Do Word Scene Improvisational Exercises
When doing improv for comedy or theater acting, you have to be able to come up with comebacks and lines quickly while making it look effortless. This skill needs to be perfected, and the best way to do it is to work-out your funny bone with improv acting exercises. Word Scene exercises are great techniques to build quick-thinking and teamwork. Try these exercises with your group.
Instructions
1. Instruct all improvisers to stand in a circle. Start off with one player saying one word and go around the circle left to right having each player add a word to form sentences to tell a story. This type of Word Scene exercise is called One Word Story.
2. Try a variation on One Word Story, called a Step Word Scene, by having improvisers use one word at a time around the circle, then two words at a time the second time around, then three words and so forth up to five words. Then descend back down to one word at a time in the same manner.
3. Act out the story by having two improvisers play at a time as they alternate words between them, acting out the story as they tell it in the present tense. Improvisers should use their creativity and not feel like they have to say everything they do before they do it. This type of Word Scene exercise is called Mutants.
4. Try a variation on Mutants by having two improvisers tell the story by alternating words while other improvisers act out the story.
5. Do this exercise by having the improvisers narrating the story create a dialogue for the actors on stage by using different voices. All the narrators must use the same voice for each character. This is called a Word at a Time Scene.
