) You’re fired.
(1) Fine. I hated that stupid job anyway.
Have the players play that scene. They need to stick to the script, but can really do anything as long as they don’t add any lines. It probably won’t be all that interesting.
Then make them replay the scene, but give them a side coaching (which the other player and the audience or the rest of the group don’t hear). See if the scenes become any more interesting. Things you might give a player could be
You’re nervous, happy, sad, afraid of the other The other smells nice/stinks
You’ve been eating beans/garlic
You turn into a crow/monkey/cow
You are in a wheelchair
You try to make a pass at the other
Your underwear doesn’t quite fit (too small)
You are a bit deaf, you can’t find your glasses, you loose a contact, loose your dentures You are a kleptomaniac
Notes
Players can do quite a lot without deviating from the script. They can build/open doors, windows, cabinets, make all kinds of noises or faces.
Remind players they can switch status. Perhaps they could try and make clear what’s on the note? Is it bad, or petty, or funny, or sad?
Variations
Feel free to come up with a different scene, with different lines. See also Fast Food StanislawskiG .
Zapping
Game 4 players, each chooses a TV format, like the News, a documentary, a Pokemon show, you name it.
Game A scene is played; at any time the MC or host calls "zoom-out" - at that point, the scene continues,
Continuation Performance
but is played with finger puppets (as if the audience is watching the scene from fart away, and all characters are finger-sized). This continues until the host calls "zoom-in", after which the scene continues in "normal" size. Alter between zoom-in and zoom-out ad libitum.
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Zulu(1)
Game All players form a line, facing the audience. Audience suggests a general product category, like soup
Performance Verbal wit
or family cars. Players then have to come up with original new names for (new) products in that category.
Variations
There is another game named Zulu - see Zulu(2)G . Zulu(2)
Game All players form a line, facing the audience. Audience suggests a general product category, like
Audience Participation Die Performance Verbal wit
soup or family cars or candy bars.
The MC now points to a player, who needs to keep coming up with original names for a product of that category. No doubles are allowed, neither are existing brand names. A player that makes a mistake ’dies’ (when the audience yells ’Die’). The MC can switch players at any time, and the game lasts till there is only one player left.
Variations
There is another game named Zulu - see Zulu(1)G
Alien, Tiger, Cow - Fun game to warm up and to teach players some Chivalry .
Everyone in a circle. There are 3 things a player can be:
- An alien: hold you index fingers up next to your head, as little antenna`s and say `Bleeb bleeb`, bending inwards into the circle;
- A cow: bend forward, hold your right hand on your tummy and go `Moooo`
- A tiger: push your right hand forward, imitating a claw and roar.
Backwards Interview - To play this improv game, ask for a topic for a TV interview. Then 2 players do the interview backwards. That means that the first sentence uttered is the last one in the interview, perhaps something like: Thanks for that enlightening explanation. (to the guest) To all of you viewers at home, thank you for watching, and see you next week. And then players work their way backwards. Various gimmicks can be played. For example, in your responses, you can pimp players. Examples would be: "Thank you for that very energetic answer to the question", pimping the other player to do something very energetic.
Beasty Rap - Everyone in e circle and get a beat running; use a beatbox, cd or mp3. First player starts rapping a line, any line, on the beat. Without skipping too many beats, next player adds a line that rhymes and so on until a player fails to come up with a line, misses the beat or fails to rhyme, after which everybody goes 'Dang', and the next player starts a next round. When the players not rapping feel the rhyme word of the active player coming, they all join in and yell the word together at the end of every line.
Blind Freeze - This one is just like Freeze Tag , but here the MC calls Freeze, and calls in another player. If you`re not using an MC, any player might call Freeze and call in any other player.
Many groups find this game more exciting than Freeze Tag , as players don`t know when they get pushed in the game, and hence are less prepared, and crazier, more exciting stuff tends to happen.
Borris - 2 players play an improvized interrogation scene. One is the interrogator, the other is a suspect. The interrogator randomly throws unconnected elements to the suspect, who needs to incorporate these and get himself into (even more) trouble. And then we have Boris, who is a nasty, huge, but invisible thug assisting the interrogator. Every time the interrogator does not like the suspect`s answers (and also when the suspect does not incriminate himself enough), the interrogator calls on Boris to torture the suspect, prodding him to confess or incriminate him even further.
Notes
- we do not establish the crime beforehand
- the suspect mimes being tortured by Boris
- the investigator can tell Boris what to do (break his leg), but it is more fun to leave the choice of torture up to the suspect
- if the torture does not go far enough to the investigator`s taste, he can always call in Boris` evil twin brother, Igor (also invisible)
- as a gag, the suspect can also incriminate Boris (who can turn out to be a witness/accomplice to the crime).
Dating Game - This is played like a Blind Date show. One player leaves the stage, and the audience provides endowments for the 3 others. Examples might be No. 1 is stupid, No. 2 is a serial killer and No. 3 thinks he`s a macho.
4th player gets to ask 3 questions, and each of the others answers it. After the questions player 4 should guess what the endowments were.
Death in a Minute - 2 or 3 players play a 1 minute scene, in which one player must die.
Director's Cut - A normal improvized scene is played. At any moment a player not in the scene (or a player dedicated to this particular role) stops the scene ( see Cut ) and has the actors replay the scene with different emotions, characters, roles. Like a director instructing actors on how to play.
Disaster Movie - This is a Long Form format that can be played with a large number of players.
Audience suggests a type of disaster (flood, earthquake, alien invasion, you name it) and a location where the play will unfold, preferably a location where lots of characters can be found. Examples are a tropical tourist paradise, a big building. The story starts right before the disaster, usually some character foreseeing the disaster, discovering a bad omen or some foretelling sign. Next we see lots of characters in the given location. These should be the archetypical characters one finds in typical disaster movies. Examples are:
- An old couple that have been together for ever (they will die)
- A priest who might lead the survivors (he will die)
- A wacko scientist who will have a miracle solution to escape the disaster (he will die)
- A fallen-down hero, a die-hard ex-cop thrown out of the force, a retired fireman, an ex life-guard with a coke habit, you get the picture. He will rise up to the occasion and survive.
- A kid with loving parents (or a troubled teen not getting along with the parents) (the kid will survive, the parents will die
- Some sort of troubled, dysfunctional character set up to become the lover of the hero.
- Watch some disaster movies and pick your favorite cliche characters.
Do Ron Ron - 4 players sing a improvised song about a subject, given by the audience, on the tune of Do Ron Ron.
Double Blind Freeze - This is an extension of the Blind Freeze improv game: 2 players in scene, the others line up with their backs to the scene. Whenever the audience yells Freeze! the 2 players at the end of the line replace the 2 players on scene, and start a new scene, from the positions the original players were in.
Dubbed Movie - 2 or more actors play a scene, but they don`t speak, although they can move their mouths as if they are speaking. 2 or more players sit in front of the action, and provide the speech. The effect is (or should be) like watching a dubbed movie.
Ducks and Cows - Great silly physical warm-up. Everyone closes eyes and trainer divides the group in 2 subgroups. Tap on right shoulder makes you a duck, and tap on left shoulder makes you a cow. Then eyes are opened and on the "Go" sign both groups try to find each other, by quacking & mooing.
Duck Duck Goose - Invent a name for a non-existing but simple children`s game. As soon as you call out the name, all players start to play the game. They can use sounds and gibberish, but no real language.
See if the group can come to playing along the same rules. Variations: Just have the group start playing the game, and afterwards have the group come up with the name.
Emotional Family - Usually played with 4 players, but can be done with more or less players.
As a suggestion ask for a family activity, then start a normal scene. As soon as all characters and their relationships have been established, freeze the scene, pick a player, and ask for an emotion for that player. The scene then continues, and the player is overcome with that emotion. Repeat till all players got an emotion. The scene has to keep evolving after each emotion assignment, and of course players shall try Justifying the emotions.
Emotional Quadrants - Divide the scene in 4 quadrants, and allocate 4 different emotions to each quadrant. Players improvise a scene, but need to take on the emotion of the quadrant they are in. Notes: Encourage players to move about, in order to force changes of emotions. Don`t forget to justify emotion changes.
Evil Stick of Gun - This is a variation on Little Voice . In this game one character has a piece of gum in her mouth, and this piece of gum is capable of talking. The point is that other characters in the scene do not know about this piece of gum, and hence mistake the gum`s words for the characters. Since our piece of gum is evil, it tries to get it`s owner in trouble.
Firing Squad - All players, except one, the victim, form a long line. The first player in the line throws any word to the victim, who responds as fast as he/she can with the first word that comes to mind. The next player in the line then throws another word, usually unrelated to the previous word, and again the victim needs to respond as fast as possible. Repeat till everyone has thrown a word. Variations: This can be done as a continuation game: when done, the victim takes last place in the line, and the first player becomes the victim. You can even have multiple victims walking the line at the same time. Make sure there is enough `space` between the victims, otherwise, with the first hesitation, victims will start bumping into one another.
First Lin, Last Line - Get a line (any line) from the audience. Players play a scene that concludes with the given line.
Variations: Ask for a first line as well. Also known as First Line Last Line.
Fortune Teller - One player covers his ears while the others get `predictions` from the audience; one prediction per other player. First player then plays a fortune teller who must be endowed by the others to predict the given predictions.Variations: Off-stage players can "posses" (like as ghosts) the fortune teller and give him or her tips.
Freeze - 2 actors start an improvized scene. At any point in time another player can call Freeze. This player then tags out one of the 2 actors, and takes his place. Both players then start a new scene, justifying their positions.
Front Desk - We improvise a scene, set in the lobby of a hotel. One or more players play the receptionist(s) and the others play guests arriving or checking out, bell boys, repairmen, you name it.
Players construct the environment together - as soon as a door, a plant, a desk or whatever is `placed` by any player, all other players should respect it.
Funeral Service - This improv game handle can be used both as a Long Form format and as an exercise.
The stage is set up as a funeral, or a viewing the night before the funeral. One player is the deceased, bang in the middle and very visible in or on e.g. a table or a couple of chairs representing the casket. Audience suggests an odd or peculiar way to die, and then the death is played. Perhaps characters present during the funeral service were there at the time of death. After death, the dead gets back into her coffin and we return to the service. Then, taking turns, guests at the funeral service step up and present, in a monologue, their experience with the deceased. After each monologue what was described is played, like a flash-back.
Fuzzy Ducky - Silly concentration game and great warm-up. All players in a circle. We will count numbers clockwise, except that:
- any number that is a multiple of 3, or contains a 3 (like 13) becomes `Fuzzy`
- any number that is a multiple of 7 or contains a 7 (like 17) becomes `Ducky`
- any number that is a multiple of 3 and 7 (like 21) or contains both 3 and 7 (like 73 and 37) becomes `Fuzzy Ducky`)
Group Mirror - Players per 2, facing each other. They can move (arms, legs, eyebrows) slowly, and the other player will mirror them. This is a game of give and take - no-one should be (continuously) leading. Keep movements slow. Variations: Do this with the whole group: everyone in a big circle, and everybody mirrors everybody else.
Guest Game - In this improv game we play a scene in which one player is a guest, somewhere. We do not know who he is, or why he is visiting, or what his relation might be with the characters at the location. All other characters in the scene behave strangely or suspiciously, as if they have a secret. The idea is that by the end of the scene we understand their secret. For example, a player might ring a doorbell at a house, ready to pick up his date. We never get to see the date, and all characters in the scene slowly provide hints as to what might have happened to the date. The game is over when e.g. we (the audience) discover that all occupants of the house have been hauling garbage bags out of the hous, all containing body parts of the date... It need not always be gruesome, though...
Ha Soh Kah - This is a fun warm-up game, and a good one to teach players to deal with failure.
We are going to say Ha-Soh-Kah; all players in a circle. The player that starts with Ha holds her hand, horizontally, near her forehead. The next player is the one her fingers are pointing to (left or right; first player can choose which hand to use and which direction to point to). Next player says Soh, hand horizontally, near the chin, pointing again, either to the left or to the right. The player the Soh points to does Kah, and points with both hands to the next player, who does a Ha again, and so forth. When someone makes a mistake, the whole group says rhythmically: "You are out of this game". Whoever is out steps out of the circle and tries to make the remaining players make a mistake.
Hall of Justice - Fun game for 5+ players, involving superheroes and villains. Get 4 suggestions from he audience, e.g. hammer, coffee, influenza and briefcase. This will give us 2 superheroes: Hammerman and his sidekick coffeewoman. We will also have 2 villains: influenzaman and his aide briefcasegirl. The other players play the villain`s victims. Villains and heroes should try and use as many attributes of their suggestion as they justifiably can.
Harold - Harold is a long format, and consists of a number of sub-formats. It basically consists of 3 components:
- Scenes, with 2 to 4 players
- Games
- Monologues
He Said She Said - Excellent game to show how Endowment works. 2 players; each player will state the action the other player must perform, followed by his own line.
Example:
- 1: "I want a divorce"
- 2: "She said, while grabbing a knife from the kitchen table." At this point player 1 needs to take a knife. Player 2 continues with his own line. "Sure Honey"
- 1: "He said, while turning to the sports page of the paper". Now, it`s quite clear that player 2 should be paying more attention to the paper than to his wife. Player 1 continues with her own line. "You`re not listening to me"
- and so on.
Hitch Hiker - Use 4 chairs to build the interior of a car. One player starts driving the car, and another player becomes a hitch hiker, hiking a ride. The hitch hiker character has a particular character tick or particular emotion, which the driver takes over. Other hitch hikers join in, each with their own characteristics or emotions, taken over by the driver and the passengers in the car as the hiker joins. When the car is full, one of the players leaves the car to make room for the new guest. Notes: Don`t forget to justify leaving the car.
Jeepers Peepers - Everybody in a circle, watch the ground. On your sign, everybody lifts their head and either looks straight, left or right. Whenever 2 people look each other in the eyes, they scream as loud as they can, as if they`re startled, and then drop dead. Repeat till only one or 2 players are alive. Also known as Jeepers Peepers.
LCD - This improv game is called Location, Career, Death (LCD). One player on stage, the others off stage. The audience provides a location, an occupation and an object, only known to the player on stage. Second player enters and a scene is played in gibberish. Player one needs to communicate the location to player 2; as soon as player 2 thinks he`s got it, her claps his hands and spins around. Then player 2 needs to guess the occupation; clap and spin when you think you got it. Finally, the object needs to be revealed. As soon as player 2 has the object, he needs to kill player 1 with it. Then the next player comes on stage and the game recommences, until all players have played. Afterwards, line up the players and ask them where they think they were, what their occupation was and what the murder weapon was - usually quite far off the original suggestion, much to the audience`s amusement. Also known as LOW. (Location, Occupation, Weapon). Also known as Chain Murder. See also Hijacker for a similar game without the Gibberish component. Variations: Use a bell, every 10 seconds or so; at the bell players need to clap and spin and proceed to the next step, even if they are not sure about the where, who and what. Kind of LCD on speed.
Little Voice - One player plays an improvized scene. The other player(s) play the voice(s) of objects in the environment in which the first player plays. Anything can have a voice. Examples:
- a player walks in a forest and an ant starts talking to him
- a player is in the bathroom and his toothbrush starts talking
- Wow, a talking duck with a machine gun!
- Bet you`ve never seen a talking couch, have you?
Lost Friend - All players start milling about the room. You then ask them to greet each other, perhaps just by shaking hands. Players just shake hands, move on, and greet the next player they meet. Then ask the players to greet each other in a more specific way. Possibilities are:
- greet each other like you greet a long lost friend
- greet someone you don`t really trust
- greet an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend
- greet someone you really hate
- someone you have a secret crush on
- someone that sold you a crappy used car
- someone with bad breath
- greet someone like you are a cowboy, a soldier, a nanny, a farmer,...
Scene Replay - Ask 2 players to play a short scene. One could limit the scene to 8 lines of dialog per player. Then ask the players to replay the scene, based on some audience suggestions for:
- a particular emotion. Also known as Emotion Replay.
- an era. Also known as Through the Ages. Also known as Historical Replay.
- a different location
- a film / TV / literature style. Also known as Style Replay.
- in Gibberish
- backwards. Also known as Backwards Scene.
This variation is Also known as Countdown. Also known as Half Life. Also known as Emotional Replay. Other variations: Have the scene replayed by 2 other players or Insist that the dialog remains exactly the same.
Games
3 Series
Game Everyone in a circle. Pick a category (e.g. make of cars, girls names, kinds of food, kinds of plants,
Concentration Exercise
Look and Listen
whatever). First person states an example of the category, and points to someone else. Keep pointing. That someone else does the same, with a different item in the category, and so forth, until everyone points at one person.
Then repeat the pattern. Make eye contact when passing your item to the next person. Drop the pointing arms when everyone is comfortable and the series is collectively memorized.
Then do the same with a second category, and make sure the pointing pattern is different. Repeat till everyone is comfortable.
Then do the same exercise, without pointing, and running the 2 categories at the same time. Add a third, fourth category if you wish. No pointing arms any more!
The idea is not only to listen for the item right before yours in the series (so you know when it’s your turn), but also to make sure that when you pass an item to someone else, that someone else actually hears you. If not, then repeat your item, to ensure the series does not get broken.
3 some
Game Fun warm-up. One player offers something, e.g. I am a slice of cheese. 2nd player jumps in and
Association Warm-up
adds something to the offer, e.g. I am a slice of bread. 3rd player jumps in and again adds to the setup, e.g. I am a pickle. First player leaves, taking one of the others with him. Restart from the remaining player, who restarts by saying what/who she is.
Accepting Circle
Game Get everyone in a big circle. One player starts by making a little gesture, perhaps with a little sound.
Accepting Concentration Exercise Warm-up
His or her neighbor then tries and does exactly the same. And so on. Although we expect the gesture/sound not to change, it will.
Notes
Watch for movements that suddenly change left/right arm or leg. This is not really supposed to happen, but it will. Once happened, it should be accepted by the next player.
Also watch/listen for little moans or sighs that players might make before or after their turn - these should also be taken over by the next player.
Actor’s Nightmare
Game This one is played by 2 players, one of which gets their lines on paper (like a script). The other
Limitations Performance
player should justify whatever the scripted player says.
Notes
You can use existing plays for this, but also lines from comics.
Whoever gets the script should not forget to play/act - only her lines are defined, not what she does, or how she does the lines.
Also known as PlaybookG.
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Game
Limitations Performance
Game
Characters Exercise Introduction Look and Listen
Game
Concentration Energy Warm-up
Game
Exercise Group Warm-up
Adjective Scene
Ask for an adjective (e.g. sad). Play a scene in which the players are as sad as possible. Alternatively, give every player a different adjective.
Aerobics
This is a fun observation game.
Place all players in a line. The first player starts walking around the room, walking a large circle. The second player starts following the first one, and tries to move like the first player. After a few rounds, the first player goes to the back of the line, and the third player starts following and imitating the second one.
Notes
Tell players to be themselves; don’t try and walk around funny (it’s not the Ministry of Silly Walks after all).
Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves
Excellent warm-up. Everyone in a circle. We are going to establish a rhythm, by saying, all together ’Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves’. Keep repeating this.
One person starts making a gesture to this rhythm, say, tapping your head with you left hand. When the sentence is repeated, the player next to her takes over this gesture, while the first one starts a completely different new gesture. Third time the sentence is done, player three does the first gesture, player two does the second gesture and player one invents a new one again. And so on. This is also a concentration game, though it’s not really difficult. All one has to do is watch the previous player, and next time, take over her gesture. When you’re watching what everyone else is doing you’re going to get lost though.
Alien Tiger Cow
Fun game to warm up and to teach players some ChivalryK . Everyone in a circle. There are 3 things a player can be:
An alien: hold you index fingers up next to your head, as little antenna’s and say ’Bleeb bleeb’, bending inwards into the circle;
A cow: bend forward, hold your right hand on your tummy and go ’Moooo’
A tiger: push your right hand forward, imitating a claw and roar.
On your sign, every player decides to become one of the three. The idea is for everyone to become the same, which obviously won’t be the case, the first time. We re-do this until everyone is in sync.
Variations
Invent your own animals (or things) and let players become juke boxes, birds, whatever.
Play ’majority wins’: animals/things that are most in the minority drop out. Also known as Rock Paper Scissors G .
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Alliteration Introduction
Game Excellent game for players to get to know each other’s names.
Concentration Exercise Introduction
Everyone in a circle. A player starts the game by introducing himself by making a gesture, and alliterating to his name, e.g. "I’m Wonderful Wendy" or "I’m Smart Steve". The next player point to the first, repeats the previous player’s name, attribute and gesture, and does something similar about himself.
And so on. Game ends with the first player having to do each other player’s gesture, repeating their names and attributes.
Alliterations
Game You will need a tennis ball or a towel tied in a knot for this one. Everyone sitting or standing in a
Association Concentration Exercise Warm-up
circle. You give one person the ball, and ask him to name as many words as possible that start with a ’P’ (or any other letter), in the time it takes for the ball to get passed along the circle. Doubles don’t count, obviously.
Notes
Tell players not to watch the ball go round when they’re ’it’ - they’ll just panic and freeze. Tell them to try this with closed eyes.
Variations
Pair up the players and use a stopwatch. Ask the left players on the left to name as many words as possible starting with a ’t’, and ask their partners to count, for 15 or 20 seconds. Then switch.
Alphabet Circle
Game Great warm-up game to sharpen concentration.
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
Everyone in a circle. One player starts by throwing an ’A’ to another player. That player throws as fast as possible a ’B’ to someone else. And so on.
If you work with a large group, you can divide them into 2 circles, call ’em Team Gold and Team Silver, and time how fast they can get to ’Z’.
Variations
Any player has the option to change the sequence from A-Z to 1-10 and vice versa. Time it. Or change to 1-10
Alphabet Game
Game This is a scene consisting of 26 lines of dialog. The first line starts with a given letter (say ’R’). The
Audience Participation Die Performance Verbal wit
reply to that line must start with a ’S’, and so on, until the whole alphabet has been covered. After ’Z’ comes ’A’.
Players that hesitate, or use the wrong letter ’Die’, and are replaced by another player. The replacement needs to take over the character of the player she replaces.
Notes
Urge players not to ’stick’ to the game - if you can’t think of a good sentence to advance the story, it’s better to just ’die’ than to screw up the story (see ChivalryK ).
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American Idol
Game This is a spoof of the format of (American) Idol, the TV show in which new singers are discovered.
Performance SingSong
One player is the host, another is the bad judge, and 2 others are candidates. Both candidates introduce themselves (or are introduced by the host) and then sing their song based on an audience suggestion. Afterwards the judge tears them apart.
Animalistics
Game Ask the audience for animals. Players play a scene, in which the characters are based on these
Association Characters Exercise Performance
animals.
Notes
Players do not ’become’ the animals, they only take over characteristics of the animals. Characteristics may be physical, vocal or StatusK based. For example, ’chicken’ might inspire a player to a cowardly character, moving about jerkily.
Also known as TotemsG. - this can be played as an exercise: write totem names on slips of paper. Give every player a totem before they play a scene. You can extend the animal name; make it more specific. Play with things like Bald Eagle rather than Eagle; or Silver Moon, Sitting Bull, etc.
Animals
Game Make sure you have an even number of players. Give everyone an animal, but make sure that there
Characters Exercise
are 2 of each, and that nobody knows which other player is which animal. Then give a number of activities, which the animals perform. Try
Eating. Eating when you’re really hungry Drinking. Drinking when you’re really thirsty Lovemaking
Grooming
Fighting
Sleeping
At the end, ask the players to find the other animal of their kind. Ask the others if they found out who was which animal.
Variations
Let 2 players be humans.
Armando
Game This is a long form, named after its creator, Chicago Improv teacher and player Armando Diaz.
Long Form Performance
The format starts with a storytelling-style monologue, based on an audience suggestion. After the monologue, players play scenes inspired by the monologue, and the monologue may even continue, later on in the performance.
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Artist Model Clay
Game 3 players. One is a lump of clay - behind her is a second player who is a model. Model takes a pose,
Exercise Group
which the ’clay’ is not supposed to see. The third player becomes the artist, who will model the clay after the model. The artist is not supposed to touch the clay, can’t speak and it not allowed to show the clay what to do or to become.
When done, let the model inspect the artwork and see if details fit.
Variations
Limit the time the artist has to build to statue.
Asides
A scene is played, which any player can stop at any time by yelling freeze. At that point, the player Game steps out of the scene, and tells the audience what his character is really thinking, after which the
Performance
scene continues. The other characters of course are not supposed to know what players are thinking, but the players do, and should use this.
Notes
Players can use this to reveal their hidden motives. Other players can play into this, or purposely ignore this knowledge.
Gimmick: characters may actually have other things on their minds than what’s going on in the scene. E.g. a driver stopped by a cop may be thinking about the groceries his wife told him to get at the supermarket.
See also CommentingK . See also Scene PaintingG for another game that uses a similar technique.
Variations
The thoughts of the players can also be provided by players off-stage. Also known as Alter EgoG. Also known as ConsciencesG.
Assassin
Game Great warm-up for a group of 7+ people. Everyone picks someone to be their bodyguard, and
Warm-up
somebody to be their assassin. Don’t say out loud who picked who for what.
Game starts, and everyone tries to protect themselves from their assassin, by trying to keep their bodyguard between themselves and their assassin.
After several minutes of chaos everyone reveals who was picked for what.
Association Jump
Game This is physical association game. All plays mill about the room. At any time, trainer yells a player’s
Association
Exercise shouting ’directions’ (see Fast Food LabanG ) like ’horizontal’, ’up’, ’down’, ’sideways’, ’big’, ’small’,
Group Warm-up
’light’, ’heavy’.
The other players watch our subject jump into a position, and then build around that player, inspired by whatever the frozen position out subject jumped into. The end result is a still scene.
Tip: precede this exercise by JumpG .
name. That player ’jumps’ into a frozen position. Trainer can (but does not have to) sidecoach by
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Game
Audience Warm-up Performance
Audience Warm-ups
Often an improvised show starts with an audience warm-up. Here are some suggestions:
Do a Mexican wave (audience making fluent waves with their hands above their head).
