What?
What? is an exercise in which performers respond to each offer with genuine curiosity, exploring rather than accepting at face value. The exercise teaches the difference between blocking and curious investigation, building the habit of digging deeper into a partner's offers.
Structure
Setup
- Two players work in a scene.
- One player makes an offer: a statement, an action, a piece of information.
- The second player responds with genuine curiosity rather than acceptance or denial.
The Curiosity Response
- Instead of "yes, and," the receiving player asks: "What do you mean?" "What does that look like?" "What happens when you do that?" "What would make that different?"
- The questions are not challenges or rejections. They are genuine investigations.
- The exercise trains the habit of digging deeper into a partner's offer before moving past it.
The Difference from Blocking
- Blocking refuses or ignores an offer. What questions do not refuse anything.
- What questions slow down scene development to deepen the current moment rather than advance to the next one.
- A question that investigates the content of an offer is different from a question that avoids committing to it.
How Curiosity Changes Scenes
- Scenes that move through offers without investigating them tend to be thin and eventful but not meaningful.
- Scenes that pause to investigate one offer in depth tend to be rich and specific.
- The exercise does not advocate for constant questioning in scene work. It develops the capacity to slow down when slowing down would serve the scene.
Application
- After the exercise, the director can coach "what?" moments in scene work: places where deeper investigation of an offer would have served the scene.
How to Teach It
How to Explain It
"When your partner says something, don't accept it and move on. Get curious about it. What do they mean? What does it look like? What are the details they haven't told you yet? Don't block. Don't deflect. Just dig into what they just said."
Common Notes
- The curiosity must be genuine. Questions that are rhetorical, hostile, or performed as a technique produce nothing useful.
- The partner making the offer must also stay present: they should be discovering the details as they answer the questions, not retrieving pre-planned information.
- The exercise is corrective rather than prescriptive: it addresses the tendency to move through scene beats too quickly.
Common Pitfalls
- Questions become interrogation rather than exploration. The tone of genuine curiosity is collaborative, not confrontational.
- Players ask one question and then accept the answer and move on. The exercise is about sustained curiosity, not a single question.
- The scene stalls entirely in the investigation of one offer without building anything from what is discovered.
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Related Exercises
Agreement Scenes
Agreement Scenes is an exercise in which performers practice fully agreeing with every offer their scene partner makes. By removing all conflict and negation, the exercise reveals how scenes can build through mutual enthusiasm and escalating shared reality. It reinforces the "yes, and" principle at its most fundamental level.
Open Offer
Open Offer is a scene exercise in which one player enters the stage and makes a simple physical or verbal offer without a predetermined plan. Their scene partner must accept and build on whatever is presented. The exercise reinforces the principle that scenes begin with offers rather than ideas and teaches performers to trust the process of collaborative discovery.
Annoyance Scenes
Annoyance Scenes is an exercise rooted in the Annoyance Theatre tradition of finding the truth in aggressive, high-energy play. Performers practice scenes in which characters pursue strong wants with unapologetic directness. The exercise builds confidence in making bold choices and playing at the top of one's intelligence.
Blocked Vs. Unblocked Scenes
Blocked Vs. Unblocked Scenes is a comparative exercise in which performers play the same scene twice: once using denial and blocking, and once fully accepting every offer. The side-by-side contrast vividly demonstrates how blocking kills momentum while acceptance generates possibilities. It is one of the most effective tools for teaching the principle of agreement.
Lcd
LCD (Lowest Common Denominator) is a scene exercise in which performers practice finding the simplest, most universal emotional truth in a scene rather than reaching for clever or complicated choices. The exercise trains the instinct to ground scenes in recognizable human experience. It rewards simplicity over sophistication.
I Know
I Know is a scene-building exercise in which performers respond to every offer with the two-word affirmation that names the game, followed by an addition that expands the shared reality. The response functions as an amplified form of yes-and: it validates the partner's offer, implies pre-existing shared knowledge, and propels the scene forward through rapid mutual agreement. The exercise prevents denial and forces each player to build on their partner's contributions without hesitation, creating scenes that accumulate detail and emotional weight at speed.
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). What?. Retrieved March 17, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/exercises/what
The Improv Archive. "What?." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/exercises/what.
The Improv Archive. "What?." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/exercises/what. Accessed March 17, 2026.
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