Open Improv Scenes
Participants perform actual improvised two-person scenes based on audience suggestions, applying all learned improv principles. The culminating exercise of the course.
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Related Exercises
Good Improviser Bad Improviser
Good Improviser Bad Improviser is a teaching exercise in which performers deliberately demonstrate both strong and weak improv technique in side-by-side scenes or moments. The contrast makes abstract principles -- yes-and, listening, specificity, agreement, presence -- tangible and visible. Watching a scene break down under denial, blocking, or inattention, and then watching the same scene succeed when those behaviors are reversed, gives students a concrete reference point that description alone cannot provide. The exercise is most useful for newer students and as an orientation to core principles.
John Cremer Characters and Scenes
John Cremer Characters and Scenes is a character-building and scene initiation exercise developed by UK improviser and educator John Cremer, in which participants develop distinct physicalized characters and then bring those characters into spontaneous scenes with one another. The exercise trains the connection between physical specificity and character logic, building confidence in initiating scenes from a grounded physical starting point rather than from dialogue or concept.
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.
Scenes That Bring You Joy
Scenes That Bring You Joy is a scene exercise in which performers are invited to play only scenes that genuinely delight them, prioritizing personal enjoyment over audience-pleasing instincts. The exercise reconnects players with the pleasure of performing and often produces unexpectedly authentic, engaging work. It counters the tendency to default to conflict-driven or joke-heavy scenes.
Three Rules
Three Rules is a scene exercise in which the facilitator establishes three specific constraints that performers must maintain throughout their scene. The constraints can be physical (always touching the wall, never letting your hands go below your waist), verbal (never using the letter S, only asking questions), or behavioral (treat your partner as royalty, move as if underwater). The exercise demonstrates that limitations generate rather than restrict creative choices, and trains performers to divide attention between scene work and rule compliance.
Create Obstacles
Create Obstacles is a scene exercise in which performers deliberately introduce complications and barriers to their characters' goals. The exercise teaches that obstacles are the engine of dramatic interest: characters who get what they want without resistance produce flat, unengaging scenes. By practicing the creation of obstacles, performers develop the instinct to generate tension and problem-solving pressure from within the scene rather than waiting for obstacles to arrive from outside.
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). Open Improv Scenes. Retrieved March 17, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/exercises/open-improv-scenes
The Improv Archive. "Open Improv Scenes." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/exercises/open-improv-scenes.
The Improv Archive. "Open Improv Scenes." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/exercises/open-improv-scenes. Accessed March 17, 2026.
The Improv Archive is a systemically maintained repository. The archive itself acts as the corporate author.