Boring Scenes Circle
Boring Scenes Circle is a training exercise in which players deliberately perform the most mundane, uneventful scenes they can. By stripping away the instinct to be clever or dramatic, the exercise reveals that strong characters, honest relationships, and genuine listening create compelling stage work regardless of plot. It builds trust in simplicity.
Structure
Setup
Players stand in a loose circle or sit facing a small performance area. Two players step out and the facilitator gives them a simple premise: two people waiting for a bus, coworkers making coffee, someone returning a library book.
The Assignment
Players are instructed to make the scene as completely boring as possible. Nothing interesting is allowed to happen. No drama, no subtext, no cleverness, no jokes. The scene should be exactly what it is on the surface: two people, a mundane situation, ordinary conversation.
Play
The scene runs for 60-90 seconds. Observers watch. Then players rotate and a new pair tries.
The Discovery
After two or three rounds, the facilitator facilitates a discussion: "Did you believe the relationship? Did the characters feel real? Were you watching?" The answer is usually yes. Boring scenes performed with genuine presence and attention are often more engaging than scenes where performers are "trying to be funny."
Variation: Endowment Layer
After the exercise, run the same scene again but tell one player (privately) that they have a secret emotional context: they just received devastating news, or they are deeply in love with the other person. The scene stays "boring" on the surface but the subtext changes everything.
Advanced Variation: Director's Cut
A third player acts as director and can call "cut" to redirect if the scene becomes intentionally dramatic.
How to Teach It
How to Explain It
"Your scene is boring. Completely boring. Nothing interesting happens. Two people, a mundane situation. Commit to how ordinary it is. Don't try to make it funny."
Why It Matters
Boring Scenes Circle directly addresses one of the most damaging habits in developing improvisers: the compulsion to be interesting. When performers think their job is to be interesting, they manufacture drama, rush to jokes, or force plot - all of which undercut genuine scene work. By making "boring" the assignment, the exercise removes the pressure to perform and creates a context where genuine presence, honest relationship, and real listening are the only tools available. The discovery that a "boring" scene can be compelling reframes what good improv actually requires.
Common Coaching Notes
- Watch for meta-boring. Some performers make the scene "boring" by being listless, flat, or unengaged. That's not the exercise. The scene should be genuinely played - with real attention, real character, real relationship - it just shouldn't be dramatic or funny.
- Name the discovery explicitly. When a boring scene is clearly working, pause and ask the observers: "Are you watching? Why?" The answer is almost always: "Because the characters feel real."
- Connect to Keith Johnstone's ideas on status and presence. The exercise reveals that what makes a scene compelling is not drama but genuine human behavior. This is a direct application of Johnstone's argument that "interesting" is found, not manufactured.
- Use before scenes tend to run hot. Groups that are chasing jokes can be reset with this exercise.
Debrief Questions
- What made a boring scene watchable?
- When did you feel the urge to make something happen - and what did you do with it?
- What does this tell us about what we're actually selling as performers?
Worth Reading
See all books →
Theater Games for Rehearsal
Viola Spolin
Improvisation for the Theater
A Handbook of Teaching and Directing Techniques
Viola Spolin
Improvisation Starters
A Collection of 900 Improvisation Situations for the Theater
Philip Bernardi
The Young Actor's Book of Improvisation
Dramatic Situations
Sandra Caruso; Susan Kosoff
Something from Nothing
The Technique of Improvisation
Richard Goteri
Drama Games and Improvs
Games for the Classroom and Beyond
Justine Jones; Mary Ann Kelley
Related Exercises
Flatmates Just Do Nothing
Flatmates Just Do Nothing is a scene exercise in which performers play roommates engaged in completely mundane, low-stakes activity -- watching television, eating cereal, folding laundry -- with no dramatic agenda imposed from outside. The exercise trains the ability to be fully present in an ordinary moment, to find authentic relationship texture in ordinary behavior, and to trust that genuine connection and specificity are sufficient engines for scene without the need for conflict or event.
Make More Interesting
Make More Interesting is a hybrid game and directing exercise in which a director or facilitator watches a scene and, at any point, stops the performers and asks them to replay the most recent moment -- the same beat, the same content -- but made more interesting. The request does not define what "more interesting" means; performers must find a more specific, more committed, more unexpected, or more resonant version of what they just did, discovering through the iteration what raised the scene's quality.
Ordinary Scene Until Ridiculous
Ordinary Scene Until Ridiculous is a classroom exercise in which two performers receive a mundane scenario and play it as realistically as possible, deliberately avoiding attempts at comedy. The watching group cheers when something genuinely unusual or funny emerges organically from the grounded reality. The exercise trains improvisers to discover what is naturally absurd about a situation rather than forcing humor, building the foundational skill of finding the game of a scene through patient, honest scene work.
Story Circles
Story Circles is a collaborative storytelling exercise in which small groups sit in circles and build stories together, with each person contributing a segment before passing to the next. The exercise develops listening, narrative awareness, and the ability to build on others' contributions.
Annoyance Scenes
Annoyance Scenes is an exercise rooted in the Annoyance Theatre tradition of finding the truth in aggressive, high-energy play. Performers practice scenes in which characters pursue strong wants with unapologetic directness. The exercise builds confidence in making bold choices and playing at the top of one's intelligence.
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). Boring Scenes Circle. Retrieved September 28, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/exercises/boring-scenes-circle
The Improv Archive. "Boring Scenes Circle." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/exercises/boring-scenes-circle.
The Improv Archive. "Boring Scenes Circle." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/exercises/boring-scenes-circle. Accessed September 28, 2026.
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