Park Bench: Make Them Leave

A classic improv game: two or three characters share a park bench, and one of them tries to get the other to leave without touching or insulting them. It builds status work, intention in a scene, creativity, and resolving conflict without aggression.

How to play

1. Set up one or two gym benches as park benches with the audience in a semicircle 10 feet away. Demonstrate with a student how to get someone to leave with polite or weird ideas (2 min).
2. A sits with a clear activity. B enters with a character and a secret goal: get A to leave. 90 seconds max.
3. When A leaves for a believable reason, B stays on the bench and C enters to get B out, so the chain never stops (10 min).
4. The audience votes for the three most creative strategies and discusses the status shift in each (3 min).
5. Final round (3 min) in threes: two characters try to get the third to leave, who resists with humor.

Rules

• No touching, pushing, or insulting: you win with wit, not force.
• The person on the bench doesn't leave until the scene gives them a believable reason.
• Safety: sit down on the bench calmly, and nobody stands on top of it.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: replace the bench with two chairs at the same height as the student's wheelchair, and entrances and exits happen calmly with no rush.
• Autism or shyness: the student can pick a strategy from a prepared list and play the seated role first, which needs fewer lines.
• Skill level: strong improvisers have to reach their goal without saying a single word.

Learning goals

• Keep a clear objective during an improvisation.
• Use shifts in status and behavior to influence another character.
• Solve a scene conflict creatively and without aggression.

Equipment for a class of 25

• gym bench: 2

Teacher tip

If lots of scenes end with threats, pause and suggest low-status strategies like being pitiful or annoying, which are usually the funniest.

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