# Viola Spolin's Theater Games: What Actors Can Still Learn

> Viola Spolin built a system of theater games around one idea: give the player a single point of concentration and the acting takes care of itself. Where the games came from, how focus, side-coaching, and evaluation work, the games that train scripted actors to listen, and how to run them in a class or rehearsal.

- URL: https://www.offbook.com/blog/viola-spolin-theater-games
- Published: 2026-10-23
- Last updated: 2026-10-23

You're three weeks into rehearsal and the scene is stuck. Everyone knows their lines. Everyone hits their marks. And the director, instead of giving another note, says, "Put the scripts down. We're going to play a game."

If you've never met Viola Spolin's work, that can sound like a detour. It isn't. Her games were built to do exactly what that director needs: pull every actor's attention off themselves and onto something happening in the room, so they stop performing and start responding.

The short version: Spolin's theater games are short, rule-based exercises. Each one gives the players a single thing to keep their attention on, a coach calls out reminders while they play, and the group talks briefly afterward about whether the players stayed on it. They're a root of a lot of improv, but they work just as well on scripted actors who have stopped listening. You can run most of them with a group, a free floor, and ten minutes.

## Who Viola Spolin was, and why her games exist

Spolin didn't start out training actors. Her [official biography](https://spolin.com/?p=212) says she trained as a settlement worker in the 1920s at Neva Boyd's Group Work School in Chicago, where Boyd used games to shape how groups behave. From 1939 to 1941 Spolin was drama supervisor for the Chicago branch of the WPA's recreation project. There she developed games as a common, easy-to-learn system of theater training that could cross cultural and ethnic lines. Those became the Theater Games.

[The Second City's page on Spolin](https://www.secondcity.com/viola-spolin/) puts it plainly: she invented the games to teach drama to children and recent immigrants.

That origin explains a lot about how the games feel. They don't ask you to analyze a character or summon an emotion. They give you a simple problem to solve with your body and attention, and they trust that the acting will come out of solving it.

Her son, Paul Sills, took the games into Chicago's early improvisational theater. Spolin herself ran the workshops for his Second City company from 1960 to 1965, according to her biography. Her 1963 book, *Improvisation for the Theater*, gathered the games in one place. Its publisher, Northwestern University Press, says on its [page for the third edition](https://nupress.northwestern.edu/9780810140080/improvisation-for-the-theater/) that the first two editions sold more than 100,000 copies, and that the 1999 revision updated more than 200 exercises, added 30 new ones, and included a glossary of side-coaching phrases.

The Second City page quotes one of the book's central ideas: that what we call talent may be "a greater individual capacity for experiencing." In other words, the games aren't trying to make you cleverer. They're trying to make you notice more.

## The point of concentration: one thing to hold onto

The idea at the center of every Spolin game is focus. Her biography says each game is built on a specific focus or technical problem. In his 1990 *American Theatre* article ["Chicago Impromptu"](https://americantheatre.org/?p=64273), Todd London describes how the rules of each game hand the player a clear focus, the **point of concentration**, and how keeping attention on it frees the player to respond spontaneously.

This is the part actors tend to miss. The point of concentration is not the goal of the scene, and it isn't the emotion. It's something outside you that you can actually keep your attention on: your partner's hand, an imaginary rope, the ball you're throwing.

Why does that help? Because attention is limited. If it's fully on the rope, there's none left over for wondering whether you look stupid, whether the teacher approves, or what your next line is. Self-consciousness has nothing to feed on. What's left is you, reacting to what's in front of you, which is most of what a director means by "be present."

Once you see it that way, you can borrow the idea for any rehearsal. When a scene feels stiff, ask what your point of concentration is in this moment. If the answer is "remembering my line" or "getting the laugh," you've found the problem. Swap it for something in the room: what your partner is doing with their eyes, the cup in your hand, the distance between you.

## Side-coaching and evaluation: how the games are run

Two more pieces make a Spolin game different from a party game. The first is **side-coaching**. While the players play, a coach calls out short phrases that bring them back to the focus. Gary Schwartz, who studied with Spolin, calls it the most subtle and essential element of the games in his essay ["The Art of Sidecoaching"](https://spolin.com/?p=872). He describes the coach as a fellow player, a teacher, and a director at once.

Good side-coaching is short and points at the focus, not at the player. Schwartz warns against instructions like "Do it this way" and against nagging or burying players in words. His examples of useful coaching are things like "Let the space support you" and "keep the space between you!" The coach isn't telling anyone how to act. They're reminding the players where to look.

The second piece is **evaluation**, a short talk after each round. Northwestern's page for [*Theater Games for Rehearsal*](https://nupress.northwestern.edu/9780810127494/theater-games-for-rehearsal/), Spolin's director's handbook, notes that each game's side-coaching and evaluation are boxed and highlighted so a director can read them on the spot.

