The Theatre Classroom — Improvisation

January 13th, 2012

Two improv activities for all ages and skill levels

I hope you had a great New Year and are ready to get right back in the thick of things.

Warming Up for Improv

When I was teaching I had the privilege of my students doing improv shows that were a great hit. For the last four years I have had the pleasure to teach something I called “Let’s Act for the Young and Young at Heart.”  As I never knew who would be attending and had only 45 minutes to work with whoever came, I was ready for small children as well as adults.

I wanted them to feel comfortable with each other before we did any small group activities. I always started with several introduction activities, described on pages 16-24 of The Drama Teacher’s Survival Guide #2 and/or warm-ups described on page 57-58. Then I would put them in small groups doing a variety of activities described on pages 65-68.  I didn’t want any game that required one person to be in the middle or to put anyone on the spot.

Two Improv Games

We have a New Years Eve event called First Night: A Celebration of the Arts.  It runs from noon to midnight.  I always had to have new activities each year — I didn’t want any repeats.  This past New Year’s Eve, I did two brand new activities taken from Justine Jones and Mary Ann Kelleys’ book Improv Ideas — also published by Meriwether Publishing — with my own twist on each.  They both were very successful.

Prop Freeze
(Improv Ideas page 124)

After dividing the class into 6 groups of 6, I gave each group a prop.  I had some wonderful items from my kitchen.  The only caveat was that they couldn’t use any pictures depicting a kitchen and/or the utensil as it was intended.  They had about five minutes to come up with three frozen pictures using the item in three different ways.  One of the best was a gravy whisk used as a branding iron!  We made the local paper on January 1 with zombies being attacked by a frosting spatula! (Pictured above.) 

Suspense
(Improv Ideas page 146)

We had about six minutes left so I kept them in the same groups, handed them 5 cards with sounds effects written on them (see a partial list below), gave them 2 minutes to create a one-minute story using any two of the sound effects, making the sounds with their voices and/or anything they could find in the room, as well as dialogue. As each group performed, we all closed our eyes and listened. Someone always guessed what the story was about.

The most amazing thing about this “class” was that when they entered they were strangers, but by the end, they were friends, working together, all participating. It was so rewarding.  I think they had a great time too — we all laughed and clapped … a lot!       

Sound Effects
Applause, Baby crying, Baby laughing, Battle, Bears growling, Birds chirping, Blizzard, Car chase, Car crash, Car horn, Chairs scraping, Church clock striking, Clock ticking, Gunfight, Heartbeat, Heavy breathing, Horse neigh, Knife being sharpened, Laughing, Rocket launch, Screaming seagulls, Series of explosions, Sink draining, Snoring, Swarm of bees, Taps, Whimpering, Wolves howling, Wooden gate creaking