Repeated Scene A helpful exercise for discovering the full potential in offers and also helpful for discovering what a scene is about and the game of the scene. 1. Two improvisers improvise a scene from suggestion. 2. Two different improvisers then re-do that scene with roughly those lines and roughly that order. 3. Two different[…]
Meditation to scenes Two people on stage. Sat facing each other at any distance. They close their eyes. Music is played. While the music is played they connect to how they feel in the present moment. They allow that emotion to increase. Their body may start to match that feeling. When the music fades down[…]
John Cremer characters and scenes We’ve named this after John Cremer from The Maydays as we learnt it from him. So often in life we are having to pretend. We may have something going on in our life, or feeling a certain way, and yet then have to put on our professional face and go[…]
Object Circle Exercise for teaching object work (miming objects in improv scenes). Everyone sat in a circle. Done without words. Around 4 people mime a different object each, believing the weight, shape and the size of it. They interact with it and show it to the person next to them. That person takes it off[…]
Shuffle / Mix Tape We first saw this format with The He Haas in Brighton, and later a similar one with Tea & Toast in Brighton. It now seems to be quite widely used around the world and known by different names. We currently use it as one of the formats with our house team[…]
5 Titles / 10 Titles This is a great format for open standalone scenes, used by Grand Theft Impro who are one of London’s longest running improv troupes with a regular monthly show at Hoopla. The host goes on stage and asks the audience for 5 titles (or 10, or however many depending on how[…]
These are short-form games that we tend to play on stage at the end of course show for our Level 2 Performance Course. After Level 2 we have a follow up Level 3 Scenes Course that goes into greater detail about performing longer scenes. Short-form in improv means short standalone games, usually where a suggestion[…]
This is from Keith Johnstone when he taught a couple of us a few years ago. You can also invent your own scenarios and scenes for this. How the exercise works First role play the following scenario: Two people are coming back from a date to one of their houses. They open the door. They[…]
An exercise that helps people to be obvious, honest and true. It also demonstrates how being honest and real is often more funny than actually trying to be funny. 5 improvisers stood in a line across the stage. They take it in turns to tell the audience about a pet peeve of theirs (a minor[…]
A lovely way to end a workshop. Everyone takes it in turns to sit on a chair in front of the class. When the teacher says “GO” the rest of the class tell them what they love about them as an improviser, why they like improvising with them, and why they like having them in[…]
Everyone in pairs around the room. One person in each pair keeps their eyes open and makes a sound, any sound. The other person has their eyes closed. Whenever the sound is made the person with eyes closed walks towards it. When the sound stops they stop. The person making the sound can move to[…]
Everyone stood in a circle. One person walks across the circle to someone else and says “I need a….” followed by three things they need, the first things that come to them. The person they walk to then walks to someone else and uses the last thing said as the first thing in their list.[…]