Invocation
Invocation is a group opening exercise in which the ensemble collectively summons the energy, imagery, and thematic associations of a single audience suggestion through a ritualistic spoken-word performance. The ensemble stands in a circle or cluster and riffs vocally on the suggestion, building a shared stream of imagery, associations, and emotional responses. The Invocation creates source material for subsequent scenes while unifying the ensemble's focus and establishing a collective creative state. Developed by Del Close, the Invocation is a signature opening for Harold performances and other long-form shows.
Structure
The ensemble receives a single-word suggestion from the audience, typically an object. The group gathers in a tight formation, often a circle or a semicircle facing the audience.
One performer begins speaking about the suggestion: not defining it but free-associating around it, exploring its textures, memories, emotional resonances, and cultural connections. Other performers join in, overlapping and building on each other's contributions. The speaking is not conversational; it is incantatory, with a rhythmic, heightened quality that distinguishes it from ordinary speech.
The ensemble builds in intensity. Individual voices weave together, sometimes speaking simultaneously, sometimes yielding to a single voice that captures a particularly resonant image. The associations move outward from the literal object to its metaphorical, emotional, and narrative possibilities.
The Invocation runs for two to five minutes. The facilitator or a designated ensemble member reads the energy and ends the Invocation at a peak moment, often with a collective physical gesture or a sudden silence.
The images, phrases, and themes generated during the Invocation become the raw material for the scenes that follow. Performers draw on the shared pool of associations rather than introducing unconnected ideas, creating thematic coherence across the show.
How to Teach It
How to Explain It
"We are going to open with an invocation. We speak together, as one voice, calling in the space, the story, the night. Listen to each other. Slow down to the pace of the slowest voice. Begin."
The Invocation is an advanced opening that requires comfort with poetic language, group synchronization, and the willingness to speak without a clear plan. Introduce it after the ensemble has developed basic group mind skills through simpler exercises like Hot Spot or group free association.
Coach for specificity over abstraction. An Invocation about "keys" that produces images of "a grandmother's key ring, heavy with keys to rooms that no longer exist" is more useful than one that stays at the level of "keys open doors, doors lead to places." Specific images generate specific scenes.
The most common failure is performers waiting for their turn to speak rather than joining the flow. The Invocation is not a round-robin; it is a collective voice that swells and recedes. Coach performers to speak when moved rather than when it is their turn, and to overlap with others rather than waiting for silence.
The ritual quality of the Invocation matters. The exercise creates a transition from the everyday world into the performance state. Treating it as a casual warm-up rather than a focused collective act diminishes its function. The ensemble should approach the Invocation with the seriousness of purpose that Del Close intended: a genuine summoning of creative energy around the suggestion.
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Related Exercises
Mantra
Mantra is a vocal and mental exercise in which performers select and repeat a single word or short phrase, gradually shifting its rhythm, volume, pitch, and emotional intensity. The repetition strips away self-consciousness and helps players discover how meaning transforms through delivery alone. The same word spoken softly becomes a prayer; spoken forcefully becomes a command; spoken rapidly becomes a plea. Mantra prepares performers for emotionally committed scene work by building comfort with vocal extremes and sustained focus. The exercise draws on meditation practices adapted for theatrical training.
Volcano
Volcano is a group warm-up exercise in which the ensemble builds collective vocal and physical energy gradually from silence to a full explosive release, then returns to silence. The exercise calibrates the group's shared energy and teaches performers to build and release intensity together as a single unit. It functions as an energizer and ensemble-synchronization exercise.
Cocktail Party
Cocktail Party is a multi-scene ensemble exercise and game in which several pairs of performers simultaneously engage in separate conversations at an imagined social gathering. The overlapping dialogues create a rich, layered environment in which performers must maintain their own character and scene while tracking the conversations happening around them. As connections emerge between the separate conversations, performers weave themes, characters, and references across the pairs. The game trains ensemble awareness, the ability to sustain a character in the background, and the skill of recognizing shared themes and patterns across simultaneous scenes. As described in Truth in Comedy, the Cocktail Party allows performers to explore the value of connections in improvisation.
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). Invocation. Retrieved March 17, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/exercises/invocation
The Improv Archive. "Invocation." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/exercises/invocation.
The Improv Archive. "Invocation." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/exercises/invocation. Accessed March 17, 2026.
The Improv Archive is a systemically maintained repository. The archive itself acts as the corporate author.