The Breath Improvisation

Purpose of the Activity This is another strange and wonderfully minimalist exercise. Minimalist improvisation really can create a non-verbal experience of improvisation in its most essential form. This is an example of a minimalist improvisation activity that can be enacted at almost any stage of an improvisation workshop or event. It is also very good…

Improvisational Anchors

The following practical ideas for improvisation activities arose from a group discussion at an organisational theatre workshop. I still find them very relevant for activity design today… The question put to the group was: How do we avoid improvisations going completely off into chaos and “over the top” to the point of confusion? We played…

Climbing down towards Naturalism – a quirky workshop activity to find the right level

Purpose of the Activity This is a very good exercise for finding a natural style of acting or performance. It’s also a very good exercise for looking at how naturalism can arise out of more extrovert forms of performance, and also how to can have its own unique power both as an acting style and…

Dance of Breathing 1 – a pure improvisation activity

Purpose of the Activity In this activity we focus on the very basic/even primal aspect of breathing, and begin to relate it to being “present”, to “presence” and to improvisation. It’s an activity to be done individually, can also be done alone, and I recommend plenty of time for detailed after-activity reflection and discussion. The…

Crystal Ball – an exercise in present and future improvisation

Purpose of the activity This is a lovely game for exploring the role of “visioning” and “futuring” in improvisation. When is knowing or deciding the future a help or a hindrance? Process Start with a group of five, with everyone else watching. Decide a scene to be played out. For example, a picnic. Choose someone…

The Danger of Games in Improvisation

The difficulty I have with the “games” is how attached some people have become to them, especially in, of all fields, improvisation. Games are often used to “warm up” and “loosen up” for improvisation performance. They are used a lot in training and workshops. Let’s take a look at the process of play, which lies…

A fundamental idea that underpins Improvisation

When we become too “haunted” or influenced by our past – our habits and learned attitudes and behaviours can become standardised responses to present situations, and also the way we imagine the future. These standardised responses often have, at their basis, a motive to keep us physically, emotionally and/or spiritually “safe”. The past can therefore…

The Graveyard Activity

Overview of the activity This is a powerful activity that can be used to explore career, personal development and biography. It takes many people into a zone of discomfort, a topic that they may not want to explore, so should be taken with this activity. We should be sensitive in choosing it and also throughout…

The One Word Essence Game

An activity from a workshop on “Living your Impossible Dreams”, Brighton 2009 We searched for a word, a single word that captured the essence of what is good in our life at the moment. It was not an easy task to fulfil! We then spent a good hour taking turns to explain our word to…

Climbing down towards Naturalism – a quirky workshop activity to find the right level

Overview This is a very good exercise for finding a natural style of acting or performance. It’s also a very good exercise for looking at how naturalism can arise out of more extrovert forms of performance, and also how to can have its own unique power both as an acting style and also as a…

Exploring Resonance – An Activity

Overview This activity explores the notion of resonance in improvisation. It is a very helpful activity for doing physical theatre work that is based around inter-personal dynamics. In an applied setting it can explore agreement/disagreement and the notion of affinity in vision and values and also in terms of decision making and leadership. It’s a…

Aftermath – an exercise for exploring a difficult organisational or business change

        Purpose of the Activity This is a simple and respectful applied improvisation  exercise for helping a group to begin to come to terms with a difficult change. In essence, it is based on the idea that speaking words in a group, in a collective activity, can be the start of a…