This month we are celebrating board games and taking inspiration from our writer Board Not Bored, I am going to use Improv Corner to reflect on articles used in the article In The Games Corner this month to write about how you can incorporate ideas into your improv exercises. This week we look at – Articulate.

From writing and remembering the game Articulate, I think it is a really good game for improv and I think you could even use elements of it for a warm up game. The cards, I used to love as a kid because it really got you thinking about how to describe items and objects to other players in a limited time. Take away the board game and let’s focus on the cards.

Using the cards and the time element can be a great thing to use in improv practice because it forces you to describe at a fast pace. By doing this it makes your brain work fast and not think about what you are doing. Sometimes in improv we overthink our choices – this fast paced exercise will really help you to get outside of your head.

How To Incorporate It Into Improv

Well, firstly, doing this as an exercise does not mean that you have to run out and buy the game. You could always make your own cards and categories and use them as a basic foundry. Due to the fact we are talking about the board game – lets keep to that and imagine we are using it’s cards.

Choose one person to be the one who is going to do the describing then get one of the other members of the team to get ready to guess the items. At the beginning get someone to shout out a colour to define the category then start the timer and get the person to start doing the descriptions. Try it, high energy warm up.