Can You Hear Me Now?
Can You Hear Me Now? is a vocal projection exercise in which players practice reaching different areas of the room with their voice without shouting. Partners provide feedback on clarity and volume from various distances. The exercise builds awareness of how vocal energy changes with physical space.
Structure
Setup
Players pair up. Partners stand facing each other, starting close (1-2 meters apart). One partner is the Speaker; one is the Listener.
Phase 1: Distance and Projection
The Speaker says a short sentence - a simple piece of information, or lines from an assigned text. The Listener gives genuine feedback: "I heard you clearly" / "I could hear you but it felt strained" / "I could barely hear you."
Partners step back one full step at a time, repeating the test. The goal is to find the point at which projection starts to break down - and then to practice extending it without pushing into shouting.
Phase 2: Non-Shouting Projection
At a distance where projection naturally fails, the Speaker experiments with techniques: lowering the larynx, sending sound "forward" into the room rather than pushing from the throat, opening vowels. The Listener provides real-time feedback on quality and effort.
Phase 3: Room Volume Test
All pairs speak simultaneously at their maximum comfortable projection distance. The facilitator maps where the voice carries and where it doesn't. Then silence, and the facilitator demonstrates projection to the full room.
Variation: Text Performance
Players deliver a short rehearsed text (a speech, a monologue) from increasing distances while maintaining natural delivery quality - not performing louder, but projecting further.
How to Teach It
How to Explain It
"Stand close to start. One person speaks, one listens. Then step back. Keep stepping back. Find the edge - where your voice starts to lose the room. Then figure out how to push past it without shouting."
Why It Matters
Many improv performers, especially those from workshop traditions without formal voice training, rely on proximity to be heard. In actual performance spaces - even modestly sized ones - this habit becomes a liability. The exercise gives performers concrete, embodied feedback on their own projection by having a partner serve as an immediate acoustic detector. The goal is not volume but quality: a projected voice should feel like it reaches the room naturally, not like it was thrown. Developing this sense prevents the habitual tension that comes from "trying to be loud."
Common Coaching Notes
- The listener's feedback is the mechanism. Invest time in calibrating the listener role. "Clearly heard" means no strain - not just "audible." Quality matters.
- Distinguish projection from shouting. Some performers immediately crank volume when asked to project. Name the difference: "Shouting tightens the throat. Projection opens it."
- Acknowledge room acoustics. Different spaces behave differently. A reflective concrete room amplifies; a soft-furnished room absorbs. Discuss this after the exercise.
- Follow with performance. After the exercise, ask players to run a two-person scene at the distance where projection breaks down. The contrast between forced volume and natural projection becomes immediately apparent.
Debrief Questions
- At what distance did your voice start to break down?
- What did you change to project further?
- How does thinking about your voice in a scene differ from when you were focused on it here?
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Related Exercises
One Voice
One Voice is a game and exercise in which two or more performers speak simultaneously, attempting to produce the same words at the same time without prior coordination. The group must listen intently and follow collective impulses rather than individual intention, producing coherent shared speech as a single entity. The game develops group mind, deep listening, and the capacity to surrender individual control to collective will.
Back to Back
Back to Back is a trust and connection exercise in which two players sit or stand with their backs pressed together and work together on a physical or verbal task without the benefit of eye contact. Common tasks include standing up simultaneously from a seated position, telling a collaborative story, or mirroring each other's movements through physical pressure alone. The absence of visual cues forces participants to communicate through weight, pressure, breath, and vocal tone, developing a physical listening channel that operates independently of sight. The exercise appears across multiple performance traditions, from Augusto Boal's Games for Actors and Non-Actors to John Abbott's The Improvisation Book, and is one of the most widely used partner exercises in both improv training and applied improvisation settings.
Action Syllables
Action Syllables is an exercise in which players pair a distinct physical movement with each syllable of a word or phrase. The activity connects vocal rhythm to full-body expression and breaks habitual patterns of stillness during speech. It builds awareness of how physicality and language reinforce each other onstage.
Mantra
Mantra is a vocal and mental exercise in which performers select and repeat a single word or short phrase, gradually shifting its rhythm, volume, pitch, and emotional intensity. The repetition strips away self-consciousness and helps players discover how meaning transforms through delivery alone. The same word spoken softly becomes a prayer; spoken forcefully becomes a command; spoken rapidly becomes a plea. Mantra prepares performers for emotionally committed scene work by building comfort with vocal extremes and sustained focus. The exercise draws on meditation practices adapted for theatrical training.
Sound Follow
Sound Follow is an exercise in which one player creates a continuous vocal sound and the rest of the group attempts to match and follow it as precisely as possible. The leading sound may change gradually in pitch, rhythm, or quality. The exercise trains group listening and the ability to attune to subtle shifts in shared vocal production.
Breathing
Breathing is a foundational warm-up exercise in which performers practice controlled inhalation and exhalation to release physical tension, quiet mental chatter, and center their focus before rehearsal or performance. Variations include diaphragmatic breathing, counted breath patterns, and synchronized group breathing in which an ensemble inhales and exhales together. The exercise builds awareness of the body as an instrument, training performers to recognize and release habitual tension patterns that restrict vocal production, physical freedom, and emotional availability. Breathing exercises appear across virtually every performance training tradition, from Viola Spolin's theatre games to Augusto Boal's actor preparation sequences, and remain one of the most universally practiced warm-up activities in both theatrical and applied improvisation contexts.
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). Can You Hear Me Now?. Retrieved March 17, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/exercises/can-you-hear-me-now
The Improv Archive. "Can You Hear Me Now?." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/exercises/can-you-hear-me-now.
The Improv Archive. "Can You Hear Me Now?." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/exercises/can-you-hear-me-now. Accessed March 17, 2026.
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