Bus stop
An improvisation exercise for exploring character.
- Set out three chairs in a row. Tell the students that this is a bus stop and that they must decide on a reason why their character would be waiting there.
- Insist that the students enter from one side or the other of the bus stop rather than from the front, and mark the point from which they are to be in role by drawing a line in chalk or masking tape on the floor.
- Select the first student to begin the exercise by tapping him or her on the shoulder. The first student enters the bus stop and waits for thirty seconds. This length of time is important, because the first ten seconds are easy, after which the student must really work on waiting in role.
- Then tap a second student on the shoulder. This student enters.
- There may be an improvised interaction between the characters or not, depending on the characters’ reasons for being at the bus stop and their personalities.
- The first student must find a reason to leave the bus stop.
- The second student then plays the role for thirty seconds alone before the teacher shoulder-taps a third student, and so on.