Improv Exercises
Here you can find a collection of exercises for improv theatre. These exercises are intended to train specific aspects and skills in a targeted manner. The transition from exercises to games is fluid. What is still an exercise for one, the other brings as a game on stage. Please do not take over the individual exercises blindly, but think about the goals and intentions of each exercise.
Categories
Experience
Energy
Competences
After the Catastrophe
Two players sit at an angle, visible to each other and the audience. Their task: without speaking, using only facial expressions and gest...
An illustration
In this game, two or three players are involved. So the game begins with a member of the audience go on the stage, and a second or thi...
Ball Metamorphosis
Players stand in a circle throwing an imaginary ball to each other. Before each throw, the ball changes character — it might be heavy, sl...
Boing Wush Zwong
Each player invents three comic words with matching gestures. They walk around introducing themselves with their new name. Once everyone ...
Building Images
Players walk around the room. The facilitator calls out objects or locations. Players immediately form the given thing using their bodies...
Choreography Exercise
Players arrange themselves in a diamond formation facing the audience. The front player leads movements — everyone behind mirrors them. W...
Dancing with Light Point
A partner exercise. The leader guides the dancer by the outstretched hand. The dancer stays mostly in place but follows the hand's direct...
Develop a Person
Players walk through the room. When the facilitator says 'stop', everyone freezes. The facilitator asks individual players: 'Who are you?...
Developing a Character
Players walk through the room and imagine a person — their age, profession, worries, habits. They begin moving as that person would. The...
Distance Fight
Two players face each other at a safe distance. One attacks using fists, feet, head, shoulders — always from a safe distance. The defende...
Emotions by Cards
Three players each receive a card with a different emotion. On a signal, all three simultaneously display their emotion using only facial...
Empty Lungs
Players breathe in deeply and then walk through the room while continuously exhaling with a toneless 'shh' sound. They keep walking and e...
Enjoying Food and Drink
This exercise trains how to eat and drink on stage through pantomime. How do you eat an apple hungrily? Cherries elegantly? A banana sed...
Facial Expressions
All walk through the room. The facilitator names a facial feature — nose, ears, forehead, eyes, mouth, cheeks, tongue. Everyone moves tha...
Fake Crying
A technique exercise: do not blink for as long as possible, then blink once and repeat. The eyes naturally begin to water, producing real...
Fast Food Laban
An exercise for developing characters based on movement types, inspired by Rudolf von Laban's movement studies. Players explore combinat...
Following Movement Impulses
Players lie relaxed on the floor with eyes closed. They tune into their body and follow any movement impulse — a twitch, an urge to stret...
Gentle Manipulation
A listening exercise for tuning in to your scene partner. Player A leaves the room. The others decide on an action (e.g. washing a car, ...
Guess the Expression
Player A kneels behind a chair so only their head is visible. The facilitator whispers emotions to A, who expresses them using only facia...
Guess the Status
Players embody a status level from 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest) and perform a short scene or solo. The audience guesses the number. This e...
Held Still Then Walk
A quiet body awareness exercise. Players walk through the room, then form pairs of similar height. In each pair, one stands behind the o...
He said, she said
Each player describes the action of their partner. Ex: player 1, "I'd like to talk to you, Mabel." Player 2, "He said, standing up and pu...
I Am a Tree
A popular exercise perfect for beginners. Players stand around the stage area. One enters, strikes a pose, and declares what they are: 'I...
King
One player is King, sitting on a throne. The King commands what emotions the other players must display. Players step forward one at a ti...
Leading and Following
One player walks through the room installing imaginary obstacles — a thorn bush, a chasm, a low ceiling. They show pantomimically what ea...
Leading Body Part
Players walk through the room. The facilitator names a body part — pelvis, left shoulder, forehead, right knee, belly. Players let that b...
Loud-Silent Game
Emotions are often accompanied by sounds. A surprised person says 'Ooh!' A disgusted person says 'Eww!' Players practice these basic voc...
Machine
The audience suggests a crazy machine that does not exist. Players build it one by one — each becoming a moving part with a repeated soun...
Make It Bigger
A player begins a scene. When the facilitator claps, the player must freeze and continue doing exactly what they were doing at that momen...
Making Routines More Interesting
This exercise trains staying present in a mundane action without planning ahead. A player performs a routine activity (brushing teeth, m...
Mirror Faces
Player A faces the group in a semicircle. Everyone mirrors A's facial expressions as precisely as possible. Variant a) Mirror exactly. V...
Movement Impulse Through Touch
Players form pairs. One stands with closed eyes. The other gently taps various body parts. At each touch, the standing player responds by...
Multitasking
Three players: A stands in the center. B stands in front doing slow upper body movements. C does slow lower body movements. A must mirror...
Name Dialogue
Two players each receive a name from the audience. In the following scene, each player may only say the other's name — no other words all...
Online Association Game
Player A says a word. Player B associates a word and says it aloud. Player C writes their association to A's original word in the chat. P...
Picking Gifts
Players stand in a circle. One begins by plucking an imaginary object from the air. They hold it in a specific way and present it as a gi...
Redefining Objects Through Pantomime
A real object (a shoe, ball, or hat) must be redefined through pantomime so that its new meaning becomes quickly recognizable — all witho...
Robot
Players pair up. Player A sculpts Player B into a statue, then 'switches on' the robot with a button press. B becomes a robot performing...
Room Installation
Players form pairs. The first player prepares a kitchen for a party, pantomiming tables, chairs, cupboards, sink, dishes — installing eve...
Setting Up a Room
The first player enters through an imaginary door and begins using a pantomimed object — perhaps a coffee machine. The next player enters...
Slow Motion Fight
Players perform a pantomime fight in slow motion. Gestures and facial expressions are expansive and exaggerated. Both players must give ...
Slow-motion Rumble
The players are having a pantomimic brawl in slow motion. The gestures and facial expressions are expansive and often a little exaggerate...
Spy (The Burglar)
A solo exercise for playing the space. The player enters a room (the stage) as a spy or burglar, carefully exploring the environment thro...
Statue Scene Start
A preparatory exercise for freeze tag. Players form pairs. One sculpts the other into a random statue. The statue then starts a scene fro...
Status Topping
A playing area is defined. The facilitator should monitor solvability. Players enter one at a time, each establishing a higher status tha...
Steal the Hat
Deux joueurs ou plus sont sur scène et développent une scène simple. Chaque joueur porte un chapeau. L'objectif des joueurs est de voler ...
Steal the Hat
Two or more players develop a scene on stage. Each wears a hat. The goal is to steal the other players' hats during the scene. A player ...
Thank You
Player A takes a pose on stage. Player B enters and takes a complementary pose that gives A's position meaning. A says 'Thank you', exits...
The Inner Animal
The facilitator writes different animal species on slips of paper. Players draw one secretly. Their task is to imagine the essence of thi...
The Sleeping Person
A sleeping person lies in the center of the room. One or more players position themselves around the sleeper. Their task is to approach t...
Using Objects and Space
Two players participate. Five slips of paper are distributed around the room, each naming a typical object found in a room. The players p...
What Are You Doing
Two players on stage. A asks B: 'What are you doing?' B names an activity: 'I am harvesting potatoes.' A then does exactly that. A asks ...
Yes Exactly And Then
An exercise for two players. Both experienced something together and tell the story while acting it out. They stand shoulder to shoulder,...
Zoom and Emotion
Player A acts on stage while Player B sits at the side. After a prompt, A narrates a typical daily routine (e.g. morning after waking up)...