TaPS MASTER CLASS RESOURCE PACK: Ensemble Improvisation Exercises
TaPS Master Class Resource Pack
Master Class: Ensemble Improvisation Exercises
Introduction
Try, as much as possible, to challenge and develop the exercise into an
improvisation in some form or another. Push the exercises, push the students, but donʼt
stop them. Add one exercise to another or several together to develop further. Challenge
the students to find news things and not just stop. When you or they find a good idea,
donʼt stop; develop it further.
Allow them sixty-second brainstorms, without the teacher and then explain it. Add
situation, character and action to the good ideas and develop further. Use & link these
EXC to work/rehearsals/productions being worked on elsewhere. Link your work to these
ideas. Use them to warm up your group & characters, to develop a scene, dialogue and
to create good positive feelings within the group. You might need to adapt them
depending on the group size.
Benefits of ensemble improvisation exercises
Positive impact on awareness of others; special awareness; team building; voice
& body; working together; letting go of inhibitions; relaxing; working fast & creatively;
independence; rhythm; pace; anticipation; creating tension; developing control;
understanding yourself; sharing yourself; giving out to others.
Exercises
To the middle
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Group walks around
Clap hands
Everyone goes to one small spot in the space as fast as possible as physically as
possible
Look at same spot. Same focus
Repeat using physical work, body contact, chants, text, lines, etc.
Lines and circles
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One moves, all the others must copy it without looking at the person who started
it
Repeat: with stage directionʼs, do actions for cleaning, mime, theatre styles
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Develop in rhythm, ensemble, observations, as a scene, improvise it
Support and lift
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Move as a group. One does an action. Others must all support that action as fast
as possible. Use all the space and lots of body contact
Do as a scene/words/actions/characters
Touch it
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Students shout out parts of the body
Group must touch everyone else, or one person on given part
Personality centre
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Group walks around
Call out the body part to be the centre of personality- that becomes the focus
Work together, join & play together, help each other
Do as characters, with a line, improvise it
Look a look
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Find a partner
Focus on the eyes- donʼt look away at all
All move around the space doing as much physical contact with each other as
possible.
Focus, awareness of the group
Develop a scene from this
SKAT it
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Think of a line with the group
Use Rhythm, sound, breath, body, voice, co-ordination to develop the line
Relax and move
Anticipate it
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Group walks in the space
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All must stop and start again together, as a group
Different person stops each time
Stop and follow- develop a scene from this
To a spot
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Each one finds a spot in the distance
All move at same time- donʼt touch each other
Then walk back to original spot
Do again with closed eyes
Develop it into something else
Make it fast
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One gives the ideas
Then together, as fast as possible, seconds only, the group makes the following
as fast as possible (with/without speaking): a square, triangle, a number, a house,
tree, river, sausage frying in a pan, any animal, car, clock, sewing machine, high
cake, pirates ship, key, tableaux, short scenes- endless list
Work fast, watch each other, help others
Go for the first idea!
Improvise into a scene
Group chant
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Make a circle, and build a group chant
Must all stop/start exactly at same time
Must all follow each other; watch, wait, observe, develop, improvise
Melodrama
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One gives the ideas
Group acts out crazy scenes with sound, dialogue: earthquake, avalanche, train
crash, storm, tsunami, plane crash
No discussion beforehand- just do it
Think of the group, change leader often
Develop and improvise
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Protect me
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Group moves in the space
CLAP
No speaking, decide fast
One person/group must protect another from a dangerous enemy/group
Repeat, change roles, with dialogue
Making scenes
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Two people make a tableaux based on a scene
One by one, the rest of the group join them to make a whole picture
If tapped, you need to speak dialogue for your character
Tableaux can move in time; past, future, a minute/month/year
Ask students these questions: who are you? Where are you? What are you
doing? Why are you doing it? How will you achieve your objective?
Develop, improvise it
Memorable images
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Small groups must come up with a memorable, outstanding image/scene in a
second
Others copy and develop
Put best ones together
Story story
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Each student has a sentence/action
Put all together to make a story- develop in different ways
Two players and an audience: One player tells a story, 2/3 sentences only, other
playerʼs act it out
Clap and change, story continues
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Three players- audience give them 3 random sentences
Improvise a story, 30 seconds to use all 3 sentences
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Or
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Link the random
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Each player makes 3 separate, completely different actions in 3 places in the
space
Each player finds a way of moving between them- practice it
Then find a story/scene that can link all 3 movements; dialogue/sounds, together
in some way
Develop the idea with the group
More text
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Player reads a text/script/story/famous story
Every time a character/scene/place is mentioned, group must do it together, show
it for the audience and then return to the story
Change & repeat often
Do the impossible
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One player
Group gives suggestions to do the impossible: carry the moon on your
shoulder/swallow an ocean, etc.- convince us
Ask others to go on and do more- better it!
Repeat- using an object for an idea. The object becomes everything
Painting toenails fearfully…
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One gives ideas
Do as a group- actions, no words
Use sound: picking potatoes sadly, painting toenails fearfully, writing happily,
swimming badly, etc.
Develop and improve into a scene
Whatʼs next?
