Acting teacher Brian Ward instructs his students to listen to recorded performances by other actors. If a script is available, he urges the student to follow along as he listens, which helps to develop the skill of script interpretation. He related his experience preparing to play a sea monster on the television series "Sea Quest." Since the creature he portrayed was voiceless, reading the script and listening to the other performers' dialogue as they rehearsed was instrumental in creating a nuanced character with believable reactions.
Acting coach and teacher, Bill Howey, wrote, "Acting is listening. Listening means to direct your attention on someone as they speak and think about what they are saying." The purpose of listening, he stated, is to make a determination about what the listener will do or say next and how he will do it.
Arizona State University developed a series of games and theater education exercises which increase listening skills. One such game is the "Pass the Sound and Movement" game. The actors form a circle. The student who starts the game makes a sound accompanied by a movement, passing it to the student on the right. The next person repeats the sound and movement, passing it to the next person in the circle. This continues until the original student has duplicated the sound and movement. It then moves to the next student who makes a new sound and movement, until each actor has contributed a new sound and gesture.
Stage Directions is a warm-up exercise from Arizona State University that teaches actors how to listen. The teacher is the director. She calls out stage instructions which the group of actors must follow. The last actor to perform the task is sent to the audience to sit out the rest of the warm-up. The stage commands are given randomly. In addition to actual directions such as "stage left," the commands include "freeze," "lights" (look at the lights), and "scenes of four" (form a group of four). The actors also bow to "curtain call" and tiptoe to "catwalk."
Miles Stroth of the Phoenix Improv Festival said: “Listening in improv, and in life, is more than just a sense, it’s a trainable skill.” Form actors into groups of three or four and assign them an improv scenario. Assign roles to the actors. Foster plot development by assigning conflicting roles. The scenario can be played as drama or comedy. For example, use a photocopier repair service call with an embarrassing photocopy stuck in the machine to suggest a strong physical element. Start off with a line such as, "A cow has been elected U.S president,” to set up a comedy.