Have he pianist/keyboard man make all kinds of sounds and have the audience imitate them Ask the audience to stand up and do some physical warm-up. Have them shake their arms and legs.
Have the audience introduce themselves to strangers, tell a secret their spouse/partner doesn’t know about to a stranger, have them hug a stranger, tell your neighbor waht you ate today, your pin code
Do an interview with the audience, where the MC is one character (say, a headmaster) and all of the audience another (say a naughty child). The audience needs to reply to the interview in one voice (all saying the same at the same time - see One MouthG ). Not an easy one, and if the audience does not feel like doing this it really sucks. When it works it’s a real thrill.
divide the audience in 3 or 4 groups, and give each group a sound. Rehearse the sound with each group. Then tell a silly story, and use these sounds as sound effects. (We saw a pretty gruesome one in which one group was a car (roar), another a dog (bark) and the third group got a kind of splashing sound. The poor dog got run over by the car... not exactly nice but the audience had fun with it)
Do a cheering competition between the men and the women.
Rehearse different kinds of applause (from the ’polite’ applause when a scene sucks, over an ’ooh’ applause for a touching scene, to a wild roar for a hilarious scene). Have them rehearse voting for a team by cheering the team name (if that’s your format). Rehearse a ’Die’ ( see DieC ) if i you’re going to be playing scenes in which the audience can decide to throw a player out of the game.
Give the men and the women a different sound and play with that. Tell them they are members of a wild tribe, the women go ’Ugh’ when you raise your left hand and the man go ’Hagawaga’ when you raise your right hand.
Automatic Storytelling
This is an exercise you can only do once with a group. Use the exercise to show that making stories is not all that difficult.
Split the group in 2. Half of the players leave the room while you explain the game to the others: we are going to make stories in pairs. We will tell the other players that we came up with a great story, and they have to guess it. The catch is that they can only ask yes/no questions, and we do not really have a story. We will answer ’no’ to every question that starts with a vowel or with a conjugation of ’to be’ (or some other criterion). In addition, after having answered 2 consecutive No’s we will always answer a yes.
Let the other players back in and pair them up with the others. Each couple starts guessing the story, unknowingly creating a story as they go. Continue till they get it.
Origin
This exercise is described by Keith JohnstoneR in Impro for StorytellersR . Back Dancing
Played in pairs. Actors stand back to back, and dance on different kinds of music. Back must stay in touch at all times.
Game
Exercise Narration
Game
Exercise Group Trust
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Backwards Interview
Game Ask for a topic for a TV interview. Then 2 players do the interview backwards. That means that the
Limitations Performance
first sentence uttered is the last one in the interview, perhaps something like: Thanks for that enlightening explanation. (to the guest) To all of you viewers at home, thank you for watching, and see you next week. And then players work their way backwards.
Various gimmicks can be played. For example, in your responses, you can pimp players. Examples would be: "Thank you for that very energetic answer to the question", pimping the other player to do something very energetic.
Variations
The ’backwards’ gimmick can be used to play any scene - Also known as Backwards SceneG. . In that way, don’t base your play on verbal wit only; use gestures and Object WorkK as well.
Balladeer(1)
Game One player is the balladeer, who starts singing a ballad about an audience suggestion. The other
Performance SingSong
players actually play what the balladeer sings about, in slow motion.
This is actually group story-building, as the players are inspired by the what the balladeer sings (obviously) but also, their actions can/should inspire the balladeer.
Notes
You’re not limited to ballads, of course. The same HandleK can be used for a Long FormC structure: see Balladeer(2)G .
Origin
The Improvoholics mailed us to claim they developed this game. Well thanks guys.
Balladeer(2)
Game This is like the short form version BalladeerG , but now as soon as the balladeer stops singing or
Long Form Performance SingSong
finishes the song, the characters start playing and talking independently. When their scene is done the balladeer starts a new song, and so forth.
Barney
Game Silly warm-up game. Everyone in a circle, one person as a ’caller’ in the middle. Caller yells a letter
Concentration Exercise Spontaneity Warm-up
to one of the players; that player must come up with a name of a person, an object or a service that can be sold, and a location, all starting with the letter given. Example would be ’B’ which leads to "Barney sells Bread in Bulgaria". Anything goes, as long as it comes out right away; if not the player becomes caller.
BarPro
The (slightly negative sounding) name is attributed to Keith JohnstoneR and refers to shows Game consisting of short games, played in small rooms, like bars and tiny comedy clubs.
Format
In this simple format, a limited number of players (4-6) play improv games, introduced, and usually directed by an MC. In certain troupes the players take turns MC-ing and/or directing.
There are usually no judges, no score boards and no prizes to be won. Suggestions are taken from the audience, drawn out of a hat or provided by the MC.
Due to the lack of space, there are usually no props or attributes, except for perhaps a coat hanger with clothes and a couple of hats; players typically mime their props.
As far as we know the name BarPro is not copyrighted.
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Game
Performance SingSong
Game
Die Limitations Performance
Game
Association Exercise Spontaneity
Bartender
Ask for a silly problem. Player 1 goes into a bar and explains his woes to the bartender in a song. The bartender then fixes the problem in another song.
See also Three MelodiesG .
Beatnik Poet
Tell the audience we are going to improvise a bad poetry night at pseudo- intellectual coffee house. Ask for 2 unrelated objects or concepts. All players perform a poem that has both suggestions. If they miss out a suggestion or if they don’t rhyme, the audience yells Die! and the player commits suicide on stage.
Become
This one can be player with all players at a time, or you can ask the group to watch as players come up with different ideas on how to do this.
Ask the players to become
A jar of mayonnaise A pack of cigarettes Dentures
At first, this will probably not lead to much. Add side coachings, like:
You are a jar of mayonnaise. Opened or not? Full or empty? Fresh or not? Show it.
You are a pack of smokes. Empty or full? Filter cigarettes or not? Where are you? In someone’s pocket or on a shelve in a shop? Show it.
You are a flower. What kind of flower? Blooming or not? In a vase or in a field? What color? Freshly picked or not? A present to a lover or at a funeral?
You are water. Still or not? In a glass? A jar, a puddle, a lake or an ocean? Fresh or dirty?
You are stone, air, sand, fire.
Your are blue, red, green. You are a clock. Big Ben or grandfather clock? Working or not. Is your time right or not? A watch? Who is wearing you? A nun or a pimp? How could you show that?
You are French fries. McDonalds or Wendy’s? Hot or cold? Any ketchup? On a plate or in a cardboard box? Eaten or not? Yummy or yuck?
After a while, players should be able to come up with the side coachings for themselves. Encourage the players to try out different kind of stuff, see what they come up with.
Before or After
A short scene is played. After that the host asks the audience whether they want to see what happened before this scene, or what happens after this scene. This is a variation on Fast ForwardG .
Bidirectional Satellite TV
Fairly difficult combination of Satellite TVG and Satellite RadioG : players in pairs, establish a beat. Every beat, player 1 offers a movement and player 2 offers a word of a story. At the same time, players mirror each other, with a delay of 1 beat.
Game
Continuation Performance
Game
Exercise
Look and Listen
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Big Blob
Game Players perform a scene in a location that contains an enormous blob of blubber. Something yukkie.
Exercise Limitations Performance
Players must walk or move through this blob as the scene continues, but their characters are not supposed to acknowledge that this Big Blob is there.
Big Booty
Game Everyone in a circle. One player is Big Booty. The others, going clockwise, are numbered: 1, 2, 3
Concentration Warm-up
and so on. Now Big Booty establishes a 4-beat rhythm, saying Big Booty, Big Booty, Big Booty (followed by a rest) - repeat this until everyone got the rhythm. The game then goes as follows: Big Booty passes the buck to someone else, saying Big Booty to 7 (say) (this takes 2 beats, one for saying ’Big Booty’ and one for saying ’to 7’). Number 7 then passes in 2 beats to, say number 2, saying ’7 to 2’. It then continues until someone makes a mistake: if and when that happens everyone says (in 2 beats) ’Oh Shit’, after which we repeat Big Booty Big Booty Big Booty (+ rest on 4th beat), twice. After that, the player that made the mistake becomes Big Booty, and everyone’s number changes. New Big Booty starts the game again.
Big Fish Small Fish
Game Fun energizer game. Everyone in a circle. We are going to pass a pattern along the circle. Everyone,
Energy Exercise Warm-up
at their turn does either:
Say Big Fish, and hold both hands in front of you, about 3 inches or 10cm apart. "It" then passes to the next person in the circle.
Say Small Fish, and hold both hands in front of you, about 15 inches or 50cm apart. When this is done, the direction changes.
Players that miss (e.g. say Small Fish and keep your hands too close together or say Big Fish and move hands wide) do a forfeit, or die with a loud noise.
Bippety Bop(1)
Game Silly warm-up to get the blood flowing. A players in a circle, one player in the middle. The player in
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
the middle closes his eyes, holds right hand pointing in front of him, and spins around. When done spinning, open your eyes and say, as fast as you can ’Bippety Bippety Bop’.
The player you’re pointing to, and his 2 neighbors, need to build an elephant in less than the time the middle player needs to say ’Bippety Bippety Bop’. An elephant consists of a trunk, made by the middle player, by holding your nose with one hand, and extending your other arm through the arm that holds the hand that holds the nose (does this make any sense?). The neighboring players each form a big ear, using both arms. Don’t forget to attach the ears to the elephant’s head.
Any player that cannot get his/her part done by the time the middle player does ’Bippety Bippety Bop’ becomes ’it’ and takes place in the middle of the circle.
Variations
You can really invent any object or create to replace the elephant. Try
a car, with 2 wheels and a set of wind screen wipers
a cow, with an udder and 2 horns
a washing machine, with 2 players building a ’box’ with both arms, and the middle player waving her arms in a circle in front of her. All go ’rumble rumble’
a bunny, with 2 paws (middle player) and 2 rabbit ears (neighbors)
Also known as Also known as Bappety BooG. . See also BunnyG . See ElephantG for a more elaborate version of the game. See Bippety Bop(2)G for a variation that goes by the same name.
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Bippety Bop(2)
Game This is a variation on Bippety BopG : all players in a circle, one player in the middle who is ’it’. This
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
player picks a player in the circle and yells ’bippety-bippety-bop’ at her. If he manages to get to ’bop’ before she can say ’bop’, she becomes ’it’.
Other possibilities are:
Just say ’bop’ if anyone else reacts, that person becomes ’it’
Say ’Elephant’, after which 3 players build the elephant: the player picked does the trunk (hold nose and squeeze your other arm through) and her neighbors doe the ears. If any of the 3 players screws up or does not react he or she becomes it.
Say ’mixer’: the player in the middle becomes a mixer, holding arms up in the air, sort of horizontally, while her neighbors position themselves under her hands, and turn around their axises
Say ’toaster’ : the player in the middle becomes a slice of bread, and her neighbors become the toaster, by ’building’ the toaster with their arms around the bread. The slice of bread pops up an down too when done!
Feel free to invent other objects (suggestions can be found under Bippety BopG ). Black Box
Game This one is played by 2 players. One holds a (mimed) black box, which has 3 buttons, one of which
Performance
is red. These buttons control a player; one button might be the ’jerk your leg’ button. The exact functions of each button are not defined.
The other player enters and asks if he can play with the box. Player 1 agrees, but adds something like "Whatever you do, don’t push the red button".
Player 2 begins to play with the buttons, controlling player 2. Then, we slowly work up to the use of the dreaded red button, which will make player 2 do something not-so-obvious. This can be anything, but it should not be preconceived. The red button might become a Mood swing button, a Start Screaming, Start Giggling, Sing Opera, or Switch-to- GibberishC button.
Blind Association Circle
Game This one starts just like Free Association CircleG : players in a circle, establish a rhythm, and freely
Association Exercise
Look and Listen
associate on previous player’s word. As this is going on, the trainer will tap all players gently on the shoulder, at 3 times:
first tap: players close their eyes but continue the free association, sticking to the rhythm second tap: everyone starts walking around (carefully!), eyes still closed.Players have to recognize the voice of their ex-neighbour in the circle to know when it’s their turn.
Third tap: all players, still eyes closed, and still associating, try to reconstruct the circle.
Exercise is over when everyone is in a circle again. Trainer should keep an eye on players to make sure they don’t run into things. It helps if there’s not too much clutter around, of course.
Blindfolded Scene
Game Players are blindfolded and then play a scene. Limitations
Performance Trust
Variations
Have the players play barefoot and have mousetraps on the stage. Not very nice but we’ve seen it done. Also known as MousetrapsG.
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Game
Association Exercise Performance Warm-up
Game
Exercise Limitations Long Form Look and Listen Performance
Blind Freeze
This one is just like Freeze TagG , but here the MC calls Freeze, and calls in another player. If you’re not using an MC, any player might call Freeze and call in any other player.
Many groups find this game more exciting than Freeze TagG , as players don’t know when they get pushed in the game, and hence are less prepared, and crazier, more exciting stuff tends to happen.
Blind Harold
This is really a listening exercise, though it has been performed as a Long FormC for audiences. Basically, this is a HaroldG , played with all players sitting down with their eyes closed. For a performance one would turn all the lights off in the theater.
See also The BatG .
Blind Lead
One player is blindfolded, and the room is filled with obstacles (put a couple of chairs everywhere, leave all kinds of junk on the floor). The idea is that the rest of the group will lead the blindfolded player through the room, by talking.
Also known as AirplaneG. A helpful reader offered us an explanation for the name ’Airplane’: The blindfoldee (or just eyes closed) is led through a maze composed of furniture and the other actors. He is an "Airplane" lost in the fog being talked down by the "Air Traffic Controller", who must remain in his/her "Tower". Standing on a chair/rehearsal block lends visibility for the controller. The airplane also only has a limited amount of fuel left (1-3 minutes, whatever) to reach a safe landing (arriving at the Tower). The airplane is also allowed two "brushes"-limited contact with an obstacle. The third brush or a direct hit or stepping on something directly causes a "crash". They may step around, over or under the obstacles. Also, the airplane can only fly forward. It can turn in any direction, however. The directions must be given from the pilot’s point of view; a good exercise for fledgling directors. You can also destroy all the trust you’ve built up in your class by completely clearing the deck and torturing the Pilot. Believe us, someone will suggest it.
Also known as Obstacle CourseG. See also FingertipsG for a similar exercise. Blind Line Offers
Line up the players, give’em each a number. Call out 2 numbers. Those players step on stage immediately, with a physical OfferK (do something, eat an apple, wipe the floor, whatever) as well as a vocal offer (say something).
The idea is that the players accept and explore each other’s offers and figure out what the scene is about.
Blind Line Up
This one is like Group OrderG , except that everyone keeps their eyes closed, and no talking is allowed while the group lines up.
Notes
This is more a group exercise than Group OrderG (which is more about agreement), so initially you probably want to take it easy on the silly stuff, like line up by order of mental health... Always interesting to see what strategies the group comes up with.
You can’t really use alphabetical order if the group does not really know each other.
Game
Exercise Group Trust
Game
Exercise
Game
Group Introduction Warm-up
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Blind Musical
Game This is like a musical version of PocketsG : ask the audience to write simple sentences on slips of
Performance SingSong
paper. Hand each player 2 or 3 slips (they’re not allowed to read them yet). Play a scene or series of scenes. Players draw slips of paper at random, and every time they do, they start a song that starts with the sentence on the slip.
Try to integrate the info on the slips into the story, of course!
Variations
Leave the slips of paper on the stage for players to pick up.
Blues Jam
Game Ask the audience for 5 things that give them the blues. Then improvise a blues jam about those
Performance SingSong
elements.
Body Hide
Game Excellent exercise to get to know each other, and to learn to trust and touch each other. 5
Exercise Group Introduction Trust
volunteers. 4 of these must try and hide the fifth person, using nothing but their bodies. The other students stand around the group and try and see pieces of the fifth’s clothes, shoes, skin.
It’s great fun for the other students to watch and try and find uncovered pieces of person. Don’t tell them they go next, with one person less.
Variations
Try this game with less and less ’hiders’. If the task becomes impossible, tell them they can use parts of walls. Using a corner is easiest, of course, but let them figure that out themselves.
Bong Bong Bong
Game Silly game, inspired by a Korean TV show (so we’re told).
Guessing Limitations Performance
4 players, 3 stand with their ears closed, backs turned to the scene. The 4th player gets as a suggestion a common expression.
The idea is that this player has 1 minute to communicate this suggestion to the 2nd player, using only mime and GibberishK . Number 2 then communicates (what he has understood) to number 3, who does the same to number 4. At the end yell Bong Bong Bong and have players 2, 3 and 4 explain what they thought they understood.
A similar technique is used in LCDG .
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Boris
Game 2 players play an interrogation scene. One is the interrogator, the other is a suspect. The interrogator
Exercise Narration Performance
randomly throws unconnected elements to the suspect, who needs to incorporate these and get himself into (even more) trouble.
And then we have Boris, who is a nasty, huge, but invisible thug assisting the interrogator. Every time the interrogator does not like the suspect’s answers (and also when the suspect does not incriminate himself enough), the interrogator calls on Boris to torture the suspect, prodding him to confess or incriminate him even further.
Notes
we do not establish the crime beforehand
the suspect mimes being tortured by Boris
the investigator can tell Boris what to do (break his leg), but it is more fun to leave the choice of torture up to the suspect
if the torture does not go far enough to the investigator’s taste, he can always call in Boris’ evil twin brother, Igor (also invisible)
as a gag, the suspect can also incriminate Boris (who can turn out to be a witness/accomplice to the crime).
Origin
Attributed to Keith JohnstoneR . Bucket
Game Before the show ask the audience to write simple sentences on slips of paper. Those go in a big
Audience Participation Limitations Performance
bucket.
A scene is played, and at random moments the players don’t just invent a line of dialogue, but use a line off a piece of paper drawn from the bucket. Anything said is accepted, heigthened and integrated.
Bunny
Game Extremely silly game, to pump up the energy. Get everyone in a circle. One player becomes the
Energy Exercise Warm-up
body of a bunny - this is done by holding both arms in front of your chest, elbows touching your rib cage, and letting hands hang. Her 2 neighbors become the ’ears’ of the bunny, by waving a hand next to the middle player’s ears. All 3 say ’bunny bunny bunny’ together, until the middle player ’throws’ a ’bunny’ to another player in the circle. This player becomes the bunny body, and his neighbors get to do the ears.
Play this game at a high speed. Mumbling ’bunny bunny’ en masse gives a nice energy boost.
Variations
Play in slow motion. Hilarious!
Alternatively, you can really invent any object or create or replace the bunny, as long as you invent a sound along with it. Try
a car, with 2 wheels and a set of wind screen wipers, going ’vroom vroom’
a cow, with an udder and 2 horns, going ’moo moo’
a washing machine, with 2 players building a ’box’ with both arms, and the middle player waving her arms in a circle in front of her. All go ’rumble rumble’
an elephant, with 2 big ears and a trunk, making an elephant sound (if you don’t know what an elephant sounds like, just invent a sound).
See also Bippety BopG . See also Killer BunnyG .
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Call from Ray
Game A scene is begun. At some point in the scene an onstage player has to receive a "Call from Ray" (or
Limitations Performance
any other name agreed upon). The call can come in any form, like phone call, SMS, smoke signals, telepathy or whatever, and Ray himself may not appear in the scene.
Variations
You can come up with any sentence that needs to come up. A variation would be to use "I’ll have a coke" - Also known as I\’ll have a cokeG. .
Cards
Game Ask the audience to write short sentences on cards. Give 2 players 3 cards, which they put in their
Performance
pockets. Then they play a scene. At any point in time, instead of saying whatever they think they might say, they take a card, and read what’s on the card. Whatever is said should be justified. See also Actor’s NightmareG .
Card Status
Game Excellent Status K game.
Endowment Limitations Look and Listen Performance Status
Notes
Set up a location where status is important. Examples would be a Royal Palace or a highly organized bureaucracy (the White House ?).
Variations
players can only see their own card, but not the others’
give players multiple cards, and let them switch cards in the middle of the scene. Statuses (statii ??) should change accordingly.
as an exercise, let players play a scene and then ask them to line up in status order to see if they ’got’ their status right.
Cat and Mouse
Game All players in pairs. One player is cat, one other player is mouse, and all others stay in pairs, arms
Energy Warm-up
hooked together. Cat chases mouse; when mouse is caught then mouse becomes cat and vice versa. However, mouse can escape chase by hooking into any pair of other players. At that point the player at the other end of the pair becomes cat and the cat becomes mouse.
Catch’em
4 players. Ask an audience member to pick 4 cards out of a deck, and attach a card to each player’s forehead, so that players can see each other’s card, but not their own. Use a rubber band or a piece of string for that.
The idea is to play a scene, in which the status order of the characters is defined by the cards. Evidently, players don’t know their own status, so the other players will have to endow them.
Game One player is ’it’ and stands at one end of the room, facing the wall. The other players at the other
Concentration Energy Exercise Warm-up
end of the room. Players need to try and get to the player who is ’it’ without ’it’ seeing them move. The player who is ’it’ can turn around at any time - at that point everybody else needs to freeze. Anyone who is caught moving is out.
Also known as Bear of PoitiersG. (see Games for Actors and Non-actorsR )
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Circle of Knots
Game Form a circle, holding hands. Then, any player can start moving about, making knots in the circle. Do
Exercise Group
this gently, and keep holding hands.
Variations
Try a line instead of a circle
Try with eyes closed or blindfolded
Circle Sitting
Game Have everyone stand in a circle, really close to each other, facing inwards. Then ask everyone to
Group Trust Warm-up
make a quarter turn left. Make everyone stand even closer to each other. When ask the whole group to sit down. If everyone is really close, they will end up sitting on one another’s knees, and the whole construction supports itself.
If well done it’s even possible to make the circle walk. Indicate which foot to start with ;-)
Clap Snap Association
Game This one is like a Free Association CircleG , except that the rhythm is more explicit. Here’s how to do
Association Exercise Warm-up
the rhythm: each beat consists of 4 phases: Slap both hands on your thighs
Clap your hands
Snap your left hand fingers
Snap your right hand fingers
With every right hand snap, a word should be thrown to your neighbor. Once the rhythm is established, you can leave out the snaps - that’ll make things more understandable.
Variations
You can use this for both Last LetterG games or Free Association CircleG .
Try this with two circles. Have one circle associate freely, and another circle on Last LetterG . Whenever a player misses a beat she should switch circles.
Notes
If you do this with 2 circles, you will probably find that the rhythms for both circles synchronize.
Clap Snap Stamp
Game All players in pairs, facing each other. We’re going to count from one to three, each player one
Concentration Warm-up
number at a time, and we keep repeating this. So player number one would go one, three, two, one, three, and so on.
Once they get this, we replace the ’one’ with a ’snap’ (snap your fingers).
Once everyone is into that, we replace the ’two’ as well, with a hand-clap.
Finally, we replace the ’three’ as well, with a stamp of the right foot. Play at high speed!
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Click Bang you’re dead
Game Description: all players sit in a circle. Only one player should know how to play and what the secret
Concentration Exercise Introduction
is; this player is the leader at first, until others catch on. This person points at random people in the circle each time saying either "click" or "bang"; they should make it sound and look like what theyâre doing has to do with math or the order they are going etcâ¦
The secret: it really doesnât matter who is pointed to, what is said, when they are pointed to, who it begins with or who it ends with, it just depends on who speaks first after the clicks and bangs are done. So the person who begins (the one that knows whatâs going on) will declare whoever talks first dead by saying "youâre dead". That person isnât "out" or anything, itâs just for effect. The game continues until the players catch on. If somebody thinks they get it, the leader gives them a chance to say the clicks and bangs and they get to announce who is dead; the leader will then be able to tell if they understand the secret if they announce the right person as being dead.
Make sure that once the players begin to catch on, they donât spoil it for the others by letting the cat out of the bag. Also, the game is best if played with ten or more people.
Contributed by Jeannie Smith from Hawai. Thanks for that Jeannie!
Columbian Hypnosis
Game Played in pairs. One player holds her open hand, fingers upward, about 2-3 inches from her
Exercise Trust
partner’s face. She then starts moving her hand about slowly, while her partner tried to keep his face at exactly the same distance from her hand, like her hand is pulling of pushing his face about. Switch sides and partners after a couple of minutes.
Notes
This is really also an exercise for the hypnotized, as she needs to ensure that her partner is able to follow her.
Variations
Use both hands.
Origin
Described in Augusto BoalR ’s Games for Actors and Non-actorsR .
ComedySportz
ComedySports was started by Dick Chudnow in 1884 in Milwaukee. It’s a format of competitive Game improvisational comedy that resembles Keith JohnstoneR ’s TheatresportsG . The format is currently
Format
played by a dozen-plus teams all over the USA, united in the Comedy League of America.
In a ComedySportz show 2 teams complete for points given by the audience. A referee oversees the match, times the games, calls fouls and gets audience suggestions. A match consists of something like 7 to 12 games, drawn from a repertoire of over a hundred games (you’ll find most of these games in the Games section of Improv Encyclopedia).
In terms of gimmicks, you have the ’brown bag foul’, which is a brown paper bag placed over the offending player’s head.
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Game
Characters Environment Exercise
Coming Home
Ask players to think of someone they know. Then ask them to play how that person would come home from work. Players need to pay attention to
The environment: what does that person’s house look like? Is it neat and tidy or is it a mess? Big house or small apartment?
What does he do? Does the character change clothes or showers or has a beer first? Does he eat? If so, what? Microwave dinner, carryout, pizza delivery or cornflakes?
What mood is that character in? How was work today?
Variations
You can come up with other situations in which characters enter a location.
Commercial
Ask for a product (existing or non-existing). Then play a commerical for that product.
Variations
you can do this as a radio commercial. Cut the lights in the theater. ( see Scene in the DarkG . you can play the whole development of the commercial, starting with the brainstorming by the marketing guys, the work of the production company coming up with a slogan, jingle, etc. You can even play the bloopers at the actual taping of the commercial.
