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WARM-UPS
Pass the Bag of Candy: Everyone gets in a circle or line if this is being watched by an audience. Take turns passing a mimed bag of candy to others (one ball at a time). Each time it reaches the leader, he/she says if the bag becomes heavier, or extremely light, extremely big (and light or heavy) or extremely small (and light or heavy) or very sticky. Actors need to show the candy's characteristics in the way it gets passed. If there is an audience and everyone is in a line, the last person in line crosses the stage to the first player and as they do, the audience can call out a suggestion of what the bag of candy turns in to.
GAMES
Documentary or Slide Show: A leader pretends to be a narrator of a documentary and the actors must act out the documentary the leader describes (do theme such as the history of horror movies or how to stop a vampire attack). They can do it as a slideshow/powerpoint with still picture poses or actually act out what is being narrated.
Gibberish: A group of actors (group #1) are monsters and act out a scene speaking in a weird monster language. They act out a simple activity like digging a hole, preparing for a party or cooking. The other group of actors (group #2) act out the same scene and translate what was said in English.
- Variation 1: have actors translate what was said by the monsters as they act
- Variation 2: have a actor play a monster who speaks gibberish and have the other actors try to figure out what he/she is saying in a scene where an monster shows up at their door
Scary movie in a Minute: The actors get a superhero story title from the audience and then act out the story in one minute. Then they must act out the same thing in 30 seconds. THEN they must act it out in 10 seconds.
Stunt Doubles: 2 Actors are acting a scene such as dealing with a villain who is doing something bad. When it comes time to do a "dangerous" step (such as punching the villain) they call in their stunt doubles. The easier the "dangerous" task is, the funnier it can be (such as picking up litter).
Lines from our Pockets: The audience will write lines for the actors to say. Someone will collect the lines and not show them to the actors. The actors will act out a superhero scene and then they must work the lines into the scene.
Here Comes Creepy: One actor plays Creepy who is off stage. The other two actors are shopping for costumes. The two shoppers are disappointed to see a store employee named Creepy coming to help them and describe the terrible things Creepy does to shoppers while he/she is off stage getting costumes for them. Creepy enters and she has to act like she is described.
Evil Inventions (aka props): All the actors are monster movie villains. Give the villains weird things they have never seen before and they must say what they do. The object can do anything except what it really does.
Questions Only: Actors get in two lines (one line is monsters and the other is monster hunters). They talk in the form of a question. If they make a statement or don't use a question, then they must go to the back of the line or the audience can shout DIE and they must do a dramatic death scene. The line with the most left at the end wins.
Stand Sit Slump: A monster hunter faces two monsters (or two monster hunters face one monster). One must be standing, one must be sitting and one must slump down on the ground. After each actor says one thing, the last actor to speak must pick a new position (stand) and the others must adjust and pick the two remaining positions (sit and slump). This can continue until a high moment of humor or until one actor majorly messes up.
Melodrama: Do an old fashioned melodrama, but with a twist. The twists will be based on suggestions from the audience.
- Have three characters: a damsel in distress, a hero, and a villain/monster
- Audience: will Boo at Villain/Monster, Cheer for Hero, Ahhh for Damsel.
- Audience will suggest... Damsel: something strange to raise on a farm (eyeballs or brains), Villain: a weird form of torture, Hero: an odd weapon someone might use to stop a villain.
Preparing for a Zombie Attack (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly): You must decide who is giving the best advice for preparing for a zombie attack. 3 players (experts) form a line upstage. The audience provides questions or problems for which they need advice. Actor #1 always provide good advice, actors #2 always gives bad advice , and actors #3 gives really bad advice. Good advice should be good, bad should be opposite of the good and ugly should be an even worse version of bad.
Action Figures: 1-2 actors are superhero action figures and 1-2 actors are villain action figures. They must do battle but none of them can move on their own. They can only speak. 2 audience members must move them in to battle.
Party Quirks, Dating Game and Monster Attack: In all three of these games, three actors become Halloween characters suggested by the audience. Then you have one person who tries to guess who they are. You can have the audience write suggestions on pieces of paper before the show or you can the person guessing step outside and the audience can make suggestions.
- Party Quirk: The person guessing is the host of a party and the other actors ring the doorbell and enter one at a time as their characters creating problems at the party. The person guess must say who they are to get rid of them.
- Dating Game: The person guessing is a bachelor or bachelorette and interviews the three monsters with dating type questions (i.e. what's your ideal date? what would be a perfect place to go for a romantic vacation?). The monsters must give answers that reveal who they are without saying their names.
- Monster Attack: The person guessing is under attack by three monsters and the monsters will only die if he/she says who they are.
Share your ideas for games in the discussion below!
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For more Improv Games go to http://www.freedrama.net/improv.html
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