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
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The Actor's Book of Improvisation
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The Young Actor's Book of Improvisation
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The Art of Chicago Improv
Short Cuts to Long-Form Improvisation
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Improvise
Scene from the Inside Out
Mick Napier
Mask Improvisation for Actor Training and Performance
the compelling image
Sears A. Eldredge
The Improv Handbook
The Ultimate Guide to Improvising in Comedy, Theatre, and Beyond
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Related Exercises
Group Scene Point of View
Group Scene Point of View is a scene exercise in which a large group performs a single scene, with each player contributing from a consistent character perspective. Rather than multiple characters pursuing separate agendas, all participants inhabit roles within the same shared reality and must maintain their individual points of view while serving the scene collectively. The exercise develops the ability to hold a consistent character perspective across a complex group environment.
Point of View Post-It Notes
Point of View Post-It Notes is a scene exercise in which performers receive sticky notes with written character perspectives, attitudes, or emotional stances that they must embody throughout an improvised scene. The exercise separates point of view from plot, training performers to let a strong perspective drive their choices rather than relying on narrative invention.
Strike a Pose
Strike a Pose is a physical exercise in which players assume strong, committed physical positions and use each pose as a starting point for character, scene, or interpretive discovery. The exercise demonstrates that physical choices precede and inform emotional and character choices, rather than following from them. Multiple documented variants use the same core mechanic of striking and holding a pose to develop ensemble responsiveness, scene inspiration, and interpretive skill.
Point to Things in the Room
Point to Things in the Room is a warm-up exercise in which players walk around the space and point at objects while calling out their names. In progressive variations, players deliberately mislabel objects, pointing at a chair while saying "lamp," training the brain to separate observation from habitual naming and building comfort with the disorientation that fuels improvisation.
Portrait
Portrait is an applied improvisation exercise from The Applied Improvisation Mindset in which one participant poses while others describe what they observe. The exercise develops skills of attention, descriptive precision, and the ability to notice details without projecting assumptions onto another person.
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). Point of View. Retrieved September 29, 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 September 29, 2026.
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