Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Improv and personal transformation
In summer 2007 Towson Unitarian Universalist Church asked me to speak at one of their services about my experiences as an improv theater director, teacher, and performer. Rather than tell them how great improv is, I decided to share what I think improv reveals about the human condition. They were nice enough to tape the talk and give me a copy, which I present here for all eternity, in MP3 format (it's about 19 minutes long).UPDATE: I had this speech transcribed by escriptionist.com. The transcript wants some editing and translation, but if you just feel like skimming instead of listening to the audio, it's pretty good (PDF file).
Friday, November 23, 2007
Notes from Asaf Ronen at Philadelphia Improv Festival
Asaf Ronen Directing Workshop Notes (Philadelphia Improv Festival, November 2007)- First he had us lead each other in exercises, and checked-in with the leader during the exercise, asking "What level are they at?" and "How are they doing?". Then he had the leader provide feedback to the group to make them more successful.
- All warmup exercises have a focus, don't just do them to do them, and make sure the participants understand the point. e.g. Zip-Zap-Zop
can be played to enhance concentration, listening skills, etc. - He recommended directors/teachers delegate warmups to group members because it helps them be invested in the group, work on their own stuff. But
be sure to lead one final warmup as a way of taking back control - He led an interesting, instructive warmup:
- We all took a breath in, let it out
- We all took a breath in, let out a "sound from the bowels of hell"
- We all took a breath in, let out a musical note
The "ugly sound" was much bigger with more committment than the musical note; why? Because you're allowed to screw up -- there's no pressure
to make the "right note" or to harmonize. Interestingly, with the ugly sound we eventually harmonized anyway. People associate the note
with perfection. Judgements happen regularly in improv, even with a simple game like zip-zap-zop. So we should improvise in the spirit
of that ugly note -- having fun with it, not trying for perfection or even to harmonize. Those things take care of themselves. - It's better to give notes what TO DO, vs. what NOT TO DO
- "Any good thing you do can become a crutch"
- To give us practice on our directing skills, he split us into group A & B. Each person had an observer in the other group, so when group A did
scenes, a member of group B was just watching them. After all members of group A had done scenes in every combination with other members of group A,
the observers in group B gave their notes to Asaf (vs. directly to the performer). - He asked us to look for patterns and to give a specific challenge to the performer (via Asaf) without being corrective or even explaining
why we were giving the challenge. For example, my observer gave the challenge that I should assume a dynamic, fixed posed at the beginning of every
scene and not move. - Group A then did another round of scenes with their challenges, and the observers gave another round of feedback (which included explaining
why they picked the challenge). This was a great format and one I intend to use in the future. - Good tip for thinking of challenges: "If not, then what?"
- Challenges are like lifting weights: they need to be extreme in order to cause a change, even though in real life you're not going to go to those
extremes (e.g. not many people are going to be benchpressing 200 lbs but that's what they need to lift to produce a change in their body) - All of improv boils down to making a choice and committing to a choice. So all challenges are about encouraging different choices or more committment
to choices. - Don't start your notes by giving people a compliment, it makes them feel like a "but" is coming and they anticipate that "but"
- Helpful to say things like "I remove your responsibility to be scenic" or "to be funny"
- With challenges, if you affect one thing, it tends to 'trickle down' and affect others (hence only one challenge needed at a time)
- Challenges create impulse/immediacy -- With immediacy comes impulse and with impulse comes energy
- Can apply challenges globally to the group
- All short form comes from Spolin's acting exercises; those exercises were designed to relieve judgement and fear
- The more specific the challenge, the more easy it is to succeed right away
- One good challenge he gave was to give five pieces of tape to a performer, and had that person put tape all over the stage, with the last two pieces
being "in unusual places". The performer's challenge was to hit all of those marks as often as possible throughout the scene. - Put your focus on succeeding in the NEXT scene; don't make your notes about the PREVIOUS scenes
- You don't act emotions; you do things that convey emotion.
- If you feel emotionally ambiguous, make a sound and see what happens (that was another good challenge: make a human sound before every line)
- We then did a round of extend/continue
- helps people with physical work
- helps free people of fulfilling obligations to the scene
- People feel need to constantly introduce cnflict and solve problems right away, but it can be good to be in an environment for awhile
before a conflict starts -- or letting problems get worse before we try to solve them. - Scenes can be slice of life, not just conflict
- Sidecoaching is often choice coaching -- doesn't help in next scene (but sidecoaching can be good to help keep challenges present in the mind
of the performer) - Best sidecoaching is about choices and committments
- Need to make things as tangible for actors as possible "You're at a 5, go to a 10"
- Sounds are more informative than sound effects
- Play from inspiration, not obligation
- The way he gives notes after a show: takes less than five minutes, has two parts. What were the strongest, most fun parts of the show?
