Teaching improv with Zoom
By Filip Kominik
“This is not working. I don’t like it”
This was me. A few weeks ago. I just had to cut my world tour and come back to Europe, so maybe I wasn’t in the best mood.
Teaching improv online, why would you?
But now, I know why. The online space has possibilities that the physical space does not have. Exploring those is really worth it: for you and for your students.
To help you see what is possible, I made you this list.
Things you can do with Zoom, that you cannot do in a workshop room
Being at home
Everyone is at home with an environment and objects they know really well. They know where things are, and they can easily grab it.
Example: ask players to grab their favourite book to get a first sentence for a story. Or have players fetch and describe an object that is meaningful to them.
Mute
The audio in a Zoom call can be somewhat of a challenge if nobody mutes themselves. Think with every exercise whether or not they should be muted, and as the host have your ‘mute all’ and ‘unmute all’ buttons close by.
Example: if everyone is muted, you can talk students through a story that they all play out at the same time in their own room. Or, during a 2 person scene that is played for the rest, unmuting can help with giving the feeling of an audience.
Chat
I loooove the chat function in online improv workshops, because everyone can say what they think at the same time. It is also a great place to share responses while a scene is happening.
Example: after having done an exercise in a breakout room, ask players to share 1 quote from their scene in the chat. Or use the chat to ask for player’s challenges: you can respond to all, or just the one(s) that was/were mentioned multiple times.
Save chat
Any of the participants can save the text from the chat. That means it is a great tool for brainstorming and keeping a record of it.
Example: brainstorm better audience questions in breakout rooms, then share the best ones in the chat in the main session. Everyone goes home with a great list of questions for their next show.
Rename
All the screens are shown with the name of the account. You can ask players to rename themselves, add information to their name or change it to all the same.
Example: for quick introductions have participants rename themselves to first name - pronouns - country. Or have everyone change their name to X and share a confession anonymously in the chat.
Video on/off
By asking everyone to click ‘Hide non-video participants’ you can have players enter and exit the ‘stage’ by turning video on and off. It also allows for those playing to show bigger in the screen (assuming everyone is on gallery view).
Example: tell everyone to be ready to play and as a host pick 2 players whose screen you turn on for a scene. Or play 3 is a crowd, where every time 1 person ‘enters’ another one needs to leave again.
P.S. When the video is off, players can do anything before they turn it back on. For example: come very close, put on costumes, change the room. Use this element of surprise!
Share screen
With the share screen button you can share one of the windows you have opened in your computer.
Example: share a YouTube clip of a great example of silent play, as an introduction to an exercise without words. Or take this opportunity to work with a / your team on watching your own show.
Share music
In the advanced tab of ‘Share Screen’ is an option to just share music. This is one of my favorite functions. It allows for playing music form my Spotify into the workshop main session, just like I would do in a physical space.
Example: play some happy music while people come in to set the mood. Or use music as inspiration for a scene that everyone improvises at the same time in their own room.
Breakout Rooms
By putting people in Breakout Rooms they have an opportunity to work in a smaller group on something. Which I think can accelerate learning, because players can repeat a skill until it becomes second nature. It is especially great for big groups where everyone can practice at the same time.
Example: put players in pairs into Breakout Rooms to practice monologues that start with an opinion. Or have them breakout in 4, where 2 play a scene, 2 watch and they then switch.
P.S. Tell players to use ‘Call for help’ to get you in their Breakout Room. I also enjoy just ‘walking around’ in the rooms to get a feel of how it is going.
Broadcast Message
After having put players in breakout rooms you can use ‘Broadcast message’ to have it delivered to all rooms.
Example: send a message ‘Half time, switch roles’ to all the breakout rooms. Or add a bit of information that you may have forgotten in your explanation ’You BOTH use long pauses in your speaking’
Waiting Room
You can put participants temporarily in the waiting room, where they won’t hear or see anything that is happening in the main room.
Example: when playing ‘guess the adjective’ you can put 1 player in the waiting room while you agree with the group on an adjective. Take the player out of the waiting room and each player shows the adjective in their own way.
This list is of course not complete but I hope it can give you some ideas. All the ways in which online improv is different from face-to-face improv are not inherently bad. It is just different, and that allows for a fun exploration.
If you would like to know how I find exercises for online improv classes, you can watch my Facebook live video here.
If you would like to share or ask for ideas for your online improv class, feel free to add yourself to this closed Facebook group for improv teachers.
Our friends from the Nursery theatre have compiled a very useful blog with Top ten tips to get the most out of online improv. I recommend reading that one too!
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