Trains: The perceptual foundation of Be Supportive — reading your partner's physical offers and building a reality that serves them. Primary mechanism: justification applied as generosity. Adapted from Keith Johnstone's blind offer concept (Impro, Impro for Storytellers); Johnstone's original drill is a rapid volley of intentionless gestures and interpretations. This exercise applies the same principle as a scene-starter.
Setup: Player A stands alone on stage and begins a sustained physical movement — anything at all. Crucially, A does not decide what the movement means. They are just moving — big, full-body, different levels. Player B watches from the side. After five to ten seconds, the teacher signals B to enter. B says something that makes A's random movement look intentional and meaningful. The scene continues from there for one to two minutes.
Example:
- A starts rocking slowly back and forth with their arms out.
- B enters: "Captain, the waves are getting worse. Should we turn back?"
- A's random rocking is now a sea captain bracing against a storm. A responds in character: "We didn't sail three weeks for nothing. Hold fast."
- To A, before starting: "Don't plan. Don't mime. Just let your body move. Bigger. Use your whole body."
- To B, if they hesitate: "First thing you see. Go with obvious."
- To B, if they go for a joke at A's expense: "Make them look brilliant, not funny."
- To A, after B speaks: "You're in the scene now. You know who you are. Keep going."
What to notice: Player B's entire job is to make Player A look good. The exercise strips away self-interest — B has no agenda except to justify and elevate whatever A is doing. Notice how naturally a scene emerges when one person is fully committed to serving the other's choices. Notice also that B's best move is almost always the first, most obvious interpretation — not the clever one.
The deeper lesson: Every scene contains moments where your partner does something you didn't expect. The question is always: do you treat it as a problem (your thing to redirect) or a gift (their thing to elevate)? This exercise builds the "gift" reflex. Note: it primarily trains the perceptual dimension of support — reading your partner and building from what you see. The harder dimension — choosing to serve your partner when you have your own competing impulse — is trained by the Supporting Player variation below.
Variation — Double Blind (advanced): Both players start with physical movements simultaneously, without speaking. After ten seconds, the teacher points to one player, who speaks first and justifies BOTH movements into a single coherent scene. This is significantly harder — it requires pattern-matching two unrelated physical streams into one reality. Save it for students comfortable with the base version.
Variation — Supporting Player (scene format): Run a normal two-person scene, but before it starts, privately designate one player as the "support." The support player's only job is to make the other player's offers shine — no stealing focus, no redirecting, no pursuing their own ideas over their partner's. After two minutes, switch roles. Debrief: how did it feel to play from pure generosity? How did it feel to be supported? This variation trains the hardest form of the skill: choosing to serve your partner when your own impulses are competing for attention.