Complete Bodies
Players in pairs. One player takes a position, using all parts of her body. The other player completes that position, by folding over/in/around the first player, without touching her. First player then completes second player in another pose, again without touching.
As a next step, do the same, but tell a story, one sentence at a time, providing a sentence every time you move.
Concentration Circle
Place all players in a circle and number them sequentially, starting with a random player. The players then establish a rhythm, for example by swinging their left hands up and down. Have player 1 start; when her arm is up she shouts/throws a number. The player with that number needs to throw another number at the next beat.
Players that fail (if they did not recognize their own number) or that break the rhythm become the last player in the circle, and that changes the numbers for a bunch of players. Restart with player one. See also Big BootyG .
Confessions
Not exactly theater but fun when played well. The MC gets a bunch of ’confessions’ from the audience. These can be really lame, like e.g. ’I vote democratic’, ’I used to be a man’, ’I sold a kidney’, whatever.
Then players line up. One player steps forward, and gets a confession from the host. Player utters the confession in a character, and immediately another player jumps in and offers a witty reply. Do this as long as players have ideas for replies. Then replace the first player by a new one, give her a new confession and repeat ad libitum.
Game
Performance
Game
Exercise
Look and Listen
Game
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
Game
Performance Verbal wit
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Continuing Emotions
Game A ’neutral’ scene is started, and is then interrupted (frozen) several times by the MC. The scene is
Continuation Performance
then continued but all characters switch to an emotion provided by the audience.
Continuing Styles
Game A ’neutral’ scene is started. This scene gets interrupted several times by the MC, and then continued
Continuation Performance
in a film/ literature/ drama/ TV-program style provided by the audience. The platform and the story need to continue flawlessly.
CopyCat
Game CopyCat goes like a verbal Freeze TagG . A scene is started. At any time, a player at the side can
Association Exercise Performance
step forward (the playing players hold off for a moment) and repeats a line that was said in the scene. Whoever originally said that line, steps aside, and the remaining players start a new scene starting with the line that was repeated.
Variations
Feel free to actually continue the ongoing scene rather than to start a completely new one. Feel free to replace all the players instead of just the player who said the last line.
Rather than just stepping in and repeating a line, you might want to call ’FLIP’ (or freeze). This variation is known as Also known as FLIPG. .
Crabtrees Conundrum
Game This game is taking from Mrs. Crabtree from South Park. 2 players start a scene and every now and
Limitations Performance
Game
then a player will say "What’d you say?" And the other player must come up with a completely different phrase that rhymes with the one just said.
For instance. Christine, I think you are as sick as a dog!! What’d you say? I said I think we should go for a jog, it’s a really nice day.. and so forth. See DingG for a similar game.
Crime Endowments
[ Endowment Guessing Performance
One player is endowed as the head of a criminal organization and gathers with the others to plan or act out the crime. He is endowed with âsomething to steal, hijack or kill, âa method or weapon, and some wild card such as a code word or i a disguise.
This is sort of a generalisation of HijackerG .
Crisis Situation
Game Great exercise for spontaneity. 2 players on stage approach each other with a crisis, and an object
Exercise Spontaneity
unrelated to the crisis. After each has presented his or hers, each solves the other’s crisis with their own object. Replies must be instantaneous and may be ridiculous.
Example:
Player A: My wife left me and I’m stuck here with this t-shirt Player B: I got robbed and all I have left is my good looks.
Player A: Here’s my t-shirt; you can sell it and make some money. Player B: Erm... Marry me.
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Cross Circle
Game Perfect game to learn each other’s names.
Concentration Exercise Introduction Warm-up
Cut
Game This Long FormC game is played with 6 to 15 players. 2 players start a scene, perhaps based on an
Format Long Form
audience suggestion. In the middle of the scene, any other player can call ’Cut’, and start another scene, dragging one or more other players in the scene.
All scenes are interrupted this way, and the idea is that all scenes come together in one story. Cut scenes can be continued later. Usually, every player sticks to one character.
This game can be played with or without a director. Also know as Also known as SoapG. .
Variations
Usually, we decide on a category before the start of this game. Possible categories are Soap series, like The Bold and the Beautiful, Dallas, Eastenders
Hospital drama, like E.R.
Cop drama, like Hill Street Blues
Romantic Comedy, like The Love Boat Crime series or murder mysteries
Dating Game
Everyone in a circle. One person (A) starts by calling another person’s name (B). At that point, A starts walking towards B. Before A gets to B, B needs to call another name (C), so B frees her spot in the circle, for A to take. C then needs to call yet another name and start walking, so B can take C’s spot.
Variations
Instead of calling names, players can pick another player by making eye contact (and nodding to acknowledge that eye contact has been made). This demands a lot of concentration.
You can have more than one cycle going, if the group is big enough. Also known as Name GameG. Also known as Shriner’s Warm-upG.
Game This is played like a Blind Date show. One player leaves the stage, and the audience provides
Endowment Performance
endowments for the 3 others. Examples might be No. 1 is stupid, No. 2 is a serial killer and No. 3 thinks he’s a macho.
4th player gets to ask 3 questions, and each of the others answers it. After the questions player 4 should guess what the endowments were.
Day in the Life
Game The MC picks a member of the audience and interviews this person about their average (work) day.
Audience Participation Performance
Questions asked may include ’What is your job?", "Where do you live, with who?", "What are your hobbies?", "How do you get to work?", "Who are your colleagues?", and more. The players then improvise a day in the life of this audience member, based on the elements provided by the interview.
See also Ding DongG .
Variations
Instead of playing a real day, play a nightmare - Also known as NightmareG. . Host can ask what the audience member is afraid of or does not like.
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Deaf Replay
Game 2 players play a scene while 2 others watch the scene, with their ears covered. When the scene is
Limitations Performance Replay
over, the 2 others re-play the scene. Obviously they’ll do the same movements, but the dialogue will be different.
Death and Retriever
Game This one is like ScorpionG , but in this version killed players are not ’out’, but can be revived.
Exercise Group Trust
Everyone eyes closed, one player becomes the killer (tap him on the shoulder) and another one becomes the retriever. The retriever gets a towel of a scarf around her neck.
Dead players scream when they are killed, keep their eyes closed and stand still. When the retriever bumps into someone that does not move (a dead body) she can revive the dead by rubbing them with the towel.
When the retriever gets killed, she screams and stops moving. When another living person bumps into the retriever (recognized by the scarf), the retriever is revived, and the one that revived the retriever becomes the new retriever.
Play till everyone is dead or bored.
Death in a Minute
Game 2 or 3 players play a 1 minute scene, in which one player must die. Limitations
Performance Timed
Notes
Tell players to take risks. Why not just drop dead after 5 seconds and leave it up to the other player to justify the death.
Deconstruction
Game This is a Long FormC format. It starts with one rather long scene, which is followed by other,
Long Form Performance
probably shorter, scenes that somehow connect to the first scene. Possible connections are: Characters return
Characters of situations mentioned in the first scene appear in the subsequent scenes
Subsequent scenes take place in the same environment as the first scene
The reason why the first scene should be fairly long is that it should provide enough information for other scenes to build on. The name ’Deconstruction’ can be interpreted as "Take a first scene, and then deconstruct it by using characters, locations, situations, played or referred to, and play/re-use those in further scenes".
Origin
Deconstruction originated at ImprovOlympic in Chicago.
For a long discussion about the format and its origin see Chicago ImprovR .
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Diamond
Game 4 players in a square; 2 in front, 2 behind them. The MC or host asks for an audience suggestion for
Continuation Performance
the 2 players in front. Then the host asks the players to turn the square (to the right or to the left). So now we have a different combination of players in front. These 2 get an audience suggestion. Turn again and ask for suggestion again and do this once more. Then have players take their original position.
The game is played as follows: the 2 players in front start a scene; the 2 players in the back move to the side to clear the stage. Players play until the host yells "Call", at which time all players step back to their original positions in the square. MC then calls Right or Left, and square turns accordingly. The 2 players in front start playing a scene based on their suggestion until MC calls again.
This is repeated. When 2 players are up front for the second or third time, they continue their previously played scene. They can either plainly continue it, or continue at some time in the future (a day later, a year later, a century later). Also known as RevolverG. Also known as Pan Left Pan RightG. Also known as TurntableG.
Ding Characters
Game This is like DingG : players play a scene. When a bell is rang, they both need to drop into a
Characters Exercise
completely different character, but the scene continues.
This exercise is unlikely to lead to good scenes, but it’s a great help to teach players to drop into clear and varied characters instantly.
Ding Dong
Game This is a variation on Day in the LifeG : pick an audience member and ask her some questions
Audience Participation Performance
Ding
Game A scene is played. Whenever the MC ring a bell (or yells ’Ding’), the player that is doing
Exercise Performance Spontaneity
something/saying something needs to say/do something else.
Notes
Doing ’something else’ is quite often interpreted as doing/saying the opposite of what you did before. One can be more creative, e.g. repeat what was said in a different emotion.
If you use this as an exercise on SpontaneityC the trainer can ’Ding’ quite often (very frustrating for the players, but they will come up with stuff they never would have thought of before). Disadvantage of this is that the story/characters tend to get lost. Use sparingly for performance. Also known as Other ChoiceG.
about her day. Then play that day. Every time the players ’guess’ something incorrect the volunteer says ’Dong’. Players try to correct until they get a ’Ding’.
Example. Player is in bed in the morning and the alarm clock goes off: BZZZ. You get a ’Dong’. Try again and alarm clock starts playing the radio. Another ’Dong’. Try again and player is woken up by the neighbour drilling a hole in the wall. ’Ding’. You got it. Continue with breakfast, and so on.
Director’s Cut
Game A normal scene is played. At any moment a player not in the scene (or a player dedicated to this
Performance
particular role) stops the scene ( see CutG ) and has the actors replay the scene with different emotions, characters, roles. Like a director instructing actors on how to play.
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Disc(1)
Game Tell the players to imagine the stage is a disc, only supported right in the center of the stage. We are
Exercise Limitations
going to play a scene, in which the disc needs to be balanced at all times. Anytime a player moves, or a new player enters, the others need to rebalance the disc, and every move needs to be justified.
Notes
Also known as PivotG. There is another version of this game - see Disc(2)G . Disc(2)
Game Imagine the stage is a large disc, supported in the middle. The goal is to keep the disc balanced.
Exercise Limitations
Game starts with a player entering the disc; he is the leader. As soon as the leader stops milling about on the disc, another player must jump in and restore the balance. The new player becomes the new leader, and the previous leader becomes a follower.
As soon as the balance is restored, the leader can start walking around; the other player stays where he is. As soon as the leader stops again, the follower(s) move and restore the balance. After that, the leader becomes one of the followers, and a new leader jumps in.
The group of followers may split into groups of equal size, and restore the balance that way. Keep in mind that followers don’t start moving until the leader stops.
See also Disc(1)G .
Dissociation
Game This game can be done individually, or you can have one player do it in front of the class. Players
Association Exercise Warm-up
say as many words that have nothing to do with each other, until they start associating. Restart as soon as you’ve got an association.
Example: cat, deodorizer, house, green, grass. Here we restart, because grass is obviously an association on green.
Notes
You can use this game to show that association is natural, and that it is actually difficult not to associate. See also MalapropismG .
Distance Game
Game Two players stand a few feet apart facing each other and have the most boring 4-line interchange
Exercise Limitations
possible. They then each secretly pick a specific distance they want to be from the other person and repeat the interchange while maintaining the distance. The maintaining of distance automatically seems to affect people’s emotional commitment and inflection. The key is to have a specific distance in mind down to the inch. If one person picks 1 foot but the other picks a foot and a half. You will see some interesting conflict because of that extra half a foot.
Variations
Play a scene where the players are connected by a stick, a piece of rope or wood. You can even use a match stick.
Distorting Mirror
Game This is a variation of the classic MirrorG exercise. Played in pairs, one player is designated as the
Concentration Exercise
mirror. This mirror distorts the image; perhaps it blows everything up, makes everything wider, taller, smaller, narrower, prettier, uglier.
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Doors
Game Excellent introductory exercise for building environments and PlatformK . All players in 2 rows. 2
Environment Exercise
facing players play the exercise, the others watch.
Player 1 sets a (part of a) platform by miming a door. As soon as player 2 has an idea about where player 1 might be, player 2 steps into the scene and offers a line of dialog, expressing where we are. Player 2 answers player 1, acknowledging player 1’s offer. This ends the scene.
The audience should know after these 2 lines of dialog where the players are, and who they are, or what their relationship is to one another.
Notes
’Doors’ can be anything that separates one physical location from another. Players can mime real doors, but also gates, curtains, you name it. Encourage players to try out as many types of ’doors’ as possible. Use sound to enhance the platform, e.g. a door in a submarine makes a different kind of noise than an elevator door.
See also Three Line EnvironmentG . Doo Wop(1)
Game This is another structured song format, sung as a 1950’s doo-wop. It can be structured in various
Performance SingSong
ways.
Here’s one in 5 beats: ask for an object. Then
Lead singer sings verse about the object
All sing Chorus, in the style of I love my (object)
Verse 2: explain how you found your object
(all) chorus on how you love your object
Verse 3: That fateful night ... explain how you lost your beloved object. This can be done as a parlando (i.e. you speak to the music, rather than sing)
(bridge) Explain how bad you miss your object
(all) chorus on how you miss your object
Verse 4: explain how your replaced your object by a new (or other) one
(all) chorus on how you love your new object (finale!)
Feel free to drop e.g. the first of second chorus if you feel it drags you down. Feel free to modulate after the bridge, or not.
Notes
Here’s a possible chord progression:
Verse: C Am Dm G7 (3 times) C Fm6 C G7
Bridge: G7% Am% (3 times) D7% G7 Ab7 (modulate to Db) Chorus: C C/E F G (3 times) C Dm7b5 C
Doo Wop(2)
Game This is another structured long form. Get a topic, line up the players, and start improvising a song
Long Form Performance SingSong
around the theme, usually without using a piano player (it would get too structured and cluttered if you so). Use the suggestion to improvise instruments (or their sound) with. Players can offer bits of NarrativeK by singing over the ’music’. Once the narrative patterns are clean, any player can step out of the song and start a scene based on what was established.
When the scene is done the ’music’ resumes till someone else starts a scene. Nice if the scenes start to connect, or if characters from different scenes meet and interact.
Notes
This is a bit like a HaroldG but without the games. Or like a French BraidG where the glue between the scenes is the song.
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Game
Performance SingSong
Game
Limitations Performance
Game
Endowment Look and Listen Narration Performance
Do Ron Ron
4 players sing a song about a subject, given by the audience, on the tune of Do Ron Ron.
Variations
Invent your own choreography and have the players dance as they sing.
Double Blind Freeze
This is an extension of Blind FreezeG : 2 players in scene, the others line up with their backs to the scene. Whenever the audience yells Freeze! the 2 players at the end of the line replace the 2 players on scene, and start a new scene, from the positions the original players were in.
Double Endowment
Another great game to train listening skills.
Pick a place where a scene will be played, and 2 players. Tell each player what they need to get the other player to do, without the other player knowing this. Players are not allowed to explicitly tell the other player what to do.
Example: an arena in ancient Rome. Player 1 needs player 2 to taste the sand in the arena, and player 2 needs to get player 1 to tie a knot in a lion’s tail.
Notes
Works best is players take risks. If they to the ’wrong’ thing the audience will probably just laugh, and that should be enough to signal the player he’s going the wrong way.
Double Opening
2 players each make a (strong) opening sentence, at the same time. After that, adhering to both openings, find the scene that makes sense for both.
Variations
Do the same, but have both players react to each other’s opening simultaneously. Then have the original players react to the reaction simultaneously. Rather difficult, but teaches the importance of listening to one another.
Dry Cleaning Bag of Death
We need three or four players. During the scene, one player is always off-stage, with his head inside a dry cleaning bag, slowly suffocating. He is not allowed out of the bag until some other player finds a way to to exit the scene and ’liberate’ the suffocating player. New player puts his head into the bag until freed by another player, and first liberated player finds a way to justify his entrance into the scene.
Variations
Use a bucket of water instead of a dry cleaning bag. Also known as Bucket of DeathG. . Also known as Head in BucketG. .
Game
Exercise Limitations Look and Listen Narration
Game
Limitations Performance
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Dubbed Movie
Game 2 or more actors play a scene, but they don’t speak, although they can move their mouths as if they
Performance
are speaking. 2 or more players sit in front of the action, and provide the speech. The effect is (or should be) like watching a dubbed movie.
Duck Duck Goose
Game Invent a name for a non-existing but simple children’s game. As soon as you call out the name, all
Exercise Group Warm-up
players start to play the game. They can use sounds and gibberish, but no real language. See if the group can come to playing along the same rules.
Variations
Just have the group start playing the game, and afterwards have the group come up with the name.
DVD Special Edition
Game Start off with a trailer, narrated by one of the players, followed by some quick scenes, maximum 5
Long Form Performance
lines per scene. Then show the cast (every character in the movie), and follow with the whole movie. This can be done with out without director.
After the movie you can do the special features. You can do deleted scenes, bloopers, you name it. A nice format for those transitioning from short form to long form, as the start of the performance is a bunch of short scenes.
Eights
Game Excellent game to warm up those muscles.
Warm-up
Everybody scatter around, stand up relaxedly. Ask the players to make an ’8’ movement with their left big toe, then their left foot, then whole left leg. Repeat with right toe/foot/leg.
Repeat with left index finger, left hand, left lower arm, left arm. Repeat with right hand/finger/arm. Try both arms. In opposite directions.
Make 8-shaped movements with your pelvis. Try horizontally and vertically. Try changing direction. Ditto for left shoulder, right shoulder, both shoulders. Ditto for your head.
End exercise by making eights simultaneously with as many parts of your body as possible.
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Elephant
Game This one is like an extended version of Bippety BopG . Start with 3 things:
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
an Elephant, consisting of a trunk, made by the middle player, by holding your nose with one hand, and extending yo ur other arm through the arm that holds the hand that holds the nose (does this make any sense?). The neighboring players each form a big ear, using both arms. Don’t forget to attach the ears to the elephant’s head. Make an elephant sound.
A palm tree: the middle player is the tree, her neighbors become the waving leaves of the tree. Make windy noise
A car: the middle player holds the steering wheel, the neighbors do the wheels. Make car engine noise.
One player in the middle. Point to a person and yell Elephant (or Palm Tree, or whatever was agreed). Then choose another player and yell something else. Do this at high speed.
Now for the extension: when someone makes a mistake, look at what the person does, and add that to the list of possibilities. For example, someone might be waving their arms incorrectly in from of them, trying to build the trunk of the elephant. If the group things this resembles, say, a swimmer, we decide on adding a swimmer to the list of options. Say the middle player does the arms and her neighbor do the legs.
Repeat until you have so many options that everyone goes wrong...
Emotional Family
Game Usually played with 4 players, but can be done with more or less players.
Limitations Performance
As a suggestion ask for a family activity, then start a normal scene.
As soon as all characters and their relationships have been established, freeze the scene, pick a player, and ask for an emotion for that player. The scene then continues, and the player is overcome with that emotion.
Repeat till all players got an emotion. The scene has to keep evolving after each emotion assignment, and of course players shall try JustifyingK the emotions.
Emotional Mirror
Game Players in pairs, facing each other. One starts talking in gibberish, with a specific emotion (angry,
Concentration Exercise Gibberish Warm-up
happy, in love, you name it). The other instantly copies the emotion of the first player, and speaks in his own gibberish. No need to try and copy the other player’s gibberish, and both players keep talking, no pauzing allowed. After about 10 seconds, the second player changes emotion, and the first one immediately follows her.
Emotional Quadrants
Game Divide the scene in 4 quadrants, and allocate 4 different emotions to each quadrant. Players play a
Limitations Performance
scene, but need to take on the emotion of the quadrant they are in.
Notes
Encourage players to move about, in order to force changes of emotions. Don’t forget to justify emotion changes.
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Emotions Characters
Game Players in pairs, arms loosely hanging (not folded, not stuck in pant pockets). Players look at each
Characters Exercise
other with pity. No words or sounds allowed, and no use of hands.
Ask everyone to change partners. Players are asked to look at each other lustfully.
Change partners again. Players are asked to look at each other joyfully.
Then yell any of the three emotions. Players need to find back the partner with which they did that emotion and do it again. Repeat this several times. Then ask players to walk around the room. When they meet one of their 3 partners, they return to the look that went with that partner. In between partners they stay neutral.
You can try more or different emotions, of course.
Endowments
Game This is a general handle for a ton of endowment games:
Endowment Guessing Performance
one player leaves, the audience gives an occupation, and this player need to be endowed with that occupation. Game is over once the occupation is guessed - Also known as Occupation EndowmentG. .
audience provides a location and a murder weapon (and perhaps an occupation for the victim as well). Player that was sent out needs to guess these - Also known as Murder EndowmentG. . Attention - this is not the same game as LCDG .
Audience provides 3-5 objects. Players try to endow the other player to use those object - Object EndowmentG .
2 players. Audience provides a secret for both; players do not hear their own secret but know the secret of the other. Then they try to endow the other players with their secrets - Also known as Secrets EndowmentG. .
Audience provides a new brand of superhero. E.g. toothbrushwoman. Audience also provides 2 strengths and perhaps 1 weakness for this superhero. Others try to endow player one with the name, strengths and weakness of the new brand of superhero - Superhero EndowmentG .
Energy 1-10
Game Everyone in a big circle, squatting down. We will count 1 to 10, all together, moving up, with
Energy Exercise Group Warm-up
increasing energy level. 1 is hardly audible, 10 is as loud as possible, everyone standing straight, hands reaching up.
It’s important to watch each other, to ensure we’re all at the same energy level. Also make sure that the increase in energy is nicely gradual.
Evil Stick of Gum
Game This is a variation on Little VoiceG . In this game one character has a piece of gum in her mouth, and
Limitations Performance
this piece of gum is capable of talking.
The point is that other characters in the scene do not know about this piece of gum, and hence mistake the gum’s words for the characters.
Since our piece of gum is evil, it tries to get it’s owner in trouble.
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Evil Twin
Game 4 players. 2 will play a scene. The other players are the other’s evil twins. At any point, the ’twins’
Performance
can shout ’freeze’ after which they tag out their twin, and continue the scene and do something evil. After that, they move out again, and the original twin brother needs to justify the evil, correct or repair the damage done and continue the scene.
Notes
Great setups for this game are things like first dates, or meeting your in-laws for the very first time.
Exaggeration Circle
Game All players in a circle, or a long line. One player starts a little gesture, with or without a little sound..
Energy Exercise Warm-up
The next player takes it over and makes it bigger. The last player does the whole thing to the extreme.
Notes
Make sure the players stick to the original gesture/sound, and don’t just do their own thing. We should be able to see the movement grow organically.
Excluding
Game 4 players play a scene, in which one of the players gets excluded. Exercise
Group
Notes
This is a group exercise, in the sense that players should be sensing where the majority of the group is going (see Alien Tiger CowG ).
Tell players not to be afraid of ’being nasty’ - be extreme in your exclusion (that makes it easier, also for the player that is excluded - see Mr. Nice GuyK ). Whoever gets excluded should gladly accept this and react accordingly.
Excluded players can go to extremes to be re-included - hilariously funny if even this is thoroughly ignored by the others.
Variations
Let the exclusion evolve; allow a player that got excluded to get 2 others to join him and exclude the fourth one. This only works if the excluded player first allows herself to be excluded (a little ChivalryK here).
Also known as AlliancesG. . This game was originally created as a pattern game for long form shows at the Theatresports London Impro Lab in the late 1980’s. The whole point of the game is NOT to actively try and exclude anyone. The exclusion of one player should happen as a result of the other players making alliances with one another. If you don’t do this the scene doesn’t form very good patterns and the players get too competitive. You also miss the slow, sliding status drops and the desperate attempts to hook into an existing alliance, that happen when a player is starting to realize that they are being excluded.
A good way to start this game would be:
Start in a black-out seated round a table
While the lights are still down the entire ensemble starts to laugh (as if someone has just told the punchline to a hilarious joke)
The lights slowly fade up as the cast’s laughter winds down and the alliances begin to form By the end of the scene, which climaxes in a final, dramatic exclusion, we usually end up with four to six threads and a clear protagonist
Big thanks to Alan Marriott of Crunchy Frog Collective and Grand Theft Impro (London, England) for the additional info on Alliances.
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Family Portraits
Game Fun game to get everyone to work together.
Association Group Warm-up
Players are going to ’build’ family portraits. Ask for e.g. Family of accountants, bean counters
Family of fat/skinny people
Family of Pop Stars
Family of snakes, rats, cats
Family of garden tools
Tell the players you will want to see who’s who in the family. We also want to see who gets along with who, who’s the black sheep of the family, and so on. This only works if players watch each other closely.
Famous Last Words
Game MC asks the audience for famous (living or dead) people, or characters in movies, cartoons or
Performance Verbal wit
songs. Players line up and invent ’famous last words’ for the subjects given by the audience.
Famous Person Endowment
Game 1 player gets a number of famous persons; one for each other player in the scene. Then a scene is
Endowment
played with all players, and player 1 endows the others with the personalities given by the audience.
Guessing Sort of the inverse of The PartyG . Performance
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Fast Food Laban
Game Laban was a movement theorist, and this exercise is based on (a simplified form of some of) his
Characters Exercise
ideas. Take 3 categories:
Timing: Sudden or Sustained Weight: Heavy or Light Space: Direct or Indirect
Then try and make characters that behave/speak following combinations of the 3 categories: punching : sudden / heavy / direct
slashing : sudden / heavy / indirect
wringing : sustained / heavy / indirect
stroking : sustained / light / indirect dabbing : sudden / light / direct smoothing : sustained / light / direct pushing : sustained / heavy / direct
Notes
The attributes go with the characters, not necessarily with the actual performer’s body. A heavyset person may move about delicately.
Variations
You can introduce this in a fairly simple way, by asking the players to move about the room, according to directions or orientations:
be a ’horizontal’ or ’vertical’ person be downward, or upward
be light or heavy
Then experiment with these: be suddenly light (bird taking off from a tree) or continuously light (be a cloud).
