Games

Accept

The most important rule of improvisation is: accept offers of players. Rejecting automatically stops, disrupts, or impedes every improvis...

Action and Reaction

The principle of action and reaction means that an actor who is in dialogue and/or in another (pantomime) interaction with another actor ...

Actor’s Nightmare

Introduction In this scene one actor will read all her lines from a script, while the other actor must justify those lines and a scene w...

Acts of god

Two to Four players start a neutral scene. Additional players may be on the bench(es). One player is god. God periodically freezes the sc...

Advance and Expand

Introduction This exercise focuses on raising the stakes and exploration of the environment. Please set up a scene. Description The pl...

Anette, the nice one

Anette, the nice one, is an incredibly friendly person who goes for a walk with her pet. Again and again she meets people who have little...

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...

apartment building

The form apartment building all the scenes within a house play in different apartments. In these three to four storylines, stories with s...

Attitude

In improvisational theater attitude can have several meanings. An attitude, a personal opinion, or a feeling about something: a personal...

Authenticity

Authenticity related to people means that the action of a person is not determined by external factors, but is due to the person himself/...

Award ceremony

A game for 3 players and more. A player goes on stage and calls a player B to the stage. For player B he defines a character, a quirk/ti...

Before or after

In this game, the audience directs indirectly by making decisions. 2 or more players play a free starting scene. After the scene the au...

Bench takeover

The park bench is the ultimate test for any improviser. Two worlds collide here: the pure openness of the person sitting and the creative...

Biographical song

The moderator asks an audience member to enter the stage. This person may sit on a chair. Some biographical data such as name, hobby, fav...

Boris

Scene for 3 actors. There is a commissioner who has to solve a crime. There is a secretary who gives hidden clues and a defendant who ha...

Camp Fire

Basics Campfire is a narrative long form. It belongs to the horror stories genre. The stories are based on tales from the audience. Camp...

Character

The character in improv theater is the represented fictional being that does not exist in reality. This being can be a human or animal or...

Character exercise (character switch)

All go through the room, each with a certain character. Whenever you meet, you speak two sentences together, and the character is slowly ...

Conflict

It is often the conflict that makes a scene interesting. For example, when the room is set up and the routines are established, thus th...

Countdown

Actors any number Suggestions variable, often a location, conflict, possibly characters/quirks, or none Premise With or without suggest...

Customer Service

Actors 2 or more Suggestions object, what's wrong with it, and a celebrity who previously owned it Premise One actor serves as a cus...

Cut and paste

The players play a normal scene, based on the suggestion of the audience. At any time, the moderator can call "Cut" to remove ("cut out")...

Dubbed commercial

A person is seated aside from the stage and from the other players on stage. 2 players (or 3 or even more) now play the sellers of a tel...

Dutch Square

In the game Dutch Square there are four players on the stage where a scene is always played by only two together. These two stand in fron...

Emotional Fruit Salad

Video example Improv Warm-Ups : Improv Warm-Ups: Emotional Fruit Salad

Emotional replay

A short scene is played by two to three players with a pretence of an everyday plot (or something else). This is then repeated two or th...

Emotional Workplace

Three actors are playing at working places given by the audience. Each player gets a related feeling. Example: Player A has sadness as ...

Fairytale Replay

A well known fairytale from the spectators will be used as a guideline. This tale is then played briefly in a neutral scene. Then the fa...

Family Dinner

A game where audience members can be involved. Get an audience member to describe several members of their family. Do a scene about a di...

From the viewpoint of

A replay game, with 3 players. One starts with a neutral scene. When these end, they will be reviewed from the point of view of one of th...

Genre replay

Genre replay is one of the most popular games at improv theater. First an arbitrary suggestion (e. g. an everyday action) is taken from t...

Gossip

Gossip means that a player talks about something that is taking place or has taken place elsewhere. No interactions takes place. Example...

Growing and shrinking

The first player establishes and plays a scene alone. A second player comes in, establishes and plays a completely new scene with the oth...

Guess status

In this exercise, the expression of a status is practiced and one gets feedback whether the others have actually perceived the status as ...

Help!

2-4 players improvise a scene according to any guideline. The rest of the players look on and hold themselves ready. Whenever a player fe...

