In Others' Shoes

This impro exercise helps you to experience "being" someone else - known to you, and also to watch yourself as played by a fellow-actor.

In groups of three, you spend some time getting to know "everything about each other". It's better to ask questions to find out things rather than ask the others to tell you about themselves because the minute you do that they are likely to ask, "What do you want to know?" Specific questions are better than generic ones.

In the second part of the exercise, all three are asked to switch - i.e. become one of the others. A little ritual is attached to this: you could pass on an object - a pen, a pencil, pair of spectacles, etc. or something you are wearing like an ornament. Then the facilitator gives you a setting or a situation. Examples of situations are: it's the middle of the night and all three of you have just met at an auto stand - all of you have just come out of three different parties; all three of you have just crash landed and are the only three survivors.

As the other character, you are required not only to take on the mannerisms but also to tune in to their minds and ask yourself, "How would s/he react in this situation?"

The task now is to write about your thoughts and feelings when you went through it in class.

Certain Death

In this on-the-spot impro exercise, you have to establish all 5 Ws, and a strong motivation for a death to occur.

As we discussed, there are two broad categories for death - intentional and accidental.

There could be many reasons for an intentional death - the motivation could arise from a number of different circumstances.

For an accidental death, there would need to be events leading up to it.

What sort of death did you pick for your impro?

Write about your impro and what you learnt from it - what could have been done more effectively.