January 12th, 2009: Summary, and Theatresports

Hey improvisers

First off, an apology.

I let my own excitement for Theatresports come before the current position of the group. We had a really large group today, which was wonderful, but with it came a lot of new people. Rather than tailoring the session to the new performers, I chose to go full-force with Theatresports. My decision was fueled by my own excitement, and by our session tomorrow evening.

And so, I apologize for forcing Theatresports on everyone.

For what it's worth, I thought everyone did splendidly. The enthusiasm was wonderful. I look forward to trying it again when everyone is more familiar with the games.

Please rest assured that next week, we will be continuing from where we were last week, working with Spontaneity. I also want to introduce some concepts regarding Character Relationships. Oh ho ho, it'll be grand.

So, again, I am sorry. Thank you all very much for your patience, though, I really appreciate it.

~

I won't post a summary of the games we played. As far as I can remember, they included Freeze, Rap Battle, Instruction Manual, and the audience "Yes, I'll go along with that, Sounds good to me" game.

I noticed a lot of different issues with the games, but with Freeze in particular. There were many instances of blocking and cancelling. I think I'd like to try running a scene where every instance of blocking is called and altered on the spot. The result of the scene would probably be really, really interesting.

Cancelling is a concept that hasn't been brought up a whole lot. Essentially, if someone makes an offer (i.e. "Let's go to class") but someone adds something that negates it entirely (i.e. "Oh, it's been cancelled"), that's cancelling. Actually...that's a bad example. Congratulations, myself, you used the word in its definition.

Because he can do it better than I can, here's what Johnstone says on the subject:

"Cancelling dismantles whatever has been established: you light a fire and a shower of rain extinguishes it; you feed a stray dog and it's flattened by a truck. Audiences enjoy seeing their heroes thwarted, but not at the expense of having nothing happen." (Johnstone, K. Impro for Storytellers, page 118)

We'll work through some of these concepts. The only way I can get better at preventing it from happening is by pointing it out whenever it happens. So, expect a lot of that.

~

For Whidden tomorrow, there were a few games brought up that people want to play. They include: Freeze, Rap Battle, Instruction Manual, Pan Right, "Sounds Good to Me," and I think that's it. We can finalize the set when we get there.

Remember, be outside of Whidden at 830 PM. We'll finalize the set list and warm-up, and then we'll be ready to go for 9.

See y'all tomorrow, and thanks again for your patience.

Cheers,

Cliff