What games to teach beginning improvisers?

[Jodi Cohen]

i'm teaching a beginning improv class and am wondering, what do YOU think are the best games to teach new folks, who are doing improv as a hobby, who are trying improv on to see how it fits. i used to try and cram lots of stuff about who/what/where ala spolin into 8 week sessions and realized i needed to lighten up.

we do lots of fun warm ups. we also do some warm ups that teach a little bit of object work, establishing where, making an emotional choice. i've taught them formal games of freeze tag; yes, and story; one sentence at a time story; one word story.

what else do you think are good staples for folks to have in their new improv repertoire? i'd appreciate any thoughts.

thank you!
jodi

[Jessie]

It is my dream to teach improv. Aside from taking a few courses at a community college, I have no background. My field is counseling. Any suggestions where/how to get started?

[Anne Pensalfini]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, v timely as I am currently teaching my first class to absolute beginners.

I like:

pass the clap - player makes eye contact across the circle and claps at the same time as the person they're passing to; new player then makes eye contact across the circle and does the same. Rythym builds, good for clear communication, group mind, feeling the flow, not getting bogged down in failure, etc.

word-ball - word association across the circle

Anne P.

[Zach Laliberte]

hey Jodi,

i think that when teaching beginning improvisors you can use "What Comes Next?" as a tool to not only allow students to create a narrative but it opens up the microcosm of the human brain... Avoiding danger, not taking risks, killing ideas, being clever...
Keith Johnstone loves to play "what comes next?" because it alieviates stress while teaching narrative. If you add in the "nope" rule you can also teach students about inspiring their partners which is a great help for improvisors when they feel forced into doing a scene about a garbage truck which they don't feel enthusiastic and excited about...

Keith Johnstone will be teaching in Tennessee March 9th - 15th and then going to Chicago from the 17th-20th
Let me know if you are interested in attending... Keep on Keeping on!
Teach Low status and if you start to think just count backward from 97 :)

[Marc Spear]

Jodi,
I teach a similar class. In the beginning I do a lot of what Rich and Simo suggested. I also spend a lot of time at teh start on collaborative games that are very low risk just to get them used to working with others. People spend a lot of time alone, at their desks, in their homes, and often just the idea of playing with others is not as familar to them as it is with us, so it's a bit jarring if they aren't eased into it.

I use a whole bunch of excercies & games that adapt to various group sizes. Some of them are:

Build an imaginary machine with their bodies

Emotions Choir

Cliche Choir (email me if you want details on that one)

Create environments silently

Also, all of Spolins "Part of Whole" series

and all of her "Space Walking" stuff is very good for beginners.

Good luck :)

Marc

[Jodi Cohen]

cliche choir! what is it?

[Matt Weinstein]

Yes, I'd love to hear about the Cliche Choir! I have my fantasy of what you do, but... what do you do???
Yours in play,
Matt

[Rich Cox]

Hi Jodi,

I agree, I think you are on the right track. For me it is all about having fun and getting them to bond together and remember how to play. Mick's example of a kid not thinking about playing batman, they just ARE batman - is something I think we can loose as adults.

I think the most important factor is making them feel safe, bonded together, familiar, and all warm an squishy. Until I get that, I keep things very simple an connection based.

A typical opening for me would be name games:

- simply saying our own names around a circle a few times
- name and a gesture/motion call and response
- name and a gesture/motion - bouncing around a circle - receive your own, say the next person
- keep a real ball bouncing in the air (like vollyball) and say the name of the person who hits it each time

Gettting to know you Iike:

- commonalities - I (like, do, have, did) ______. Everyone who it is also true for joins them and says me too!
- secret handshake partners - handshake, nickname, childhood book, childhood noise, victory story, emarrassing story
- three things in common (verbal, nonverbal)
- give the story of your name
- trade 1 min life stories and introduce each other to the group

Fun games:
- bunny bunny
- billy billy bop
- Colonol Cosai (some call it people woosh, bang, zap)
- big booty

Others I like:

Word at a time
Story Spine
Mirroring
Story switch
Dolphin Training (ding) - sometimes almost a whole class on this

And simple say yes exercise

Yes And, but, no
Thank you circle
I am a tree
Freeze tag
Song Circle - once they are really safe

BTW - these are all the same things I do with the Improv for Business People classes, but the debrief is going for different Thiaghi "6 of diamonds" in the debrief.

[Simo Routarinne]

Hi Jodi!

You are not alone here :-)

I think you have made perfect choices! I usually spend quite a long time working with yes, anding, accepting and blocking, so that everybody agrees on the concepts verbally and physically and there is no misunderstanding on that. Statuswork is good stuff in the beginning too!

I would say any exercise is good now, just pic your choices and have fun! More important than choosing the right exercises is not to judge or point out mistakes AT ALL! Just be supportive and always something you can sincerely say: GOOD!

I never give personal feedback: what to do more, what less. I just accept what is being already there and suggest to try alway new things too!

I dunno if this helped at all :-) But ask me anything!

Simo

[Viv McWaters]

Hi Jodi
If you get your people (Maria) to call my people (Wendy) you can have my notes on what i did when I started my little improv group. I asked the same questions of this group and got lots of useful responses that I've incorporated. My approach is facilitative (surprise!) and is probably totally different from what real improvisation teachers would do, but hey, it worked!
Cheers
Viv

[Marvin Stottlemire]

I agree with your other respondents that you should keep theory to a minimum. Accentuate having fun! I have a company "The Senior Class," made up entirely of actors over 50. We do a fun warm up sitting in a circle, clapping in rhythm, and calling assigned numbers. To keep it interesting the first three people are given a name. The most fun we ever had with it was last year at Christmas when the first three were HO, HO HO, and HO HO HO. I also love the scream game for a warm up. We also play several gibberish games.

In performance we find timed games work well. "Speed Dating," and "Half Life" are fun and keep us from getting frustrated.