What's the challenge for next time?
Asaf Ronen Physical Improv Workshop Notes (Philadelphia Improv Festival, November 2007)
- Too often we rely on words and forget other tools
- Laban movement exercises: we milled about the stage, then made choices based on one of these dimensions: Speed, Space, Direction, and Tension.
Then we combined choices in multiple different dimensions. - Grab an object, get informaton (about your character, the object, the scene, etc). Pull it towards you, get more information, use it, get more.
- Make a sound and grab an object
- You can explain everything physically except "Why?", but you don't need to explain why, because the audience fils it in.
- It's liberating to leave Why up to the audience -- experience is more personal as a result
Friday, October 12, 2007
Finding Improv Musicians (advice from Travis Ploeger)
One of BIG's troupes is looking to collaborate with a musician on a future project, so I asked the director of Washington Improv Theater's awesome iMusical for some advice. If you've never seen them perform you should definitely check it out -- they put together amazing shows. Travis kindly gave me permission to quote his excellent reply below:Interestingly, this advice matches what Neutrino told us when they trained us in their Neutrino Video Project techniques: it's better to teach improvisors how to film scenes than to teach camerapeople how to improvise.I would first try to find any actors/improvisers that happen to play piano-
then find out if they also compose/write songs.
(My own background is as an actor/improviser. I went to a music
school, but to be a Broadway star, not a music director.)
If the pianist can successfully put themselves "in the shoes" of the actor
on stage, then it goes a long way. The ability to be a great pianist is
honestly not that important. Being able to quickly follow singers is a
skill that can be learned if someone is able to play competently- provided they
already have an ability to improvise music at the piano on their own. Most
songs usually have about 3 to 4 chords in them. The better the pianist,
the "dressier" those chord/progressions end up being.
If you can't find an improviser/actor that plays piano, the next place to
look would be an accompanist that has experience with accompanying live musical
theater, pref. somebody who also writes songs on their own and has a sense of
humor. They can borrow chord progressions from the catalog of past shows
they remember, if they can't come up with tunes and progressions on their
own.
Labels: improv
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
What's an improv class like?
A couple of weeks ago Fox 45 came and did a segment on BIG's training program called "Challenge Yourself", where the lovely Patrice Harris took a one-hour version of our seven week training program. See the video below.The video does a good job of showing the essence of what classes are like, except that they naturally focused on the zaniest moments of the class -- we spend just as much time working on other kinds of theatrical expression and making realistic scenes. Nonetheless I think it shows how much fun we have. Thanks to Fox 45 for covering us!
To view the video, visit the Fox 45 website, then click on the "Improv" option on the right-hand "Video List" menu.
Labels: improv
Friday, August 31, 2007
Everything I Need to Know About Improv I Learned in Camp
Recently BIG held our first summer improv camp for kids. For their final showcase performance, our instructors, Bridget Cavaiola and Chris Enoch, created two posters of hints posted on the wings of the stage. I thought they were pretty funny but also very apt.Some of these tips are specific to working with kids in theater, and some are not as useful for adult improvisors (because you're often trying to get adults to be MORE like kids, while the teachers were trying to get the kids to be a bit more focused), but overall I think they are great advice. Sort of an "Everything I Need to Know About Improv I Learned in Summer Camp":
Do
- Establish strong characters
- Support your peers and make _them_ look good: team effort!
- Allow yourself to be seen & heard
- Set up your relationships and environment
- Focus on an activity (but don't talk about it)
- Stay focused on the show whether you're on _or_ off stage
- Say "Yes...and..." - add info
- Use details and specificity
- Go with your instincts => don't second guess
- Project your voice
- Maintain your character (role, accent, etc.)
- Jump...and the net will catch you
- Keep up the energy
- Ask questions...give gifts instead!
- Talk over people or out of turn
- Negate your partner
- Leave the scene or kill partner
- Pull props out of thin air
- Talk or distract when off stage
- Hestitate
- Say our "list of words" [not a reference to profanity but to bad expository habits]
- Eat or remove clothing on stage
- Look at audience members - or Bridget!
