Improv Sound Ball
Throw an imaginary ball across the circle. As you throw, you make a sound — the catcher receives that exact sound with their body, then invents a new sound as they throw it on. The ball is never silent and never dropped. It does two jobs at once: it wakes up the voice and it trains real give-and-take. Catching the sound fully — matching its size and weight — is a listening exercise in disguise, and it primes the vocal freedom that scenes need.
🎓 Tips
Catch before you throw. The catcher must receive the exact sound they were sent before making a new one — that reception is the whole point. Commit the body to the sound. A big sound needs a big throw. Coach against polite, small offers. Deepen it by changing the ball: heavy, tiny, boiling hot. The object's physicality pulls richer sounds out of people.
Spotted a mistake, a missing variant, a better way to run it? Change it.