Endowment Exercises
Below are Samples from “The Impro Teachers Kit”
When you pre-order this fantastic resource you you will automatically receive a 50% discount on that purchase, the complete section on Improvisation from “Organised Chaos: A Very Practical Guide to Drama Teaching” and these sample exercises from “The Impro Teachers Kit” in a form that you can print out and use as individual cards.
ENDOWMENTS
Endowment scenes are scenes in which one or more actors leave the room, the rest of the performers get secret information from the audience or leader and, when the actor/s re-enter/s, the group ‘endows’ them with the information. Players must not overtly reveal the information. It has to be deduced by the ‘endowees’. This information is usually activities or attributes the ‘endowee’ must adopt. E.g. They’re a kidnapper; they must purchase a particular product from a shop; they must save the city from disaster etc.
ENDOWMENT EXCHANGE
Two players are selected. The others become the audience. They are given a location and each player is given an action they must endow on the other player in the scene. Players are not allowed to explicitly tell the other player what to do. E.g. A policeman is giving a traffic offence ticket to a motorist. Player A (the policeman) is asked to get player B (the motorist) to confess to murder. B is asked to get A to sing the National Anthem.
EXPERT ENDOWMENT
One player is selected to leave the room. The other player is given an unusual subject by the audience/leader, for example, ‘ an expert on tarantula mating calls’. The second player then introduces the first player who tries to figure out the unusual subject s/he is an expert on from the hints in the interviewer’s questions.
FIVE THINGS
Select four players. One player leaves the playing area while his/her partners get five activities from the audience for him/her to do e.g. walk the dog, wash the windows, juggle axes, brush his/her teeth. The things should not be related to each other. The actor is brought back in and in three minutes should be endowed with these activities by his/her partners. The team should not tell the ‘endowee’ or show, mime or use charades to get the ‘endowee’ to do these activities.
MURDER ENDOWMENT
Four players are selected from the group. One player stays onstage and the rest of the team leaves the room. The remaining player gets from the leader/audience: 1) ‘the murderers occupation’ 2) ‘a room in the house or building’ 3) ‘a murder weapon’ 4) ‘ the occupations of the other two team members’ and 5) ‘the victim/s identified’. The suggestions should not be related and the murder weapon does not need to be a weapon. When the rest of the team returns one at a time, the first returning player is endowed by the player onstage with ‘having that occupation’, ‘being in that room’ and then ‘having that murder weapon’. The player onstage must then endow the remaining members with their occupations and endow the victim. Within the scene created, the endowed murderer must take the mimed murder weapon and kill his or her partner in the room identified.
SECRET ENDOWMENT
Select two players to leave the room. The leader then asks the audience for two secrets, one for player A, one about player B. The players are called back into the room. The leader whispers to each one the secret about the other. They must then act out a scene in which they endow the other with their secret. For example A has had a sex change B is a CIA agent.
THE PRESS CONFERENCE
6 to 8 players are selected. One player is asked to leave the room, while the audience suggests the name of a famous or historical person. The absent player is called back in and becomes the interviewee in a press conference, but does not know who s/he is. The other players are journalists, whose questions should provide indications as to who the mystery person is. The game ends when the player interviewed guesses who s/he is.
WHO AM I?
One player leaves the room. The others choose where the improvisation is to take place and what that player’s character will be. Ideally the character should be one who is surrounded by a lot of activity; e.g. a reporter at a major newspaper, a doctor in an emergency ward, a porter at the airport. The activity begins and the first player is asked to return. The other players should relate to the first player and try to include him/her in what is happening. The first player should be open to what happens and not try to rush the discovery.
For a complete set of games, exercises and resources for teaching improvisation look at “The Impro Teachers Kit”
Harry Tawse | 
July 19, 2009 10:56 am
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