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Improv Encyclopedia Home Page

Theatre 5 has rescued this copy of the Improv Encyclopedia
The original site at http://www.humanpingpongball.com/ seems to be closed
Improv Encyclopedia

Welcome to the Improv Encyclopedia! Here you will find tons of stuff related to improvisation theatre. Look for improv games, handles, concentration exercises, drama techniques, character exercises, warm-ups, long form Improv formats, improvised show formats, tips for improv workshops and much more.

If you came here from another page on the site that had a totally different layout, please note that the whole site had a major upgrade on August 28; the page you came from was probably an old page from a previous version. We intend to keep our old pages alive for a while, as hundreds of other sites link to these pages and we do not want to break these links. If you link to Improv Encyclopedia please update your links.

This site is organized in 4 large chunks:

• Games : a collection of improv games, handles, exercises and warm-ups. Each of these belongs in one or more Categories . On the games pages you will find a list of all games, with a link to each game.
• Some games are known by different names. Hence, the games page also provides a list of synonyms for game names.
• You will find a page for each game. If known, the origin of the game is provided. Next to each game description you will find a list of all categories the game is listed in.
• Categories : categories for games, handles, exercises and warm-ups. Most games are in more than one category, so the whole is a big spiderweb of references. On the categories page you will find links to all categories.
• For each category, a short description is given, along with the list of all games in that category.
• Glossary : this is a list of improv terms and basic concepts. These are referenced in the game/category descriptions.
• References : this is a list of interesting/useful people, troupes, books, articles, websites and other stuff that did not fit anywhere else. Most of these are referred to in the game/category descriptions.

The whole Improv Encyclopedia consists of about 500 html pages. If you'd like to download a copy of the whole encyclopedia, go to the download page. If you want to know how this site was built, check out the FAQ page. You can even download all the sources used to build this site.

Feel free to report any mistakes, omissions, additions, comments or kudos here . Enjoy!

A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for. --- Admiral Grace Murray Hopper