Developed by Keith Johnstone (Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre, 1979).
Improvisation exercises in which people play high and low status on purpose, showing how every gesture and pause shifts power in an exchange.
When to reach for it
When power dynamics in meetings, sales, or hard conversations go unnoticed, and leaders need to see and adjust their own status habits.
How it runs
- Walk the room playing high status, then low.
- Play two-person scenes with both high, then both low.
- Run a scene where one player rises as the other falls.
- Carry the exercises into real meetings and conversations.
- Notice a habitual status and practice shifting it.
Where it sits in SOLVE eX
Go to the source
- Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre, 1979