CONVERSATION PARTY – Players stand on stage in multiple groups of two or three people. Players are “at a party” as themselves, speaking as themselves to other who are also themselves. The teacher conducts focus from one conversation to the next.
Lessons:
• Be specific – You don’t have to try so hard to be funny. You just have to be specific. The surprise inherent to improvisation is made even more satisfying when we’re specific in-the-moment.
• React – The audience reaction of “I would have said that,” or “I know a woman who would have said that,” is such a satisfying response for any performance medium. In improvisation, that power is compounded as the audience knows that your reaction was “your” reaction in-the-moment.
• Connect – don’t just sit in your head waiting for your next turn to speak, listen to what’s going on around you, let it seep in and affect you.
• Juxtapose – we don’t have to discuss our differences or negotiate out one “truth.” A party group who loves cats standing next to a group that loves dogs doesn’t need to engage in a fight. The audience sees both groups and wants both heightened next to each other.
Tag Archives: teaching
Red Ball concentration exercise
RED BALL, RED BULL, BREAD BOWL – With the group in a circle, a player starts by saying, “Dustin, Red Ball” then mimes throwing to that player who catches it, says “Red Ball, Thank you” then passes it by saying “Lauren, Red Ball.” Then you add more pretend balls/objects and try and keep them all going.
Variations:
• One version can go “green ball, purple ball, bouncy ball.”
• Another variation focuses on phrases that sound similar (Red ball, Red bull, Bread Bowl, Thread Ball, Party Hat).
Lessons:
• Listen to words closely but also pay attention to more than the words, because the physicalities should all be different here and if you pay attention you don’t miss it.
Want to play this game at another level? Check out Red & Blue Ball HERE.
Circle Of Sequences concentration exercise
CIRCLE OF SEQUENCES – A player points at another and says any word. That player points at another player and says another word inspired by the first. This continues until every player says a word and points to another player, with the final player to contribute pointing back to the first player to contribute. This is Sequence One; repeat it continuously until the group is comfortable with it. Establish a Sequence Two the same way, and then a Sequence Three. When players are comfortable with each Sequence individually, tell them that they now will be keeping them all going at once. Start with Sequence One and then tap the player starting Sequence Two on the shoulder, then tap the player starting Sequence Three on the shoulder.
Lessons:
• Focus outward – can’t be in your head freaking out; have to be ready and waiting for your turn
• Be sure you’re heard – enunciate, make eye contact, and pointing helps
• Each individual is 100% responsible for the success of the group – if a sequence is dropped, even if you didn’t drop it, pick it up
Variations:
• Names – Make Sequence One “Your Name” and Sequence Three “Their Name” to add to potential confusion so as to force increased concentration
Focus Outward exercises
Focus Outward: There is a ton of material for us to mine in our improv if we are committed to seeing it, hearing it and embracing it. We don’t need to be in our heads worried about making something happen once we learn how we can follow what’s already happening to a collaborative end.
Suggested Exercises:
ACTION PASS – In a circle, a player turns to his left and executes an action, any action. The next player observes that action and attempts to recreate it EXACTLY in turning to the player to their left.
Progression:
• Do it once through. Then immediately have them do it again focused on slowing down and really noticing all the nuances of a player’s action and working to repeat the action exactly.
• Call out people that are in their head and not focused outward
• Call attention to what makes them laugh – straight repetition, embracing something “accidental”
• Call out when someone tries to force the evolution for a laugh – this will happen after they get comfortable with a few “successes” under their belts
Lessons:
• See head to toe – take the time to really see all that players are giving you; Where are their toes pointed? How are their shoulders’ squared? What face are they making?
• See more than you’re given – the things a player does subconsciously or accidentally should be noticed and repeated; What did they do before and after the action?
• There are no mistakes/There is no “right” – there is only “what has happened” and “what’s happening now.”
• Repetition is heightening – we don’t need to create unrelated information when there is already material at play to mine. Collaborative evolution is a fun enough; don’t force difference for difference’s sake.
PHRASE PASS – Like Action Pass, but with a sentence.
Progression:
• Focusing on exactly what was given to you
• Pick just one thing (one word, emotion, inflection, character, etc.) and heighten it 2 notches
Lessons:
• Even with small things, we create a feedback loop that will heighten everything we do to places no one could imagine or achieve on their own
• You don’t have to force evolution – if everyone is concentrated on heightening what they see and hear, the phrase will naturally change. We want to continue embracing small changes to foster evolution instead of forcing mutations that separate an individual from the group.
