Sometimes when you are put on the stage, it can be easy to be predictable and get into the same routine when you do a scene. However, there are exercises that you can do in rehearsals that will allow you to get into a different frame of mind and allows you to approach improv in a different way. Today we are going to look at an exercise that I was taught when I was training in Newcastle.

You can start the practise with either one or two people on the stage – I have only done it with one person but it may be fun seeing two people on stage doing something together. They are not going to interact or do a scene they are going to be doing everything independently.

You ask the people on the stage to do something very simple on the stage – like twiddling their thumbs, tapping a foot and then you ask them to gradually do something more interesting. By the time that you have completed a round the people on stage will be doing something so silly that the whole room will be laughing and the person on stage will feel ridiculous.

It may sound like a really weird thing to do in rehearsal but doing something so silly means that you get out of your head and it allows you to react without really thinking about it and that is what is important in improv. Sometimes it is really hard to remember that but when you do the results are amazing.