- Forget to hold for laughter
Labels: improv
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Getting Carried Away at Artscape
While hosting BIG's show at Artscape 2007 and leading the audience in an applause warmup, I got a little carried away. This is the craziest photo that will ever be taken of me!
Labels: improv
Monday, April 30, 2007
Chicago Improv Festival Artistic/Business Meeting Notes
After BIG's coaching sessions and performance at the Chicago Improv Festival, the festival's Executive Director (Jonathan Pitts) and Artistic Director (Mark Sutton) had a long meeting with all of the apprentice teams where they gave us advice, answered questions, and offered the resources of the festival to help us over the next year. The highlights of this meeting for me are noted below.- Mark and Jonathan offered to answer any questions we might have throughout the year about our artistic or business operations. I can't think of another art form where the leading practitioners would make themselves so available to beginners.
- CIF can help connect us with coaches from around the country through CIF artistic associates. We are definitely going to take them up on that offer.
- If you're unknown, PR for a particular media outlet can take six months to a year before you see any results.
- Annoyance Theater never used the word improv in their posters; always used the word "comedy" because that was more palatable to the audience. Audience doesn't care how the laughs are created as long as they are funny. Advised us not to use the word improv in our marketing (BIG is kind of screwed in this regard, but that's mainly why we use the tagline "Unscripted theater for Baltimore")
- Press kit is the most important element in creating a good impression on the media
- Mark told us the story of how Annoyance was founded. Mick Napier saw a Second City show and read the book Something Wonderful Right Away, and that's about all he knew about improv. They all started a troupe at Indiana University and were flying by the seat of their pants, doing weekly shows at a local bar. "Ignorance was a real advantage" -- they didn't question the validity of what they were doing.
- Jonathan outlined three layers of improv pedagogy:
- Teachers are invested in their teaching.
- Coaches are invested in the team.
- Directors are invested in the project.
- Every improv student question boils down to "Am I Good?"
- Every improv professionals' question boils down to "Is the work good?"
- When you are the director, you have to believe you are always right (they were discussing self-coached/self-directed teams)
- Annoyance has a rule: any given element of a show can only be talked about for a certain amount of time. "You can what-if everything to death"
- You should never introduce a game that you are performing in; hard for audience to accept you as a player, hard for you to get into player mindset
- Always buy your own theater if possible vs. leasing
- Realize who you are: teenage groups don't usually like to play as teenagers; all-women groups don't play as women or explore a unique female perspective on the world.
More interesting improv would result if people used who they were in their improv - Group challenges: We start all as a group of peers; some people progress at different rates, some stay behind. Some don't progress at all. It's an art form. Need to assess where a person is against where they want to be. Hard to handle this situation because you usually like all of the people you are working with, else you would not have started a group with them.
- If combining formats in one show, always do short form first. Audience will be more willing to take a ride into long form after that.
Labels: improv
Chicago Improv Festival Coaching Notes
I just got back from the Chicago Improv Festival (CIF) where several members of BIG trained and performed as an apprentice team. They treated us incredibly well and made us feel like a part of the worldwide improv community.Each of the six apprentice teams (which included WIT's Jackie) was assigned a coach. Nick Johne coached us for 10 hours and helped us prepare a long-form set that we performed Saturday night. Nick gave us very excellent and specific coaching and was a real gift to work with.
