What To Do When Your Improv Scene Loses Momentum
4 min read
Sticky scenes are inevitable. Here are a few practical tips that might help you notice when things need to change, and unstick your scenes...
You’re in the middle of a scene. You and your scene partner are talking, but it feels like nothing is really happening. You’re circling the same idea. Maybe it feels like you are arguing, or maybe you’re both simply clinging to your characters’ positions.
The scene feels… sticky.
When you’re improvising in a heat wave, sticky scenes are inevitable (haha... ahh help!). But there are a few practical tips that might help unstick your scenes (without throwing away everything you’ve already built).
How to recognise a “stalled” or “sticky” scene
Firstly, what do we mean by “sticky” or “stalled”? I would say it’s when your scene feels like one of the following:
- The characters are butting heads: Two characters are opposed. They’re not necessarily shouting, but they’re not yielding or changing either.
- No one is making new choices: You’re repeating the same emotional beat or the same argument in slightly different words.
- The scene feels frozen in place: The relationship, the situation, and the stakes are all basically the same as they were at the top of the scene.
- You’re not sure what to do next: You can feel that “heightening the Game” isn’t helping, but you don’t know what else to reach for.
Underneath all of that, the core problem is usually: The scene is asking for a change, and the players are afraid to make one. Therefore, the core solution is choose to change something.
We can be scared of change because a) change IS scary and b) we worry we’re about to break the scene, improv, or the Game.
I have come up with a complete and exhaustive list of all five tools for moving a scene forward; I’m sorry, but it is not even possible to think of any others than these ones below.
How to fix a stalled scene
Tool 1: Someone bends
Stop arguing and give in. You can do this explicitly: “You know what, you’re right. I’m being ridiculous. Let’s do it your way.” Or you can shift your stance a bit: “I see your point, but I’m scared because…”. Or you can just own your mistake: “I'm sorry, I've messed up.”
Tool 2: Respond honestly and specifically
Sometimes the problem isn’t just that you’re butting heads; it’s that no one is being emotionally honest.
You might be playing “big” emotions in a general way (loud anger, big panic) that doesn’t really match the reality of what’s happening, or perhaps you are holding back a truthful reaction because you’re afraid it will break the scene in some way. Make the honest choice; the scene will survive!
Tool 3: Change the focus without abandoning the scene
Move on, and focus on something else. Your characters didn’t just turn up to talk about this one thing endlessly. What else have you got going on?
In it’s simplest form, you’re doing this every time you ask if someone wants a coffee part way through your scene. But, at it’s richest, this looks like you exploring the rest of your characters’ lives.
Of course, this is easiest when you already have a rich scene to explore outside of what you’re currently doing. If you’re finding the base reality a little thin, you’ll likely have to create or discover something... which leads us to a classic improv tool:
Tool 4: Make an emotionally powered confession
This tool is so useful you’ll probably have done this as an exercise already. Confessing something that matters to you immediately injects some care and purpose into your scene. You and your scene partner are immediately invested and connected.
This can be any confession that relates to and connects the characters. But, the more you improvise, the better you’ll get at listening and noticing moments and specifics that imply there might be something to confess there already. So, you’re not so much “inventing” as you are “exploring” an energy or an emotion you’ve already picked up on.
Tool 5: Go to your environment
When you feel frozen, going to your environment can unstick you – and connect you better to the scene.
Do some space work: clean, pack a box, fold uniforms, type a furious email.
Doing something physical can jolt you out of verbal looping, and it adds new details to the world that can often help move the scene forward. It’s changing the focus without having to think of a thing to talk about.
Wait, isn’t this Resting the Game?
Yeah, pretty much. Resting the Game is great, because as improvisers we don’t want to just keep hitting one thing over and over.
However, the phrase “rest the game” is not necessarily helpful when you’re in the middle of a scene. The goal of these tools is to give you something to actually DO. So, instead of going “Time for me to now STOP doing the Game”, you're going “Time for me to DO this other thing.”
You might find it easier to think of it this way: “Do something else – make a choice.”
Sometimes you’ll bend, sometimes you’ll behave more truthfully, sometimes you’ll shift the focus with new details or space work. If you can notice that the scene is asking for change, trust that your Game, your characters, and your world are sturdy enough to survive that change – and very often, they’ll come back funnier, richer, and more engaging for it.
