Machines
Warmup for synchronization: players enter one at a time, each adding a repeating movement and optional sound to build a single working human mechanism. Also known as "Machines" or "Objects" in English-language improv. Trains coordination and peripheral attention.
Players
5–8
Full description
Setup and Launch
Form a group of five to eight players. Name a specific object — real or invented. A camera, a toaster, a dream-recycling machine — anything works. Explain that each person is responsible for one component of this object, shown through a short repeating action with an optional sound. The goal: assemble a single, smoothly working mechanism out of human parts.
How It Works
Participants enter one at a time. Each maintains their own loop without stopping and physically adapts to what's already running.
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The first player steps onto the stage and starts a simple, repeatable action — one function of the object. For a camera, maybe the flash: arms thrust forward, snap back, repeat.
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The second player joins and adds a different function — say, the shutter click. Both keep going simultaneously without breaking rhythm.
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The remaining players connect one by one, each choosing a missing element or subsystem. Watch for the moment someone plugs into a gap nobody noticed yet — that's when the machine clicks.
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Once everyone is in, the object runs as a whole. Sounds are welcome when they sharpen the image — a whirr, a beep, a clunk.
Key rules
Name one specific object — real or invented — and gather five to eight players; each claims a separate component or subsystem.
Demand simple, sustainable action loops. If a player can't hold their movement for two minutes straight, it's too complicated.
Players connect strictly one at a time; each new person locks their rhythm to the construction already running.
Allow sounds when they make the mechanism easier to read — a click, a hum, a whoosh.
Context
What to try next
Similar formats, so you can keep the rehearsal moving without stopping to search.
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