Items tagged "Improv"

“Yes, and…” is the guiding principle behind all improv. This course will teach you how to teach improv, and more importantly how to give feedback to your students. The course looks at making strong offers and also using gibberish to ironically improv communication skills. You will also see how feelings can safely be used to add flavour and get laughs in our scenes.

Jennine Profeta, Second City performer and theatre educator, leads this course with a clear methodology for teaching and giving positive nurturing feedback. This course will give you all the tools and the insight you need to teach improv with confidence.

Second City performer and theatre educator Jennine Profeta is back and ready to help you take your Improv classes to the next level. It’s all getting students to perform - and how to be a great improv coach who can keep them supported and grounded (and having fun!)

In this course, you’ll learn the golden rules of improv. You’ll learn a bunch of improv games (great for warm-ups, teaching tools, and even for competitions). You’ll learn Jennine’s tips and tricks for what to look for when coaching and how to troubleshoot common issues.

The course is designed to help you improv as an ensemble and give you the know-how to coach with confidence whether it’s in the classroom or on the stage!

Jennine Profeta, Second City performer and theatre educator, leads this course. This course was designed to give a teacher tools to create a safe environment in which students can go beyond their old patterns to take risks, embrace failure, be more confident and aware of the effects of their word choice. The course includes modules on risk-taking, creating a safe environment, failure, confidence, and positive/negative speak.

Improv is a fantastic method to engage your students; this 3 lesson mini unit is a great way to introduce improvisation.

This unit focuses on learning the rules of Improv, trying games to build improvisation skills, and developing conflict and story line.Through the three lesson series, students will use journals, participate in class discussions, learn six different improv games, and perform for their peers.

Assessment tools include both informal assessment as well as a formal quiz that’s included in the unit.

This unit on Ancient Greek Theatre focuses on the function of the chorus, the choral ode, and the details of the theatre space. It touches on plays and playwrights of the era, culminating in a final project of a modern version of Medea that includes a choral ode.

A rubric is included for the project as long as journal prompts and exit slips. Please refer to the Pacing Guide for more details and ways to supplement with other DTA materials.

Understanding basic improvisation skills will help musical theatre performers understand that musical theatre is more than just singing and dancing. It’s about using all the tools (voice, body, and mind) an actor has at their disposal to create a character.

This unit focuses more on the improv aspect rather than the musical theatre aspects - in fact students need no prior musical theatre knowledge. Annie Dragoo, creator of the unit, uses this material as her first unit in her musical theatre class. It’s a great introduction and will get your students in the right frame of mind to approach musical theatre.

The lessons explore a variety of improv skills such as vocal responses, movement, character study, sensory awareness and culminate in an improv scene and unit essay.

In this middle school unit by Rachel Atkins, students will explore how to strengthen a theatrical argument through objectives, communication, and conflict: What characters do, what they say, and how they say it when they make an argument or try to achieve an objective. To do this, students will use tableaux, dialogue, and improv. There are presentations and post-lesson writing assignments that you can use for assessment.

How do characters, actors and writers use a variety of actions to achieve an objective or support an argument? How do they enhance their communication by word choice and emotion? How do they develop and strengthen their own arguments by understanding other points of view?

Taking risks, learning to see failure as a gift, finding courage when we don't feel it, and having the awareness that what we say has an impact are social and emotional skills students will take beyond the classroom. These are skills that can be built through improv exercises.

The exercises in this unit are designed to create a safe environment in which students can go beyond their old patterns to take risks, embrace failure, and be more confident and aware of the effects of their word choices. Improv gives you the opportunity to draw attention to these important concepts and to talk about them.

This is a three lesson plan unit on introducing Improvisation.
Part One: Introduction to Improv
Students will understand what improvisation is and how to use the following rules: Trust Yourself and Accept all Offers.
Part Two: Characterization & One Focus
Students explore Characterization and One Focus by participating in activities and playing Ding, Emotional Waiter and Party Quirks.
Part Three: Conflict and Tell a Complete Story
Students will understand what conflict is and how to create it. Students will also understand how to use conflict to tell an improvised story with a beginning, middle and end.
Students will demonstrate their understanding of the rules of improvisation through their final performance in Freeze as well as a written quiz.

