Endowments
Endowments is a foundational improv exercise in which scene partners assign each other characteristics, traits, relationships, or histories through behavior and dialogue rather than stating them directly. One performer treats the other as though they possess a specific quality (expertise, nervousness, authority, beauty), and the endowed performer discovers and adopts that quality through the way they are treated. The exercise trains the skill of giving and receiving information through implication rather than exposition. Endowment technique is fundamental to nearly all improvised scene work, forming the basis of how characters discover their identities, relationships, and circumstances in real time.
Structure
Two performers take the stage with no predetermined information. One performer (the endower) has been given a secret quality, trait, or identity for their scene partner by the facilitator or audience. The endower does not tell the scene partner what the endowment is.
The scene begins. The endower treats the scene partner as though the endowment is established fact, communicating it entirely through behavior: physical distance, tone of voice, word choice, body language, and the way the endower reacts to the scene partner's actions. If the endowment is "genius," the endower defers to the partner's opinions, asks for advice, and expresses awe.
The endowed performer picks up on these behavioral cues and gradually adopts the endowed quality. The discovery is the exercise's core dynamic: the endowed performer figures out who they are through how they are treated rather than through what they are told.
The exercise concludes when the endowed performer has clearly adopted the endowment and the scene has reached a natural resting point. The facilitator then reveals the intended endowment and debriefs on how effectively it was communicated and received.
Variations include mutual endowment (both performers endow each other simultaneously), group endowment (the ensemble endows a single performer), and Keith Johnstone's Party Endowments, in which each guest at a party discovers their assigned quirk through the reactions of the other guests.
How to Teach It
How to Explain It
"You are going to give your partner qualities they do not know they have. How you treat them tells the audience who they are. If you talk up to them, they are high status. If you treat them like a child, they are young. Show us your partner without telling your partner."
Begin with simple, physical endowments: height (the endower looks up or down at the partner), age (the endower speaks slowly and loudly or offers physical assistance), or beauty (the endower stares, fidgets, and loses coherence). Physical endowments are easier to communicate and read than abstract ones.
The most common failure mode is the endower stating the endowment directly rather than showing it through behavior. Statements like "since you are the smartest person in the room" violate the exercise's premise. Coach the endower to communicate exclusively through treatment: how they stand relative to the partner, how they respond to the partner's words, and what they ask the partner to do.
Another pitfall is the endowed performer ignoring the cues. This usually results from the endowed performer focusing on their own ideas rather than paying attention to how they are being treated. Coach for receptivity: the endowed performer's job is to listen, watch, and adopt.
Endowments teach a principle that extends far beyond the exercise: in improv, identity is created through interaction. Characters do not exist in isolation; they are defined by how other characters relate to them.
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Related Exercises
Object Endowment
Object Endowment is a scene exercise in which one performer enters a scene and, through their behavior and reactions, reveals the nature and significance of an object that the audience has suggested but the performer's scene partner does not know. The partner must discover what the object is through the first performer's physical and emotional treatment of it, not through direct naming or description.
Emotional Endowment
Emotional Endowment is an applied improv exercise in which partners endow each other with an emotional state or characteristic that the other must accept and embody. One player assigns an emotional reality to their partner -- "You are devastated," "You are secretly thrilled" -- and the partner must accept that endowment fully without negotiating, correcting, or breaking the offer. The exercise develops awareness of emotional offers, the practice of acceptance, and the difference between explaining an emotion and inhabiting it.
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). Endowments. Retrieved September 28, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/exercises/endowments
The Improv Archive. "Endowments." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/exercises/endowments.
The Improv Archive. "Endowments." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/exercises/endowments. Accessed September 28, 2026.
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