Hey gang
Hope you're all profiting gloriously in your lives. Apologies for not posting about last week. Here's what we did last week. (I think.)
Status
Last week's practice involved a lot of status interactions. We played with the Pecking Order, and got into some rounds of 'Taking the Hat'. In general, these exercises were used to allow everyone to experience feelings of high and low status. For 'Taking the Hat', remember to throw hats at each other's feet. The game isn't about watching improvisers scramble across the room to get hats. The hats merely provide some physical reminders of status and pecking order offences. Ya dig?
Now, here's what we did today.
Association Circle
Today, we began things with a simple Association Circle. We begin with a word, and travel around the circle associating each word with a new word, until we naturally reach the first word again. It's a simple exercise that places a focus on acceptance. What's interesting is that you can select a word that is completely obvious to you, but will seem wildly original to someone else. This game speaks well to the notion of being obvious. In improv, try to stay with the obvious choice. Things look silly and uninteresting when everyone is trying to be witty and clever. Immediately, you may think 'If I'm making the obvious choice, won't that make me uninteresting?' Not so! As I said earlier, what's obvious to you isn't obvious to everyone. Be yourself and make the choices that are obvious to you, and the audience will be thrilled. Trying to be original and witty by saying what you think the audience wants to hear isn't a great strategy. You may get a cheap laugh from a few people, but they'll leave feeling disconnected from you as a performer.
The catch, however, is that by making the obvious choices, you'll reveal who you are as a person. That's certainly an intimidating prospect. (Though, really, improv is at its best when you feel a connection to the performers.)
Theatresports
Theatresports is a style of Improv performance developed by Keith Johnstone. It's a form of competitive Improv, though everybody involved is on the same team. Improvisers are split into two teams, with three improvisers being selected as the Judges. There is also a Referee (Initially, this role will be played by me) who keeps everything moving and serves as a connection between the improvisers and the Judges.
Teams take turns challenging each other to games or scenes involving particular aspects. For example, a scene involving the audience, or a scene involving words, or a scene involving numbers, or a scene involving love/hate/other emotions, etc. Challenges can be specific, or weird or whatever. Always accept the challenge, even if it's a little weird. The audience wants to see something happen. That something is happening tends to be more important than what is happening. (And, no, 'denying challenges' doesn't count as something happening.)
After scenes are performed, the Judges award points, and teams boo or applaud in response. After two or three challenges are issued, the Judges declare a winner, and everyone celebrates. (Everyone wins because everyone plays together.) The next time a Theatresports game happens, different people may be on different teams, and there may be different Judges. Everyone will have a chance to play in different roles, and everyone will have a good time.
In the weeks to come, we'll brainstorm types of challenges and practice games that can be used to play these challenges. We'll get a nice, hefty list going, and then we can start performing for the Friday group, and then ultimately the general school population. Boom.
Great practice today, gang!
Cheers,
Cliff
Monday, November 14, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
October 31st, 2011 - Environment and Platforming
Hey improvisers
I've decided to continue updating the Improg. As we progress throughout the year, I'll post summaries of what we've done alongside my reflections on the process. If you have any questions, or wish to post a thought of your own, then by all means please leave a comment.
That said, here we go!
Where, Who, What
The 'Who What Where' of the scene establishes who you are (and what your relationship is), what you're doing (or what the scene is about), and where the scene is taking place. They're the three essential components of most shortform scenes. (I say most, as I've seen some shortform scenes that have been successful without one or two of these components.) In a lot of amateur improv, you'll observe improvisers who perform scenes with a focus exclusively on the 'What'. They'll spend the entire time making a sandwich, or building a robot, or something along those lines. That's all fine and dandy, but the problem arises when the improvisers run out of ideas on that subject. When the 'What' stops, there's nothing to fall back on if nothing else has been established. That's the reason why so many amateur improv scenes leave the audience feeling unsatisfied: there's less for the audience to connect to.
So, what can we do? We can establish a solid platform for our scenes to take place upon. The 'Where' and the 'Who' often go disregarded, but they provide a wealth of interesting opportunities and lead to better, more real scenes in general.
