Bottom Up And Top Down Thinking colorful text on gradient background

Bottom Up and Top Down Thinking in Scene Work

Improvising plot-driven sets might not come quite as naturally to bottom-up thinkers. Figure out the type of thinker you are, and learn how it affects your improv and acting practice

There are many different types of thinkers and neurotypes. Every thinker can think in different ways, but will be wired in a specific way that can be detected in brain scans.

There will be overlaps in the ways people think, and there are variables that affect your process. For example, even the term “neurodivergent” is loaded and sometimes controversial. It started off as a way to make autism become more accepted and understood by society, but the term has of course evolved and caused a lot of discussion and debate and disagreement.

Humans have different thinking styles

But neurodivergent and neurotype are often used to refer to the different ways a person processes information, different thinking styles. And they’re related to todays topic: top-down and bottom-up thinking.

The way we think affects the way we learn, do, and perform improv. And different ways of thinking can complement your scene partner(s) and balance out a team and/or show.

It helps to have a detailed (or at least thoughtful) understanding of what each person brings to a team in terms of their strengths. And this strength can include the way we think or process information.

And it also helps to understand this for YOURSELF. You can focus on getting really, extra, bonus-level good at what YOU do good. Do all the things, learn all the things, and play to your natural strengths most often.


Get the Educational PDF Resource Guide for this article

You can download an improved, updated, and vastly expanded PDF guide for this article soon.

sample book cover with gradient background and name of book"Understanding Bottom Up and Top Down thinking in Scene work" for coaches and performers.

Talk on Discord

Discuss this topic with improvisers

This link will take you directly to the forum for this newsletter on the Improv Update Discord.The discord also contains a bunch of channels for improv nerds. Nice.

Jen deHaan
Jen deHaan

Jen deHaan founded StereoForest in 2024 to focus on creating comedy podcasts, audio dramas, and audio fiction series that blend scripted and improvised material.

Jen has taught long form improv classes at/with World’s Greatest Improv School (WGIS), Compass Improv, Highwire Improv, and Queen City Comedy. She was also the WGIS Online School Director, and hosted a lot of improv jams.

Articles: 81

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *