How to Use Who, What, When, Where, Why in Improv

Good improv is a lot of fun. Less than good improv is tedious at best, embarrassing at worst. Learn to make the most of your time on stage and to create well-rounded scenes that have somewhere to go by using the 5 Ws: Who, What, When, Where and Why.

Things You'll Need

• Improvisers to play with

Instructions

How to Use Who, What, When, Where and Why in Improv

1. Who: Establish who you and your partner are. Giving your partner a name is a great start. But you should also include information that explains your relationship. You could be spouses, parent and child, coworkers, cousins, fraternity brothers, cop and suspect, teachers, microbiologist--or just about anything you can think of. Making sure that you know who you are will make it easier to make character choices and it will allow the scene to move forward.

2. What: Be doing something. Object and space work add real depth to your scene. Especially if you simply let your emotions show through your work and avoid talking about what it is that you are doing. In real life, people often talk while doing something unrelated. People talk while eating dinner, while doing homework, while driving their cars. Give yourself something to do and your scene will feel more real.

3. When: What time it is affects how you act. What era it is affects what you are doing even more. You will move differently first thing in the morning than you do in the middle of the afternoon. People in the Middle Ages spoke differently than the people in the 1920s. Let the audience (and your partner) know what time and/or era it is. This will give your scene depth and layers to play with.

4. Where: Be specific when describing where you are. At "home" is a general location. But are you in the bedroom, the kitchen, the den, the backyard? The more specific you make your location, the more you will have to work with in your scene. Setting your scene in a specific location also helps ground the scene, so that you and your partner can focus on the scene instead of searching for details because you're not sure where you are.

5. Why: A scene should be more than just people doing things without purpose. The most effective and memorable scenes are scenes that happen on an important day in the characters' lives. This could be the day someone gets married, or divorced, or moves or quits their job. Giving yourself a real reason for being where you are at this moment will make your scene powerful and more fun to play.

Tips & Warnings

• Though it is most effective to deliver the who, what, when, where and why as soon as possible in the scene, you can deliver them in whatever order you like. As you deliver these pieces of information, you should avoid simply saying something like: "It sure is fun to be lawyers in the breakroom of our office today." Instead, be creative with how you let people know who and where you are: "Great closing argument yesterday," is a more interesting way of letting the audience know that you are an attorney. Try to speak as people actually do, instead of dropping huge, awkward chunks of exposition.