"The genius of our country is improvisation!"
Ken Burns
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The Importance of Thinking on your Feet!
An Open Mind Like An Open Door Leads to Great Opportunities!
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Improv Activities!
Tonight's Agenda!
I. Welcome / Video Intro /Door Activity II. Clutch! / Get a handle!/ Unravel III. Circular Directions! Sound Ball! IV. Word Play! (Visit) V. What are you doing? VI. Re-Gift it! VII. BackWORDS! VIII. Train Station IX. Occupation! Object! Location! X. Change it! (Sentence Generator) XI. Informercials XII. Think About it! (Visit) XIII. Sit/Stand/Lean This game is pretty simple. You'll need three people and something to sit on. Someone picks a scene and the three people go through the scene, except that one person always has to be sitting, another standing, and another leaning. So when one person changes position, they all have to change position.
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Improv activities for design thinking
0. Yes, BUT... vs. Yes, AND: Have people form pairs or small groups (3-4) and tell them they are going to plan an activity (a trip, a party). The first round, every time someone proposes an idea, someone else should answer with "Yes, BUT...(reason why that is not going to work)". On the second round, the response should be "Yes, AND... (add something that builds on the first idea)". Debrief about the group energy and what kind of ideas came out in each round.
1. Alphabet. Everyone stands in a circle. The goal is to recite the alphabet one person at a time, in no particular order. The catch is that if two (or more) people say the same letter at the same time, you have to start over from "A". It makes everyone be very aware of everyone else in the group. You have to really concentrate and look at everyone to make the decision of whether to chime in with the next letter.
2. Sound ball: Passing an invisible ball making a sound to someone in the circle, that person catches the ball making the same sound and then passes it to someone else making a different sound). You may introduce a second sound ball at some point.
3. People to people: people walk around at random until the organizer says "people to people"; then you lock one arm with whoever is next to you at that moment. Then the organizer mentions two body parts, for instance "elbow to toe". The 2 people have to touch their elbow with the other person toe and freeze in that position. Break and repeat. You can also do it with 3 or 4 people at a time.
4. Machine: One person begins a repetitive movement and a sound that goes along with it. The second person has to do a repetitive movement and sound that somehow connects to the first person. One by one, all students add to the “machine”, creating a huge apparatus and symphony of sounds. You can make for instance a "peanut butter and jelly sandwich-making machine" :) The leader can slow the pace down or speed up until the machine disintegrates to end the activity.
5. Word-at-a-time
(i) A group of 4-5 students sits facing the rest of the class. They are collectively playing one character, who is a guest on a talk show. One person (facilitator) is the “talk show host” interviewing this character. The audience suggests a profession or expertise for the character (i.e. professional scuba diver, foot surgeon, astronaut, mother of 20 children, etc.). The facilitator asks questions and the “guest” has to answer one word at a time. Each of the 4-5 people adds a word, creating word by word an answer to the question. The audience can also ask questions of the “talk show guest.”
(ii) In a circle, people say one word at a time; when the group feels the idea/sentence is complete they put their hands together and say "yes, yes, yessss" (see Liz Gerber's article).
6. Growing and shrinking scene: One student acts out a scene in the middle of the room (for example, pretend he/she is fishing). At one point, the facilitator calls "freeze!" and a second person comes in, creating a different scene based on the position of the first person. At "freeze!", a third person comes in and changes the scene again. This process can then be reversed and have people leave, returning to the previous scene, until there's only the initial person left.
7. Freeze!: people walk around the room paying attention to others; when someone sees a person freeze (they get to freeze whenever they want), they freeze too (variation: you have to freeze in same position; how fast can we get the group to react?).
8. The enemy/damsel in distress and the superhero/evil mastermind: People walk around the room briskly, without a particular direction. The leader tells people to identify one person (person A), without that person realizing. That person will be their worst enemy. Repeat, and the next identified person -B- will be their superhero. When people resume walking this time, their goal is to be protected from their enemy by their superhero, that is, to be in between the two at all times. When the leader yells freeze and asks how many people met the goal, and to point at the two selected people. The end. Variation: person A is the damsel in distress and B is the evil mastermind. The goal is to be protecting A at all times.
9. The equilateral triangle: same mechanic as # 8, but the end goal is to form at all times an equilateral triangle between you and the other 2 people you identified.
10. Naming frenzy: Do a, b, c in sequence:
a. everyone walks around the room, pointing at things ("do not point at people") and naming them out loud.
b. same as a, but starting with the floor and naming it "floor"; then the next thing you point at you name it "floor" and the next thing you name it the name of the previous thing. If you get stuck, point at the floor and start over.
c. same as a, but when pointing at things, call them anything but what they are (doesn't matter if what comes out of your mouth makes no sense or is not even a word; "speak before thinking"). And "point emphatically, with your whole body".
After this you may debrief and ask if they are more aware of the room, if the rooms looks brighter, etc.