First, take some time to establish the 'Where'. Where the heck is this scene taking place? The 'Where' involves more than merely stating where you are: you can interact with things in the environment as well. Even beginning by miming interactions with the environment, and then stating where you are, can build the 'Where' of the scene. As you saw in the Environment Creation exercise (remember the Antique Shop?), you can get big laughs out of the audience just by interacting with your environment. Establish a defined environment and you'll always have a wide variety of material to fall back on.
(On this note, remember the concept of Object Permanence. If someone creates a table, or mimes opening a cabinet, don't walk through the table or cabinet later on in the scene. If you take a small amount of time to remember where everything is, then the audience will be all the more impressed by your scene.)
Next, establish who you are. More importantly, what is your relationship to each other? Do you like the other person or do you hate them? We can see two very different scenes occur between a boss and employee that hate each other, and a boss and employee that love each other. It's a simple choice, but it'll add a huge layer of depth to your scene. As well, if you make the decision to feel a certain way about the other person in the scene, then your scene is practically developed for you. Even if you run out of ideas for the 'What', you will have a wonderfully established 'Who' to fall back on.
(On that note, if you're looking to add something else to the scene, just establish something else about your character. Pull out a yo-yo or something. Who knows!)
As a summary, amateur improv scenes tend to stagnate as there isn't an established 'Who' or 'Where' to fall back on. Take time at the beginning of the scene to establish the 'Where' and then the 'Who', and your scenes will become more real and interesting.
There you go, gang! See you all on Friday!
Cheers,
Cliff
I've decided to continue updating the Improg. As we progress throughout the year, I'll post summaries of what we've done alongside my reflections on the process. If you have any questions, or wish to post a thought of your own, then by all means please leave a comment.
That said, here we go!
Where, Who, What
The 'Who What Where' of the scene establishes who you are (and what your relationship is), what you're doing (or what the scene is about), and where the scene is taking place. They're the three essential components of most shortform scenes. (I say most, as I've seen some shortform scenes that have been successful without one or two of these components.) In a lot of amateur improv, you'll observe improvisers who perform scenes with a focus exclusively on the 'What'. They'll spend the entire time making a sandwich, or building a robot, or something along those lines. That's all fine and dandy, but the problem arises when the improvisers run out of ideas on that subject. When the 'What' stops, there's nothing to fall back on if nothing else has been established. That's the reason why so many amateur improv scenes leave the audience feeling unsatisfied: there's less for the audience to connect to.
So, what can we do? We can establish a solid platform for our scenes to take place upon. The 'Where' and the 'Who' often go disregarded, but they provide a wealth of interesting opportunities and lead to better, more real scenes in general.
First, take some time to establish the 'Where'. Where the heck is this scene taking place? The 'Where' involves more than merely stating where you are: you can interact with things in the environment as well. Even beginning by miming interactions with the environment, and then stating where you are, can build the 'Where' of the scene. As you saw in the Environment Creation exercise (remember the Antique Shop?), you can get big laughs out of the audience just by interacting with your environment. Establish a defined environment and you'll always have a wide variety of material to fall back on.
(On this note, remember the concept of Object Permanence. If someone creates a table, or mimes opening a cabinet, don't walk through the table or cabinet later on in the scene. If you take a small amount of time to remember where everything is, then the audience will be all the more impressed by your scene.)
Next, establish who you are. More importantly, what is your relationship to each other? Do you like the other person or do you hate them? We can see two very different scenes occur between a boss and employee that hate each other, and a boss and employee that love each other. It's a simple choice, but it'll add a huge layer of depth to your scene. As well, if you make the decision to feel a certain way about the other person in the scene, then your scene is practically developed for you. Even if you run out of ideas for the 'What', you will have a wonderfully established 'Who' to fall back on.
(On that note, if you're looking to add something else to the scene, just establish something else about your character. Pull out a yo-yo or something. Who knows!)
As a summary, amateur improv scenes tend to stagnate as there isn't an established 'Who' or 'Where' to fall back on. Take time at the beginning of the scene to establish the 'Where' and then the 'Who', and your scenes will become more real and interesting.
There you go, gang! See you all on Friday!
Cheers,
Cliff
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