You can do this using different kinds of music. What direction / weight / movement does a certain song or theme inspire?
Then try to experiment with characters: who or what would be vertical person be (a general?). What/how would be continuously light person be (stoned?). Suddenly light (flirty?). See also Fast Food StanislawskiG .
Origin
Attributed to Keith JohnstoneR . See Impro for StorytellersR .
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Fast Food Stanislawski
Game Have 2 players perform a scene, perhaps give them a title or a location, but also give them a subtext
Characters Exercise
for their character. Subtexts might be: you want to seduce the other you are a nerd
you like to make people laugh you want to impress others
you are a nasty person
you try to be ordinary
you are an optimist/pessimist
you will never find a girlfriend/boyfriend
Notes
If you are using this in a workshop it might be a good idea to ask the players how one would behave given a certain subtext. Stress that you are looking for TruthfulnessK .
This is an excellent technique to find a character. You can actually use this for performance - just give yourself a subtext when you jump onto the stage and see what happens.
See also StatusK .
Origin
Described in Impro for StorytellersR : the book contains an appendix on how to play for different subtexts.
Fast Forward
Game For this handle we need a ’director’, or the MC can take on this role. A scene is started. The director
Continuation
Performance story is then continued in that time. This technique can create flash backs. Also known as RewindG.
can at any point interrupt the scene, and fast-forward (or backward) to another point in time. The See also Director\’s CutG .
Feature Film
Game This is a collection of scenes, all based around (the making of) a movie. One character we definitely
Long Form
have in this format is a Director, who can direct the players to re-play poorly played scene, and who Performance can offer parts of the storyline or TiltsK . before they actually get played.
Apart from seeing the scenes from the movie itself, we can (but don’t have to) see scenes of what is going on behind the scenes (so you can have a totally different sub-plot going on there, if you want). Some groups also involve the guy that actually wrote the script (as in TypewriterG ).
Also known as At the MoviesG. . Also known as At The OscarsG. : where we start the performance with an Oscar nomination (or win) for the Director.
Final Freeze
Game This is an extension of Blind FreezeG : players try to do callbacks from previous scenes in the
Limitations Performance
Freeze. Recycle characters, situations, or even continue scenes that were frozen before.
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Finger Applause
Game Have the audience clap not their hands, but start with 2 fingers. Then gently add more fingers until
Audience Warm-up Performance
the whole hand is used.
Variations
Try folks clap hands with their neighbors. Left hands up, right hands down; so every person claps his right hand into his neighbor’s left hand and vice versa.
Fingertips
Game Played in pairs. Players touch all ten fingers, and one player closes her eyes. The other player leads
Trust
the blind player by his fingertips. Make sure you have some obstacles in the room to navigate around/over/under.
See also Blind LeadG for a similar exercise.
Firing Squad
Game This is an association game, sometimes used in workshops to ’punish’ a silly or inattentive student.
Association Warm-up
All players, except one, the victim, form a long line. The first player in the line throws any word to the victim, who responds as fast as he/she can with the first word that comes to mind. The next player in the line then throws another word, usually unrelated to the previous word, and again the victim needs to respond as fast as possible. Repeat till everyone has thrown a word.
Variations
This can be done as a continuation game: when done, the victim takes last place in the line, and the first player becomes the victim.
You can even have multiple victims walking the line at the same time. Make sure there is enough ’space’ between the victims, otherwise, with the first hesitation, victims will start bumping into one another.
Five Four Three Two One
Game This is a long format, origin unknown, and has resemblance to a HaroldG .
Format Long Form
5-4-3-2-1 can be played with 4 to 12 players. In this format the audience provides 5 different themes, objects, emotions, locations or situations. Then, the game is played in 5 rounds.
In the first round 5 scenes are played, each based on one of the audience suggestions. These scenes are totally unrelated. After the first round the audience decides which of the 5 scenes seen should be discontinued.
In the second round, the 4 remaining scenes are continued, and links start to appear between these scenes. Again, after this, the audience decides which scene to dump.
This continues until after 4 rounds there are only 2 scenes left. In the fifth round these scenes come together in one final scene. This format can be played with or without props and/or director(s).
Variations
This can also be played without dropping a scene line. In that case you’d probably use 3 rather than 5 scenes. Also known as TriptychG . Also known as TapestryG .
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Five Things
Game One player leaves the stage while the HostK asks for an everyday activity. Then, audience and host
Gibberish Guessing Limitations Performance
will change 5 things about that activity. Example: suggestion is feeding the cat. One might change the following:
change the cat into something else, say a tiger
change the verb into some other verb, say deep frying
change the location from where one might feed the cat. Say the Vatican. change the character. Say character changes from cat-owner to postman add interaction with a famous person, say Elvis.
After that the 1st player is brought back in and a scene is played in GibberishK . The other players have exactly 5 minutes to make the first player guess each of the five things.
Depending on the original suggestion, feel free to change whatever.
Flock Dance
Game This is a physical warm-up. The group forms a pyramid: one player becomes the top, 2 players
Exercise Introduction Warm-up
behind her, 3 players on a third line, and so on.
The top player starts moving about the room (perhaps use music to guide the players). The second line follows the first player, and mimics her movements, and the third line follows the second line. The top player can alternate however she wants (and can be guided with e.g. a change in the music).
The top player can even turn around, and face the second line. Confusion will be complete. Other variations can happen when the top player bumps into the last line, and takes over their movements. See also AerobicsG
Follow the Leader
Game All but one in a circle, one player in the middle. The middle player closes her eyes, and the rest of
Exercise Group
the group quietly chooses a leader.
Middle player opens her eyes and tries to find the leader. The whole group follows the leader, in everything he does. As soon as the middle player finds out who the leader was the game is over. This only works if movements are clear, not too fast, and if the group ’follows the leader’ as fast and as precisely as possible.
Follow your Nose
Game Silly physical warm-up. Have everybody mill around the room, and shout a body part. Players then
Exercise Warm-up
start moving around as if they are leaded by that body part. Continue with another body part. End the game on a really silly note by leading with e.g. your internal organs. Also known as Foot Soldiers G .
Foreign Movie
Game 2 players play a story in GibberishC , 2 others translate. The idea is to build the story together: the
Gibberish
Performance Also known as SubtitlesG.
’actors’ give elements to the translators, and the translators can help steer the action for the ’actors’.
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Fortune Cookie
Game Open a fortune cookie, read it aloud. Then play a scene based on the fortune. Limitations
Performance
Variations
Give every player a fortune cookie; each player then need to show that fortune in his or her character.
Fortune Teller
Game One player covers his ears while the others get ’predictions’ from the audience; one prediction per
Endowment Guessing Performance
other player. First player then plays a fortune teller who must be endowed by the others to predict the given predictions.
Variations
Off-stage players can "posses" (like as ghosts) the fortune teller and give him or her tips.
Free Association Circle
Game Everyone in a circle and we establish a rhythm, by swinging a hand. Once a rhythm is established,
Association Exercise Warm-up
one player starts by tossing a word to his neighbor, who associates on the word and tosses another word to his neighbor.
It’s important to stay in the rhythm. Tell the players to just say ’banana’ if they feel they can’t think of a word, as long as the rhythms does not get broken. See also Word BallG and Clap Snap AssociationG .
Variations
Try this in combination with Last LetterG . See Blind Association CircleG for another variation. Free Association
Game This is the classic association exercise. There are various ways of playing this (see Variations and
Association Exercise Warm-up
see other games in the AssociationC category.
The Basics
In a free association we will ask players to say the first thing they think about when hearing (or seeing, feeling, smelling or tasting) anything another player provides.
It should be stressed that anything is valid, as long as it is not preconceived: the association should be based on what the previous player has offered.
Variations
Here is are list of Free Association games: Free Association CircleG
Free Association LinesG
Walk-over AssociationG
Word BallG Firing SquadG
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Free Association Lines
Game Yet another way to play association games. Place all players on 2 lines, facing each other. One
Association Exercise
player starts walking to another player in the other line. Just before he gets to that other player, he throws her a word. The receiver starts crossing the line towards someone else, and the first player takes her place in the line. The receiver now becomes the thrower, throwing the first word she can think of to another player, who then starts walking, and so on.
Variations
Try with 2 or more walkers at the same time. Many players, especially new ones, tend to find it easier to freely associate when there are multiple walkers: they feel less ’on the spot’ (as no-one is watching them in all the commotion) and they don’t really have the time to get in their heads.
Can be combined with Last LetterG .
Free Falling
Game Nice, but a bit dangerous exercise to build trust. In it’s simplest (and safest) form all players stand in
Exercise Trust
a circle, one player in the middle. The player in the middle closes her eyes, slowly turns around, and then lets herself fall backwards (or forwards). The other players need to catch her.
Variations
Be careful with this: have one player stand on a chair or a table , the others in front of him. Player closes his eyes and lets himself fall, hopefully he will be caught by the others.
Freeze Tag
Game 2 actors start a scene. At any point in time another player can call Freeze. This player then tags out
Association Exercise Performance Warm-up
one of the 2 actors, and takes his place. Both players then start a new scene, justifying their positions.
Notes
The way this game is played quite often goes a bit against good improv, as many groups hardly take the time to develop a story line. If played this way, it’s more a game of wit, and you would probably use it early in a show as an audience (and player) warm-up.
Alternatively, you can take your time and play every scene for several minutes, see what develops, and only at the end of each scene tag into another scene.
To avoid preconceptions, see Blind FreezeG . See also Space JumpG for an extension of this game. French Braid
Game This is a very simple format, which consists of a number of (unrelated) scenes, that get interrupted,
Format
Long Form Performance
and then continues at a later point.
It is played as follows: 2 or more players start a scene. At any time, when another player or players enters the stage, the scene is interrupted (or fades out) and the new player(s) start a new scene. This is repeated until all players have played.
Then the series is restarted with the first scene. This scene continues, or starts at a later point in time (or later in the story, like a Fast ForwardG ). The scene gets interrupted again, and so forth. The whole is repeated several times.
This is typically played without a director - the players decide when to interrupt an ongoing scene. Players typically play one character.
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Front Desk
Game We play a scene, set in the lobby of a hotel. One or more players play the receptionist(s) and the
Characters Environment Exercise
others play guests arriving or checking out, bell boys, repairmen, you name it.
Players construct the environment together - as soon as a door, a plant, a desk or whatever is ’placed’ by any player, all other players should respect it. See also Group EnvironmentG .
Fruit Basket
Game All players but one sitting a circle, one person in the middle. The person in the middle calls out a
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
category or some descriptive that might apply to some or all of the other players. E.g. all women, all blondes. When called, if a player matches the description must leave her chair and find another chair. Person that doesn’t find a chair becomes the next in the middle.
When ’Fruitbasket’ is called, everyone changes chairs.
Fusillade
Game Great exercise in fast thinking, but seen done in performance as well. Would be an excellent
Energy Exercise Performance
challenge for a theater sports match!
All players line up in 2 lines, facing each other. MC or trainer yells a word/title, and next player in line gets 30 secs to do his or her thing, based on the suggestion. After 30 seconds new title/word is given and next player goes.
Fuzzy Ducky
Game Silly concentration game and great warm-up. All players in a circle. We will count numbers
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
clockwise, except that:
any number that is a multiple of 3, or contains a 3 (like 13) becomes ’Fuzzy’
any number that is a multiple of 7 or contains a 7 (like 17) becomes ’Ducky’
any number that is a multiple of 3 and 7 (like 21) or contains both 3 and 7 (like 73 and 37) becomes ’Fuzzy Ducky’)
Any player that ends up muttering ’Duzzy Fucky’ is put in front of the Firing SquadG . Game-O-Matic
Game This is like ’invent-your-won-game’ : ask the audience for the name of an unexisting improv game,
Performance
then invent the rules on the spot, and play it.
Kind of risky, but if the group has been playing short form improv games for quite a while, coming up with rules is easy.
Gibberish Commands
Game Another exercise on JabbertalkK : players in pairs. Have each play issue a command to her partner,
Exercise Gibberish
in Gibberish. Players can’t move on until the command is understood and executed. Simple things will do, like ’pass me the salt, please’ .
The idea is not to mime the command, but to try and make it obvious for the way the command is issued, and the environment that has been set.
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Gibberish Expert
Game One player is an expert on a subject, often provided by the audience. Furthermore, he’s from a
Experts Gibberish Performance
foreign country (perhaps also supplied by the audience). The expert gives a lecture in GibberishC and a second player translates.
Variations
Have the expert tell a story, instead of giving a lecture.
Gibberish Malapropism
Game This exercise flexes your mind and is a good exercise for GibberishC games. Have the players walk
about in the room, point to any object, and give it another name in JabbertalkK .
Exercise
Gibberish See also MalapropismG .
Give and Take
Game This is a variation on Walking by NumbersG : all players find a position the room. One person must
Concentration Exercise
always make sound and one person must walk. This can be the same person who is walking and making sound but it could be one person walking while a different person is making sound.
The focus can be given (i.e. a walker stops walking) or can be taken (i.e. someone else starts walking; the original walker must stop then). Feel free to try with multiple walkers.
Goalie
Game Great high-tempo exercise. 1 player up front. He’s the goalie. The other players all think of an
Accepting Characters Exercise
opening line for a scene, and a character. When everyone has their opening line and character, we bombard the goalie with these offers, one at a time. Goalie needs to react right away to an offer, acknowledging the opening and character, snap into an opposite character and reply to the opening. Immediately after that the next player comes up with his or her offer.
This exercise is good for teaching players to react right away, and to snap into a character almost without thinking.
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Goon River
Game This is a format that consists of monologues. The story is not played, but told. The players (typically
Long Form Performance
3 or 4) line up in front of the audience, Based on a single audience suggestion they all tell the same story, each as their own character in that story.
The play usually starts with every character introducing him or herself. The order in which characters speak is not really important, as long as they all speak.
After the introductions, things start to happen. Every character reflects on what is happening from their own perspective, and each character adds elements to the story.
Keep going (and make sure that every character keeps contributing) and ReincorporatingK as long as things stay interesting.
Also known as Also known as Spoon RiverG. , Also known as Moon RiverG. , Also known as Goon RiverG. and Also known as Spork RiverG. .
See also Voices From HeavenG for a short form game version which is really based on the same handle.
Origin
Origin unknown, but the story goes that the name of the format would be inspired by a book Spoon River by Edgar Lee Masters (hop on to www.outfitters.com/illinois/fulton/masters.html for more info on Spoon River).
Notes
This is a great way of exercising monologues!
Referring back to the work of Masters, many groups tend to end the format with the death of (one or more of) the character(s).
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Gorilla Theatre
Game This format is played with 3 experienced players, one MC and another player, dressed up as a
Format
Gorilla. The Gorilla is the prize to be won; the best player of the evening gets to spend a week with the Gorilla, and of course this is quite a privilege!
The Gorilla enters with last week’s winning player (real or faked). The MC explains that the score for the evening will be counted by means of bananas; the player that end up with most bananas at the end of the game wins another week with the Gorilla.
The audience is trained to ’vote’ by yelling ’Banana’ (for a good performance) or something else, like ’Die’ or ’Forfeit’ for a bad performance.
Each scene is then played by 2 players, and directed by the third. The beauty of it all is the fact that not the players are judged by the audience, but the director.
Players take turns directing, and after each game the audience either awards the director a banana, or a forfeit. Bananas are pinned on a scoreboard, or pinned onto the winning player’s costume - cardboard bananas are preferable in the latter case.
A forfeit is like a punishment for a poorly directed scene. Possible forfeits might be calling your mom and explaining why you’ve been such a lousy director, or having to sing a song about your bad scene. A list of Gorilla forfeits can be found in the Lists section on ImprovlandR .
The director gets to choose the scene or the game to be played. Perhaps a list of games to be played this night is on the stage, and directors can write their names next to the games they want to direct. The director directs the scene, gives players side-coachings, can interrupt the scene, introduce tilts or make the players repeat (part of) the scene. To ensure that bad scenes don’t drag on forever, or to prevent directors to play tons of 30-second scenes in order to improve their chances, certain troupes limit the amount of time for directing to like 20 minutes per player.
This format can be played with or without attributes and props. The Gorilla might even be used as a prop, or even as a player, although the Gorilla should not try and steal the show. The Gorilla is a player, so he too should be prepared to take risks, and he’s supposed to be naughty.
This is a fairly advanced format, as the players not only need to play well, they also need enough insight to effectively direct scenes. This is also a rather nice format, as players are not rewarded; 2 players playing well together generate a banana for the director, and this way the format prevents competition between the players.
Origin
Attributed to Keith JohnstoneR , and described in Impro for StorytellersR . Greetings
Game All players start milling about the room. You then ask them to greet each other, perhaps just by
Exercise Introduction Warm-up
shaking hands. Players just shake hands, move on, and greet the next player they meet. Then ask the players to greet each other in a more specific way. Possibilities are:
greet each other like you greet a long lost friend greet someone you don’t really trust
greet an ex-lover
greet someone you really hate
someone you have a secret crush on someone you had a one-night stand with someone that sold you a crappy used car someone with bad breath
greet someone like you are a cowboy, a soldier, a nanny, a Russian farmer,... Also known as HelloG. Also known as Lost FriendG. See also PresentsG .
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Group Environment
Game This is a group exercise in building environments. One player starts by entering a ’space’ through a
Concentration Environment Exercise Group
’door’, and then leaves that space, through the same or through another door. Any doors placed remain where they are, and the characteristics of the door are not to change.
Then another player enters the same space, and places a mimed object in that space, either by physically placing the object (carrying, wheeling or pushing it into the space, or by just ’using’ it, for example by hanging her coat over a chair. Second players leaves the room, either through one of the established doors, or by placing a new exit.
This continues until every player has done their thing. Each player needs to respect, and perhaps use all objects placed by previous players.
Notes
Watch for players GaggingK - anyone placing a jukebox in what has clearly been defined as a church is just trying to be funny and screwing up the scene.
Group Freeze
Game Everyone starts milling about the room. Any player may decide to stop walking at any time. As soon
Concentration Exercise
as one player stops walking, everyone needs to freeze in position. As soon as everyone is froze, start walking again.
Obviously, the idea is for the group to freeze as quickly as possible.
Variations
Let all players make noises, hum, whistle as they mill about. The noisier, the more challenging the exercise becomes. Also known as StatuesG. See also Walking by NumbersG .
Group Order
Game Nice warm-up exercise to help the group function/agree as a whole.
Exercise Group Warm-up
Everybody starts milling about the room. You then ask them to line up , according to various criteria. Examples are:
order by age
order by weight
order by shoe size
order by mental health
order by personal hygiene order by number of ex-lovers order by blue
Notes
Keep the silly criteria (order by blue) till the end. Usually, the players will start realizing that it doesn’t really matter what the order is, as long as the group agrees on the order.
Criteria like mental health or personal hygiene are quite interesting to train on ChivalryK .
See also Blind Line UpG .
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Guest Game
Game In this game we play in scene in which one player is a guest, somewhere. We do not know who he
Narration Performance
is, or why he is visiting, or what his relation might be with the characters at the location. All other characters in the scene behave strangely or suspiciously, as if they have a secret. The idea is that by the end of the scene we understand their secret.
For example, a player might ring a doorbell at a house, ready to pick up his date. We never get to see the date, and all characters in the scene slowly provide hints as to what might have happened to the date. The game is over when e.g. we (the audience) discover that all occupants of the house have been hauling garbage bags out of the hous, all containing body parts of the date... It need not always be gruesome, though...
Hall of Justice
Game Fun game for 5+ players, involving superheroes and villains. Get 4 suggestions from he audience,
Performance
e.g. hammer, coffee, influenza and briefcase. This will give us 2 superheroes: Hammerman and his sidekick coffeewoman. We will also have 2 villains: influenzaman and his aide briefcasegirl. The other players play the villain’s victims.
Villains and heroes should try and use as many attributes of their suggestion as they justifiably can.
Handicapped Fairy Tale
Game Very silly but very effective. Ask the audience for a fairy tale. Then give every player one or more
Limitations Performance
characters in the story. Ask for a handicap or peculiar state of mind for each character and play the fairy tale.
Hand Slap
Game All players in a circle, down on the floor. Cross arms, and then put hands flat on the ground. Each
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
hand in turn pats/slaps the ground, in order. Hands that miss are eliminated.
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Harold
Game Harold is a long format, and consists of a number of sub-formats. It basically consists of 3
Format
Long Form Performance
components:
Scenes, with 2 to 4 players Games
Monologues
The format starts with a suggestion from the audience - this could really be anything. Players will start associating around the suggestion, and then an opening game is played. In this game, a lot of associated elements round the audience suggestion are presented. The opening game might be a song, a monologue, or simply a group association based on the audience suggestion. The idea is to use the elements and themes that come up or about in the opening game in what follows.
Then follow 3 rounds of scenes, all based on the themes found in the opening game. Each round exists out of 3 scenes, all unrelated, but each loosely based on the themes and associations form the opening game. Since these themes originated for the same audience suggestion, the audience will (hopefully) feel some links between the scenes.
After the first round of 3 scenes, an improv game is played; this game is unrelated to the 3 scenes played before. Then, in the second round, each of the 3 previous scenes is continued, and more or less obvious links between the scenes start to emerge. This is again followed by an improv game, and then the 3 scenes are played into a conclusion.
It’s quite possible that in the third round not every scene is continued; scenes may disappear or even merge with one another.
A Harold can be played with a decent number of players (up to 12 or so), players can act in multiple scenes, as the same or as different characters. A Harold can be played with or without props, with or without directors.
Whether one sticks to the 3 rounds or not is really not relevant; anything and any combination of games and loose scenes that finally more or less come together can be considered a Harold.
Origin
This is an American format, described in Del CloseR ’s book Truth in ComedyR . We’re not sure whether it’s copyrighted - if you know please let us know.
Hat Continuation
Game Start a scene, and identify each of the characters by means of a hat. The MC will interrupt (freeze)
Continuation Performance
the game from time to time, and switch the players’ hats. After the switch each player becomes the character that previously wore his or her hat.
The story needs to continue and should make sense.
Notes
A gimmick is CommentingK on the fact that characters ’jump’ in space when the hats gets switched. Use sparingly.
Also known as Bermuda TriangleG.
Hats
Game A very silly game. 2 improvisers put on hats, preferably similarly sized. Scene ends when one player
Performance
grabs the other player’s hat or tries to do so and misses. Any grab, move to grab or defensive movement needs to be fustified. Try and play the scene for reality.
Variations
Start with a 20 second window in which no grabs are allowed, so that the scene and the relationships between the characters can evolve.
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Heave Ho
Game This is like an extended version of TossingG to be played with 16+ players. All players but one form
Group Trust
2 lines, facing each other, and link hands to form a platform, which is used to heave the last player from one end of the line to the other.
Best to remove shoes, coins, and any other objects that might fall or hurt someone.
Helping Hands
Game Scene played by 4 players, playing 2 characters. Each character consists of one player, who does
Limitations Performance
the voice, holding his hands behind his back. Another player stands behind player 1, and provides the ’hands’.
The story should be a give and take between voices and hands. Also known as Arm GameG. .
Variations
Have 2 players provide the arms, one each.
He Said She Said
Game Excellent game to show how EndowmentC works. 2 players; each player will state the action the
Endowment Exercise Performance
other player must perform, followed by his own line. Example:
1: "I want a divorce"
2: "She said, while grabbing a knife from the kitchen table." At this point player 1 needs to take a knife. Player 2 continues with his own line. "Sure Honey"
1: "He said, while turning to the sports page of the paper". Now, it’s quite clear that player 2 should be paying more attention to the paper than to his wife. Player 1 continues with her own line. "You’re not listening to me"
and so on.
Players refer to each other as ’he’ and ’she’, and endow each other with the next action to take. This can be quite funny, if you endow your partner to do crazy or not-so-nice things to you (or to themselves, but that’s would not be Mr. Nice GuyK ).
Variations
Can be done with 4 players: 2 provide the lines, and the 2 others provide the ’directions’ - each director provides the action for one of the 2 talkers.
Can also be one with 3 players: one provides directions and both other players do their own dialogs.
Notes
Keep the action do-able and active. Making someone else ’think about something’ is hard to play, and not very active. Also known as He Said While SheG.
Hesitation
Game In this game a scene is played, in which at any time, any player may ’hesitate’, and ask the audience
Limitations Performance
for help. Anything provided by the audience must be justified and incorporated. Examples:
James, hand me that .... (signs the audience for a word) -- Lollypop.
Ah, I was sailing the 7 seas in my .... Newspaper. Yes, Newspaper, finest vessel ever built by ..... (martians)
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Hijacker
Game Excellent game to train listening skills.
Endowment Guessing
Look and Listen Performance
Notes
Works best is players take risks. If they to the ’wrong’ thing or use the wrong object the audience will probably just laugh, and that should be enough to signal the player he’s going the wrong way.
Hitch Hiker
Game Use 4 chairs to build the interior of a car. One player starts driving the car, and another player
Characters Exercise Performance
becomes a hitch hiker, hiking a ride. The hitch hiker character has a particular character tick or particular emotion, which the driver takes over.
Other hitch hikers join in, each with their own characteristics or emotions, taken over by the driver and the passengers in the car as the hiker joins. When the car is full, one of the players leaves the car to make room for the new guest.
Notes
Don’t forget to justify leaving the car.
Honey Walk
Exercise Warm-up
water, oil, honey, Jell-O, wet cement to hard cement.
End the game by having them ’frozen’ in cement and break out with a big bang.
Notes
Coach the players to imagine really moving about these substances. They should be able to ’feel’ the mist between their fingers, the honey in their hair.
4 players, one leaves the room. Pick a means of transportation, and an object. The idea is that player number 4 needs to guess the means of transportation, and then use the object to hijack the others. Finally pick a goal for the hijacker to achieve.
The players need to provide hints to the hijacker, but they cannot explicitly tell the hijacker what to do, with what or why. Also known as Rebel without a ClueG.
