Improvising is inventing and creating content spontaneously. It's a great way to generate new ideas and for creating and developing characters, using a variety of useful techniques.
These exercises are good for making you think harder about language and dialogue. Sometimes limitations force the actor to consider new and better ways of expressing a role.
Three touch drama
This is an exercise where the actors improvise but can only each say three words at a time. It鈥檚 very good for exploring the essence of a scene and forces actors to work together and help each other out, for example:
A: Is it true?
B: is what true?
A: that you have鈥?
B: I have what?
A: I can鈥檛 say鈥
B: Spit it out
A: Had a baby
B: I鈥檓 a boy!
A: Did it hurt?
Alphabetical dialogue
The actors can use as many words as they like but the lines of dialogue must start with consecutive letters of the alphabet.
Are there any buses that go to Bradford from here do you know?
Bradford, why do you want to go there?
Can you keep a secret? I鈥檓 on the run.
Don鈥檛 tell me anymore. My life is complicated enough. Who are you on the run from?
Evil scientists who work for a top secret government organisation鈥