Tossing
Tossing is a circle warm-up exercise in which players pass real or imaginary objects around the group with clear physical intention. Each exchange requires specific attention to the give and the receive: the sender must establish the object's weight, size, and nature before releasing it; the receiver must honor those physical qualities in the catch and carry. The exercise trains physical specificity, eye contact, ensemble attention, and the fundamental habit of truly giving something to a partner.
Structure
Setup
The group stands in a circle with enough room to move comfortably. The facilitator introduces either a real object (a ball, a bean bag) or an imaginary object to begin.
Basic Form
Players pass the object around the circle, establishing eye contact with the receiver before each toss. The object must be treated as real: its weight, size, and fragility should be physically present in both the throw and the catch. Lazy miming (casual gestures that barely suggest an object exists) is the principal failure mode; the facilitator coaches toward specificity.
Object Transformation Variant
Sybil Noreen Telander documents a version in Acting Up (1996) in which players pass an imaginary ball while progressively changing its properties as it travels around the circle: size, weight, temperature, texture. The receiver must observe the transformation and commit to the new physical reality before passing it on. This variant deepens the exercise by requiring the group to collectively sustain a shared fiction about an object's nature while continuously evolving that fiction.
Scene Extension (Spolin)
Viola Spolin uses object-tossing as a way to physicalize abstract or verbal content in scene work in Improvisation for the Theater (1963). Tossing a bean bag between scene players, for example, can physicalize a scene about passing blame or sharing responsibility, connecting the physical exercise to meaning-making within an improvised scene.
Progression
Begin with a single object; add a second; add a third. Multiple simultaneous objects in the circle require players to track and attend to more than one line of attention simultaneously, developing peripheral awareness alongside focused attention. An advanced variation has each player establish a completely different imaginary object: one player throws a heavy medicine ball, another returns a butterfly, another passes a hot coal.
How to Teach It
How to Explain It
"You are going to toss an object to someone across the circle. The object has weight, texture, fragility. It is real. Make sure the person you are throwing to is ready before you release. The receiver shows us what the object is by how they catch it."
Objectives
Tossing develops the physical vocabulary of giving and receiving, which underlies all partner-based improv work. A player who has learned to fully present an imaginary object to a specific person and wait for that person to register the gift before releasing it has internalized the physical discipline of listening in space: attending completely to another person before acting.
The exercise also develops specificity in mime, which is the foundation of effective object work in scenes. Vague, uncommitted mime tells an audience nothing; specific, weighted, physically present mime builds a world.
Scaffolding
Begin with real objects before moving to imaginary ones. The proprioceptive feedback of an actual ball in the hand calibrates the physical commitment that the imaginary version requires. Once players have felt the weight and trajectory of a real throw, they can reproduce those qualities in mime.
For the transformation variant, introduce a single property change at a time (size only, then weight only) before combining them. Rapid simultaneous transformation of multiple properties overwhelms players who haven't yet developed the baseline commitment.
Common Coaching Notes
- "Make eye contact before you throw. The throw doesn't start until they know it's coming."
- "You received something. Acknowledge the weight before you throw it on."
- "What does this object weigh? Let your body answer, not your voice."
- "If I cannot see the object in your hands, it does not exist for the audience."
History
The use of ball-passing and object-tossing as ensemble warm-up activities derives from physical education, sports training, and ensemble theatre pedagogy, all of which employ object exchange as a way to establish group attention before a session begins.
Viola Spolin incorporates object work and tossing throughout Improvisation for the Theater (1963), using bean bag tossing as both a warm-up mechanism and a device for physicalizing scene content. Spolin's approach treats every object as possessing genuine physical reality that must be honored in mime.
Sybil Noreen Telander documents the imaginary ball exercise with transforming properties in Acting Up: An Innovative Approach to Creative Drama for Older Adults (1996), presenting it as a warm-up energizer suitable for groups of mixed age and physical ability. The exercise appears in this context because imaginary object work does not require the physical fitness of a real tossed ball while still developing the same ensemble attention and physical imagination.
The tossing exercise in its various forms is a foundational element of ensemble theatre warm-up curricula across traditions, including physical theatre, applied theatre, and improv pedagogy. No single originator has been documented.
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Related Exercises
Pass Catch
Pass Catch is a circle warm-up in which players pass unique poses and sounds around the group. Each player receives an offer by mirroring the previous player's pose and sound exactly, then immediately invents a completely new pose and sound to send to the next person. The exercise builds comfort with silliness, sharpens the habit of fully accepting offers before generating new ones, and warms up physical expressiveness.
Pass Ball
Pass Ball is a circle warm-up exercise in which players toss a real or imaginary ball around the group while maintaining eye contact with the intended recipient. Additional balls may be introduced to increase complexity, requiring the group to track multiple objects simultaneously. The exercise builds focus, nonverbal communication, and the habit of making clear, directed offers to specific partners rather than throwing ideas into the void.
The Thing
The Thing is an object work exercise in which a player is handed an imaginary object whose identity has not been declared in advance. The player must discover what the object is solely through the physical act of handling it -- registering its weight, texture, shape, and behavior in real time. The exercise teaches that specificity of handling creates the object; the object does not exist prior to the player's physical commitment to it.
Object Circle
Object Circle is a warm-up exercise in which participants stand in a circle and pass physical or mimed objects to each other, transforming each object through imagination as it travels. One participant sends an object with a specific size, weight, and character; the next participant receives it, uses it briefly, then transforms it into something new before passing it on. The exercise develops physical specificity, collaborative imagination, and the habit of accepting and building on what a partner offers.
Objects
Objects is an ensemble exercise and short-form game in which players use their bodies to form the physical shape of an audience-suggested object. Players enter one at a time, each adding themselves to the growing sculpture until the group collectively represents the object in physical space. The exercise builds spontaneous physicality, spatial awareness, and the ensemble skill of offering and accepting physical contributions without verbal negotiation.
Peruvian Ball Game
Peruvian Ball Game is an energetic warm-up exercise in which each player creates an imaginary ball with distinct physical properties, plays with it to establish its reality, then exchanges it with other players before attempting to locate and retrieve the original. The exercise develops mime precision, concentration, and spatial awareness while generating high energy through committed physical play.
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). Tossing. Retrieved March 19, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/exercises/tossing
The Improv Archive. "Tossing." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/exercises/tossing.
The Improv Archive. "Tossing." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/exercises/tossing. Accessed March 19, 2026.
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