Students create a character and maintain that character throughout an activity.

Students create an original character by filling out a form. These characters participate in a speed date round. Female characters sit in an outer circle of chairs. Male characters rotate clockwise through an inner circle of chairs.The characters introduce themselves and talk for one minute before moving on to the next meeting. Teacher pairs students up and in their pairs student plans and present a short improv: The First Date.

Newcomers to improvisation often struggle with quick verbal responses. They get caught up with self-editing, self-judgement, and self-censorship and feel they’re failing at the exercise if they’re not fast enough. The gibberish tool allows students to practice the act of response with intention without the pressure of real words. It gives them confidence to participate in an improvised scene.
Students will create a gibberish language as a group. Focus on making gibberish a language. “Yes, it sounds silly, but treat gibberish as a language.” The words don’t matter. How you say them does. Students will move to small group conversations, and finally improv scenes.

Includes a list of scenarios, reflection, and assessment rubric.

Students will learn the Rashomon plot device and put it into practice through improvised character monologues.

Includes scenario sheet, assignment sheet, and assessment rubric.

Students will choose a character and become that character (physically and vocally). They will then collaborate with other characters in the classroom to create and perform an improvised scene.

Students explore known characters, characters based on traits, and non-human characters both physically and vocally before choosing their own. Lesson also explores the principle of "Yes...And."

Improvisation is a great tool for storytelling and getting important concepts across to all students including struggling readers and writers. In this lesson, you’ll use the improv game “Scene Redux” to help strengthen the students’ understanding of main idea and detail as it relates to storytelling.

Improvising in pairs is an excellent training ground to improve listening and cooperation skills, and to practice exploring character and conflict. Students will read and respond to a Duet Improv introduction sheet, then apply their knowledge
through pairs Improv exercises and reflect on the experience.

Characters have a lot of value in empowering your students’ improv. In this lesson, students will start to explore character in improv with the warm up game “Character Walkabout” and the improv game “Hitchhiker.”

Use this list of locations for improv scenarios and scene work.

Use this actions list for improvs, scene work, and pantomimes

Use these characters in improvs and scenes

Do your students use the same emotions over and over again in scene work or in improvs? Get them used to expanding their feeling horizon with this list.

Looking for new objects for students to use in improvs, mimes and scene work? This sheet has over 200 objects to choose from!

Students sometimes have a hard time with improv because they don’t know where to start. How do I make up lines on the spot? All they need is a little push to get them moving in the right direction. Use picture prompts.

Looking for character duet ideas for students to use in improvs, mimes and scene work? Over 85 pairs to choose from!

Use these duet scene scenarios during Improv work or warmup games.

These tips will help you answer the question: What should you look for and what do you say afterward in an improv scene?

10 questions to use when evaluating improv performances.

Use these dialogue prompts for improvisation work. Includes characters, location, want, and a first line for each prompt.

Use this exercise in the middle of a monologue project, to get students to the heart of the monologue, using improvisation techniques.

This resource has a list and description of six different warm-up games, great for improv groups or any theatre class.

Use this rubric to assess improv performance.

Distance Learning ideas vs Zoom or other video conference platform.

Distance Learning ideas vs Zoom or other video conference platform.

This resource is designed to assist you in making your improvisation work as inclusive as possible. It includes questions to ask yourself, improv guidelines discussion, character names and pronouns, and additional discussion points. Use this guide to help create inclusive, safe spaces for all within an improvisation framework.

Improv sketches are often based on heteronormativity. From characters, to audience suggestions, to scenarios, it’s easy to slip away from anything inclusive. This section includes questions you can ask yourself and discussions you can have with students about current Improvisation guidelines; the use of character names and pronouns; being aware of using accents and affectations for a joke or punchline; occupations without gender and character/relationships.