Below are the rough notes I took during the festival. Most were drawn from Nick's coaching except where indicated:
- Warm-up design
Nick taught us a new warmup game called "Whoosh", which is a variation of other "pass the ball with a sound" games, but at the end he asked us to invent our own
moves to add to the game. I thought this was a neat way of emphasizing the improviser mentality that you should not be playing with rules that constrain you, you
should always be ready to adapt the form to your creative drive. I'm going to add this variation to every warmup that I lead. - Excessive agreement exercise
We faced each other in chairs, two at a time, and had a conversation where Nick forced us to say "yes" as many times as possible. This led to some great energy and funny moments
as people tried to affirm each other as strongly as possible. Nick pointed out that eventually we should be able to play with that same kind of energy and affirmation, but layer other emotions on top of it beyond happiness/excitement. - Learning how to create deeper, more satifying scenes
Nick taught us a ton of methods to create more meaningful scenes. My favorites were:- Doing a scene in real time
The best scenes we did in rehearsal were when Nick gave us a scenario, such as two people in a pharmacy, which had to play out in real time (i.e. waiting for the prescription to be filled took the real amount of time). This sounds like it would be boring, but in fact it encouraged the performers to play in a very patient way, to really enjoy discovering the environment and the characters. The scenes usually led to huge laughs that came from something ethereal like a pointed look. - Patient improv
Nick emphasized being patient with us a lot, a quality I had not previously emphasized in my own teaching. It hit home with me when we saw Dasariski perform. Three guys did a 40 minute single scene (with two or three short scenes sprinkled in) that was utterly brilliant. They started slowly and did not try to justify
everything through exposition. Gradually a story was teased out of the emotional dynamics among the characters, and there were some fast-paced moments, but
they stuck with the patient style. Why are we always in such a hurry? These guys were playing with total commitment and had crazy ideas, but because they didn't
force it, it was a very elegant, hilarious show. - Mirror each other physically
We performed two-person scenes where we had to mirror the other actor's physicality. If one player moved to a corner of the stage, the other had to move to the opposite corner. - Make eye contact, then look away
In pairs we did scenes where the characters made eye contact, then looked away, over and over again. - Politically Incorrect Scenes
We did scenes where Nick gave us permission to be as offensive as we possibly could. This actually led to some compelling scenes because we saw that when we played from the heart, it was clear that our characters were saying these things, and not us. The audience will allow you to be very dark (for example by playing a sexist or bigotted or racist character) if you commit to it, and the results can be hilarious and profound. Also I feel like this could be an antidote for troupes that play too nicely, or only rely on one or two people to be outrageous or dangerous (which I think is a limitation in BIG).
- Doing a scene in real time
- Four Scene Tones
When editing, we should vary the tone of scenes to create a diverse show and not get locked into one particular pattern:- Physical
- Surreal
- Intellectual
Emotional
We did an exercise where we had to edit every scene by deciding which category had just been played, and starting a new scene in a different category. If we did a very talky, intellectual scene, we had to follow it with something very emotional or physical or surreal. - Follow your feet
When he saw us stutter-stepping on the sidelines, this was Nick's commandment to us to get on their and edit and trust our instincts. - Editing exercise
Before introducing any edit techniques to us, we did a round of scenes where we were not allowed to use wipe edits. This forced us to discover our own ways of editing (or use techniques we had learned elsewhere, like tag edits). This is the best way to introduce editing in my opinion; don't tell people the "right way" to edit scenes. Let the group experiment and then coach on what works or doesn't work for a particular style. - Audience calls edit
Two person scenes performed until someone in the audience called "edit". We then discussed why that person had decided to edit when they did. This was a really good way to illuminate editing instincts. - Organic edit
Nick showed us a technique where multiple players started doing the same activity and the entire troupe piled on, making an organic group game that wiped the scene until two
players were left to start a new scene (hard to explain but powerful in practice). - Cartoony characters
Two people a time played very intense, over-the-top, cartoony characters. Mid-way through the scene, Nick had them switch characters, which was a great challenge for expanding range. - Repetition
One actor repeated everything the other actor said (sort of a half-duplex version of last line). This fostered agreement and discouraged storytelling/plotting, and led to a really cool scene - "Wear a veil instead of a mask"
Nick's note to me was that I often played very theatrical characters, and that I should try playing more realistically. This is problem an artefact of my roots in short form. - Source Scenes
One great way to use a scene to inspire other scenes was to show causes and effects of a scene. - Always go with the first offer
This echoed what Mark Sutton taught me a few weeks prior; improvisers fall in love the second idea, when the first one would be plenty sufficient. - Use your own worlds
Nick had us two scenes as ourselves, filtering everything that happened through something that we were expert in. This drove home the point that you can create
very interesting work just by being yourself and using what you know. - Improv is a folk tradition
I realized during this trip that improv really is a folk tradition. We do things here in Baltimore that we learned from people who trained in New York City, in San Diego, in Cambridge, and elsewhere, and many of these things were handed down to us by people who themselves received them from improv's master teachers. Gradually the names of concepts change, and new elements are added, to the point where we don't even know our own heritage. I really enjoyed being in Chicago and working with some of the pioneers of improv to see where some of these traditions come from.
Labels: improv
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
DC Comedy Festival improv workshop notes
This weekend I attended some excellent improv classes at the DC Comedy Festival. Below are my rough notes as well as notes that another BIG member took.Mark Sutton's workshop: Finding More
Box exercise
As a class, he had us explore an improvised box of items of personal significance. At various intervals he would say 'go' and we would start a monologue about the object in our hand. Helped reinforce the concept that environment work in improv should have some kind of importance for the characters, not just to give your hands something to do.
