Point of View
Point of View is a scene exercise in which players perform or re-perform the same event from the perspective of different characters, revealing how subjective experience shapes what each participant notices, values, and remembers. The exercise trains character consistency, empathy, and the improv principle that every scene contains multiple valid truths simultaneously -- none of which is objectively correct.
Structure
Setup
Two or more players establish a brief scene. The scene should contain a clear event or moment of conflict -- an argument, a discovery, an awkward encounter -- that different characters would experience in measurably different ways. No audience suggestion is required, though one may be used to set a location or relationship.
First Perspective
Players perform the scene from their characters' natural positions. The coach observes without interrupting. The goal is a specific, committed scene in which each player has a clear internal experience of the event.
Perspective Shift
After the first scene, the coach resets the players and asks them to perform the same event from a different character's point of view. This may mean:
- Switching which character is the protagonist of the re-telling
- Introducing a third character's perspective on the same event (an observer, a bystander, a peripheral figure)
- Running the scene from inside a character who was previously a background presence
Each replay begins from the same starting point and covers the same events. The same facts of the scene remain: the same words were spoken, the same choices made. What changes is which details are noticed, which moments are weighted as significant, and what emotional truth each character carries out of the encounter.
Repeated Perspectives
The exercise may run two to five perspective passes depending on the complexity of the scene and the learning goals. Each pass reveals something the previous perspective obscured. The character who was the antagonist in the first telling often becomes sympathetic in the second. The character who appeared passive is revealed to have been intensely active internally.
Conclusion
The exercise concludes with a facilitated discussion of what changed between perspectives and what remained constant. Key questions: What did each character notice that others did not? Where did characters misread each other's intentions? What would the scene look like from outside, to someone who had no stake in the outcome?
Common Pitfalls
The most common failure is players performing a different scene rather than the same scene from a different perspective. In a perspective shift, the facts of the scene do not change -- only the experiential weight assigned to those facts. Coaches watch for players who alter the events themselves rather than their relationship to them.
A second failure is shallow perspective-taking: replaying the scene with the same emotional register and emphasis, merely swapping who says what. A genuine perspective shift requires the player to inhabit a different relationship to the scene's stakes -- to find what this event means from a position other than their own.
How to Teach It
How to Explain It
"You are going to play a scene, but I want you to play your character's interior experience, not just their words. What does this person actually feel about what is happening? What do they notice that they do not say? Play both layers at once: what you say and what is happening inside you."
Objectives
Point of View trains character interiority (the specific internal experience of a scene, distinct from the words spoken), empathy (the genuine imaginative inhabitation of a perspective other than one's own), and the improv principle that accepting a partner's reality does not require agreeing with it -- both can be true from their respective positions.
Scaffolding
Begin with scenes that have clearly contrasting positions: a landlord and a tenant, a coach and a player, a parent and a child. These asymmetrical relationships make the perspective contrast immediately apparent.
For intermediate players, remove the obvious role-contrast and use scenes between apparent equals -- two friends, two colleagues -- where the perspective gap is subtler. The exercise becomes significantly harder when both characters seem to occupy similar positions of power.
Advanced practice: ask players to run the scene simultaneously in their heads as two characters before stepping into any one perspective. This internal dual awareness -- holding both perspectives at once -- is the advanced target of the exercise.
Common Coaching Notes
- "What does your character notice in this moment that the other character doesn't see?"
- "What does this event mean to you? Not to the scene -- to your character specifically."
- "The facts don't change. Your relationship to the facts does."
- "What would you say if you could speak every thought your character has during this scene?"
- "From where you're standing, who is right? Why?"
History
Point of view as a core improv concept is documented across multiple major teaching traditions. Mick Napier identifies strong personal point of view as a foundational element of effective scene work in Improvise: Scene from the Inside Out (2004), arguing that a performer who commits fully to their character's specific perspective gives their partner everything needed for a productive scene. Randy Lynn notes in Improvisation for Actors and Writers (2004) that characters require a specific point of view on a specific topic, held consistently.
The use of perspective-shifting as a rehearsal exercise connects to Viola Spolin's point of concentration work in Improvisation for the Theater (1963) and to Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed techniques, which systematically place participants inside experiences other than their own to develop empathy and social awareness.
The specific drill format of re-performing the same scene from successive characters' perspectives appears across actor training programs as a variation on the Rashomon principle -- named for Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film in which the same events are recounted from four irreconcilable perspectives. No single originator for the Point of View exercise as a named improv drill has been confirmed in the available record.
Worth Reading
See all books →
Yes, And
How Improvisation Reverses No, But Thinking and Improves Creativity and Collaboration
Kelly Leonard; Tom Yorton
Business Improv
Experiential Learning Exercises to Train Employees
Val Gee
The Actor's Book of Improvisation
Sandra Caruso; Paul Clemens
Comedy and Distinction
The Cultural Currency of a 'Good' Sense of Humour
Sam Friedman
Legislative Theatre
Using Performance to Make Politics
Augusto Boal
Theatrical Improvisation
Short Form, Long Form, and Sketch-Based Improv
Jeanne Leep
Related Exercises
Play With
Play With is a scene exercise in which performers are directed to explore and heighten whatever elements have already emerged in a scene rather than driving toward a predetermined outcome. The coaching directive -- "play with it" -- asks players to treat each established detail, character behavior, or game pattern as material to revisit, expand, and discover rather than move past. The exercise trains the improv muscle of finding satisfaction in the present moment of a scene.
Point of View Post-It Notes
Point of View Post-It Notes is a scene exercise in which performers receive sticky notes with written perspectives, attitudes, or emotional states that they must adopt during a scene. The external assignment frees players from habitual choices and forces them to commit to a viewpoint they might not naturally select. The exercise expands character range and teaches the value of strong point of view.
Pivot
Pivot is a scene exercise in which performers identify the moment when a scene needs to shift direction and make a deliberate choice to change it. The facilitator may call "Pivot" to signal the moment, or players practice identifying pivot points themselves. The exercise develops editorial awareness and trains the skill of knowing when a scene needs to evolve rather than repeat.
As You Will
As You Will is a character immersion exercise in which actors spend an extended period inhabiting their characters in an unstructured social environment. As documented by Gavin Levy in 112 Acting Games, players arrive already in character and interact freely with each other for twenty to sixty minutes without any scripted dialogue, predetermined blocking, or audience. The exercise strips away the technical demands of performance (projection, line learning, blocking) and replaces them with pure character exploration and responsive interaction. By removing the pressure of performance, As You Will allows actors to discover new dimensions of their characters through spontaneous encounter. The exercise is primarily used in conjunction with a scripted production, where it serves as a rehearsal tool for deepening character work and ensemble connection.
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). Point of View. Retrieved March 17, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/exercises/point-of-view
The Improv Archive. "Point of View." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/exercises/point-of-view.
The Improv Archive. "Point of View." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/exercises/point-of-view. Accessed March 17, 2026.
The Improv Archive is a systemically maintained repository. The archive itself acts as the corporate author.