exercise · all tools
Blind Lead
Also known as: Airplane, Flygledartornet
Depth · what it can open●●○○2 — reflective
Holding · facilitation2 — facilitator
Trust · group readiness★★some
Disclosure · what is sharednone
One person is blindfolded in a room that has been deliberately strewn with obstacles, and the rest of the group has to talk them across it. The source records a fuller variant it calls Airplane, where a single controller on a chair talks the 'plane' down within a time limit and a fixed allowance of brushes against obstacles.
Hold with care
- A blindfolded person is moved through a room deliberately filled with obstacles; the risk is real and rests on the group's instructions being good
- Ask rather than assign the blindfold, and make it explicit that it comes off the moment the person wants it off
- The Airplane variant adds time pressure and a collision allowance, which raises the stakes rather than lowering them
- The source's own closing warning, easy to miss: someone will suggest secretly clearing the obstacles and tormenting the blindfolded player — and doing it destroys all the trust the exercise built. Rule it out before starting
Practical
- Time
- — min
- Group
- ?–∞ · large-group
- Settings
- in-person
- Materials
- A blindfold; obstacles — chairs and objects on the floor
- Mechanisms
- somatic-awareness, dialogic-encounter
- Change scope
- state · repeatable
Instructions
- Where
- improvencyclopedia.org/games/Blind_Lead.html — Improv Encyclopedia, open
- Availability
- Open online — published at the link, free to read
Source link checked 1 Sep 2026 — reachable
This directory describes and points home; the instructions stay with the people who made them.
Origin
Unattributed; compiled by Improv Encyclopedia — Improvisational theatre
In this directory via Improv Encyclopedia · Dramaövningar.se
Related: Fingertips (alternative-to)
status: checked · added 2026-08-31