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...

Hobbies

Hobbies approach manias, but are not quite so obsessive. Example: Passionate Angler (talks about fishing rods constantly, is busy with i...

Horoscope

The moderator asks for a zodiac sign and then reads the current horoscope prediction from a magazine. The players then play a scene in wh...

Job Center

A player leaves the room. The public is asked to name an extraordinary profession. The player is invited back in, sits behind his desk an...

La Ronde

The Round Dance follows the model of the same name from Arthur Schnitzler. In this play, different characters appear on the stage one aft...

Living Scenery

Another funny, silly shortform game. The host asks for a suggestion of a situation or a daily routine at a location. Two players then ac...

Long Form

Long forms are more or less closely connected sequences of scenes, usually from 20 to 45 minutes in length, but also full-length formats ...

Marriage Guidance

A game for three players. One player is the therapist, the other players are the couple for treatment. The first couple is sent out and t...

Multiple personalities

Silly, funny little shortform game. Played by 3 players. The host asks the audience to hand over three props. Then the host ask for a su...

Music-Café

The director asks the audience for the name of the cafe. In this café 3 or 4 players gather and talk about this and that. As soon as the...

Old Job - New Job

Ask for two professions that have nothing to do with one another. Someone in the scene plays a character that is now doing the second job...

One for all

An improv game for 3 (or more) players. *First of all, a normal free improv scene is played. It is important that in this scene there i...

Opposites

Opposites among the characters are helpful for a scene's success. From opposites can easily arise "friction", it can by itself easily dev...

Pan Right - Pan Left

Pan Right / Pan Left Players: 4 – 8 (Can be played with any number of players, but should be played with two evenly sized teams in shows)...

Party Quirks

Time: 10 Minutes Number of Participants: Best in groups of 4 or 5 Required Equipment: The only equipment needed are pieces my paper wit...

Pecking Order

An exercise i.e. a game for three players. The players form a hierarchy (A has the highest status, B the middle, C the lowest). It's gove...

Peculiar neighbor

The players stand in a circle. In turn, each one respectively turns to his neighbor and says anything unusual/absurd /incredible that wil...

People Watching

This is best explained by an example involving players A, B, and C. A waits for B and C to leave before asking for a suggestion. A ask...

Poets with Feeling

Three or four players are involved. The moderator asks the audience to provide a random sentence. Additionally, he lets each of the three...

Pootie Tang

3 players play out a scene. 1 person is Pootie Tang and speaks only in gibberish (a.k.a. Gromolo). The other two players must act as tho...

Potpourri

Any scene with any guideline will be played The catch is: the moderator interrupts repeatedly and demands a decision about the show. Ther...

Presence

Presence means the active Charisma of a person on the stage perceived and felt by the audience, it is present as a person for the viewers...

Press Conference

One player A leaves the room / venue. The host asks the audience for a famous person or character and an announcement this character has ...

Prison visitor

A musical game. The host asks for two suggestions: a country (where the one player is in prison) and a crime the player committed. The ...

Puppets

Two actors stand motionless on the stage and are controlled by two people from the audience. Among other things, they have to respect tha...

Quintet

At first five different scenes are played. The audience then decides on one of these scenes to be removed. The remaining four scenes cont...

Radio Mix

The players stand in a line in front of the spectators. Each player is assigned a radio station. Now, the channels (players) change...

Reclamation

One player goes outside. The public chooses an object that he must return to a store because it is broken, he doesn't like it or somethin...

Replay of the high arts

Neutral scene, ask for can be a place, an object or a relationship . Scene is repeated. Peculiarity: it is spoken in rhymes. Scene is ...

Revolving Door

A game for 4-5 players. A player stands in the center and will quickly exchange places with where the other players started. The player ...

Role reversal

Role reversal is a game for two or three players At the interjection, players must exchange roles among one another. Player A takes the p...

Roller Coaster

Before the scene begins, the audience is asked for feelings or genres. The emcee makes sure that there are enough positive and negative f...

Scene with a wall

There are four players involved in this game, representing two persons. In the middle of the stage there is a wall. Two players will alw...

Silent post

The gamemaster and two players are in the room Player A gets now a guideline and has to improvise a monologue straight away. Player B wa...