This is a group exercise. Tell the players they have an oxygen mask, and then talk them thru the Game exercise: players are to move about in successively thicker substances. Go from thin air, mist, warm
Horoscope
Game Take a magazine with a horoscope. Ask an audience member for their birthday, read their
Performance
horoscope and then play a scene based on that horoscope. Can be combined with Day in the LifeG .
Hot Spot
Game All players in a circle. One player steps into the circle and starts singing a known song. As soon as
Group SingSong Warm-up
this player shows any signs of stopping (because she doesn’t know the lines any more, gets tired or embarrassed) another player needs to step in and take over (singing a different song).
Notes
This exercise is not about improvising songs, but more of a group thing. Players need to know that the group will support them when they’re out of breath. The idea is to keep singing.
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Game
Environment Exercise Group Performance
Human Props
Excellent exercise for building environments. Ask one player to start doing an activity that somehow defines (broadly) a location. E.g. when someone starts typing she might be in a (home) office. The other players then become the other objects in the environment.
Notes
Tell the first player she can start using the props built by other players in the environment (if she recognizes them). Tell players to go for the obvious: in just about any room you could be a plant, a door or a table, after all.
When done, ask the first player to name any ’object’ built in the environment.
Variations
You can use this as a handle for a performance. When a player is asked to sit down, and there are no chairs on the scene, another player can become the chair for the first player to sit on. Other examples are ticking clocks in haunted houses, cabinets and closets, you name it.
ID
Ask a number of Ids, driver’s licences from audience members. Play a scene in which the characters are based on the Ids. The host may ask these folks questions about their lives. See also Day in the LifeG .
I Love You
A simple song structure for 2 singers. Singer 1 sings 4 lines; the first 3 are about the other character; line 4 is simply "I love you". Then player 2 does the same about the first character. May rhyme but that’s not a must.
After that, the 2 parts are repeated, but interweaved, one player at a time, and ending, singing together, with "I love you".
Example:
Player 1: You sing so well, You dance so great, You act so fine, and I love you
Player 2: Your voice is so deep, your lips are so full, you move with grace, and I love you Interweaved: You sing so well (player 1), Your voice is so deep (player 2), You dance so great (1), your lips are so full (2), you act so fine (1), you move with grace (2), and I love you (together)
Game
Audience Participation Limitations Performance
Game
Performance SingSong
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Imitate
Game This is an exercise for characters. 2 players will play a scene in a shop. The quality of the scene is
Characters Exercise
irrelevant here, really; just get into the shop, order what you need, pay for it and off you go. Give us an object (a carrot) and we got a scene in a carrot shop. One player is designated as shopkeeper, and the other will play the customer.
The idea is to give the ’customer’ a basis to build a character. She will enter the shop in that character, and the other player (the shopkeeper) tries to imitate the character as closely as possible. Use the following tricks as stepping stones for building characters:
Ask ’customer’ to talk to you in different voices. Pick one of these and there she goes.
Ask the ’customer’ to pull different kinds of faces. Pick one and there she goes.
Pick a body part (elbow). There she goes; taking the suggestion ’elbow’ as inspiration for her character.
Pick an emotion and there she goes.
Ask her to move around a bit, dance and let her freeze. The position in which she is frozen is her inspiration for the customer character.
This is an exercise for both players, but what is exercised is different for both:
for the customer, the exercise is building a character out of a silly suggestion. Note that there are not good or bad characters; anything in the position/suggestion given to the player can be used as inspiration, even if the ’link’ between the suggestion and the actual character is not obvious. The only goal is to come up with interesting, strong characters.
for the shopkeeper this is a listening/watching exercise. The idea is not for the shopkeeper to build a character based on the suggestion; it is for him to imitate as closely the character treats of the customer.
See also Opposite CharactersG .
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Impro Match
Game This format does not have a specific name and is mainly popular in French speaking countries.
Format
There seem to be leagues in just about every French speaking country; there’s even a league playing this format in the Congo! These leagues meet every year to play a world championship. The game is modeled after an ice hockey match: 2 teams of 6 players, 3 men and 3 women, perhaps with one coach per team play each other during 3 30-minute rounds, in a ’ring’ resembling an ice hockey field. The game is lead by a referee and 2 aides.
The referee draws challenges out of a bin; challenges can be mixed or separated. A mixed scene is played by players of both teams; a separated scene is played twice, each time by players from one team. Challenges consist of:
Title for the scene: can be anything
Number of players per team: can be unlimited, or specified. In some countries they may even specify the genders, like ’2 females for the red team, unlimited for the blue team’
Category: could be anything, but examples would be Science Fiction, Drama, Dostojewski, Western, Musical, Opera, Without words or Without sound, or To Be Continued. For the latter one, the scene played by the first team is to be continued by the second team
Duration: a number of minutes, ranging from 20 minutes to 30 seconds
During the scene the referee walks though the scenes, and blows ’faults’ on a whistle. Possible faults would be: Dragging (slow play), Invalid number of players, Violation of the theme (or title), Confusion, Obstruction or Foul Play, Blocking, etc. Every fault is indicated by a particular gesture. When entering the theatre, the audience receives a ’fault card’ explaining which gesture indicates which fault. Fault can be awarded to an entire team, or to individual players. When a team collects 3 faults, the other team receives an extra point. When a player collects 3 personal faults, he or she is expelled from the game for 5 or 10 minutes.
Every member of the audience also receives a slipper. This can be thrown into the ring when the audience doesn’t like a scene, or even better, at the referee, whenever he or she makes an unpopular decision.
After each round the team captains may ask the referee for an explanation on the faults that were blown, and then the audience gets to vote. Every team has a color, and the audience gets colored cards to vote with.
After 3 30-minute rounds we know which team won the match. Finally, a celebrity or local hero gets to award ’stars’ to the 3 best players.
This is a very rigid format, in which just about anything, except the scenes themselves, are fixed. There is a whole protocol to be followed to play a match, and even the number of separated and mixed scenes is set in stone. The idea is that the rigidity of the format contrast well with the anything-is-possible concept of the improvised scenes.
This is a difficult format, as teams really play against each other. Quite often even players in the same team will play against each other, as everyone wants to get awarded a star at the end of the night.
Origin
This (copyrighted) format was developed by 2 Canadians: Yvon Leduc and Robert Gravel.
In-Out
Game Every player gets a word from the audience. When that word is said by any player, this player must
Performance
leave the scene if he’s in it, or enter the scene if he was not in it (yet). Entering and leaving the scene must be justified.
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Game
Association Exercise
Game
Performance
Game
Long Form Performance
Game
Performance SingSong
Game
Look and Listen Performance Trust
Introducing Association
This little technique can be used to show a new group how natural associating really is. You can only do this with a new group, that has not played any association games before.
Place all players in a circle. Ask one player to say a word, no matter which one. The player to her right then says no matter what word, and so on. Do not tell them they should try and ’associate’.
You (and hopefully the group) will notice that patterns of ’related’ or ’associated’ words emerge. Use this as an introduction to show how natural associating is to humans, and then proceed with the other association games.
Invisibility
Scene in which one oe the characters in invisible to the audience. Characters act and behave as if this invisible character is visible to them.
Variations
One player off-stage provides the voice for the invisible character.
Invocation
This is a kind of OpeningK for Long FormG . It goes in three steps.
Get a suggestion from the audience. Then this suggestion is praised by each player in turn. Same suggestion is praised again, but now EndowingK with human attributes, naming the ’suggestion’ as humans.
Expand the language to something. Go poetic, gibberish-french, whatever.
After that, the players take on the characters that evolved during the previous rounds.
Then, the Long Form is played using those characters.
Irish Drinking Song
4 players sing a song about a subject, given by the audience, on an Irish-souding tune, one line at a time. 4 lines makes 1 verse; after the frist verse, a second verse is started by player number 2; and so forth. After 4 verses every player has both started and ended a verse and the song is over. Played quite often in Who’se Line is it Anyway. You’ll find plenty of examples on YouTube.com.
Variations
Invent your own choreography and have the players dance as they sing. See also Do Ron RonG for a similar structure.
Janus Dance
This is can be used as a TrustC exercise, as well as in performance.
2 players perform a slow dance together; each with their head on the other’s shoulder. Hence they are not looking at each other. While dancing they perform a 2-3 minut scene.
This gives for great listining practice, since players aren’t looking at their partners. If is also good for overcoming (physical) awkwardness between partners that are not familiar. And it is a great exercise for physical work in the dance, as in physical expression of the character’s feeling.
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Jeopardy
Game This games is not unlike Worlds WorstG : have the players close/cover their ears. Then ask the
Performance Verbal wit
audience for questions and answers. Examples would be:
What is the color of an American school bus? Yellow.
What is dyslexia? Not being able to make words out of letters.
Write down the answers, not the question.
Then give the players an answer and let them come up with questions that might be answered correctly by that answer. It’s kind of like ’what would the worst/sillies/funniest question be that could have this answer?’
Jump
Game This is at times a physical Warm-upC , a physical association game, and a game for character work.
Association Characters Exercise Warm-up
The game is played individually but all players can do this simultaneously.
All players mill about the room. At any point the trainer yells "Yes!", at which point all players ’jump’ into a position. Trainer can (but does not have to) sidecoach by shouting ’direction’ (see Fast Food LabanG ) like ’horizontal’, ’up’, ’down’, ’sideways’, ’big’, ’small’, ’light’, ’heavy’.
The idea then is to let the position into one has jumped inspire the player to a character, a situation. The inspiration comes from associating the position with, euh, well, whatever comes to mind.
See also Association JumpG for an extension of this exercise.
Just Gibberish
Game Excellent exercise for players that suffer from chronic WafflingK .
Association Exercise Gibberish Narration Performance
Play a scene, completely in gibberish, no translations provided. The scene should be perfectly clear to the audience - we should be perfectly able to translate every gibberish sentence, and the story should make sense.
Notes
This will only work if the stories are extremely simple, and if the PlatformK is made clear right from the start.
Some players tend to do this as a scene without words, but that is not the idea of the exercise.
Killer Bunny
Game This is like BunnyG except that at any time, the middle bunny is allowed to lift her hands above her
Energy Exercise Warm-up
head, lunge to either right or left side and eat one of her own ears, after which the ear player would be out. However, any other player in the circle can prevent any ear from being chewed by yelling Die while bunny’s arms are up in the air, in which case the middle bunny would be out.
Silly, indeed.
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King Game
Game One player is the king or the queen. Other players are to try and pleas his/her Royal Highness. They
Exercise
do this by entering the room, and offering something. The queen either tells them to continue, in case she’s interested.
die, in case the queen is bored
freeze, if the queen might be interested
Players that are allowed to continue may approach the queen and the queen may unfreeze frozen players at her discretion. The game is over when a player is close enough to actually touch the queen.
Notes
The queen can kill a player for any reason: she may not like the message, or she may not like the way the message is presented. The queen can give hints why she does not like the offer: "You know I don’t drink coffee, so die!". The queen should be really difficult..
Also known as Queen GameG. . This is a PC site/document after all.
Kitty in the Corner
Game Classic children’s game. 4 to 6 players stand at corners of the playing area, one player in the middle.
Concentration Warm-up
Ksss
Game Nice warm-up, easier to play than to explain. Players in pairs. Establish a beat (by slapping your
Concentration Energy Warm-up
thighs). Once beat is established every player has the choice between 4 different movements: Move both hands up
Point both hands left
Point both hands right
Point both hands down
So, every beat goes like, slap, point, slap, point and so one. Except, when the 2 players happen to make the same movement (i.e. in the same direction) then after the next slap they both make a 5th movement: point both hands towards the other player, miming a gun, and say ’psssst’. Next beat they do what they want again.
La Ronde
2 players try to make eye contact, and then switch places, while the middle player tries to capture a corner.
The faster the pace, and the higher the stakes (make diagonal eye contacts!) the more fun.
Game This is another Long FormC format. The name is based on a novel by Arthur Schnitzler, called
Long Form Performance
Traumnovelle, in which a series of characters sequentially bed each other, from first to last back to first.
The format is fairly simple: we play scenes in which at every scene switch, the ’oldest’ character disappears and a new scene is played with the remaining character, and a new one. The form ends when the circle closes and the last and first characters do a scene. Obviously, there is no need for all characters to bed each other!
Switching scenes is done by tagging out (like in Freeze TagG ). The idea is to see different aspects of a character, in different situations, interacting with different characters.
For a long discussion about the format see Chicago ImprovR .
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Game
Association Exercise Warm-up
Game
Audience Participation Die Limitations Performance
Game
Limitations Performance
Game
Endowment Gibberish Guessing Performance
Last Letter
This is an AssociationC game, where instead of naming the first word you think of upon hearing a previous word, you name the first word you think of starting with the last letter of the previously heard word.
Variations
Try in combination with Walk-over AssociationG or Word BallG . Last Letter Scene
A scene is played, in which every next line spoken needs to start with the last letter of the previous line.
Last Line
Get a line (any line) from the audience. Players play a scene that concludes with the given line.
Variations
Ask for a first line as well. Also known as First Line Last LineG. . LCD
This game is called Location, Career, Death (LCD).
One player on stage, the others off stage. The audience provides a location, an occupation and an object, only known to the player on stage. Second player enters and a scene is played in gibberish. Player one needs to communicate the location to player 2; as soon as player 2 thinks he’s got it, her claps his hands and spins around. Then player 2 needs to guess the occupation; clap and spin when you think you got it. Finally, the object needs to be revealed. As soon as player 2 has the object, he needs to kill player 1 with it.
Then the next player comes on stage and the game recommences, until all players have played. Afterwards, line up the players and ask them where they think they were, what their occupation was and what the murder weapon was - usually quite far off the original suggestion, much to the audience’s amusement.
Also known as LOWG. (Location, Occupation, Weapon). Also known as Chain MurderG. See also HijackerG for a similar game without the GibberishC component.
Variations
Use a bell, every 10 seconds or so; at the bell players need to clap and spin and proceed to the next step, even if they are not sure about the where, who and what. Kind of LCD on speed.
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Lets Not
Game Excellent game to train narrative skills, but a bit controversial.
Narration
Play in pairs: start with a location (e.g. a beach). One player give the suggestions (e.g. let’s find a talking crab). The other player either accepts the offer, and both play accordingly, or refuses the offer. When an offer is refused the first player needs to make a better offer.
Notes
This is a bit controversial in the sense that players may object to refusing offers; after all, we teach players to accept offers. Explain that the goal of this exercise is twofold:
teach players to drop their own ideas (see ChivalryK ) and happily change course in their story teach players which offers are ’fun’ and which ones are not. The player accepting or refusing the offers should accept any offer that ’feels good’ or that advances the story, and only reject offers that don’t sound like fun or don’t seem to offer any potential for an interesting story.
See DingG and Yes Lets - or Rather NotG for similar exercises. Letter Number Name
Game Warm-up game that’s also good to get to know each other’s names.
Concentration Exercise Introduction Warm-up
Everyone in a big circle. You start by ’giving’ your neighbor your name. Just lift your right arm and call your name to your neighbor. He does the same to his neighbor, and names run around the circle.
Then do the same with the letters of the alphabet. Give an ’a’ to your neighbor, making a ’giving’ gesture with your right hand. Your neighbor continues by passing a ’b’ to his neighbor, and so on. Ditto with the numbers 1 to 9. Use another gesture, e.g. pass the number by tipping your right foot in the direction of your neighbor.
When everyone’s got this, try all of this at the same time. Start by passing your name, and as soon as the name thing has advanced 2 or 3 players across the circle, set a letter thing in motion, and then a number thing. If you have enough players, just mix and match.
Notes
Pay attention to how much gets lost - does everything you set in motion eventually get back to you or not? You can coach players by saying they only need to pay attention to what their neighbor does, not what’s going on elsewhere in the circle.
Variations
Feel free to pass other things, each with it’s own gesture. Possibilities are: months of the year;
notes (like ’do’, ’re, ’mi’, ....)
Line Mirror
Game This is an extension of the MirrorG game. Have all players line up in two face-to face rows, about
Exercise Group
three feet apart, holding hands (within a row). All players can slowly start moving, but keep holding hands, and all movements get mirrored by the other row.
Variations
If you have enough players, form one long U-shaped row, so that the ends of the U face each other. The repeat the exercise as described above.
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Little Voice
Game One player plays a scene. The other player(s) play the voice(s) of objects in the environment in
Performance
which the first player plays.
Anything can have a voice. Examples:
a player walks in a forest and an ant starts talking to him
a player is in the bathroom and his toothbrush starts talking
Variations
You can script the text of the little voice, and have the player justify anything that is said. See Actor’s NightmareG . See Evil Stick of GumG for a different variation.
Notes
Make sure players immediately make clear what exactly is doing the talking. Either the voice makes this clear, or the other player:
Oh my god, a talking duck with a machine gun!
Bet you’ve never seen a talking couch, have you?
Play Name the MonsterG in combination with this game. Also known as SpeckG.
Location
Game Get a location (say the Post Office). The whole long form is played in one and the same Post Office.
Limitations Long Form Performance
Different characters wander in and out, you can even do time shifts and playbacks, but the environment of the scene is limited to the location given.
Lotus
Game This is just a series of scenes in which each new scene evolves out of the dynamics of the previous
Long Form Performance
scene. Divide the stage in 3 playing areas. Put at least 2 players in each area. Then in each area a scene is played. The first group starts with nothing. As soon as the second pair or group understands the dynalics of the first scene, they start theirs. Ditto with the third group or pair.
This is done 3 times, to yield 9 scenes. Every time a group or pair starts a new scene, the previously created characters are used again.
Variations
Start with 3 monologues.
Lounge Singer
Game Ask for an unlikely place to find a lounge singer. One player does a solo song, Frank Sinatra style.
Performance SingSong Solo
You’ll get something like "Welcome to the pediatrician’s Office". Great opener!
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Machines
Game MC/trainer comes up with a (real or invented) machine. The players make the machine; every player
Exercise Group Performance
becomes a part of the machine. We want to see/hear the machine work.
Variations
Tell the players the machine goes into overdrive, until it explodes. Or tell the players the power’s out, and the machine slowly grinds to a halt.
Make More Interesting
Game Simple exercise, useful for players that are too verbal.
Exercise
One player starts a scene. As soon as the trainer claps his hands, the player needs to make whatever he was doing more interesting, without advancing. If our player was opening a briefcase at the clap, he needs to make ’opening a briefcase’ more interesting; he is not allowed to take something out of the briefcase, as that would be advancing; player needs to stick to ’opening the briefcase’.
Notes
Simple to explain but not so easy to play. When done well you move into the clownesque. Think about Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy or Mr. Bean.
Variations
At a second clap, allow the player to advance the scene. Also known as Advancing and Expanding G .
Making Faces
Game ’ A silly handle attributed to Keith Johnstone. A number of players sit, forming a line. The middle
Performance
player is the Master; the others are his servants. The master is planning something (a party or whatever) and is giving his servants instructions. Whenever the master is not looking at a particular servant or servants, these try to make faces behind the master’s back. If they are caught they are fired and replaced by another player.
The idea is for the servants to take really big risks; and for the master to play this very strict, showing no mercy, creating a sense of danger.
Malapropism
Game This game flexes your mind. Have the players walk about in the room, point to any object, and give it
Association Warm-up
another name.
Notes
You can use this game for players that have difficulty with association: it shows that association is natural, and that it is actually difficult not to associate. See also DissociationG .
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Man Overboard
Game This is a nice elimination warm-up. Everyone spreads out in a staggered line, like in an aerobics
Energy Exercise Warm-up
class. Then someone calls one of the following:
’Land ahoy’ - and everyone hops on one foot, doing a salute with one hand
’Hit the deck’ - all down on the floor in a push-up position
’octopus’ - make groups of 2, one person on hands and knees and someone else over him or her in the same position
’Man overboard’ - groups of 2, one bending back and knees and the other on the first’s back (piggy-back style)
’two three four’ - all sit down and start rowing
Whoever is last drops out. Repeat till all but one are out.
Mantra
Game Let the players play a short scene. Then ask them to repeat the following mantra in their head, and
Exercise Spontaneity
replay the scene ’I’m so happy, I’m so happy’. In many cases, you will find that the whole scene becomes happier.
Variations
Try with other mantras, like ’I hate you’, and see what the effect is.
Let players choose a mantra, and then play a scene.
See Mantra IntroductionG for more about mantras. See also Impro for StorytellersR for a discussion on the use of Mantras.
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Mantra Introduction
Game Here’s a way to make a point about blanking one’s mind, subconscious thinking and spontaneity.
Exercise Spontaneity
Have all players sit down comfortably, if they want to close their eyes they can do so. Then ask them to blank their mind, to try and think about nothing at all. Let them do this for 2 minutes or so. While they do so, make sure to walk around, to make some minor noise (blow your nose, clear your throat, walk around) - but don’t overdo this. If you can hear cars drive by in the street, or other people in the building, or hear birds sing then you don’t even have to make a noise.
Then ask the players who managed to think about absolutely nothing at all. Ask those who say they did whether they heard the birds, the cards, you clearing your throat. If they did, weren’t they thinking about that, then?
Now ask the players to close their eyes, and to keep repeating the sound ’mihad’ in their heads. Have them do this for about 3 minutes. Then ask them again who thought about nothing but ’mihad’. If they are honest they should all admit they thought of all kinds of stuff.
The point is that our minds just never stop working. Even if you’re trying to concentrate on a repeating sound in your head - a Mantra - your mind will still wander.
We are all capable of thinking about several things at a time, some people can keep up to 7 lines of thought going in their minds. Who has never driven a car, being perfectly concentrated on the traffic, without thinking about work, the groceries, the kids ?
You can use this exercise to show students they never need to be afraid of a brain freeze - our brains manage to come up with so many things all the time - if you let them.
Mantras are used as a technique for (Transcendental and other) meditation. The idea is to keep the most active part of your consciousness busy, and at the same time let unconscious processes and lines of thought surface. This is similar to what happens in our dreams, but it has been proven (we’ve been told) that these meditation techniques can be more relaxing or cleansing than sleep. Don’t take our word for that, though.
Notes
You can choose any gobbledygook word for a mantra for this exercise, as long as it’s not an existing word (don’t use ’banana’) or strongly resembles an existing word (’banano’ wouldn’t do either) - that could trigger people to think about monkeys, or a jungle, or whatever.
Don’t use ’mihad’ if you’re working with a class of Muslim fundamentalists; they might start thinking about a Jihad ;-)
See also MantraG for examples how you might use Mantras to play scenes. Marriage Counsel Endowment
Game One player is sent out of the room while the host gets 2 relationship problems from the audience. 2
Endowment Guessing Performance
other players play a couple with these problems, and player one is the therapist. Players need to get the therapist to figure out what the relationship problems are.
Marshmallow Mania
Game Play a scene in which the audience is not supposed to laugh. Any player who provokes a laugh, gets
Limitations
Performance See also The GerbilG .
a piece of marshmallow in his/her mouth. Players are allowed to chew, but may not swallow.
Variations
Use grapes instead of marshmallow.
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Game Begin with 2 players, each on a chair. In character they start to talk about what happened to them in
Long Form Performance
the past. Players take turns talking.
Then follows a series of scenes, and for every new scene location the chairs are moved. When returning to a scene location played before, return the chairs to the position they were in in the original scene in that location.
End with the 2 chairs back front stage, as in the beginning of the play. At the same time (of course) conclude the whole story. Usually played with 2 players, but more is possible.
Origin
Attributed to Dan Goldstein.
Massage
Game Place all players in a circle. Have everyone put their hands on their right neighbor’s shoulders and
Group Introduction Trust Warm-up
give ’em a shoulder massage. Turn directions after a minute or so.
Variations
Use some judgment to see what is appropriate; that will depend on the group/ the people you are working with. You can place players in pairs, and have everyone massage the other’s temples, calves, etc.
Master Servant Disaster
Game 2 players, one is the master, the other is the servant. The master will ask the servant for something
Exercise Narration Status
simple. The servant always blocks the question, and explains why this should not be possible. The master always accepts this, and asks for something else (which turns out to be impossible as well). Every time the servant has to explain why this should not be possible, the situation gets worse, until the whole thing turns out to be a disaster.
An example:
Perkins, get me a glass of brandy.
Yes sir. Oh, sir, that won’t be possible sir, we’re out of brandy. Well, get me a glas of whisky, then.
Yes sir. Ah, sir, um, we’re out of whisky too, sir.
Oh? Well get my any kind of alcohol, then.
Ah sir, we’re out of alcohol sir.
Perkins, have you been drinking again?
Well, the staff had a little party last night, sir.
I see. Well get me a glass of water from the kitchen then.
Yes sir. Ah, sir, the water pipes are bust sir, sorry.
Well, get me some water from the pond then.
Ah, yes, sir, uh, sorry sir, the pond is dry, sir.
And so on, until it turns out that the staff had a little party, accidentily set the kitchen on fire, used the water from the pond to fight the fire, and so on. Eventually, the only room still standing is the master’s study, the rest of the castle has burnt down and all staff are dead. And all this for a perfectly logical explanation.
The idea is for the servant to connect all elements the master brings up, into one and the same disaster. In this respect this game resembles BorisG .
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Mega Replay
Game Divide the players in 2 groups. A scene is played by the first group from a well known story, fairy
Performance Replay
tale, historic fact. This scene is then replayed by the other group, in a different emotion, age or style. After that the first group replays as well, again in different emotion, style or age. You can repeat this several times.
See other replay games like Scene ReplayG and Replay GibberishG .
Mexican Name Wave
Game Players in a circle. Let them do a Mexican Wave: one player lifts both arms in the air, and down
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
again. When his arms are totally up, his right neighbour starts doing the same, so a ’wave’ of hands circles around the circle.
When they’ve got this, at the same time, pass your name around the circle, going the other way. Names are passed by pointing to your left neighbor and saying your name.
Confusing, indeed!
Micetro
Game Pronounce as ’Maestro’. Comparable to Gorilla TheatreG , but a bit easier, and can be played with a
Format
fairly large number of players (up to 20), and 2 directors. The names of all players are on a big score board. The directors choose for every game the appropriate number of players, perhaps by fishing name tags out of a hat. The directors explain the game, perhaps ask the audience for suggestions, direct and correct the scene.