11. String of pearls: One person stands and tells the first line in a story (anything). The second person stands at the opposite end and tells the end of the story. Now people fill in at any point in between the two ends and complete another part of the story. Each time a 'new pearl' enters the chain, everyone in line repeats their line in the order in which they are standing, until the story is completed (ie, there is no more people left).
12. Body movement evolution: in a circle, someone makes a movement and sound (something like a twitch); the next person imitates, incorporating whatever "mistakes" the person made in copying the previous movement. This can go on for as long as you want around the circle.
13. Rock, Paper, Scissors War: Starting in pairs, people play rock, paper, scissors with one another. The winner moves on, the loser, becomes the winners "biggest fan." By the end the two people will play for the title each with a massive cheering section.
14. Shake and Unravel: The first goal is to meet as many people as possible. You meet by shaking hands. In this game, you cannot stop shaking hands with one person until you start shaking hands with another person. At some point during the game, call out "stick" which means that they can no longer let go of anyone's hand (explain this point while giving the original instructions). Have the group continue for a few seconds until everyone is holding two separate peoples' hands. Pause the game and inform them that they have just created a human knot, and that they must untangle themselves.
0. Yes, BUT... vs. Yes, AND: Have people form pairs or small groups (3-4) and tell them they are going to plan an activity (a trip, a party). The first round, every time someone proposes an idea, someone else should answer with "Yes, BUT...(reason why that is not going to work)". On the second round, the response should be "Yes, AND... (add something that builds on the first idea)". Debrief about the group energy and what kind of ideas came out in each round.
1. Alphabet. Everyone stands in a circle. The goal is to recite the alphabet one person at a time, in no particular order. The catch is that if two (or more) people say the same letter at the same time, you have to start over from "A". It makes everyone be very aware of everyone else in the group. You have to really concentrate and look at everyone to make the decision of whether to chime in with the next letter.
2. Sound ball: Passing an invisible ball making a sound to someone in the circle, that person catches the ball making the same sound and then passes it to someone else making a different sound). You may introduce a second sound ball at some point.
3. People to people: people walk around at random until the organizer says "people to people"; then you lock one arm with whoever is next to you at that moment. Then the organizer mentions two body parts, for instance "elbow to toe". The 2 people have to touch their elbow with the other person toe and freeze in that position. Break and repeat. You can also do it with 3 or 4 people at a time.
4. Machine: One person begins a repetitive movement and a sound that goes along with it. The second person has to do a repetitive movement and sound that somehow connects to the first person. One by one, all students add to the “machine”, creating a huge apparatus and symphony of sounds. You can make for instance a "peanut butter and jelly sandwich-making machine" :) The leader can slow the pace down or speed up until the machine disintegrates to end the activity.
5. Word-at-a-time
(i) A group of 4-5 students sits facing the rest of the class. They are collectively playing one character, who is a guest on a talk show. One person (facilitator) is the “talk show host” interviewing this character. The audience suggests a profession or expertise for the character (i.e. professional scuba diver, foot surgeon, astronaut, mother of 20 children, etc.). The facilitator asks questions and the “guest” has to answer one word at a time. Each of the 4-5 people adds a word, creating word by word an answer to the question. The audience can also ask questions of the “talk show guest.”
(ii) In a circle, people say one word at a time; when the group feels the idea/sentence is complete they put their hands together and say "yes, yes, yessss" (see Liz Gerber's article).
6. Growing and shrinking scene: One student acts out a scene in the middle of the room (for example, pretend he/she is fishing). At one point, the facilitator calls "freeze!" and a second person comes in, creating a different scene based on the position of the first person. At "freeze!", a third person comes in and changes the scene again. This process can then be reversed and have people leave, returning to the previous scene, until there's only the initial person left.
7. Freeze!: people walk around the room paying attention to others; when someone sees a person freeze (they get to freeze whenever they want), they freeze too (variation: you have to freeze in same position; how fast can we get the group to react?).
8. The enemy/damsel in distress and the superhero/evil mastermind: People walk around the room briskly, without a particular direction. The leader tells people to identify one person (person A), without that person realizing. That person will be their worst enemy. Repeat, and the next identified person -B- will be their superhero. When people resume walking this time, their goal is to be protected from their enemy by their superhero, that is, to be in between the two at all times. When the leader yells freeze and asks how many people met the goal, and to point at the two selected people. The end. Variation: person A is the damsel in distress and B is the evil mastermind. The goal is to be protecting A at all times.
9. The equilateral triangle: same mechanic as # 8, but the end goal is to form at all times an equilateral triangle between you and the other 2 people you identified.
10. Naming frenzy: Do a, b, c in sequence:
a. everyone walks around the room, pointing at things ("do not point at people") and naming them out loud.
b. same as a, but starting with the floor and naming it "floor"; then the next thing you point at you name it "floor" and the next thing you name it the name of the previous thing. If you get stuck, point at the floor and start over.
c. same as a, but when pointing at things, call them anything but what they are (doesn't matter if what comes out of your mouth makes no sense or is not even a word; "speak before thinking"). And "point emphatically, with your whole body".