Chair exercises
He moved the chairs around in various positions and had us do the same scene premise (someone getting fired) over and over again but with different configurations. Very different scenes resulted from different configurations (close together, far apart, etc.). We also did scenes where at the end, the improvisers had to reposition the chairs. The next scene would be inspired by the position of the chairs (though we were not required to sit in the chairs at all). I found this led to some really cool new scenework and inspiration.
In one of these scenes, the chairs were used to demarcate the front half of the stage from the back. One actor was placed in the front and told never to look back at the other actor, who was in the back half and not allowed to cross the line into the front half. This led to a very interesting dynamic where the person in the front had high-status (because they never looked the other character in the eye) even though it was a seemingly-low status character.
How Improvisers Make Themselves Safe
We use words/dialogue to make sure everyone is okay. Improv is not about feeling okay, it's about taking risks. Words become information you have to deal with, a box you can't get out of (or spend lots of time trying to get out of).
Second City saying: "Bring a brick, not cathedral."
Joe Bill's workshop, "How to Stand Out in a Scene"
- A big difference between short and long form is the source of tension that's powering it.
- In short form, the game is the source of tension. Will they execute it? Will they do it in a way that's funny or surprising?
- In short form, you don't need to act; you can indicate. It's a head game, mostly, because it's a form built on rules and right and wrong--that's the nature of a game.
- In long form, the tension for the audience is: Do I believe you? Do I continue to believe you? Will I be surprised by what you get me to believe? It's lodged in the heart and gut, and any consideration of right or wrong will screw you.
- In long form, characters reveal themselves in three ways:
- What they say
- What they do
- What they value or stand for
- It doesn't matter whether you discover these things, or decide them--or in what order. But character is how you do what you do. If you know who you are, you'll know what to do.
- In improv, we're going for the absence of self-consciousness and judgment. The audience wants to see that as much as they want to see funny stuff--they're paying for something they want to do but can't.
Warmup
The whole class did three characters for 30 seconds each. Then they asked us to pick the most interesting/surprising character and revisit it for 30 seconds. We then did three scenes as that character, two students at a time.
- As the character we picked
- Using an object with meaning for that character
- Playing some aspect of that character to the extreme, over-the-top
You only have three things to work with: actions, speech, and internal point-of-view. They asked everyone to pick an internal point-of-view (such as an emotion or attitude). We then got into two lines and did two-person scenes. Line 1 started by projecting their POV onto their scene partner (e.g. my attitude is 'fear', so I start the scene by regarding my partner fearfully). Line 2 started by projecting their POV onto their environment (e.g. my attitude is 'boredom', so I start making a pizza in a bored way).
By doing this at the start of the scene, we started to get more information. Your bored pizza-making or fearful-regarding leads to more inspiration about the shape of your scene. Once this happens, they asked us to start dialogue and interaction.
The Improv Glance
They told us about this obvious 'tell': when an improviser looks around at the scene partner to check in with the partner. The tell is this shows you are looking for support instead of creating something for yourself. When you look at the other character it should be for a character reason.
Improv scenes are simple
They emphasized that great improv scenes are not usually very complicated. Many times we make them complicated by "feeding circumstances to the premise monster" -- which I found incredibly apt!
When characters ask questions, or argue, it's fine.
When improvisers do, its bad. This goes a long way to explaining why the 'Yes, And' rule is a bit simplistic; characters can say 'no' to each other as long as improvisers are not.
Circumstances vs. Dynamics
This was the best improv exercise I've ever done: in groups of three, Mark gave us a circumstance and told us to play it absolutely realistically. One was a doctor telling a patient he had a terminal illness, one was parents telling their daughter how much they loved her before her wedding day, etc. He asked us to remember exactly how the emotional dynamic felt between the characters.
After everyone had gone, the same groups replayed their scenes with the exact same dynamics, but this time with different circumstances. So in the first round, I was the doctor. In the second round, I was a car mechanic telling a guy that his car could not be fixed. So instead of playing the usual stereotyped car mechanic guy, I played a really serious, sober-minded car mechanic, and the 'victim' played a really hilarious (but totally deadpan) guy who was devastated by the loss of the car.