After each scene the audience decided, by cheering or applause how many points the scene should be awarded. Each player gets as many points as the scene he or she played in was awarded.
Once everyone has played in a scene, the players with the lowest score drop off, and the whole thing starts again. The directors ensure that (certainly with large groups of players) that there are more group-scenes at the start of the evening, and more 2-person scenes or even monologues toward the end of the evening.
This is a fun format that can be played with mixed bunches of experienced and not-so-experienced players. Since players are immediately judged, it is perfectly possible to pitch a start player after the first round. Since this system is basically somewhat unfair, and everybody knows this, no one should take elimination too personal (well, that’s the idea anyway).
For beginners it’s a nice format, as the directors will correct obvious blunders. And since all players in a scene get the same score, this format limits competition between players in a scene.
Origin
The (copyrighted) format is attributed to Keith JohnstoneR , and also described in his book Impro for StorytellersR .
Millipede
Game Great fun but be careful not to hurt each other. Make sure there are no objects along the walls of the
Group Warm-up
room. All players in a circle, linking arms. Then move the circle to one of the walls, and ’squash’ the circle, until it becomes 2 lines, one line of players with their backs to the wall, and another line in front of the first, players facing each other.
Have this whole construction wheel along the walls of the room at high speed. Tell players to be careful and not to make fists or they might slam into someone’s face.
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Mirror
Game Players per 2, facing each other. They can move (arms, legs, eyebrows) slowly, and the other player
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
will mirror them. This is a game of give and take - no-one should be (continuously) leading. Keep movements slow.
Variations
Do this with the whole group: everyone in a big circle, and everybody mirrors everybody else. Also known as Group MirrorG.
See also Line MirrorG .
Montage
Game This is just a name for the most generic form of Long FormC : a Montage is just a series of scenes,
Long Form Performance
connected or not.
More or Less Game This is a nice show format.
Performance
Any number of players from 5 upwards. Every player takes turns presenting a scene. First player starts, asks audience suggestions if needed, and directs the scene to the extent needed. After a couple of minutes the director asks the audience: more or less. Audience yells their preference, and if More sounds loudest, scene is continued. If audience yells Less then the scene is not continued and another player presents another scene.
Origin
Originated at the Loose Moose Theatre in Calgary, Canada.
Move and Speak
Game Play a 2-player scene, in which no-one is allowed to talk unless they create a new object and a
Concentration Environment Exercise Limitations Performance
movement along with it. All created objects stay where they are, and moving a previously created object does not lead to permission to talk.
See Touch to TalkG for a similar game.
Movie Review
Game 4-10 players. Ask the audience for a movie title. 2 players will do an interview: one will be the
Narration
reviewer. As the movie is discussed, other players play parts of the movie.
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Mr. So and So
Game This is a game that’s more suited for rehearshal than for performance, though I can work on stage as
Characters Endowment Exercise Performance
well. Here is how it works.
Players call for new characters, by giving them names that refer to character or physical traits. Things like: Ah, here comes mr. Bad Irish Accent; I think we need Mrs. Pathological Liar for this one; Dear dear, if that isn’t Sir Eats-People. And so on.
The idea is to challenge the other players with weird and unexpected suggestions, and forcing htem to come up with an extravagant character right away. In a sense this is really institutionalised PimpingK . Another game in which a similar pimping is used would be SupermenG .
My Fault
Game You need 2 plastic bottles, each with a little bit of water (not too much or they’d be too heavy). Make
Energy Exercise
sure your bottles are sturdy. or everyone will get wet.
Have everyone walk around leisurely, and hand 2 players the bottles. The idea is to make eye contact with someone. As soon as a player has eye contact with a player with a bottle, the bottle is thrown. If at any point the bottle is dropped, both the thrower and the receiver lie down on the floor and shout ’My Fault’ as loud as possible. After than, one of them picks up the bottle and the game continues.
Side coaching: tell the players to take risks, to try and make eye contact with a player at the other side of the room.
Variations
Tell the players the bottle is red hot, and they need to throw it as fast as possible, or they’ll burn their hand.
The bottle becomes extremely light, or extremely heavy, and the players act accordingly.
Name 6 Circle
Game You will need a tennis ball or a towel tied in a knot for this one. Everyone sitting or standing in a
Association Exercise
circle. You give one person the ball, and ask him to name at least 6 (or any other number, depending on the size of the circle), in the time it takes for the ball to get passed along the circle. Things to ask for might be
sour tasting fruit foreign makes of cars names of seas B-movies
Italian foods
Variations
Have one person in the middle of the circle. This person provides the category, and indicates how many replies are expected from a player in the circle. If that player does not live up to the challenge, he takes the place in the middle of the circle.
Notes
Tell players not to watch the ball go round when they’re ’it’ - they’ll just panic and freeze. Try this with closed eyes.
Don’t ask for 1940’s Nobel Prize winners, or simply ’emotions’.
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Game
Narration Spontaneity
Name the Monster
Play in pairs, one word at a time (see Word at a Time SceneG ). Choose a location (e.g. walk in the forest). Players must meet a monster, give it a name, and run away from it.
The ’monster’ can be anything: an evil witch, a dragon, a frog with a machine gun, a smelly French cheese, anything.
Variations
Take this game a bit further, and ask the players not to run away from the monster, but do something. Fight it, beat it, get eaten (and continue in the monster’s stomach or in heaven/hell), make friends with it, tame it, capture it, ride it, whatever.
Notes
The real goal of the exercise is to get used to explicitly naming the problem (the ’monster’ in this case).
Use this game e.g. in combination with Little VoiceG , to teach players to actually name whatever is talking to them.
Name Volley
Divide the class into 2 groups, maximum 6 players per group. We are going to play a mimed game of volleyball, in which every player, as they pass a ball, shouts the name of another player, who then needs to catch and pass the ball.
We want to be able to ’see’ the ball at any point in time.
No Doubles 1-10
Nice concentration game.
Everyone in a circle. We will count from 1 to 10. Any player can start by saying ’1’. Then any other player can say ’2’ and so one. If 2 players say a number at the same time we start all over again. Also known as DigitsG.
Non Sequitor
Place players in pairs, let them hold a casual conversation about their work, the weather, anything. There will be 4 signals (hand clap or blow a whistle):
First signal: keep the conversation going, but behave strange, make bizarre gestures and jerky body movements
second signal: keep the strange movements going, and continue the conversation in gibberish third signal: keep calm, but continue the conversation in gibberish
forth signal: stay calm and talk normal
No P
Players play a scene (perhaps based on an audience suggestion) but they cannot use the letter ’P’ (or any other letter). When a player uses a ’P’, the audience screams ’Die’ and the player is replaced by another on. The scene continues, and the new player needs to take over the character of the player he replaces.
Game
Exercise Introduction
Game
Concentration Exercise
Look and Listen Warm-up
Game
Concentration Exercise Gibberish Warm-up
Game
Audience Participation Die Limitations Performance
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Nuclear Bomb Chicken
Game You can do this only once with a new group. Tell them they are all chickens in a henhouse, and a
Characters Exercise
nuclear bomb is about to drop on the henhouse within 30 seconds, Ask the players to play the chickens as truthfully as possible, then give them the start signal. Any chicken that shows acknowledgement of the incoming bomb, fails the exercise. Chickens have no clue what a bomb is. The goal of the exercise is to show the difference between the reality of the player and the reality of the character.
Origin
Attributed to Stella Adler (the only known American to study directly with Russian Master Konstantine Stanislavsky). The story goes that Marlon Brando got it and simply went about laying an egg while the other chickens went in a frenzy.
Object Morphing
Game Good exercise on object work: players in pairs. First player builds an object, as precise and careful
Environment Exercise
as possible, then hands it over to the other. Second player accepts the object, being as truthfull to what the first player built as possible. After having acknowledged this, player 2 starts morphing the object into something else. This can be done by bending, breaking, twisting, extending, shrinking, you name it. When the new object is complete it gets passed back to player 1, who accepts and then morphs it.
Variations
You can do this in a circle, passing and morphing objects around the circle.
Object Narrative
Game Place one chair on stage. The group sits or stands to the sides so they can see what is going on.
Characters Exercise Narration Performance
Someone chooses an object from the room and places it on the chair. (Or get an object from the audience in a show) That object is your suggestion.
One at a time, three members (or how ever many you decide) do a short monologue off that object. One person starts and when they are done, they leave the object on the chair for the next person. Whoever is inspired jumps up next adding their part of the story/situation from another character’s point of view. and the third person completes the cycle.
This exercise is extremely character based. The first character sets the story in motion and then the other two people find a way to be another interesting character that will accept and heighten the first initiation. The challenge is to not be totally predictable with the follow up character choices (avoid immediately choosing to be the spouse when you could be that person’s mailman...or manicurist instead). At the same time you still want to support the story line and justify what the previous characters have already established. The characters don’t have to know each other, but they must have connections (if only through the object).
This exercise helps:
listening (you must listen to the characters before you to know how you can fit into the story/situation and justify it.)
character work
TruthfulnessK (try not to focus ’just’ on the object. It’s about the relationships and connections between the 3 different characters.)
Reincorporating K
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Objects
Game Divide the class in 2 groups. Give one group the name of an object, and they become, as a group,
Exercise Group Warm-up
the object. Other group guesses.
Old Job New Job
Game Play a scene with 2 players, and give them a job (or let the audience provide the job). Then tell them
Characters Performance
what job they had in a previous life.
The idea is that somehow in the scene players reflect their previous jobs in their actual life. The idea is not to ’play’ the old job, but to show character traits of someone with the old job while performing the new job (are we making sense here?)
One Duck
Game Everyone in a circle. We are going to say a pattern, one word per player, going clockwise. It goes
Concentration Warm-up
like:
One Duck, two Legs, Quack
Two Ducks, four legs, Quack Quack
Three Ducks, six legs, Quack Quack Quack
And so on, till someone misses.
Variations
Try with an insect instead of a duck (6 legs per insect), or a spider (eight legs) and invent a sound the insect might make.
One Eighty Five
Game Not really improv theater but done by a quite a few troupes, and fun when done well. Get a term, e.g.
Performance Verbal wit
’Elephants’. The lines go like
185 elephants walk into a bar
The bartender says "Sorry but we don’t serve elephants here" (witty line that’s the reply of the elephants )
Players basically come up with an instant joke about 185 whatevers that enter the bar. As we said, not really theater...
One Line Scene
Game Play a one or two minute scene, where only one line of dialog can be spoken. Indicate to the players
Exercise Limitations
when they have, say, 20 seconds left.
This exercise teaches players what can be communicated using non-verbal communication. Things like, ’thank you’, ’I love you’, ’I appreciate this’, ’I’m sorry" and so forth can all be communicated non-verbally.
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One Mouth
One player (or the MC) is going to interview all other players, but the group of other players are Game really one character. This character answers the questions, but all players provide the answer at the
Exercise Group Performance
same time, as if the character is speaking out of many mouths simultaneously. The answers should make sense (at least grammatically) and should be clear. If one player starts answering a question by saying ’YYYY’ no-one should try and turn that into a ’No’.
Notes
works best if everyone goes for the obvious and simple answers.
don’t try to speak too fast, but take your time to let the answer organically grow.
coach players to take the lead if the answers is sagging, and to happily give up the lead as soon as they feel they got the lead.
move players that stubbornly always take the lead to another position in the group (at the back or at the ends).
Variations
You can try and use this as an audience warm-up, and try to get the audience to talk to the MC out of one mouth. This is suggested in Impro for StorytellersR .
One Two Three Four
Game Ok, this is harder to explain than it is to play. This game is a repetition of 4 movements:
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
1 : touch your head with both hands
2 : touch your shoulders with both hands 3 : touch your hips with both hands
4 : slap right foot with right hand
We repeat this 10 times, as follows:
just say 1,2,3,4 - no movements, do this twice
touch your head (on ’1’ but don’t say ’1’) and say 2,3,4. Repeat twice.
touch head (on ’1’) touch shoulders (on ’2’, but don’t say ’1’ or ’2’). Follow by 3,4, spoken. Repeat twice
touch head, touch shoulders, touch hips (on the rhythm on 1,2,3, but don’t say 1,2,3). Say ’4’. Repeat twice
touch head, shoulders, hips, slap foot. Don’t say anything but stay in the rhythm and repeat twice
Then just start all over again by saying 1,2,3,4 twice. Increase tempo as you go along.
Only Questions
Game A scene is played, in which any sentence used by the players must be a question. Players that use
Audience
Participation
Die
Exercise
Limitations
Narration Although questions are quite often frowned upon in improv (see QuestionsK and WimpingK ), in Performance
statements instead of questions are boo-ed out by the audience (audience yells ’Die’) and are replaced by other players. New players need to take over the character of the players they replace.
Notes
this game the idea is to build a story. That implies that any question should be giving information, and should be (implicitly) advancing on the information already available. Evidently, the next player should implicitly accept any information that was given in the previous question(s).
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Open Offer
Game One player starts a scene by making an offer that is not ’complete’, in the sense that it is vague
Accepting
Association PlatformK . Exercise
Exercise Spontaneity
something fall out of the sky, right into their hands. Let them name the object in their hands, set it aside, move on and open their hands again.
Notes
Some people find this a bit of a scary game, as if they are afraid they are not going to come up with anything. Explain that there are no wrong answers.
Some players will complain that everything that falls out of the sky is a dead bird (or whatever). Explain to them that this is fine too. Most players, if reassured that they really can’t go wrong, move on to other stuff after 10 dead birds or so.
Variations
You can tell players they can vary the way they extend their hands or hand. They can hold hands in front of them, above their head or close to the ground. See if different stuff shows up.
A slightly less difficult version of this game can be done by having players put their hands in their pockets and take something out. Make sure they all got pockets if you want to play this game. This version is slightly easier, as anything in their pockets, like dust, or the way the fabric feels, can trigger and idea; when holding your hands out there is very little to trigger an idea.
Origin
Keith JohnstoneR describes similar games in his book ImproR . Opposite Characters
enough not to define the who/what/where right away. Another player steps in and completes the
Notes
Although in performance we probably want to establish our PlatformK as early as possible, this game teaches players how to quickly build platforms as a group or a team.
Open Your Hand
Game Let the players walk around the room leisurely. Then ask them to stop, open their hands, and let
Game This is basically the opposite to ImitateG : for the shopkeeper, rather than imitating the customer’s
Characters Exercise
character, try and build a totally opposite character.
As a side coaching, point players to the following character treats:
voice (loud/soft/harsh ? intonation?)
StatusK (high/low?)
Age? Occupation?
Way the body moves? (take a look at Fast Food LabanG for more on movement)
Note that this is also a looking/listening exercise for the shopkeeper!
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Opposites
Game Let the players walk around the room in silence. Ask them how they would classify themselves:
Characters high or low StatusK
Exercise
loud or silent
caring or careless
strong or weak
tall or small
secure or insecure
clumsy or perfect
happy or sad
introvert or extravert
basically anything that would be a character trait
Then ask them to imagine they are exactly the opposite of all these character traits. Ask them to move about like such a character. Then play scenes in which the players ’become’ the opposites of their own characters.
Overload
Game Excellent exercise to train listening skills by means of sensory overload. 4 players. One plays and
Exercise
Look and Listen
stands centrally. This player has to:
answer simple arithmetic questions posed by left player answer simple personal questions posed by right player mirror the movements made by the player in front of her
If the central player misses something, or fail to answer a question, the player who is not followed keeps saying ’Beep beep beep’ until the question is answered or the movement is mirrored. Rotate players after a few minutes so everyone gets their turn.
Parallel Universe
Game Audience provides 2 different environments/locations. Then 2 pairs of players play 2 scenes, one in
Limitations Performance
each environment, but the scenes are played at the same time (on the same scene, of course). Players do not acknowledge characters or events that do not happen in their scene.
Be careful to allow both pairs for ’scene time’.
Pass Ball
Game All players in a circle. Ask the players to pass a mimed ball to others (one ball at a time). Then
Exercise Warm-up
side-coach: the ball becomes heavier, until it weighs a ton, or extremely light, extremely big (and light or heavy) or extremely small (and light or heavy).
We need to ’see’ the ball’s characteristics in the way it gets passed.
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Pass Clap
Game Classic warm-up. Everyone in a circle. One player starts by throwing a hand clap to her right
Concentration Energy Exercise Warm-up
neighbor, and the neighbor passes the clap to his right neighbor.
Play this till the clap really flows nicely around the circle. Then tell the group that players may decide to pass the clap back to the neighbor they got it from. Try it and notice how disruptive this can be.
Variations
Try these for variation:
when receiving a clap, first clap back to the sender, then turn to your neighbor to pass it on; pass claps either high (bending down) or high (above your head)
combine both of the above.
Try clapping twice, three times or 4 times when you pass the clap. Make movement doing that (like clap 4 times, low to high as you pass the clap)
Try clapping (simultaneously) in pairs, 3 or even 4 players at a time.
See also Synchro ClapG . See also Pass YesG . Pass Yes
Game This is a bit like Pass ClapG and all it’s variations. One player starts by saying ’Yes’ to her lefthand
Concentration Warm-up
neighbor. Neighbor does the same, passing the ’Yes’ to her lefthand neighbor. Or she decides to say ’No’, after which it’s her right-hand neighbors turn.
Try and pass the ’Yes’ along the circle as fast as possible.
When everyone’s got this. Do the same but with eyes closed.
Patterns
Game This is a bit like Free Association CircleG , except that player are not to freely associate on the
Association Exercise Warm-up
previously heard word, but on the ensemble of what has been heard, thereby heightening is. Example: grass, plant, flower, tree, forest, jungle. Restart as soon as you can heighten any more.
Pecking Order
Game Every player picks a number between 1 and the number of players in the scene. Numbers are kept
Performance Status
secret, so doubles are possible and allowed. Then a scene is played in which each player tries to play the status picked; 1 being the highest status. Obviously they don’t know which numbers the others picked, so each player will have to choose how to position his or her status with respect to each other player, and this choice can be wrong.
Most fun if several players pick highest or lowest status.
Peruvian Ball Game
Game Everyone starts milling about the room, miming a particular kind of ball. It can be light or heavy, have
Concentration Exercise
a texture, whatever, as long as it is particular. At the trainer’s sign, everyone passes their ball to someone else. This is done a couple of times, after which everyone tries to find back his or her ball.
Origin
Described in Augusto BoalR ’s Games for Actors and Non-actorsR .
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Pillars
Game Put one member of the audience on stage (the pillar). A scene is played, but each player can at any
Performance
point stop his sentence and ask the Pillar to provide the next word.
Play Tag
Game Just play tag. Excellent physical warm-up. Tell players to take risks, see how close you can get/stay
Warm-up
to the tagger without being caught.
See SloMo TagG for an exercise to follow this one.
Pockets
Game Before the show, ask the audience to write simple sentences on slips of paper. Anything goes.
Audience Participation Limitations Performance
The game is played by 2 players. Ask for a location, or a profession, and have every player draw 3 of these slips. Players put these in their pockets without reading them.
Then a scene is played, in which at any point in time, players replace what they might have said, by whatever is on the piece of paper they draw out of their pocket. Try to incorporate/justify whatever is your line into the scene.
Notes
Try to avoid thinks like ’My granny always said’ - you want your character to say whatever is on the piece of paper - don’t try to put those words into someone else’s mouth. See also a game called BucketG that uses audience lines as well.
Poetry Corner
Game You may want to practice this one: 1 player starts with the first line of a poem; player 2 adds second
Performance Verbal wit
line, and so forth.
Try different formats: limericks, sonnets, haikus etc...
Poet Translator
Game A simple translation game. The setup is a foreign language poet, who performs some of his work in
Gibberish Performance
GibberishK . The translator translates. Nice is number of lines, metrum, and rhymes are kept.
Point of View
Game Play a simple scene. Then the scene is replayed, from the point of view of one of the characters.
Performance Replay
You can replay several times, from several POVs.
Make sure the scene is such that the relationships between the characters allow for clear POVs. A scene about dryly buying a pair of shoes does not lead to exciting POVs... Also known as RashomonG. - after the movie by Akira Kurosawa, that follows different points of view as well.
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Popcorn
Game Everyone finds themselves a nice spot, and squat down. The teacher now talks the group through
Energy Exercise Group Warm-up
this exercise. Everyone is a piece of corn, the floor is a big pan, and we’re going to make popcorn. We slowly start heating the pan; as the pan gets hotter, corn starts to ’pop’. A player can ’pop’ by jumping up, clapping hands above their head, and saying ’pop’.
Make sure the ’popping’ starts gradually, ’popping’ is a group thing, and in the end, ’popping’ should stop.
Variations
Forget to take the pan off the fireplace, and have the popcorn start charring.
Presents
Game Great warm-up exercise that helps you blank your mind. Good for control freaks.
Exercise Spontaneity Warm-up
Players stand in pairs and give each other presents. To give a present, you just open your arms/hands to indicate you’re holding something. Don’t try to think about what you’re holding, but give it to your companion.
Upon receiving the present, you give it a name, the first thing that comes to mind. You say something like ’Oh, thanks, a little dead bird’. You promptly ignore your present and return something else to your companion.
This game works best if it’s played fast, so players really don’t have the time to preconceive. It’s also nice and positive, as everybody is always extremely happy with their presents, no matter what they are.
If players complain they always receive the same present ("It’s always a book") tell them this is quite ok - they should be happy to receive so many books. See also SpontaneityC for related games.
Press Conference
Game 3 to 8 players. One player leaves the room, while the audience provides the name of a famous or
Endowment Performance
historical person. The ’absent’ player will give a press conference, but he does not know who he is. The other players are journalists, whose questions should provide indications to who the mystery guest might be.
Game ends when our player guesses who he is.
Notes
The ’journalists’ should really play journalist characters. They can take photographs, or have a fight about who gets to ask the next question.
Variations
Instead of a famous or historical person, choose an expert. The game is over when the ’expert’ figures out what he or she is expert in.
Primal Screams
Game All players in a circle. On player steps into the circle, making a big gesture and a loud sound. Player
Warm-up
Energy
Exercise Try and do this with open sounds, as loud as possible. As Keith JohnstoneR says: "Yelling ’en
then steps back, and the rest of the circle imitates the sound and gesture. masse’ is good for the soul".
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Props
Game In this game the players need to come up with an original/funny use of a prop. They cannot use the
Association Performance
prop the way it is supposed to be used for, obviously.
Notes
You could really use any object as if it were a cell phone, but that is not the idea of the exercise. Look at the object (or it’s parts) and see what inspires you. We once saw a player, given a chair, who turned into a prisoner. The back of the chair became the bars of this cell.
Protest Song
Game Ask the audience for something that pisses them off. Then improvise a song about it, like the 70s
Performance SingSong
screw-the-government type characters. Typically done as a Vers-Chorus type song.
Notes
Here’s a suggestion for chord succession (but by all means feel free to improvise something ale yourself if you’re an improv musician):
Verse: G Am D D (4 times)
Chorus: D C G% (4 times)
You can do this in a Verse Verse Chorus Verse succession. Or improvise something else.
Puppets
Game 4 players. 2 players will be puppets; these players offer the lines of dialog in the scene, but they
Audience Participation Performance
are not allowed to move about themselves. The other 2 players are the puppet masters, that will provide the movements for the puppets.
Variations
Some groups use audience members to play the puppets or the puppet masters.
Rash
Game Make sure you have as many pieces of paper as there are players. Write ’cure’ on all but one, and a
Exercise Group Warm-up
disease (like ’rash’) on one. Each player draws a piece of paper, but no-one knows who’s got the disease. Then find the disease and cure it.
Variations
Have one ’cure’ and all the others the same disease.
Real Estate Broker
Game One player is a real estate broker and shows a second player (or multiple players) around a space,
Environment Exercise
given by the audience/trainer. Each player can create whatever they wish in the space, and questions are not allowed. Any object created should be justified (by the broker or by the others). And obviously any object created stays where it is (unless explicitly moved).
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Game
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
Receiver Right Clap
Nice concentration and warmup exercise. All players in a circle. Players can throw a ’clap’ to any other player by pushing their hands together in front of their chest (like a praying gesture), and then pushing both hands towards the receiving player, opening up their arms as they do so. Sending a ’clap’ makes a ’Whoof’ sound; receiving a clap makes a sucking sound.
The receiver receives the clap by making the inverse gesture, and uttering a sucking sound.
Once a clap is received, the player to the right of the receiver sends a new clap to any other player. And so one.
Once everyone’s got it, switch to left-hand side player of the receiver to send the next clap.
Variations
If all players are really concentrating, and this game goes particularly well, try ’skipping’ a neighbor. E.g. the second player to the left of the receiver sends the next clap.
Repair Shop
One player leaves the stage (or gets a headphone). Audience provides an object, and something not-so-obvious that is wrong with the object. Example: an airliner for which the keys to open the door have been lost. In the game the player that is ’it’ needs to solve the problem, without knowing what the problem is. As soon as she finds out the game is over.
Variations
Bring the object back to the shop where it was purchased. Shopkeeper should give hints as to what the object is.
Instead of an object, use an animal that is sick, dead or does not do what was promised. Like a parrot that refuse to speak - Also known as Veterinarian EndowmentG. .
Invert it - have the shopkeeper guess what it is.
Repeater
Listening exercise. Any player that wants to offer a piece of dialog needs to repeat the entire dialog the last player did (ignoring that player’s repetition of previous dialog) before she can offer her own input. Obviously not for performance.
Replay Gibberish
Exercise on JabbertalkK . Have 2 players do a short scene (1 minute or so). Then have them replay the scene in gibberish.
Reverse Chair Dance
You will need music for this exercise; provide a tape deck or a ghetto blaster, and a bunch of chairs. Start by placing chairs in a circle, one chair less than the number of players. Play music, and have the players dance around the chairs. When the music stops, everyone should find a chair to sit on. The player that doesn’t find a chair needs to find some other way to get his/her feet off the ground. Remove a chair and repeat. In the end, all players will have to find a way to not to touch the ground, by climbing and clinging on to each other. Make sure you got sturdy chairs; we’ve known chairs to collapse under the weight of 10 players ...