After this you may debrief and ask if they are more aware of the room, if the rooms looks brighter, etc.
11. String of pearls: One person stands and tells the first line in a story (anything). The second person stands at the opposite end and tells the end of the story. Now people fill in at any point in between the two ends and complete another part of the story. Each time a 'new pearl' enters the chain, everyone in line repeats their line in the order in which they are standing, until the story is completed (ie, there is no more people left).
12. Body movement evolution: in a circle, someone makes a movement and sound (something like a twitch); the next person imitates, incorporating whatever "mistakes" the person made in copying the previous movement. This can go on for as long as you want around the circle.
13. Rock, Paper, Scissors War: Starting in pairs, people play rock, paper, scissors with one another. The winner moves on, the loser, becomes the winners "biggest fan." By the end the two people will play for the title each with a massive cheering section.
14. Shake and Unravel: The first goal is to meet as many people as possible. You meet by shaking hands. In this game, you cannot stop shaking hands with one person until you start shaking hands with another person. At some point during the game, call out "stick" which means that they can no longer let go of anyone's hand (explain this point while giving the original instructions). Have the group continue for a few seconds until everyone is holding two separate peoples' hands. Pause the game and inform them that they have just created a human knot, and that they must untangle themselves.
The Rules of the Improv!
1) Always Accept! (Don't Deny!)
Denial is the number one reason most scenes go bad. Any time you refuse an Offer made by your partner your scene will almost instantly come to a grinding halt. Example: Player A) "Hi, my name is Jim. Welcome to my store." Player B) "This isn't a store, it's an airplane. And you're not Jim, you're an antelope."
2) Don't ask open ended Questions
Open ended questions (like "Who are you?") are scene killers because they force your partner to stop whatever they are doing and come up with an answer. When you ask your partner and open ended question, you put the burden of coming up with something "interesting" on your partner - so you are no longer doing a scene together but forcing one person has to do more work than you are willing to do.
3) You don't have to be funny.
The hidden riddle of improv is that the harder you try not to be funny the more funny your scene is going to be. Why? Because it's the very best kind of improv scene you can do is an "interesting" scene, not necessarily a "funny" one. When you do an interesting scene, a very surprising thing happens… the funny comes out all by it's self.
The best ways to go are to stick to your character, stick to the story that is being told, and to stay within the reality of the scene you are playing.
4) You can look good if you make your partner look good.
When you are in a scene, the better you make your partner look the better the scene is going to be and, as a direct result, the better you are going to look. All too often, I've seen players enter a scene and I can just tell they have some really great idea about the character they are going to play or an idea they want to do. This is wonderful, but guess what? Your partner probably has absolutely no idea what's cooking in your evil little mind, and so has no idea how to react. And no matter how brilliant your idea might be, it's practically worthless if the scene as a whole goes bad.
5) Tell a story.
Storytelling is probably the easiest rule to remember but the hardest one to do. The real magic of improv is when we see the players take totally random suggestions (like a plumber and a cab driver selling shoes in a leper colony ) and somehow "make it work". If all these unrelated elements are going to come together then it's going to happen in the course of an interesting tale. So that's just what the players are going to try and do, tell us all a story.
Denial is the number one reason most scenes go bad. Any time you refuse an Offer made by your partner your scene will almost instantly come to a grinding halt. Example: Player A) "Hi, my name is Jim. Welcome to my store." Player B) "This isn't a store, it's an airplane. And you're not Jim, you're an antelope."
2) Don't ask open ended Questions
Open ended questions (like "Who are you?") are scene killers because they force your partner to stop whatever they are doing and come up with an answer. When you ask your partner and open ended question, you put the burden of coming up with something "interesting" on your partner - so you are no longer doing a scene together but forcing one person has to do more work than you are willing to do.
3) You don't have to be funny.
The hidden riddle of improv is that the harder you try not to be funny the more funny your scene is going to be. Why? Because it's the very best kind of improv scene you can do is an "interesting" scene, not necessarily a "funny" one. When you do an interesting scene, a very surprising thing happens… the funny comes out all by it's self.
The best ways to go are to stick to your character, stick to the story that is being told, and to stay within the reality of the scene you are playing.
4) You can look good if you make your partner look good.
When you are in a scene, the better you make your partner look the better the scene is going to be and, as a direct result, the better you are going to look. All too often, I've seen players enter a scene and I can just tell they have some really great idea about the character they are going to play or an idea they want to do. This is wonderful, but guess what? Your partner probably has absolutely no idea what's cooking in your evil little mind, and so has no idea how to react. And no matter how brilliant your idea might be, it's practically worthless if the scene as a whole goes bad.
5) Tell a story.
Storytelling is probably the easiest rule to remember but the hardest one to do. The real magic of improv is when we see the players take totally random suggestions (like a plumber and a cab driver selling shoes in a leper colony ) and somehow "make it work". If all these unrelated elements are going to come together then it's going to happen in the course of an interesting tale. So that's just what the players are going to try and do, tell us all a story.
