Below is a video of the session summary courtesy of Selena Delesie:
As promised, here’s some great improv books for those who want to learn more:
- Impro: Keith Johnstone
- Impro For Storytellers: Keith Johnstone
- Improvise.: Scene from the Inside Out: Mick Napier
- Art by Committee: A Guide to Advanced Improvisation [With DVD]: Charna Halpern
- Improvisation for the Theater 3E: A Handbook of Teaching and Directing Techniques: Viola Spolin
Games we played:
21 – Everyone stands in a tight circle with arms around each other and with their eyes closed. They take turns counting off numbers from 1-21. If two people say the same number at the same time, they start over. The team keeps trying until they get to 21 without speaking at the same time. Make sure they don’t have a pattern and that everyone says a number at some point. This exercise is good for getting teams aligned, listening and developing the group mind.
8’s
Everyone is in a circle. Raise your right hand and shake it while counting quickly from 1-8, then the left hand, then the right foot, then the left foot. Repeat with 1-7, 1-6, until you only do 1 repetition on each body part. Ensure that everyone is making eye contact with each other throughout the exercise. This helps teams get loosened up and more comfortable with each other.
Alien, Tiger, Cow
Aliens have index fingers pointed up on the temple as antennae and go ‘beep beep beep’
Tigers have a claw and go rawr
Cows have hands on stomach and go moo
Each player on the count of three does one of the three characters. Repeat until everyone is doing the same one. Also for teamwork and group mind.
Naming Things Incorrectly
Walk around your environment and call objects by anything but their correct name for a few minutes. After, examine your environment and people around you. Do they look different in any way? This exercise helps free people from conventional thinking and approaches.
Yes and…
Two players start a scene. One person says a line, the other persons response must start with “Yes! And…”. The scene plays out back and forth with each player starting their statements with “Yes! And…”. Be sure not to ignore or negate the offer made by your partner. Also beware of “Yes, but…”. That is also blocking the other persons offer. e.g.
Good:
“I’m glad we went to the mall yesterday!”
“Yes! And I’m glad I was able to find that book I was looking for at the book store!”
“Yes! And I love that you love Dickens too!”
etc.
Bad:
“I’m glad we went to the mall yesterday!”
“Yes, but it was closed.”
Notice how the second example doesn’t leave the first player with much to work with. This exercise helps focus on agreement, positivity, cooperation and listening.
It’s Tuesday
One player starts a scene with the line “It’s Tuesday.” The other chooses a positive, over exaggerated response. e.g.
“It’s Tuesday”
“I love Tuesday! It’s bring your motorcycle to work day!”
This helps people focus on generating positive ideas and coming up with multiple approaches to issues.
Loser Ball
Players pass an imaginary ball around to each other, however, all players must fail miserably to catch the ball. Everyone in the circle cheers and shouts words of encouragement to support the player who failed to catch the ball.
This all about getting teams to support each other and have fun working together, even in failure.
Sound and Movement
One player steps forward and does a random sound and movement gesture. Then whole circle copies the sound and movement gesture. The next player steps forward and does another and so on and so forth…
Builds team spirit and gets people comfortable with each other.
Word at a time story
Given a genre and a title, players tell a story one word at a time. Helps players learn to give up control and understand that they are part of a greater whole (the team). Also excellent for developing listening skills.
What Comes Next… Nope!
Two players. Player A can only respond with either “What comes next?” or a happy “Nope!”. Impress on the players that the nope should be positive and happy so as not to discourage player B from continuing or discouraging player A from saying “Nope”.
Player A picks their favourite genre and gets a title. Player B then tells the story in the genre player A selected a sentence or two at a time. After each break in the story, player A can either say “What comes next?” if he wants the story to continue, or “Nope!” if he’d like Player B to retract the previous statement and try again.
Have audience members observe Player A and see how they react. Could they predict what player A was going to say?
This is one of my all time favourites. If you play this game frequently, your team will soon get a sense of what makes the other “light up”. Teams that want to make each other “light up” are teams that love working with each other.
This also helps players learn to listen in other ways. By picking up on the body language of player A, player B can make more informed choices.
Emotional Symphony
Each player gets a word and an emotion. A conductor points to a player or multiple players and they must repeat their word over and over using their emotion. The conductor varies the level of emotion with his hands raising the whole group into a commotion before the finish.
This helps people step outside their comfort zones and explore different sides of themselves.
Feel free to email me any questions you have or to let me know what your experience was like playing these games. And remember, listening is the willingness to change!
–
Todd Charron
Impro [Paperback]
Keith Johnstone (Author)
We played loserball during the Open Space closing and it was cool. Great way, for people to show vulnerability in a safe way and to celebrate failure!