It’s important not to side coach - the group needs to figure out themselves how to solve the problem.
Game
Endowment Guessing Performance
Game
Exercise
Look and Listen
Game
Exercise Gibberish Replay
Game
Exercise Group Introduction
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Game
Performance Verbal wit
Game
Audience Participation Die Limitations Narration Performance Verbal wit
Game
Performance
Game
Accepting Association Exercise Warm-up
Game
Exercise Warm-up
Game
Reverse Trivial Pursuit
Like most of the games in the Verbal witC category, no exactly theater, but fun if played well. Ask the audience for statements or facts, to which the players need to come up with the funniest question to which the statement/fact might be the answer.
Example:
Statement: "Green Bananas"
Question: "What is best avoided if you got constipation?"
Rhymes
Scene played in verses. The idea is that the first player offers a line, and the second player rhymes to that. Then the second player offers another line, with which the first player needs to make a rhyme.
Players that hesitate or forget to rhyme ’die’ and are replaced by other players. The idea is to keep the story going, so players that can’t find a good rhyme that would advance the story better die than screw up the story.
See also VersesG .
Rituals
Get an everyday activity from the audience. Then play this activity as if it were a ritual.
Notes
Think about religion, voodoo, sports, a NATO summit, whatever. You’ll realize a lot of what we do is ritualized, just heighten that.
Rumors
Everyone in a circle. One person starts by saying "Did you hear about ..." and points to someone else. That player immediately replies affirmative and heigthens. After which everyone gasps or giggles. Person left to the second person restarts.
The blanks can be anything: something as simple as soup, or something as convoluted as the white bear who ate a Russian kid for lunch in Novosibirsk last Thursday.
Samurai
This is an excellent physical warm up. All players in a circle. One player is the Samurai - she starts by lifting her Katana (sword), making a Japanese- sounding grunt. She keeps her sword up in the air, and her 2 neighbors "slaughter" her, by swinging their swords into her sides, again grunting enthusiastically and in pseudo-japanese. When the neighbors retract their swords, the Samurai lowers her sword; while doing this she makes eye contact with another player, when then becomes Samurai, and everything starts all over again.
Start slowly, and then increase the tempo.
Satellite Radio
Excellent listening exercise. Players in pairs. Establish a beat. Player 1 provides a story, one word per beat. Player 2, within the beat, repeats the story, but with one beat delay (like the delay we have on a satellite radio).
Try with 2 or 3 beats delay as well. See also Satellite TVG for an variation on this exercise.
Exercise
Look and Listen
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Game
Exercise
Look and Listen
Satellite TV
Same as Satellite RadioG , but with movements. Players in pairs. Establish a beat. Player 1 makes a new movement on every beat. Player 2 mirrors the movements, but with a delay of 1 beat.
Try a delay of 2 or 3 beats as well. See also Bidirectional Satellite TVG for an extension of the exercise.
Scene in the Dark
Fairly obvious: a scene is played in the dark. See also The BatG . Look and Listen Notes
If the theater is really dark, then moving about on the scene can make quite a lot of disruptive noise. You may want to do a ’radio play’, where all players just sit on the stage, and provide the words and (background) noises for the scene.
Scene Painting
Game Technique for building/advancing scenes. To be used sparingly.
Game
Limitations Performance
Performance
The idea is that any player can stop the scene by yelling freeze, step out of character, and describe something within the scene, without interrupting what is going on in the scene. After the comment, player unfreezes the scene and steps back into character.
Example. 2 players in a scene where a backpacker is looking for a bed at a house where an old lady lives. Backpacker comments on the fact that the house is chock full of stuffed animals, an little pictures of backpackers, thereby implying that the old lady kills and stuffs backpackers (idea stolen from a short story by Roald Dahl).
See also AsidesG for another game with uses a similar technique. Scene Replay
Game Ask 2 players to play a short scene. One could limit the scene to 8 lines of dialog per player. Then
Performance Replay Timed
ask the players to replay the scene, based on some audience suggestions for:
a particular emotion. Also known as Emotion ReplayG.
an era. Also known as Through the AgesG. Also known as Historical ReplayG. a different location
a film / TV / literature style. Also known as Style ReplayG.
in GibberishC
backwards. Also known as Backwards SceneG.
Variations
You can time the scene to 1 minute, and then replay in 30 seconds, 15 seconds, 7 seconds and 3 seconds.
This variation is Also known as CountdownG. and Also known as Half LifeG. .
Other variations:
have the scene replayed by 2 other players
insist that the dialog remains exactly the same See also Replay GibberishG .
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Scene To Music
Game A silent scene is played, in which the characters’ emotions are controlled by the music. Performance
SingSong
Scorpion
Game A number of players stand in the middle of the room, eyes closed the others stand by the walls. One
Exercise Trust
of the middle players is tapped on the shoulder, she become the ’killer’ or the ’vampire’. The trainer give a go-sign, and all ’blinded’ players start milling around the room. When the killer bumps into someone, she squeezes that persons forearm to ’kill’ him. When a victim dies, he utters a scream, opens his eyes and is ’out’.
Game is over when all potential victims are dead.
Audience by the walls make sure that blind players don’t bump into stuff or hurt themselves.
Variations
When a ’vampire’ runs into a victim, the victim becomes a vampire too
When 2 vampires bump into one anther, they become normal mortal souls again
Also known as Blind HuntG. Also known as ScreamersG. Also known as Haunted HouseG. Also known as Blind StalkerG. Also known as Vampire GameG. See also Death and RetrieverG
Sculptors
Game Works best with an even number of players. Split the group in 2. One half forms a circle in the middle
Exercise Group
of the room, facing outwards. The other half positions themselves, each player in front of one of the players in the middle circle.
The middle players are clay, or stone, and the outsiders are sculptors. Let each sculptor do something to his lump of clay, then make the sculptors rotate clockwise. Everyone now stands in front of someone else’s block of stone or lump of clay. Have them work some more on the sculpture and rotate again. Repeat till every player is in front of his original piece of stone again.
Then ask the sculptors to introduce their work, and give it a name.
Variations
Each statue or sculpture has a built in voice chip that can utter exactly one sentence. Let the sculptors switch on the voice chip at the end of their explanation.
Notes
Excellent exercise to try with a new group to see who is Mr. Nice GuyK . Players that keep placing the sculptures in positions that are impossible to maintain or physically painful can easily be spotted with this exercise.
Other thing to watch for is which players undo the work the previous artists made. The idea is to build art together, not to destroy previously done work in order to push your own ideas. Make this clear by asking the sculptors, when they’re in front of their original work again, to what extent the works still looks anything like what they started with.
Seven Up
Game Everyone in a circle, start counting to 7 while waving right arm up and down to the same rhythm
Concentration Exercise Warm-up
you’re counting. After 7 switch to the other arm, then the right leg, then the other leg. At the end of the last leg of 7 go back to the original arm and do the same thing counting to 6, and so on down to 1-1-1-1.
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Shootout
Game Excellent game to get to know each other’s names.
Concentration Energy Introduction Warm-up
Everybody’s a cowboy or cowgirl, you get them in a circle and ask them to test their revolvers. Have them shoot up in air, not at each other (yet). Then ask the group to concentrate; when everybody’s quiet, call someone’s name. That person needs to drop to the floor as fast as he can. His neighbors take a shot a him; if he’s not down fast enough, he dies (making grueling sounds). If he’s down before a gun is fired, the neighbor who fired last dies.
Insist that for every shot there should be at least one victim. If’s there’s any confusion about who shot first, they should all spontaneously die.
Repeat till only 2 players are alive. Place those 2 back to back in the middle of the room, and give them a sign to start walking away from each other. When they hear you drop a coin (or a key ring, or whatever) they turn around as fast as they can and shoot the other. Again, at least one victim, and if they’re not sure who shot first they should both gladly die.
Variations
A shot can only be fired after a player has made a 360 degree spin.
Notes
This is really a game about ChivalryK and not about winning. Use this game early in a workshop to spot the students that stubbornly refuse to be shot and correct them. You could consider your moment of death you moment of glory - show off how willing you are to accept you own death, and die with enthusiasm.
Sideways
Game In this game we play a scene, in which the back wall is the ’floor’, and the floor is a wall. So, if you
Limitations Performance
are ’standing’ in the scene, you would be lying on the floor, and if you’re lying down, you’d really be standing against the back wall.
This setup allows players to so all kinds of weird things, like defying gravity, or become a bat that’s hanging upside down off the wall.
Silly Stinky Sexy
Game 4 players. Each player endows each of the other players with either sexy-ness, silly-ness or
Endowment Performance
stinky-ness. Have them play a scene in which people come together, at a party, a picnic, in church. Afterwards, ask the audience if they could see who endowed who with what.
Simon Says
Game You are Simon, and you tell the players to do exactly what Simon tells them to do, but only if Simon’s
Concentration Exercise
sentence starts with "Simon says". Any time a player does what Simon tells her to do, without preceding that with "Simon says" is out.
Tell the players the game starts when you say "Simon says the game has started". Then try to trick them into doing stuff they’re not supposed to do. Ask them e.g. if they understand the rules; whoever nods is out. Try telling players that are out they can join in again; if they do they’re out again.
Simple Continuation
Game A scene is started, played by 2 to 4 players. Mid-scene the MC interrupts, and all characters are
Continuation Performance
replaced by new players. The new players should take over the original characters, and stick to the story that was being developed.
Also known as UnderstudyG. Also known as Actor SwitchG.
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Sitting Standing Lying
Game Silly game to teach fast acting.
Concentration Exercise Limitations Performance
3 players play a scene. At any point in time, there should always be one player standing, one player sitting and one player lying down. As soon as a sitter stands up, the stander needs to sit down.
Try to justify the moves !
Variations
Improv troupe Icebox called in with the following variation: Glad Sad Mad. Same handle.
Six Episodes
Game Excellent game to teach group storytelling. Give a big task, like ’The launch of a new flavor of coke’,
Accepting Exercise Group Narration
or ’Building a new clubhouse for the girl scouts’. The players get 1 minute to prepare 6 scenes, in which the given task needs to be completed. After 1 minute there is no more discussing, they just play the 6 scenes.
Time it and see if they can make their minds up. Quarreling will just slow them down, so this will only work if players agree; they should be immediately AcceptingK any usable ides.
Slappy Face
Game A simple word association played in pairs. If a player is too slow, of goed ’Erm...’ the other slaps him
Association Concentration
in the face (gently). Adding the notion of danger helps some people to say whatever comes to mind.
Slap Take
Game Very silly. But hey we’re an encyclopedia; some folks really do this on stage, so here we go: 2
Performance
players do a scene. Every time a player makes the audience laugh the other slaps her. See also Spit TakeG . See also Marshmallow ManiaG .
Slide Show
Game Give one player a big activity, perhaps a trip through the jungle, or the construction of a home. This
Exercise Group Narration Performance
player needs to present a slide show; the other players will play what’s in the slides.
Notes
The idea is that the story is built both by the presenter, and by the images the other players present in the slides. Sidecoach players not to simply just ’build’ what the narrator has described, but to extend it, to build/show the sequel or next step in the story.
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SloMo Samurai
Game Tell the players they are Samurai, and their right forearm is a poisoned sword. Then have them do a
Exercise Warm-up
slow motion sword fight.
The only way to fend off a ’sword’ is by blocking it with your right arm. If another player’s sword touches your body on any other part than your right forearm, you die a gruesome death (also in slow motion).
Notes
Players should not speed up when they are about to get ’killed’, but rather ’let themselves be killed’. Good game to teach a little ChivalryK .
Also known as Poison ArmsG.
SloMo Tag
Game Play tag, but in slow motion. Immensely entertaining if played well; players are not to escape the
Concentration Warm-up
tagger by making a sudden movement, and the tagger cannot lash out to tag another player. Tell players to breathe, scream and groan in slow motion.
You may want to have the players exercise walking in slow motion first, to make sure they are aware of how they (naturally) move, and learn how to stick with that in slow motion.
Soap Series
Game Play an episode from a soap series. This can be done as a Long FormC , but can also be used in
Long Form Performance
short form. The idea is to use (and abuse) the techniques used in soap series. Typically this involves several story lines running at the same time, each story progressing in tiny steps. Other elements that can be used or spoofed are:
poor acting
settings like oil industry, hospitals, fashing industry
situations where everyone is involved with everyone, including weird plot twists where characters suddenly discover they are related.
Solitaire
Game All players but one spread along opposing edges of a wide surface. The player in the middle runs
Group Trust
from one end of the space with closed eyes. The others prevent the runner from deviating too much left/right, and catch the runner at the end.
This is more difficult than it sounds - it’s like after a couple of steps most people start sensing a looming wall in front of them.
Solo Doors
Game A SoloC exercise. Enter, as a character, through a door. Make the environment clear (by means of
Characters Environment Exercise Solo
the (kind of) door. In that environment, address your character as a different character, then one of the characters (you again) leaves (through the door, or through another door/window/hole/whatever). Do this fairly fast and long enough so you run through your easy characters. You can shelve any interesting characters you discover of course.
Excellent exercise to help you establish the PlatformK . This is like a solo variation on Ding CharactersG .
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Sound Circle
Game Everybody in a big circle. One player starts the game by making a gesture and a sound to his right
Accepting Exercise Spontaneity Warm-up
neighbor. The neighbor immediately imitates gesture and sound, then turns to his right neighbor and makes a totally different gesture and sound.
Tell players not to preconceive, ask them to throw themselves into this exercise.
Variations
Instead of passing the sound/gesture to your neighbor, players can pass it to any player in the circle.
Try the game without imitating the sound/gesture received; just have players turn around and throw a new gesture/sound to their neighbors as fast as possible.
Also known as Pass CatchG. Sound Effects
Game A scene is played, and one or more off-scene players provide all the sounds. Players on scene are
Performance
allowed to speak, but cannot make other sounds. The idea is that the FX folks add to the scene, not merely support it.
Sounds Like a Song
Game Play a scene (or series of scenes). At any time, anyone can stop the scene and say ’Sounds like a
Performance SingSong
song’, after which the player(s) sing a song based on the last line that was spoken, or last action that was done.
Space Jump
Game This is like an extended Freeze TagG game.
Association Performance
4 players. One player starts miming an every day activity or routine. A second player (or the MC) calls Freeze and the first one freezes. Second player builds another scene based on the frozen position of the first player.
The other 2 players enter the same way. Once players 3 and 4 are in, as soon as Freeze is called, 2 and 3 take on their positions in which they were frozen, and continue their scene. And so on backwards.
As soon as player 1 is back alone in his activity, he needs to finish it and that ends the game.
Variations
When a scene is continued, keep adding players until everyone is in, then work your way backwards. When a previous cene is continued, the players continue in the future, perhaps in a new location, and they fustify their new physical positions - Growing and Shrinking MachineG .
Spit Take
Game Very silly. But hey we’re an encyclopedia so here we go: 2 players do a scene, each holding a glass
Performance
of water (or coke, or beer). After every sentence players take a spit. Or take a spit after the other player said a line. Or both.
See also Slap TakeG .
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Split Screen
Game Divide the stage in a left and a right half. The right part becomes the left and vice versa, and the
Characters Limitations Performance
division in the middle becomes a ’wall’.
Then play a scene with 4 players and only 2 characters. When a player leaves the stage to the left hand side, his character, played by another player, should enter from the right.
The character should stay the same, even though it’s played by a different player.
Notes
The center of the stage cannot be crossed as it is a wall. As a gimmick one might decide to make a hole in the wall, but stepping through this hole would make the character appear at the other side of the ’room’ - hard to justify...
Sportz Center
Game 3 players, and an every day activity (brushing your teeth, washing your car).
Performance
In this game, the every day activity is performed as if it were done at the olympics or at a world championship. One player is the athlete, and the two others are in a TV studio - one is the interviewer who interviews the athlete’s trainer, as the athlete performs the task.
Usually, something goes wrong and the athlete fails miserably. Gimmicks may include:
Interviewing the athlete on the field after the win (or the disaster) Asking for a replay of a particularly dramatic moment
Asking for a replay with a different camera (different angle)
Also known as Also known as SloMo World ChampionG. . Squeezer
Game Get everyone into a circle, holding hands. One player starts the game by squeezing the hand of one
Exercise Group Warm-up
of his neighbors. The receive then squeezes the hand of his other neighbor, thus generating a ’squeeze wave’ through the circle.
Variations
Squeezes can run in different directions, and you can have more than one squeeze wave cycling through the circle at a time
Instead of squeezing, you can make players communicate by pressing (or even slapping) hands together
Squeezes can run at different rates - this can be controlled by letting nobody squeeze their neighbors as long as the squeeze they receive is not over yet
You can have one player try to ’detect’ the squeeze (try and squeeze as unnoticeably as possible)
Also known as HandsG.
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Story Spine
Game This is an idea about the spine of any story. It goes like
Exercise Narration
Once upon a time ...
And every day ...
And every day ...
And then one day ...
And because of that ... And because of that ... And ever since that day ...
This little structure teaches performers to advance a story by changing things. There are hundreds of v ariations known to this, one of which we’ll present here as well:
The balance: Once upon a time ... and every day ...
The un-balance: But then one day ...
The quest for a resolution: ... and because of that ... and so ... until finally .... The new balance: ... and ever since that day ....
Story Story Die
Game Players form a line on the stage. A title for a story, and a story genre is obtained from the audience.
Audience Participation Die Narration Performance
The MC starts the game by pointing to a player, who needs to start telling the story. At any point in time the MC can switch to another player, who needs to continue the story flawlessly, even if the switch happened in the middle of a sentence or even in the middle of a word.
Players that hesitate, or whose sentences are not grammatically correct or don’t make sense, are boo-ed out of the game, by the audience yelling ’Die’. The last player left ends the story.
Also known as Conducted StoryG. . Story To A Chair
Game A SoloC character exercise. Tell a story to a few chairs. Any story, and the story does not really
Characters Exercise Solo
matter. Then, as you go, start playing all the characters. Feel free to narrate in between.
Make your story such that it becomes easy to establish the character. Start with something like ’Jodi didn’t really like leaving the house’ -- which would point yourself to playing somebody with an outdoor phobia.
Stretching
Game As a warm-up, let’s do some simple stretching exercises. Everyone in the group shows a stretch of a
Warm-up
body part, and that is then done by all others. Repeat until the whole body has been stretched.
Notes
On a silly note, try stretching unstretchable body parts: eye balls, ears, hair, noses, toenails.
Stunt Double
Game A scene is played by 2 players. Every time a player needs to do something difficult/unpleasant,
Performance
another player jumps in as a stunt double. When done, the stunt double freezes the scene and the original player continues the scene.
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Sung Story Die
Game This is like Story Story DieG , but sung. Get a suggestions, and sing a song to that suggestion.
Audience Participation Die Performance SingSong
When the host points to another player, that player continues the song. Both music and lyrics should fit flawlessly, otherwise the player is out.
Can be done with an without a musician. Without is a bit easier as the rhythm can be broken a bit more easily. Then again, continuing the musical line can be more difficult.
Superman Jam
Game Divide the audience into three groups; label them Group 1, 2, 3, (or any other labeling). Each group
Audience Warm-up Performance
gets their own phrase to sing (or yell); it’s important that the rythm and length of each phrase is identical.
Group 1 sings "Superman, Superman, Superman, Superman"
Group 2 sings "I want to jam with Superman. I want to jam with Superman." Group 3 sings "I want to jam; I want to jam; I want to jam with Superman."
Then, the MC directs the audience through singing the song, first one group, then two, then all three, then just two, then just one, then two, then another loud, another soft, etc.
Supermen
Game A great PimpingK game. 4 players. First player gets from the audience a silly little problem, like My
Characters Performance
Shoelaces are Untied, and a simple object, say a kitchen cabinet.
First player starts a scene in which the Problem arises, and her character is unable to fix the problem. Hence she calls in (explictly) the help of Kitchen Cabinet Man. This is a SuperHero, like Superman, Spiderman, you know that kind of cartoon-character heroe types.
Our Superman comes in with lots of brou-haha (high StatusK ) only to make the problem worse (and a status switch to low status). So our hero calls in the help of yet another Superman. Use whatever you can think of first. Say Toothpaste Man. Again this hero comes in high status, screws up even more, does a status switch and calls in yet another hero, who finally fixes the problem.
The game is really pimping folks into playing outrageous superheroes. The status switch from high to low after screwing up is pretty important too here.
See also Mr. So and SoG for another PimpingK game.
Supernova
Game Nice energy builder.
Energy Exercise Warm-up
All players dispersed around the room, have everyone stand up comfortably, feet apart, eyes closed. Ask your players to imagine they’ve got a ball of energy hiding in their chests, radiating warm light. Ask them to imagine this light and energy starts filling their chest, their arms and legs, their hands and feet, their head, their whole body.
Then ask the players to imaging this light starts shining out of their bodies, through their eyes, their fingers and toes, filling the whole room. Then imagine the light starts filling the whole building, the street, the city, the country, the whole world.
Finally, imagine this warm light starts reaching into the skies, up to the moon, overpowering the sun, filling the whole of the universe.
End the exercise by asking the players to open their eyes.
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Game
Association Exercise Spontaneity
Game
Audience Participation Concentration Die
Exercise
Look and Listen Performance
Surprise Movement
Have everyone walk around leisurely. Tel them to stop and start make a movement, a gesture, a sound, anything really. Let the players repeat the gesture until they know what they ’are’.
The idea is not to preconceive, but to let it happen. Players may turn out to be dish washers, ushers, lawn mowers, ping pong balls, whatever. Explain that there are no wrong answers.
Tell the players just to acknowledge what they ’are’ for themselves, and then move on, stop again and make another gesture/movement/sound.
Survivor
Four to six players play a scene. Then the audience chooses one of the players to get "voted off the island." The remaining players do the scene again, covering everything that happened the first time. Then another person gets voted out, and so on until one person has to act out the scene all by themselves.
There are various ways of re-playing the original scene, even when only one player left: player can do a monologue, can play all original characters herself, you name it ...
You can play this for an audience, but it’s also a great listening and paying-attention exercise.
Origin
The Improvoholics mailed us to claim they developed this game. Thanks guys!
Swedish Sculptors
This one is an extension of SculptorsG . Divide the class in 2 groups, same number of players in every group. One group is clay, and they close their eyes. The other group are sculptors.
The sculptors build one sculpture out of all the ’clay’ players. The sculpture is finished when all of the players touch someone else (so all are connected to the sculpture). The artists cannot ’push’ the clay into position - they need to ’pull’ parts of the clay into position without actually pulling. ’Pulling’ is done by touching a body part with an open hand, and then moving the hand about. They ’clay’ players need to ’follow’ the moving open hands.
As soon as the sculpture is finished, the sculptors moves away, and re-build the statue, themselves now becoming clay. The (original) clay players keep their eyes closed. As soon as the imitation sculpture is finished, the clay players, eyes still closed, try to find ’themselves’ in the imitation. When everybody has found themselves the game is over, and the clay players assess to what extent they found ’themselves’ and to what extent the imitation is exact.
Origin
Described in Augusto BoalR ’s Games for Actors and Non-actorsR . Switcheroo
This is like Simple ContinuationG , except that the MC interrupts the scene several times, and at each interruption all actors in the scene get switched; no new actors join in, and no actors leave. Also known as Actor SwitchG. . See also Hat ContinuationG .
Switch Gibberish
JabbertalkK exercise: let a player tell a store. Whenever you ring a bell (or clap your hands) player switches to GibberishC - the story should continue and should make sense.
If you do this as an exercise, try sidecoaching with different kinds of gibberish. Try any language you don’t know (Mongolian, Italian, Russian, Chinese, you name it).
Game
Exercise Group Trust
Game
Continuation Performance
Game
Exercise Gibberish Performance
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Sybil
Game This is basically a one-person Long FormC . In this format the player plays all characters. The play
Long Form Performance Solo
typically starts with a character monologue and then goes into scenes alternated with more monologues.
One could summarize the ’rules’ as:
you play all the characters and their dialogue in the scenes
monologues are either internal (to the character) or to the audience, addresses as a group (a minister preaching to a church, a person introducing himself at a job interview).
Origin
The format is attributed to Andy Eninger. The name is based on a book with the same title, about Sybil Dorsett, a survivor of child abuse who was diagnosed with the first multiple personality disorder. She alledgedly played host to 16 separate personalities.
More info can be found on www.sybilization.com.
Synchro Clap
Game All players in a circle. One player starts the game by making eye contact with another player. Then,
Concentration Energy Exercise Warm-up
both clap their hands simultaneously. The ’receiving’ player then makes eye contact with another player, and they synchro-clap. And so on.
Once a firm rhythm is established, start accelerating slowly.
TellTales
In this format a cast of five gets one ask-for each at the top of the show, and then each person is Game free to play solo scenes with invisible characters, addressing the audience, musing to themselves,
Long Form
speaking on the telephone, just being physical and so on until another player enters, at which point they have to leave. Over the course of the performance a complete play is done. The actors can play multiple characters if they want.
Origin
Attributed to the Spontaneity Shop (London).
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Theatresports
Game Theatre Sports is really a collection of formats. We’ll summarize the general rules, and then describe
Format
the variations for the different sub-formats:
The game is introduced by an MC, who does a warm-up and then introduces the judges and the 2 teams
The game is lead by judges
Each game has a fixed duration
A toss decides which team starts with a challenge
Challengers go first. Possible challenges are the classic games, but anything goes. One might challenge the other team to play the dullest scene possible.
Teams can protest or baulk at a challenge. The judges may accept the baulk, in which case the challengers need to come up with a new challenge. Reason for baulking at a challenge might be "we’ve already done this game tonight".
The judges carry a horn, which they use to issue a warning for boring. After a warning the scene should be concluded ASAP.
Judges can issue penalties, for e.g. obscenities, smart-assing or whatever. A punished player gets a basket over his head for a number of minutes
Scenes must end on time; the judges indicate the time, and warn the players e.g. when they got 30 seconds left. Or they honk a warning for boring, after which the scene must end.
