The Magnet
The Magnet is a physical ensemble exercise in which one player acts as a magnet moving through the space while other players respond as if they are iron filings, drawn toward or pushed away depending on the magnet's orientation. The exercise develops physical responsiveness, spatial sensitivity, and ensemble attunement through non-verbal interaction.
Structure
Setup
One player is designated the magnet. All other participants spread through the space as iron filings. The magnet moves freely.
Exercise
As the magnet moves, participants respond physically to its orientation. When the magnet presents its positive pole toward them, they are repelled and move away. When it presents its negative pole, they are attracted and drawn closer. The magnet player controls which pole faces which direction through their movement and body orientation.
Participants respond not to explicit signals but to the magnet's spatial relationship to them. The exercise is non-verbal throughout.
Variation
In a more complex version, multiple magnet players operate simultaneously, each with independently chosen positive and negative orientations. Participants must navigate contradictory fields of attraction and repulsion across the space.
How to Teach It
How to Explain It
"One player is the magnet. Everyone else is a particle. When the magnet moves, the particles respond: attracted, repelled, orbiting. The magnet does not speak. The magnet's movement is the only language. Particles, follow what the body tells you."
Objectives
The Magnet develops physical responsiveness and sensitivity to a partner's spatial presence without verbal negotiation. It belongs to the family of Boal exercises that train actors to read and respond to embodied signals rather than spoken language. In improv contexts, the exercise serves as a pre-verbal warm-up that establishes ensemble attunement before scene work begins.
Facilitating the Exercise
Participants who are unfamiliar with Boal's physical work may initially over-intellectualize the exercise, trying to figure out which pole is active before responding. Encourage immediate physical response to proximity. The exercise works best when participants move continuously rather than waiting to determine the correct response.
The concept of positive and negative poles can remain abstract or can be made explicit. Boal's version in Games for Actors and Non-Actors presents both poles as active orientations the magnet player controls and shifts.
Relationship to Theatre of the Oppressed
This exercise comes from a specific pedagogical tradition. When using it with groups unfamiliar with Boal's work, context about Theatre of the Oppressed enriches the debrief: the exercise is not merely a warm-up but a demonstration that physical dynamics between bodies in space are readable and transformable.
History
Augusto Boal documents the exercise as "The Magnet -- Positive and Negative" in Games for Actors and Non-Actors (1992). The exercise belongs to Boal's arsenal of physical exercises developed for the Theatre of the Oppressed, a practice originating in Brazil in the 1960s and 1970s that used drama to build political and social awareness. Boal's games were designed to make physical and relational processes visible through structured physical play.
The metaphor of the magnet as a model for interpersonal attraction and repulsion appears in Boal's broader theoretical writing. In Theater of the Oppressed, Boal uses the image of magnetic force to describe the "soul" of objects and the invisible dynamics between bodies in space.
Worth Reading
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Theatrical Improvisation, Consciousness, and Cognition
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Funny on Purpose
The Definitive Guide to an Unpredictable Career in Comedy
Joe Randazzo
Improvisation for the Theater
A Handbook of Teaching and Directing Techniques
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The Young Actor's Book of Improvisation
Dramatic Situations
Sandra Caruso; Susan Kosoff
Theatre of the Oppressed
Augusto Boal
Theater Games for the Lone Actor
Viola Spolin
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Triangles
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Barney
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Puppets
Puppets is a physical game and exercise in which one performer manipulates another as a puppet, controlling their body positions and movements by touching or guiding their limbs. The puppet commits fully to whatever position they are placed in and speaks only during or just after the manipulation. Also known as Moving Bodies, the game creates comedy from the disconnect between the puppet's physical situation and their dialogue, while training physical surrender and trust.
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). The Magnet. Retrieved September 28, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/exercises/the-magnet
The Improv Archive. "The Magnet." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/exercises/the-magnet.
The Improv Archive. "The Magnet." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/exercises/the-magnet. Accessed September 28, 2026.
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