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One boss
Everyone as a group- boss gives instructions
Entire group must do together: run to the door, clean the floor, wash the car, go to
the toilet
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Repeat and change- each time, group asks, ʻWhatʼs next?ʼ
Develop and improvise
The bench
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One sits
Others stand behind, ready
One enters, begins a scene- keep positive, donʼt say no
Everyone joins in, helps each other
Repeat and change- use with lines, situations, text
The object
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Make a circle
Pass an object
Each time change it into something else
Play fast until desperate/make it an emotional object
Do anything, say anything to keep it going, develop a scene
Crazy voices
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One boss and players
Choose a line they all say over and over together- they cannot change the line
Ask them to say it, and layer more and more ideas on it; sing it as an opera
singer, opera singer in the shower, in a very cold shower singing opera…
Walk around
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Work together as much as possible, use each other as much as possible
Group walks around; in straight lines, with round feet, light as balloon, can fly,
enormously fat, pudding bum, 7m tall, no feet, in a storm, love the rain, in the
desert getting hotter, arctic getting colder, rainforest, in water, hurricane, 91 years
old at sea-side & hate everything
Be specific, look for details, let students find out, give suggestions
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Be this!
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Each student suggests ideas; piece of burning paper, ice-cream melting, egg
boiling, plant growing, leaf in the wind, little boat on ocean, a worm in the earth,
an ant working, etc.
No thinking time, look for the details, observations, little things
Use voice & sound
Status order
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Groups of 3
Decide on situation and 3 related characters; surgery, doctor, nurse, patient,
detective, suspect, alibi, foreman, bricklayer, architect, boss, secretary,
interviewee, prison officer, 2 prisoners
One leaves the room
Other 2 decide on the status of all 3 but donʼt tell the absent player
Begin the improvisation
Discuss after- change and repeat
A day in the life
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Any job + details
Work as a group to portray the day from start-finish
Get some details before beginning; nightmare, historical
Do in styles, voices, speed, physical
Change & repeat
Develop with a story
Overload
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Good for listening and voices/diction/breath
Strong voices- 4 players
One is the actor in the middle of group; 1 asks simple math question; 1 personal
question; 1 copy movements, etc.
Do simultaneously, must do all at the same time
Rotate players often
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Communal monologue
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A circle
One in the middle begins improvising a monologue in a character- who are you?
Others step in any time & take over- smooth transitions please, strong voices
Specific or general but must be interesting
Three sentence story
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2/3/4 players
Put together 3 unconnected sentences in the shortest possible story, then,
improve it together
Outdo the other
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3 players; 2 talkers, I boss
Boss gives a category
2 players talk at same time: 1 minute, to outdo & impress the boss
Boss decides who has won
Changeover
Sing it out
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Make a circle
First one starts in the middle singing a line of imaginary song- no famous ones! In
a singing style; operatic/reggae/R&R/blues/Chinese opera
Changeover, next one sings the next line in a new style, and so on until all have
tried it
Donʼt stop the song- develop, improvise
Narrator
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Group works as ensemble
1/2 narrators
Group decides a story to do
Narrators comment, describe and narrate story as it happens
Change & continue
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Last line
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Decide on a line
Group plays a scene that must finish with that line after 1 minute
Narrative, colour, emotion
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As ensemble
3/4 players tell a story in turn tagging each other
Other 3 players tag the storyteller if they want to hear more action/narrative,
emotion/feelings, colour/description: detail: smell, temp, weather, colours, sounds
Change & repeat with new story
Exaggeration circle
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Make a circle
One makes a small gesture, with/without sound
Next player makes it bigger
Last one does whole thing in the extreme
Repeat
Exaggeration sentence
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As above
Start with a short sentence
Each person adds something and says all that has happened before in their own
words but exaggerating everything more
Last person does whole in extremis
Group joins in
Be more interesting
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1/2 Players- the rest act as audience
Players start a scene- if audience clap hands, player must make whatever they
are doing, the action more interesting- they mustnʼt continue the story until they
have done this
If audience clap twice, player can continue story
Changeover- donʼt talk too much!
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Develop the action & details.
Portrait status
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As ensemble
As characters
Donʼt discuss before you come on- donʼt think too much, just enter
Players come on stage to pose & build family pictures as different: jobs, shapes,
pop stars, animals, garden tools, cars, kinds of transport, emotional problems,
nationalities, famous people, household objects
Develop with words, story, situations
Get across
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Work as a group
Go to a corner of the room- place chairs, tables, clothing, shoes around the room
for students to use
Group needs to move from one corner/side of room to the other without touching
the floor- start again if you fail
All the group must finish together, co-operate
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Same exercise but carry each other across
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The expert
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1 is the player in the ʻexpert seatʼ
Others can question in any way they want: general/specific questions
Player cannot say no, or block, or say ʻI donʼt knowʼ
The ʻexpertʼ knows everything- if not, make it up
Change and repeat
Two experts in one
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Small groups play one expert at the same time
They must be in perfect agreement with each other all of the time
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Before or after
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Improvise a short scene
Audience decides if they want to see what happens before/after this scene
Develop with work already done
All change
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Improvise a scene with 2/3/4 players
Stop the scene suddenly- replace everyone with new players and continue the
storyline & characters exactly as before
Scene replay
Two players improvise a scene- 8/10 lines only
Audience tell players to replay the scene changing; emotions, time, place, action,
historical, theatre/film styles, in gibberish, do backwards
• Change and repeat
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