October 6th, 2008 - Games and Summary

Hey Improvisers

Great session last night. I had a blast. You're all wonderful.

Games:

Not really a game, but we started by going around the circle and asking people to say their name and something interesting that happened to them over the week.

Freeze
- Similar to last week.
Things to remember:
- Be strong with your Freezing and Clapping.
- Try to establish either the Who (i.e. your relationship), the What (i.e. the problem), or the Where (i.e. where you at) in your first line.
- Make sure that the Who/What/Where are established before you Freeze.
- Be FAST when you come into the scene, and take the EXACT POSITION that the person your replace had.

Questions Only
- Players attempt to play a scene by only speaking in questions.
Things to remember:
- Start your sentences with a question word. It'll pretty much always ensure you say a question.
- There's no shame in intentionally failing. Sometimes it helps the scene move along. And after all, you'll get a chance to be back in soon.
- Keep the strong character choices.

ABCs
- A scene for three people. Every sentence has to begin with the next letter of the alphabet.
Things to remember:
- You only have 26 lines to go through an entire story. Make the very first sentence about the problem you have to resolve. That way, you can use the rest of the sentences to solve the problem.
- If you can't think of a word, then go to the environment. As long as you're doing something interesting, no one will notice that you're stalling for time.
- Save the tricky letters for names. No point in wasting an easy letter like 'B' on 'Bob', when you have K, X, and Z coming up, too.
- X words: Xaiver, Xylophone, X-Ray, Xerxes, Xena, Xanadu.

Serious Scene
- A game for 8 players. The scene revolves around a very serious subject. Players must remain sincere and serious. If they make the audience, other performers, or themself laugh, then they're out. They must find a reason to leave.
Things to remember:
- Take chances! This game is only interesting when people are talking to each other. Don't remain silent for the purpose of staying in the scene longer.
- Try to keep the focus on one conversation at a time. Everyone talking at the same time gets a little confusing, as we saw. :)
- If you die, try to bring people down with you. Use that last line to great effect. Bring up the puns and jokes that came to you when you heard the suggestion. You have nothing to lose, so why not?


I think that's about all we did. If I missed something, let me know.

Also, a few of us (myself, Martin, Ben, Herman, Kaylan, Hisham, Colin) are performing Improv at Whidden on wednesday. You're all welcome to come and watch. We're meeting in front of Whidden at 8 PM. It should be a good time.

Cheers,

Cliff