The evaluation questions are about the focus, not about whether the scene was good. In one space-object game, described on Schwartz's site [Spolin Games Online](https://spolingamesonline.org/play-ball/), the coach simply asks the players whether the ball was in the space or in their head, and then asks the audience whether it agrees. Nobody gets praised for being funny. Nobody gets told they were bad. The only question is whether you stayed on the problem.

That's useful for actors trained on notes. It moves the question from "Did they like it?" to "Was I paying attention to the right thing?" You can answer the second one honestly every time.

## Five games that train scripted actors to listen

*Improvisation for the Theater* alone holds more than 200 games. These five are well documented in published lesson plans, and each one works on listening or reacting. The descriptions follow the lesson pages cited, which credit Spolin.

### Mirror

The best known. In the version on [a Holy Cross improvisation lesson](https://college.holycross.edu/projects/isp/recipe/improv/5mirror.htm) that lists Spolin's book among its sources, partners stand facing each other and keep eye contact. One leads with slow, continuous movement, starting with one arm and building to the whole body, and the other mirrors it exactly. Then they switch. Points for discussion on the page include the action and reaction between actors and how much they depend on each other.

Pan Theater describes taking it further in [a piece on the mirror and Meisner](https://pantheater.com/the-mirror-theater-game-and-meisner-technique.html): switch who leads more and more often, until neither partner is only leading. They call this "follow the follower."

### Who Started the Motion?

A group game for the whole cast. In the University of Texas at Austin's [Drama-Based Pedagogy version](https://dbp.theatredance.utexas.edu/teaching-strategies/who-started-motion), the group sits in a circle and one player leaves the room. A leader is chosen, and everyone copies the leader's movements as they change. The player comes back to the center of the circle and gets three guesses to find the leader. The page tells players to avoid looking straight at the leader, which takes the kind of wide attention an ensemble needs on stage.

### Give and Take

This one trains sharing the stage. In [UT Austin's version](https://dbp.theatredance.utexas.edu/teaching-strategies/give-and-take), five to ten players freeze, except one who travels through the space with a repeated sound and movement and then "gives" it to a frozen player. That player starts something new and gives it on. Later the group adds "take": a player can take the focus, and the one who had it freezes. Then both rules run at once. In [an interview on spolin.com](https://spolin.com/?p=259), Schwartz describes groups of actors passing the focus back and forth like a ball. That's what a well-run scene looks like from the audience.

### Tug of War without a rope

Two players pull on an imaginary rope. The trick is that they work together to create the illusion of a well-matched contest. UT Austin's [lesson page](https://dbp.theatredance.utexas.edu/teaching-strategies/tug-war-without-rope) lists side-coaching such as "Keep the rope between you!" and "Stay on the same rope!" Our guide to [Uta Hagen's object exercises](https://www.offbook.com/blog/uta-hagen-object-exercises) works on a similar skill alone.

### Mirror Speech

The mirror, with words. In [UT Austin's version](https://dbp.theatredance.utexas.edu/teaching-strategies/mirror-speech) (Spolin is among its cited sources), two partners sit facing each other. One tells a story while the other says the same words at the same time, keeping eye contact, and then they switch. It's a short step from there to listening to a scene partner.

## Are Spolin games just for improv?

No. They're the root of a lot of improv, but Spolin also wrote *Theater Games for Rehearsal* for directors rehearsing a production. Its publisher says it guides directors and companies through every phase of the rehearsal period. There's even a book for working alone: Northwestern describes [*Theater Games for the Lone Actor*](https://nupress.northwestern.edu/9780810140103/theater-games-for-the-lone-actor/) as more than forty exercises that let an actor side-coach themselves at home, in rehearsal, or in performance.

In the same spolin.com interview, Schwartz explains how the games can be used to rehearse scenes for acting class. He mentions gibberish, which he calls a subtext game, and singing the dialogue. He sometimes has students spell the scene, to slow them down and make them engage with the words. He also calls "Slow Motion" a fantastic audition technique: coach yourself into slow motion, and what feels very slow to you comes across as poised and receptive.

If you've done [the Meisner repetition exercise](https://www.offbook.com/blog/meisner-repetition-exercise), Spolin's work will feel related. Both pull your attention onto your partner. The difference is the way in: Meisner uses repeated words, while many Spolin games use a physical problem, an object or a movement, and let the words come later. They also pair well with [Viewpoints](https://www.offbook.com/blog/viewpoints-for-actors), another group training built on wide attention.

