Lesson 1 - Basics

Introduction

Safe space
The lessons are a safe space where if there is anything that anyone feels uncomfortable
with, they can raise it without judgement. We ask about and respect boundaries and
everyone is encouraged to take part in every exercise but should always stay connected to
their own boundaries and limits.

Glorious failure
Every time someone fails at something, they step into the centre, take a bow and we
applaud them. The best moments in improv come when we are given the gifts of failure, and
embracing it this way allows us to push our boundaries and be free from the critical voice in
our heads.

Name & Gesture

Introduce ourselves with:
● “Hi, I’m <my name>”
● A gesture
● Our theatre / improv / standup experience
● A mundane fact about ourselves.
After the name and gesture are given, the group copy the gesture and say hello back to the
person.

Warm-ups

Zoom / Boing / Pow

Form a standing circle.

Step 1
Clap and say Zoom to pass the focus to the person to your left. Go around the circle
with a simultaneous “Zoom” and clap as quickly as possible.

Step 2
Introduce a Boing where instead of saying zoom and clapping, someone can reverse
the flow of the focus and move it back to the person who gave it, continuing in the opposite
direction.

Step 3
Introduce a Pow where the focus is given to a person in a different part of the circle
with a clap and the word “Pow”. When the person receives it, they can then choose which
direction to proceed in.
Zombie Name Game
Form a standing circle.

Step 1
One person stands in the middle and walks slowly towards someone until that person says
the name of someone else in the circle. The zombie then walks towards that person instead.
If the zombie reaches the person, they switch places and that person becomes the new
zombie.

Step 2
The same exercise, but when the zombie walks towards someone, that person has to make
eye contact with another person in the circle and that person needs to say the name of
someone else before the zombie changes target.

Exercises

Two-line scenes (Emphasis on Yes And)

The group forms two lines. The two at the front perform a two-line scene. The person who
delivers the second line should focus on emphasising what they’ve been offered from the
first line. Don’t try to be funny, don’t block, just amplify the initial line. Once complete, each
person joins the back of the opposite line and the next two front people continue.

Three-line scene (Emphasis on who / what / where)

Same as two line scene but with extra emphasis on the first line establishing where they are,
what they are doing and how they know each other (bonus point if a name is included). This
makes it easier for the second person to build upon what they’ve been given.

Break

Warm-up

Samurai
Form a standing circle.
One player is the Samurai. They start by lifting their Katana (sword) and saying the sound
“SAM”. They keep their sword up in the air, and their 2 neighbours "slaughter" them, by
swinging their swords into their sides and shouting the sound “OO”. When the neighbours
retract their swords, the Samurai lowers their sword, shouts the sound “RAI” and while doing
this they make eye contact with another player, who then becomes Samurai, and everything
starts all over again.
Start slowly, and then increase the tempo.
Exercises

One word at a time storytelling

Form pairs.
Tell a story together taking it in turns to tell the story one word at a time. Whenever the story
feels like it’s stopped making sense, throw your hands in the air, shout “again” and start a
new story.
Periodically change the pairs and then reflect on the stories that got told.

Conducted story
Form a line of 5-8 people. The teacher gets a title from the audience of a story. They then
kneel in front of the line and point at a person to get them to start telling chapter 1 of that
story. Whoever the teacher points at has to continue telling the story. If someone makes a
mistake or hesitates, the audience shouts “die!” and that person is out. When someone is
removed, the next chapter of the story begins until there is only one person remaining.

Pearls On A String
All players form a backline. One person, any person moves to stage right and says the first
line of a story. Another person, any person moves to stage left, then the first person reads
the first line of the story, followed by the second person who now reads the last line of the
story. Then each person, one at a time joins a different part of the line to add a new line to
the story. Each time a new person joins the line, the whole existing line read their parts of
the story with another new line being added each time.

Freeze Tag
Form a standing circle, two people are in the centre of the circle. They launch straight into a
scene with two people. At any time, anyone in the circle can clap their hands and
simultaneously shout freeze, at which point, both people in the middle must stop and hold
their physical pose. The person who clapped then taps the shoulder of the person they want
to replace, that person rejoins the circle and the new person adopts the same pose before
launching into a brand new scene unrelated to the old one. This continues indefinitely. It is
also an option that both people are replaced in the scene at the point of freezing.

Ending

Cauldron
All people form a circle holding each other's thumbs with their right hands. They then throw
things into the cauldron they have formed such as lessons learned, memorable scenes,
funny anecdotes etc. Once enough things have been added to the cauldron, it froths over
and the players throw their hands in the air to finish.