I'm still processing the implications of this exercise, but the main point was: the audience cares about emotional dynamics. Invest in the dynamics and don't worry about explaining everything by generating circumstances.
Improvisers often fall in love with the second idea
We waste too much time at the start of scenes figuring out what the scene is about. We do something that's plenty great at the top of a scene, but then drop that offer when we get 'the second idea'. The audience then wonders what happened to that first idea.
Mick Napier's Workshop
Personal Attention
He totally lived up to his reputation. First of all, he asked all 25 of us to introduce ourselves and memorized all of our names on the spot. Then all 25 of us did an hour of short scenes. He then gave us each a detailed, personal critique of what our improv was like, and gave us a single challenge to work on to make it better. Then we did another hour and a half of scenes that were much better. We finished up with a Q&A session (notes from that below).
The main thing I took away from Mick was the importance and the potential for giving improvisers individual attention. If he can do it for 25 people in a single 3.5 hour session, why can't we all do it for 6-12 people in weekly 2 hour sessions?
To keep a troupe fresh
- Learn new forms (even if you don't perform them)
- Bring new people in (as long as you're careful about screening them)
- Occasionally have a rehearsal where someone in the troupe brings something new to work on that the group has never done before
Decide to be good at learning people's names. Start telling people that you're good with names. This will change your brain so you can remember names.
Introduce a game never played before
He told us about something awesome that Second City sometimes does in rehearsal, but which you could do on stage: have a player stand in front of the audience and say "We're now going to perform a game/format that we've been doing for five years. It's called [made-up name], and here's how it works..." The player then invents the rules or the structure on the spot. Everyone on the backline listens attentively but pretends like this is old hat. Then you jump in and perform it.
Don't be funny exercise
He also recommended doing scenes in rehearsal that are explicitly not funny, that are serious and real, as a way of getting into more inspired improv.
Labels: improv
Sunday, February 18, 2007
One Man's Improv Framework
Improv defies description. Different people describe it very differently. Here is the framework I use when teaching and directing as a member of the Baltimore Improv Group. None of these ideas are original to me; this is how I synthesize everything I've learned as a student, director, and performer.Improvised theater tells spontaneous stories through discrete actions. You make a spontaneous movement or a sound (as simple as a pointed look or as complicated as an accusation). Other improvisers make your action real for themselves and for the audience through their spontaneous, honest reactions. The actions are often called "moves" or "offers".
Improv does not have to be funny. If you try to be funny, you will fail. Only by playing to the truth of any scene will you portray characters and environments that an audience can identify with, and find hilarious or dramatic. I once heard Topher Bellavia say "Aim for truth and you will hit comedy". The converse is: aim for comedy and you will mediocrity.
Improv naturally derives its power from spontaneity. You must rely on continuous instinctual decision-making. The goal of my teaching and directing is to shape an improviser's instincts so they can make the best, most honest, most creative decisions possible.
Most of these instincts are human and natural; we all already know how to tell stories, so all you have to do is reconnect with your natural human storytelling impulse.
Some human instincts are counterproductive to good improv. Humans can be self-critical, overly interested in pleasing others, hateful of self, or worried about impressing others. On stage you will often be put into unusual situations that may cause these feelings to arise. Often the feelings stem from fear, which is very natural. Most good improv exercises and formats aim to help you reduce this fear and the counterproductive instincts derived from it.
Our social training gives us another set of instincts that can limit our ability to create in a wild, authentic, and amazing fashion. In real life, you would try to comfort a friend, assuage an angry person, reject a strange gift, or flee from a conflict, but on stage, these are situations we often want to heighten or accelerate. In real life, you must obey a variety of cultural strictures so you can be taken seriously, but on stage, we must be ready for anything and able to jump into any situation. Improv training helps you reduce your inhibitions so you can be as creative as possible.
Rules in improv are counterintuitive. Many improv classes emphasize "rules". Rules are counter-intuitive because they give you something else to worry about onstage. The core behavior of improv, making instinctual decisions, means you have to be ready to break those rules anyway (Mick Napier's book Improvise has a lot more to say about this).
Instead of rules, I try to give guidelines that support better improv decisions. The three most important are these:
- Absolute acceptance of offers by other improvisers; these are tremendous gifts that you should always accept with genuine, strong responses.
- Absolute commitment to decisions you make; never give up on yourself. If you fail, fail big!
- Don't think, just act. Your instincts will become better over time but only if you learn to rely on them.
Labels: improv
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