## Bringing the games into a scripted scene

Here's one way to carry the idea into a scene you're rehearsing. It's our suggestion built on what Schwartz describes, not a game from Spolin's books. Take this exchange from early in Act I of Oscar Wilde's *The Importance of Being Earnest*, where Jack arrives at Algernon's flat:

> **ALGERNON.** How are you, my dear Ernest? What brings you up to town?
>
> **JACK.** Oh, pleasure, pleasure! What else should bring one anywhere? Eating as usual, I see, Algy!
>
> **ALGERNON.** [Stiffly.] I believe it is customary in good society to take some slight refreshment at five o’clock. Where have you been since last Thursday?
>
> **JACK.** [Sitting down on the sofa.] In the country.
>
> **ALGERNON.** What on earth do you do there?
>
> **JACK.** [Pulling off his gloves.] When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people. It is excessively boring.
>
> **ALGERNON.** And who are the people you amuse?
>
> **JACK.** [Airily.] Oh, neighbours, neighbours.
>
> **ALGERNON.** Got nice neighbours in your part of Shropshire?
>
> **JACK.** Perfectly horrid! Never speak to one of them.
>
> *Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, Act I (Project Gutenberg)*

The scene is all small jabs and dodges. Algernon is fishing; Jack is hiding something. If the actors are only waiting for cues, it turns into a list of witty lines. Try it in three passes with a partner:

- First, play it in gibberish, nonsense sounds instead of words, keeping every beat. With no words to lean on, you can only tell what your partner means from their tone and body. Notice where Algernon's "Stiffly" lands and where Jack starts to evade.
- Next, play it with the words, and give each actor one point of concentration outside themselves. For Jack, his gloves. For Algernon, Jack's face. Let a coach call out short reminders, like "See his face!" or "Gloves!"
- Last, have a third person act as audience and ask the evaluation question afterward: did each of you stay on your focus, or drift into performing the jokes? Answer honestly, then run it again.

The whole play is in our [library of public-domain plays](https://www.offbook.com/plays/the-importance-of-being-earnest), along with many others you can try this on.

## How to run Spolin games in a class or rehearsal

If you're a teacher, director, or the actor who volunteered to lead the warm-up, a few habits from the sources above make the games work:

- State the focus before you start, in one sentence, and keep coming back to it. If the players can't say what they're concentrating on, the game is just movement.
- Side-coach briefly and point at the focus. "Keep the rope between you!" helps. "Make it funnier" doesn't.
- Play it, then evaluate it. Keep the questions about the focus, and ask the watchers too, as the Play Ball evaluation does.
- Don't demonstrate. Schwartz warns coaches against showing how instead of letting players work through the problem.
- Start physical, then add words. Mirror before Mirror Speech; Tug of War before a scene.
- In rehearsal, use a game to fix a specific problem. If actors aren't listening, try Mirror or Give and Take, then go straight back into the scene while they still feel it.

Ten minutes is often enough. The goal isn't to finish a game. It's to change where everyone's attention is before the scripts come back up.

## Practicing alone between rehearsals

Most of these games need a group, but the core idea travels. Before you run your lines, pick one point of concentration outside yourself, such as an object in the room or the way the other character's line is said, and keep your attention there the whole time. If you drift into thinking about your next line, notice it and come back.

It helps to have the other lines spoken aloud rather than read in your head. When you're working a scene alone, Offbook reads every other character with realistic voices and waits for your line. In the video below, you can see how to set how fast your scene partner talks, add a pause before any line, and turn on auto-advance so the scene moves on after a few silent seconds. That last one helps you practice recovering when you dry, instead of stopping the run.

Video: [Pacing](https://www.offbook.com/learn/pacing) (1:09)

For classic scenes, our free [run lines online](https://www.offbook.com/tools/run-lines-online) tool reads the other parts aloud and waits on each of your lines. If you need a speech to work on, browse our [monologue library](https://www.offbook.com/monologues). And for more on staying in the scene once you're off book, read our guide to [how to listen on stage](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-listen-on-stage).

## Questions actors ask

### What is the point of concentration in a Spolin game?

It's the single thing each game asks you to keep your attention on, such as an imaginary object or your partner's movement. Holding it keeps your attention off yourself, which is what frees you to respond.

### What book should I read first?

*Improvisation for the Theater* is the main collection of the games. Directors working on a play may get more from *Theater Games for Rehearsal*, and actors on their own can start with *Theater Games for the Lone Actor*.

### Is the mirror exercise from Spolin or Meisner?

Lesson plans such as the Holy Cross one list Spolin's book among their sources for the mirror game. Meisner's best-known exercise is word repetition, which works on a similar skill with words instead of movement.

### Can I use theater games in an audition?

Not as games, but the ideas help. Schwartz suggests coaching yourself into "Slow Motion" so you come across as calm and receptive, and you can give yourself a point of concentration on the reader instead of on how you're doing. Our guide to [improv in auditions](https://www.offbook.com/blog/improv-in-auditions) covers what to do when you're asked to go off the page.