Classroom Improv Ideas
Good improv is deceptive, in that really good improv always looks staged. "There is no way those actors came up with that off the top of their heads" you might think as you see a performance group expertly play a scene from an audience suggestion. They didn't get to that level of ability without practice. Classroom improv ideas can teach students the building blocks of becoming successful performers along with building teamwork skills and adaptability.
Other People Are Reading
-
Story Time
-
This exercise works on both improv and retention skills. Have the students stand in a line and then begin to tell them a story. After setting up the characters and scenario of the story, point to a student to continue the story by inventing another part of it. Select the students at random for different lengths of duration to keep the story going. The students will have to exercise both their creativity and their listening skills to keep up with the rest of the class and the tale itself.
Crowd Suggestions
-
Have either a single student, or a team of students, get in front of the class. Select one of the remaining students to voice a suggestion about what the scene should be. This activity can be played as a game, with the student performing scoring points for originality, humor and context. Making the activity competitive will encourage the students in the audience to come up with increasingly difficult suggestions and scenarios to try to inhibit the performing team.
-
Freeze Tag
-
This improv exercise works on both strengthening performance partnerships and adaptability. Select two students to get up in front of the class, and give them a scene to improvise with, adding their own dialogue and actions. During their scene, someone from the audience shouts "Freeze!" and both of the actors should freeze in their current poses. Then the person that shouted gets up and replaces one of the actors, and begins an entirely new scene based on the pose.
House Party
-
This improv activity works on team building skills and observation. Select four students to get up in front of the class, and then instruct one of them to leave the room until the scene is ready. Allow the rest of the class to choose who each of the remaining students are to play, and then bring back the fourth student. The premise is that the fourth student is throwing a party and has to guess who each of his guests are.
-