Story Stealing memory exercise
STORY STEALING – Everyone in a circle. One at a time, players enter the center and tell a true, personal, 30 Second Story. Once everyone has told a story, the teacher tells the class that players now have to enter the center and recreate someone else’s story. Every story should be revisited once by another player.
Lessons:
• Don’t mock; mirror – this is not about making fun of each other, it’s about making each other look good by remembering their story
• The more you remember, the more options you have – you might not get the chance to revisit the story you remember best so you need to work to remember everything
• Remember specifically – remembering a few specific details will be more powerful than remembering everything generally
• Remember reactions – our emotional reactions are improv gold; focus on those when setting other player’s stories to memory
• See what’s not shown – recreating what our fellow players initially did subconsciously is great fun. How do they stand? How do they move? What do they sound like?
One Person Walking focus sharing exercise
ONE PERSON WALKING – Students spread out through the room. Without talking, one person has to be walking at any given time. Students have to see each other to know when to give and take focus.
Variations:
• Now two people are walking at a time. Now three. Build to everyone walking and then work back down to one person walking.
Lessons:
• Make eye contact
• Give and take focus
• Be willing to surrender focus to your scene partner
Emotional Reaction Circle warm-up exercise
EMOTIONAL REACTION CIRCLE – Around a circle, every player just has an emotional reaction. They don’t need words – they can just make an emotional sound. Have them go around and then go around pushing their emotions to 11.
Emotional Heights/Depths exercise
Emotional Heights/Depths: Committed emotion should be an improviser’s base at all times. We need to be able to exhibit the highest highs and lowest lows on stage so we need to practice emotion at the extremes to become comfortable in that space.
EMOTION TO 11 – Teacher gives students an emotion. The class gives a suggestion of what to emote to. Around a circle, students engage in that emotional perspective toward that suggestion, ramping up from 1-10 to 11. You’ll need to be attentive in this one since people tend to hit walls here. They really need to go bonkers and forget to make sense in what they’re saying. If someone really clams up, offer to do it with them, alongside them. Use your judgment to know when to push and when to let it go.
Progression:
• Give big, round, easy emotions, “happy, sad, fear, anger”
• Push people, gently “more, bigger” to discover and emote. Don’t be mean. Do it with them if they struggle.
Lessons:
• Exude the emotion physically – 11 in sadness is rolling on the floor and weeping
• Push it past comfortable – being vulnerable enough to share big emotions can be hard, but we have to trust each other and the safe place to “go big” in practice. Support each other with applause.
• Being bored or unaffected is hard to heighten – care
Emotional Context exercise
Emotional Context: Committed emotion is all the “what” and “why” a scene needs. What’s extra fun is that, when we do have emotion, that emotion can add/change the meaning of our words and heighten the depth of our scenes.
EMOTIONAL NURSERY RHYME – Around a circle, a player recites a common nursery rhyme with an emotional filter. The next player does the same nursery rhyme, further heightening the same emotion or trying on a new emotion. Repeat with different nursery rhymes.
Variations:
• Song lyrics
• Old salts / sayings
Lessons:
• The details gain weight with our emotional perspectives
• Acting is emoting – understanding a motivation can be hard and grueling. Committing to an emotion without regard to “sense” is easy and fun.
Emotional Character Development exercise
Emotional Character Development: We don’t need it “all figured out” the moment we step on stage. Make one choice and then build other choices on top of that choice.
We can start with emotion and build the details of our character around that. Or, we can start with a detail and build an emotional character from there.
CHARACTER WALK – students walk around the space as themselves. Teacher gives prompts for them to make choices from (see Progression below). Teacher asks additional questions to flesh out the characters. Teacher has students reset, returning to walk around the space as themselves again. And repeat.
Progression:
• Have players change elements of their personal walk to see how it affects the way they feel
• Change your rate – speed up, slow down
• Change your size – is your walk big or small?
• Walk with a different body part forward
• Change your spine
• Be an animal
• Walk like someone you know
• Ask the class to try on a different:
• Emotion
• Posture/Physicality
• Desire (I want…)
• Perspective (I like…, I hate…)
• Environment
• Action
• Ask questions to flesh out the character. Basically “if this, then what”; for example, how do you feel about the action you’re doing, or how does that desire affect your walk?
• Ask students to speak in their character’s voice – calling out students individually to contribute
• Tell students to acknowledge each other’s presence to discover their ‘status’
Lessons:
• Don’t let starting a scene be intimating – all you need to start is one choice