Section 1: This can be done first in a circle. Player A turns to Player B and passes a letter with an emotion (saying the letter as they pass it). Player B says the letter with the same emotion and receives the letter. The emotions should be the same.

Section 2: Then, in pairs, players can pass the same letter back and forth, this time focusing on absorbing the emotion and then allowing it to morph and evolve. Maybe anger becomes more angry, or maybe it shifts to sadness. Either way, the exercise should keep moving, the thread should stay active. It helps to make eye contact with each other, to keep the feedback loop of energy open. It also helps for the player who just passed the letter not to drop the emotion completely, but to stay connected to their partner (they can even serve as a mirror, if that's helpful).

Section 3: In this section, everyone stands in a circle. One player raises their hand and says, "Hey! I've got the letter _____!" They should say this with a strong emotion; as they say it, they walk towards the center of the circle and then they put the letter down in the center. They walk back and join everyone in the circle while everybody repeats the letter with the same emotion that the initiator started with. The emotion should grow, and everyone should feed the energy of the collective. After a little bit of time, a new person says, "Hey! I've got the letter ______!" and so on.

Coaching Notes:

1) eye contact is very helpful at all stages of this exercise.

2) Encourage the players to connect to their breath. They can even think about "breathing in" the letter and emotion as it's given to them. Emotions move at the speed of breath, so breathing will also be the way from one emotion to another.

3) With all emotion work, it's great to find lightness and fun in it. In improv, we have the ability to play anger with lightness and fun, to play sadness with a twinkle in our eye, and so on. Encourage them to have fun by connecting with each other and committing to the energy of the emotion and the absurdity of yelling at the letter "t," for instance.

Save time and effort designing your workshops

Save time and effort
designing your workshops