Sing a dialogue

A teams of two players starts a dialogue about something (weather, everyday life...) After a short time the music begins and the 2 player...

Stage Directions

Players 3+ Rules Players perform an ordinary scene based on an audience suggestion. A player outside of the scene will occasionally in...

Status Battle

A status battle is when two players fight as part of their playing to the higher or lower status. Status fights must be played finely and...

Step by step

On the floor 9 cards are distributed in 3 x 3 rows at the same distance. Two players place themselves on each one of the notes. Principle...

Story Solo

One player stands in front of 4-5 players who are sitting with they backs to the public. The main player starts telling a story for a cou...

Superscene

Three to five people can take part in this game. Each of the players is responsible for one of the stories, as its director. He introduce...

Swinging Pendulum of Death

Actors 3 Suggestions 3 locations, 3 conflicts, 3 characters Premise This game is complicated but can be extremely entertaining if do...

Synchro Replay

First, a base scene is played by 2 to 3 players. The same number of players goes out the door and does not see this scene. Then the playe...

Talk at touch

A scene is played by two players, if necessary with input from the audience. However, it is only allowed to speak if one player touches ...

Talking animals

The players receive a species of animal from the audience. Then they play a scene in which they both play the part of this animal. (F...

Taxi Drive

Four chairs stand in a square and form a taxi. In the beginning there are three actors sitting in that taxi. Player A is sitting in front...

The Butterfly Effect

a modification of anti-freeze tag where the plot* begins by going in reverse chronological order and then the first scene (in terms of st...

The central theme

A real object from the audience is placed on a stage. The object is really the object it is. This object specifies the location of the fi...

The Conscience

Two players start a normal scene. Whenever it fits in the further course of the scene, two other players speak now the conscience of the ...

The Evil Twin

The moderator provides a relationship between two people or an activity. Two players begin to act out the scene. The scene can be stopped...

The Excuse

One of the Improv-players must leave the room for a short time. In the meantime, the audience  decides on a reason why the player wa...

The hitch-hiker

Two players sit next to each other in a car. One drives, the other is a passenger. Then they see a hitch-hiker standing by the side of th...

The Milano

The Milano, composed and first played by the Belgian improvgroup; Salamie. It is a composition which contains 4 existing formats (games, ...

The seven year itch

The play comes from Doug Nunn and is a type of long form. It is best played with 3 women and three men + a presenter, and it takes about ...

The strict Boss

Three actors sit side-by-side on three chairs. The boss sits in the middle, his subordinates sit on the left and the right. The boss is n...

The Talkshow

There are 2 main types of Talkshows. The "serious discussion" type programmes, which generally go out evenings (experts/politicians di...

The Voice

The Little Voice This improv game is all about interacting with the invisible. One player acts in a scene while one or more fellow playe...

Three dead characters

Three (or four) players stand in a row on the stage and the host asks the audience for a type of death for each of them. The players now ...

Three Rules

The moderator asks for three personal rules for the players in the scene to observe. For example, that they have only one arm, may not...

Three Way Dubbing

Synonyms Cross dubbing Introduction In this scene there will be three characters, and each of the character’s voices will be supplied ...

Time travel

We will first present a simple neutral scene that is based on a suggestion from the audience. Then we will see a series of scenes that le...

Traffic light

In this exercise the players can train perception, walking, encounter, status, posture and character. Game idea: The typical and well-kn...

Translator

A player is on the vacation in Gromololand. He complains to a hotel employee about something bad in his hotel room. Because the hotel emp...

Trizophrenia

A game for four players. However, only two people at a time play it on the stage. One of the two is a trizophren. That means he has mult...

Typewriter

The title of a book that does not yet exist is queried. One of the players is the narrator. He is located at the edge of the stage. He si...

What's on TV?

Quick, change of scene based improv game. Audience have control of 'TV' - two characters to represent the media on TV. Audience can 'chan...

Word replay

First, as with all replay games, a free scene is played. Make sure that the players make a lot of speeches and long sentences. In the fir...

Words that change the world

"Words that change the world" is a long form. At the beginning the audience can be asked for a place where the story begins. The audience...