After each challenge (played by both teams) the audience decided by means of cheering, yelling of applause which team won, as interpreted by the judges. Winners get 5 points, losers get nothing.
The whole show lasts about 45 minutes.
Variations
Some troupes let the judges issue the challenges. Other troupes allow the winning team a free scene.
Danish variety: in this format there is only one judge, called an Ombuds. The Ombuds is both Commentator, MC and scorekeeper.
This format is quite often played with props, in a décor. Sound and light effects are also used. The Danish version is a bit simpler, and can be used to play with beginners.
Some troupes start an evening off with a 20-minute Danish game, and then play a 45-minute full version after the intermission.
Theatre sports are played all over the world, and teams from different cities and troupes quite often meet in competition.
Origin
Theatresports is a registered trademark by Keith JohnstoneR . A complete overview can be found in his book Impro for StorytellersR .
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The Bag
Game This is a group exercise for building CharactersC . One player on a chair, up to 5 other players sit in
Characters Exercise
front of her. The player on the chair starts by taking something out of a big mimed bag. She holds the object in front of her and names the object - anything that comes to mind is just fine (see WarehouseG , Open Your HandG or PresentsG ).
The other players start asking the middle player questions about the object, why she has it, what it might mean to her. After a few questions, she is asked to take another object from the bag - again, this can be anything and need not be related to the first object that came up. This prompts more questions, and more objects.
Continue until we know the character that is sitting on the chair.
Notes
The idea of the exercise is to construct the character as a group. Both objects, questions and answers to the questions will provide cues to who the person on the chair might be. Avoid very leading questions, although any element in the questions should probably be accepted.
As soon as the person on the chair has an idea of who she might be, what her state of mind might be, how old she might be, what her StatusK might be, she should start showing these qualities, until she really ’becomes’ the character. Use voice and body language to express this.
The Bat
Game This is a Long FormC format based on Blind HaroldG . It is basically a long form played with the
Limitations Long Form Performance
lights out in a theater.
You can download mp3 files of a couple of Bat performances off the website of the Impatients .
Origin
The format was created by Joe Bill of Annoyance Theatre in Chicago.
The Gerbil
Game Invent a silly dramatic story, and explain it to the audience. Classic example is the following: "After
Performance
fixing the roof, Roger decided to clean the house, including the cage of Mary’s gerbil. He put the animal in a frying pan, from which it escaped to the roof, where it got stuck in some fresh tar. Roger put it back in it’s cage, where it got smothered by the fresh woodchips. Roger tried to use a solvent to clean the creature, but the solvent fumes cause the creature to die of a cardiac arrest. At that point Mary walks in".
This is when the scene starts: Roger needs to explain what happens, but as soon as the audience starts laughing Roger is replaced by another player who gets a new shot. The idea is to try and play the scene without getting the audience to laugh.
Notes
Don’t stick to the gerbil story - you can invent any silly story for this game.
Origin
Attributed to Keith JohnstoneR and described in Impro for StorytellersR .
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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Advice
Game 3 players, form a line (or sit down). The audience provides questions or problems for which they
Audience Participation Die Performance Verbal wit
need advice. The 3 players provide good, bad, and really bad advice.
Have the MC choose who provide what advice, so everyone can have a stab at really bad advice. If the ’bad advice’ is really bad, then the Ugly advice should be even worse.
You can play this as a DieC game - if a bad advice is not followed by an even worse advice, replace the last player by another one.
The Magnet
Game Played in pairs. One player becomes a sculpture, standing still, while his partner closes her eyes.
Concentration
She needs to explore the statue, with her eyes closed, and then tries to become the same statue.
Exercise See also Swedish SculptorsG for a similar exercise. Group
Trust
The Party
Game One player plays a character that is having a party. The other players will be the guests, and the
Endowment Guessing Performance
audience provides us with who the guests might be. Of course the host does not know who the guests are. His task is to guess who the guests might be, based on hints the guests offer.
The games is over as soon as the host has guessed all guests.
Variations
Use quirks instead of characters - Also known as Party QuirksG. The Scream
Game Everybody in a circle, watch the ground. On your sign, everybody lifts their head and either looks
Energy Warm-up
straight, left or right. Whenever 2 people look each other in the eyes, they scream as loud as they can, as if they’re startled, and then drop dead.
Repeat till only one or 2 players are alive. Also known as Jeepers PeepersG.
Three Line Environment
Game Played with 2 players. They get 3 lines (first player gets 2 lines, second one gets one line). Using no
Environment Exercise
more than 3 lines (A-B-A) they need to establish their PlatformK ; who they are, where they are, when and why.
See also DoorsG .
Three Line Solo
Game This is a SoloC exercise. Play a 3 line scene with 2 characters. Play both characters yourself.
Characters Exercise Solo
Repeat at high speed so you run through your ’easy’ characters fast.
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Three Melodies
Game Ask for 2 occupations. Then do a 4-beat scene as follows:
Performance SingSong
Player 1 sings about how great and satisfying her job is, but she’s missing something critical, or has a minor little problem with it (melody 1)
Number 2 does the same (to a second melody)
Both characters meet in a bar, complaining about their problems. They summarize their problem in one line each (to finish their song), something like "I got plenty of x but I’m missing y"
Then they solve each other’s problem (fitting each other’s x to the other’s y), they do this in a
duet to a third melody. See also BartenderG .
Three Noses
Game A fun and silly game. Let everyone walk leisurely around the room. When you shout ’3 Noses’ the
Energy Exercise Introduction Warm-up
players must form little groups, each group consisting of 3 touching noses.
Use your imagination - as for 7 left big toes, 2 earlobes, 9 fingers, 4 nipples, 5 bellybuttons. Repeat till everyone is giggling.
Notes
This is a great game for new groups, as it lets the players get a feel (literally) for each other.
Three Rules
Game Get 3 rules from the audience, e.g. players have only one arm, players can’t use a word that
Limitations Performance
contains an ’s’ and after every question uttered players needs to yell ’Yess!’. Players then play a scene, obeying the 3 rules. For examples of what else might be used as a rule see the other games in the LimitationsC category.
Also known as Ahab and the WhaleG. (beats us why)
Three Sentence Story
Game 2 players. 3 unconnected sentences are provided by one player; the other builds the shortest
Exercise Narration
possible story incorporating the 3 sentences.
Timed Scenes
Game Here are a couple of different ways to time scenes (apart from using your watch)
Performance Timed
time a player can keep his head immersed in a bucket of water
time it takes the audience to throw 20 socks onto the stage
time it takes for an audience member to finish a beer (or a series of beers) time it takes a player to go get a burger
See also Scene ReplayG for timed replayed scenes. Timeline
Game A scene is played, number of players unlimited. The scene starts in prehistoric times, and evolves
Limitations Performance
through the ages, till it ends in the future.
The idea is to stick to one and the same story line, but as time progresses, characters may take on characteristics or use attributes appropriate to the ’time’. Of course, every characteristic and attribute needs to be justified and take the scene forward.
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Tossing
Game Eight players form 2 lines, facing each other, and mesh their forearms together, to form a platform to
Group Trust
’launch’ another player up in the air and catch him again. Do make sure that your platform is sturdy (holding the other players by the wrists seems to be most solid).
See also Free FallingG and Heave HoG for similar games.
Touch to Talk
Game In this handle players play a scene in which they can only use speech when they touch each other. Limitations
Performance
Notes
Fun when played in locations when people don’t usually touch each other, like a confession chair, a sauna.
Don’t go for the easy option of just touching your partner’s forearm or shoulder - there are so many ways to touch each other. Try hugging, fighting, baptizing, tickling.
Translate Gibberish
Game This is best played with an odd number of players. Everyone in a circle. The first player gives a
Association Exercise Gibberish Spontaneity
gibberish word to her right neighbor, who translates the word. The next player provides the next gibberish word, and so on.
Variations
The receiver can provide both the translation, and a new gibberish word. You may want to add the origin of the language along with the translation.
Notes
Any gibberish word might be translated as ’banana’ of course, but that is not the idea of the exercise. For your translation, use the first thing that comes to mind. You may be inspired by the whole sound of the word (it might sound like something ’known’), or parts of the word (only the vowels, or only the consonants), or by the intonation of the ’giver’, or even by her expression or body language.
Try gibberish in different ’languages’ or ’accents’. Also known as Gibberish DictionaryG. Translation for the Deaf
Game We need 3 players for this game. One will be an expert on a topic provided by the audience; another
Experts Performance
will be the interviewer. The third will provide simultaneous translation for the hearing impaired, using ’sign language’.
Notes
This works best if the interview itself does not go too fast, so the translator has plenty of time to translate. Also helpful are returning keywords that the translator can always translate the same way. A gimmick is to translate everything literally, even ’dummy’ words, like ’oh’, ’great’, ’hm hm’.
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Triple Play
Game This is really a series of 3 3-act plays mixed. Three separate plays are played, each based on
Long Form Performance
different audience suggestions, and not related at all. We first see the three first acts for every play, then the three second acts, and finally the three final acts.
Variations
Some folks play each act in a different style, usually a kind of play (say Shakespeare), a kind of movie (say a spaghetti western) and something musical (say a musical or an opera).
Origin
We believe this is copyright by LA Theatersports. But we’ve also seen in played in Germany. If you know more about this please let us know.
Trivial Pursuit
Game MC asks the audience to pick Trivial Pursuit cards. Players line up, and the MC reads questions from
Performance Verbal wit
the cards picked by the audience. Players invent the funniest answer to these questions.
Notes
The MC needs to screen the questions; a question like ’In what year electricity was invented’ should be avoided. As there are 6 questions on a card, go for the question that is vaguest and offers most options.
Variations
Read the answer, and let the players come up with the question. See also Reverse Trivial PursuitG . Tug-O-War
Game Divide the class in 2 groups and have them mime a Tug-o-war fight. See if
Accepting Exercise Group
the mimed rope does not stretch or shrink
somebody wins (i.e. one group gladly looses (see ChivalryK )
Variations
Do 2 per 2. Or try men against women.
Turning Circle
Game Fun game to warm up those muscles and get the blood pumping.
Concentration Warm-up
Everyone in a circle. The circle starts running (slowly) clockwise. As soon as anybody shouts ’go’, the circle changes direction, without anybody bumping into someone else.
TV News
3 players, who play characters in a TV newscast. One will be the lead anchor, another will do the
Game weather, and the third is a reporter at a location. Then, a newscast is played. Performance
Variations
Ask for an audience suggestion for a central theme in the newscast.
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Game
Narration Performance
Typewriter
This is a nice handle to structure scenes. One of the players is the Narrator. He has a (mimed) typewriter and starts the scene by reading aloud as he types. As soon as the Narrator has given a few elements, the players take over and start playing the scene.
At any point, the Narrator can take over again, perhaps switch to another location, introduce new character, provide tilts or flashbacks.
Variations
When a scene goes bad, the Narrator can mime ripping a couple of pages of his story apart, and restart the scene (or the story).
Verses
Scene is played in verses, that is, every player need to rhyme to herself. Nice handle to combine with a Shakespeare style.
See also RhymesG .
Virus
Use one empty plastic soft drink bottle. Whichever player has the bottle is the virus. The virus can move around and infect other players, but only the player with the bottle can infect new players. All infected players chase the healthy players, till all are infected. Evidently, the infected payers need to pass the bottle around in order to be able to infect new players.
Voices From Heaven
Excellent game for building characters and group-storytelling.
4 players, ask the audience who they are, what their occupation would be.
These 4 characters have died together, and they are going to tell us how that came about. Players line up. The game is played in 3 rounds. In every round, each player offers some information about how they happened to die. At the end of the thirds round, they should all be dead.
Notes
It’s fun to take risks - if in the first round each of the players just offers what they happened to be doing the day they died, and where. It is quite a challenge to get these 4 stories together, including the deaths of all characters, by the end of the third round. Also known as Death ConG. .
See also Goon RiverG for a more open, more free Long FormC version of the same HandleK .
Walking by Numbers
Every player finds himself a spot in the room, make sure players can see each other. When you give a sign, exactly 1 person starts walking. Whenever that person halts, one person, and only one person starts walking.
Gradually increase the number of walkers. See also Group FreezeG .
Game
Limitations Performance
Game
Energy Warm-up
Game
Characters Exercise Narration Performance
Game
Concentration Exercise
Look and Listen Warm-up
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Walkout
Game You need at least 3 players for this one. Give each player a word. Start playing a scene with 2
Limitations Performance
players. As soon as a player hears her word, she has to leave the scene. As soon as she hear her word again, she needs to walk into the scene again. Walkouts and re-entrances need to be justified. Also known as Exit GameG.
Walk-over Association
Game Another way of playing association games. Place all players at one end of the room. Ask them to
Association Exercise
name, for themselves, all the things they think of when you throw them the word ’Banana’ (or anything else).
For every word they come up with they can take a step. They should keep thinking of stuff until they reach the other side of the room. Then throw them another word.
Notes
Watch for players that take unreasonably big steps. Ask them if they are afraid they will run out of ideas.
Variations
You can combine this with Last LetterG . Warehouse
Game Let the players walk around leisurely. Tell them they are in a big warehouse, with lots of shelves and
Exercise Spontaneity
cabinets, packed with junk.
Let the players reach out, take something from an shelve, and name it. Players should not preconceive, just open their hands and mime taking something from a shelf, and see what it becomes. Once they’ve named it for themselves, they place the object back, move on to another shelf and pick up something else.
Notes
If players find this difficult, have them play PresentsG first. See also Open Your HandG .
What are you doing
Game This is really a DissociationG game, but fun to play.
Association Energy Exercise Warm-up
Everyone at one end of the room, form a long line. The first player of the line steps into the room and starts miming an activity. As soon as the activity is clear, player 2 approaches player 1 and asks ’What are you doing’.
The first player answers something that has nothing to do with what he’s actually doing. E.g. if player 1 is cutting someone’s hair, when asked what he’s doing he might say "I’m reading the newspaper". First player moves away, and the second player starts miming the activity stated by the previous player. A third player comes up to player 2, asks what he is doing, and so on.
Play until everyone has mimed something, and has answered the question.
Variations
You can also play this at super high speed, with 2 players. We mean super-super high speed. As soon as one of the players says ummm, hesitates, or uses an offer that was used before in that session, that player is replaced. Great for warm-up and energy!
Notes
Other dissociation games are MalapropismG and DissociationG .
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What Happens Next
Game One player in the middle, the others sit aside. Any person can give the middle player a task, which
Exercise Group Narration
she performs, and then she asks ’What happens next’ ? Any player may suggest what needs to happen next, but the idea is for the group to construct a coherent story.
Notes
The player in the middle should only and strictly be doing what she’s told; it is up to the players at the side to construct the story.
Also known as And ThenG.
What Has Changed
Game Played in pairs. One player observes another closely. Then she closes her eyes, and her partner
Concentration Exercise
Look and Listen
changes three things in his appearance. She open her eyes again and tries to discover what has changed.
What would she be if
Game Choose one player and let her stand in front of the class. Then ask the whole class to think what she
Association Exercise
would be if she were a car, a flower, a building, a era, a foreign country, a mineral, a beverage, your name it.
Notes
Tell the group there are no wrong answers. You may want to ask players what triggered their responses - the answers will probably vary widely.
If you are doing a series of workshops, it may also be interesting to play this game early on, before people know each other, and then again after a couple of weeks, when everyone has gotten to know everyone a bit better. See if the answers are any different.
Whoosh
Game Everybody in a circle. Start with one person, who waves both hands to his/her neighbor, saying
Energy Warm-up
’Whoosh’. The next person passes the Whoosh to his neighbor, and that way the Whoosh is passed around the circle.
There’s 4 other sounds/movements that can be made.
’Wow’: indicated by saying Wow, and moving both arms down. A Wow changes the direction of the Whoosh
’Zap’: instead of passing the Whoosh to your neighbor, it gets zapped to the person you point to. The receiver continues with either a Whoosh to his neighbor, or another Zap to another person. A Wow after a Zap returns to the Zapper.
’Groooooooovelicious’: for this one the whole group bends down and up again in a kinda groovy way, all saying Groooooooovelicious. Afterwards, the person who started the Groovelicious sets the Whoosh in motion again, in any direction.
’Freakout’: indicated by waving both hands in the air. Everybody starts screaming and moves to the center of the circle. When everybody’s freaked out a new circle is formed, and the starter of the Freakout sets the Whoosh in motion again (or Zaps, or does a Grooooooovelicious).
Variations
You can invent other sounds and gestures. You might replace Whoosh by a kind of Vroom-Vroom, as is you’re in a car, and replace Wow by the sounds of brakes (’iiiii’) etc. Also known as Zip Zap ZoopG.
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Who Where Why Am I
Game One player leaves the room. The audience provides:
Endowment Performance
where we are, and when (what era)
who the player will be (can be a person, or just his occupation) a physical handicap for the player (perhaps he’s blind ?)
a problem the player has
Then a scene is played, in which the other players need to coach player 1 into guessing each of the items above, without giving any explicit clues. Example: scene is played on the Red Square in Moscow, in 2050, where a limping salesman of vacuum cleaners never sells any vacuum cleaners, since his prices are quoted in rubels instead of Euros (Russia is obviously part of the Eurodollar zone in 2050).
See also HijackerG . Without Sound
Game A scene in played, in which no talk of no sounds are allowed.
Limitations Performance
See also Without WordsG
Without Words
Game A scene is played, in which the players are not allowed to talk. Sounds, like slamming doors, running
Limitations
Performance See also Without SoundG .
water, singing birds, echoing footsteps are allowed.
Word at a Time Expert
Game 3 players: one is the interviewer, and the other 2 are an expert on a subject chosen by the audience.
Limitations Performance
The expert is really one person, with 2 heads, and answers to the interviewer’s question are provided word by word, one word at a time per player.
Also known as Two-headed ProfessorG. . Also known as OracleG. ; use an ancient Greek oracle instead of an expert, and have the audience ask the oracle questions about life & love.
Variations
The interviewer can raise the stakes, e.g. by pimping the expert into a Word-at-a-Time-SongG Word at a Time Letter
Game Play in pairs. The 2 players will compose a letter, one word at a time. Have them actually write down
Exercise Narration
the letter. Anything, even ’where’ on the paper one starts writing, is an offer.
No need to sidecoach, but the possibilities are endless; thing about greeting cards, love letters, legal stuff, promotional letters, suicide notes, etc.
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Word at a Time Scene
Game This is like Word at a Time ExpertG , but with a bit more scene work. 2 players, speaking one word
Limitations Performance
at a time, alternating between the players. The scene is starting by stating who they are, or where they are. Example: "We-are-on-a-sunny-beach". The players then actually play that, and build a story, word at a time, and actually playing the story at the same time.
For example: "We-see-a-dead-whale"; the players should actually see the whale, and do something with it. There is no need to ’say’ everything before doing it ( use our motto: Play it, don’t say it).
Notes
Players have an adventure together; the story needs to happen to both of them, they are not to play against each other.
As many players tend to verbosity, use a director that ’cuts’ the scene and tells the players what to do. Example: "Give the whale mouth-to-mouth".
Variations
Allow a third character to enter the scene, playing against the two others. Now the lines are done word per word, by 3 players, but we have 2 characters. This gets extremely silly/messy - to create some order out of this chaos make sure the third player (i.e. the second character) has a different voice (different accent or pitch). Unlikely to produce interesting stories, but quite hilarious. Also known as Ping PongG. .
Word at a Time Song
Game This is like Word at a Time SceneG , but here the players improvise a song. Song can be sung to a
Limitations Performance SingSong
known melody (makes things a bit easier), or on a tune played on the piano. Tell the piano player not to play too fast, though.
Word at a Time Story
Game This is an exercise to train group narrative. All players sit in a circle. We are going to tell a story one
Exercise Group Narration
word at a time. Each player provides one word of a sentence. End of a sentence can be indicates by a player saying ’period’, although that is not necessary.
Notes
This is more difficult than it sounds, especially with newbies. If you’re working with novice players have them try a familiar story. like Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs first. Summarize the story before they get started, to make sure they’re all on the same story. Don’t be surprised if gagsters manage to smuggle atomic bombs and crashing aircraft into the story. Ask the group if they can see/understand the reasons why their story sucks.
You can also play this a challenge with newbies: divide the group into 2 circles, and have them compete each other - see which group can finish the story first.
Word Ball
Game Another association game. All players in a circle. One player starts by tossing a word to another
Association Exercise Warm-up
player. The receiver associates on this word, and throws his association to yet another player.
Variations
Try this in combination with Last LetterG or Free Association LinesG
Instead of just tossing word, have the players throw a soft ball, or a towel tied in a knot to each other
try with multiple ’tossers’ at once.
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Game
Performance Verbal wit
Worlds Worst
Not exactly theater, but fun if played well.
Players line up, and the audience provides verbs, hobbies and occupations. The players need to come up with the worst possible way of doing/being what the audience suggests.
Yes Lets
Excellent warm-up, and great introduction to AcceptingK .
Pick a group activity, like throwing a party or organizing a picnic. One player starts, saying "Let’s ..." filling in what she wants to do. Then she starts actually doing what she said she wanted to do. A second player jumps in, saying "Let’s ..." do something else, to advance the group activity. Both players say "Yes, let’s do that" and start doing whatever suggested. Third player jumps in, suggests what to do, and again all players loudly agree to do it, and actually do it. Continue till everyone has suggested something.
See also Yes Lets - or Rather NotG for a more advanced version of this exercise.
Yes Lets - or Rather Not
This is a bit controversial, and you probably don’t want to do this with newbies.
This one goes a bit like Yes LetsG : all players on stage, someone provides a location, e.g. a beach. One player suggests an action. All players that like the action yell ’Yes, Let’s do that’ and start doing it. Whoever does not like the suggestion steps out sits down. Game continues till only one player is left.
Notes
This one is a bit controversial as players will object that (one of) the main ideas in Improv is to accept, and in this game one can reject a suggestion.
The idea behind this exercise is that we want our players to be Mr. Nice GuyK - players should try to make their co-players happy. The problem is to learn what suggestions are ’good’, which suggestions make our other players happy. And that’s what we’re trying to learn with this exercise. Attitude is important for this one:
players should not feel inhibited to step out (i.e. they should not feel that they are not accepting players should not feel rejected when others step out. Be happy about that - you are learning which suggestions make others happy! (see ChivalryK ).
You
Everyone in a circle. Everyone raises their right hand. The 1st person points to someone in the circle with their hand up and says "you." They do the same until everyone’s hand is down, and the last person has pointed back to the 1st person, thus completing the circle. Important: This is a pattern that never changes. Repeat the pattern until it feels comfortable. Then switch places in the circle. Repeat the pattern. Close your eyes, and repeat the pattern.
When everyone is comfortable with that, everyone raises their hand again. The same 1st person begins. Name something: a favorite tv show, food, whatever. Don’t point to the same person that you did last time. Once you feel comfortable with this pattern, you begin both. Start with "you" and add the next level. (Ex: "you, you, you, string beans, you, corn, pizza, you, etc.).
If you feel that this is becoming too easy, add a third pattern, switch places in the circle, close your eyes.
Variations
More of a challenge, start two patterns, and then add the pattern of pointing to someone, and saying the name of the person to your right. Once that pattern is good, switch places in the circle.
Game
Accepting Exercise Group Warm-up
Game
Accepting Group Narration
Game
Exercise
Look and Listen
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You’re Fired
Game This is a scene with 2 players, in which the lines are scripted. Here’s the script:
Characters
Exercise
Limitations
Performance (1) {Indicates she does not know why}
Concentration Performance
The audience provides a central theme, and the MC will ’zap’ through the channels. Miraculously, all broadcasts cover the same theme.
Zoom-In Zoom-Out
(1) {Knocks on a door}
(2) Come in. You know why I called you?
(2) {Hands 1 a (mimed) piece of paper}
(1) I thought you wouldn’t take that into account? (2) You’re fired.
(1) Fine. I hated that stupid job anyway.
Have the players play that scene. They need to stick to the script, but can really do anything as long as they don’t add any lines. It probably won’t be all that interesting.
Then make them replay the scene, but give them a side coaching (which the other player and the audience or the rest of the group don’t hear). See if the scenes become any more interesting. Things you might give a player could be
You’re nervous, happy, sad, afraid of the other The other smells nice/stinks
You’ve been eating beans/garlic
You turn into a crow/monkey/cow
You are in a wheelchair
You try to make a pass at the other
Your underwear doesn’t quite fit (too small)
You are a bit deaf, you can’t find your glasses, you loose a contact, loose your dentures You are a kleptomaniac
Notes
Players can do quite a lot without deviating from the script. They can build/open doors, windows, cabinets, make all kinds of noises or faces.
Remind players they can switch status. Perhaps they could try and make clear what’s on the note? Is it bad, or petty, or funny, or sad?
Variations
Feel free to come up with a different scene, with different lines. See also Fast Food StanislawskiG .
Zapping
Game 4 players, each chooses a TV format, like the News, a documentary, a Pokemon show, you name it.
Game A scene is played; at any time the MC or host calls "zoom-out" - at that point, the scene continues,
Continuation Performance
but is played with finger puppets (as if the audience is watching the scene from fart away, and all characters are finger-sized). This continues until the host calls "zoom-in", after which the scene continues in "normal" size. Alter between zoom-in and zoom-out ad libitum.
Improv Encyclopedia -- V 2.0.6 -- 18May2007 -- www.improvencyclopedia.org - page 125
Zulu(1)
Game All players form a line, facing the audience. Audience suggests a general product category, like soup
Performance Verbal wit
or family cars. Players then have to come up with original new names for (new) products in that category.
Variations
There is another game named Zulu - see Zulu(2)G . Zulu(2)
Game All players form a line, facing the audience. Audience suggests a general product category, like
Audience Participation Die Performance Verbal wit
soup or family cars or candy bars.
The MC now points to a player, who needs to keep coming up with original names for a product of that category. No doubles are allowed, neither are existing brand names. A player that makes a mistake ’dies’ (when the audience yells ’Die’). The MC can switch players at any time, and the game lasts till there is only one player left.
Variations
There is another game named Zulu - see Zulu(1)G