Improv Games List - Part 1

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Been to an improv taster or workshop, and racking your brains to remember a cool exercise?

We've tried to capture instructions for some of our favourites here. We did not create many of these games, and thank all the amazing teachers that we learned them from. Stay tuned, there are more parts to come!!

Stretch and Share

• Aims: Physical warmup and ice-breaker

• Instructions: Participants form a circle. One person starts by stretching a part of their body. Everyone else in the circle copies (adapting based on ability/need). The person who started the movement shares something e.g. their day, what they want from the session). Then the person next to them chooses a different stretch.

• Keywords: Movement, Mimicry, Circle, Identity.

  
  

Pass the Face

• Aims: Build focus and connection among players.

• Instructions: One player makes a funny face and "passes" it to another by making eye contact. The recipient must replicate the face and then create a new face to pass on.

• Adaptations: Use emotions or themes for the faces; incorporate sounds or actions.

• Keywords: Facial expressions, Connection, Focus, Fun, Mimicry.

Name and Action

• Aims: Promote memory and engagement.

• Instructions: Go round the circle; each participant states their name and performs an action that represents them. Whole group repeats names with associated actions. Then one person starts by saying the name and movement of someone else. The person they name then selects another name and movement, and the game passes to different people.

• Adaptations: Once people are comfortable, use actions only.

• Keywords: Memory, Identity, Engagement, Actions, Group.

1-7

• Aims: Foster teamwork, embracing failure and counting skills.

• Instructions: Players stand in a circle. One person starts and claps ‘1’ to a person next to them. The group do this until ‘6’, so it sounds like ‘1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4 ‘etc. Tell students that when saying 1-6, they can choose to pass to either side of them. Practice with this new rule. Then say we are going to count 1-7. If you are passing 1-6 you pass either side of you. If you are passing the 7, you can pass to anyone other than those either side of you. Get the group to do a quick practice. Then say that if anyone makes a mistake they have to run around the circle. If the group are slow in counting, make them speed up and make more mistakes. Then say that any hesitations count as a mistake. Once the game has run for a few rounds, get everyone back into a circle. This game highlights the importance of failure. Without failure it would be a boring task!

• Adaptations: Add extra rules e.g. clap on 3

• Keywords: Teamwork, Counting, Embrace Failure, Focus, Fun.

You, Yes! (Zombie attack)

• Aims: Attention and Support

• Instructions: All players stand in a circle. Once person is chosen to play the ‘zombie’ and they stand in the middle of the circle. One person around the circle starts by saying ‘yes’ and the zombie moves towards them. They make eye contact with another in the circle and say ‘you’ towards them. The person responds saying ‘yes’, and the zombie changes direction towards the ‘yes’.

• Adaptations: Remove the ‘you’

• Keywords: Positivity, Agreement,  Support.

Die, Not Today (Ninja)

• Aims: Attention and communication

• Instructions: Players stand in a circle. One person starts and throws an imaginary dagger at another person and says ‘Die’. The other person catches the imaginary dagger between their hands saying ‘Not Today!’. They then throw the dagger at another person saying ‘die!’.

• Keywords: Agreement, Focus.

Go Falcon

• Aims: Promote spontaneity and teamwork.

• Instructions: Players take turns shouting "Go Falcon!" and then perform an action. The next player must shout it and perform a different action, building on the previous.

• Adaptations: Limit the number of actions or introduce themes.

• Keywords: Spontaneity, Teamwork, Actions, Fun, Energy.