Silence and movement

You may have noticed a dearth of posts recently; we have been rather silent here while we celebrate Easter, promote our acts, deal with taxes etc. Fear not! We will begin to schedule more activity now that we are in the home stretch, running towards summer.

I've been impressed the last two warm-ups with good stagecraft. Sometimes when we improvise we frown and bite our lips, thinking about what to say or do, and forget to move around the stage or face the audience. That hasn't happened much recently! So kudos to you.

Sometimes it is perfectly all right to break the rules... as long as you pick the right time. For instance: deliberately turning your back to the audience while you rummage in an imaginary backpack, or stopping and allowing a moment of silence to emphasize the next bit of dialogue (hopefully a punch line).

We'll post more practices soon. Until then, I look forward to laughing with (at) you...

New games & principles to remember

A couple of new games we've incorporated into the practices, or exercises really, intended to get people thinking about plot and genre: 

Storytime: Groups of four sit in a circle; first person gives a genre and a title for a story, the next person tells the situation, the third tells the conflict and the fourth, the resolution.  The idea is to come up with something original and compelling, with a nice humorous finish.  

Elements: One person grabs a whiteboard, the group agrees on a genre, and everyone contributes elements common to stories in that genre.  Elements get written on the board, then we construct a plot using those elements.  The plot should be true to the genre.  

A few principles to remember when we're letting it all hang out: 

Stagecraft, stagecraft, stagecraft!  Remember the audience: move around the stage as necessary, face forward (unless you specifically shouldn't), and speak clearly.  Give 'em a show. 

Yes, AND: as Del Close famously said.  Take what another person gives you and build on it; don't get locked in to your own ideas and ignore what all is going on. 

Running gags from one scene to another can be quite funny.  Running gags from one practice to another won't mean a thing to an audience.  Or, to put it another way: inside jokes aren't funny. 

Improv principles galore!

Hello again-

I thought I'd put this up, since we're playing theater games today. Sorry, to those of you who can't come! We'll probably let you know on what you missed out on.

Also, these are things that seemed like good tips to me. On a few of them, I reiterated the point a little.

Please read these, and try to keep these in mind at our future warm-ups and performances.

Get into trouble. Go out on a limb without being sure you have a way to recover. The audience will love seeing you deal with the situation you've gotten yourself into. Do not play it "safe".
Scott has said to let them sweat multiple times, I believe. This sounds like it goes along those lines.

Dare to suck big! HA! That's my only comment!

Don't plan ahead. Give up your ideas when the scene doesn't progress as you'd hoped. Just respond moment by moment to what happens, without thinking of a goal that you want the scene to reach. Too often, I think, we see people plan to do something, and get totally hung up on that. The best scenes aren't planned, they're spur of the moment.

Experiment (in performance, not just in classes or practices). Do things on stage that you've never done before, without coordinating them in advance with others. Let yourself discover entirely new skills right during a scene. Discovering new skills is always a good thing!

Love everything unconditionally. Usually loving something rather than hating something leads the scene into genuinely unpredictable territory. Hating something usually just bogs things down. (An instance of making the Active Choice.) For example, if someone gives you cotton candy, you could hate it because you hate circuses, and spend the next five minutes bickering. Or you could love cotton candy, get a sugar high, and wander into a tent where you get sawn in half. I can think of a couple people who definitely need to take this one to heart. Besides....sugar highs rock! ^_^

If there is violence in the scene, act it out in slow motion. This is actually a safety tip, but it's often funny anyway. I say, let's try to avoid violence. However, if we do end up play-fighting....that would be so hilarious!!!!!!

Go with the obvious. This is always the first resort in improv. Often, what is obvious to you is not obvious to other people, but because it connects so naturally with the scene, the audience often perceives it as "brilliant". Intentionally being non-obvious usually just comes across as "forcing it" or "trying too hard". We want to look like it comes naturally, right? So let's be brilliant!

If someone asks you a yes-or-no question and you have no particular inspiration, just say yes and see where it leads. Saying no usually blocks action. Self-explanatory.

Do something original in every game that you have never done or seen before. BUT DON'T PLAN TO. If you feel like doing something, just do it. Don't be afraid of doing something that has never been done before. In fact, do what you think is least likely to happen. The audience will love it. Since when are we realistic, anyways? :P

Commit. Sell It. Put your line out there, make your choice, and let whatever happens happen. Never say a line tentatively, like you need audience approval. Let the audience decide what's funny, let the scene go where it goes. Let me reiterate those first two words again: COMMIT. SELL IT. (Oh, wait. That's 3 words.) That is SO important. Think of your favorite lines from improv warm-ups and performances...they were always said boldly, loudly, and confidently, which is part of what made it funny. Right?

Create Potential, don't just use it up. If all you do is use it up, you eventually run out of potential. So create more, so we don't have to be at a loss!

If you liked those, and want to see the rest of them (I just picked my favorites out), you can go to this website, which is where I found them:

http://greenlightwiki.com/improv/tips_and_techniques

Can't wait until the theater games start!

Improv principle #2

This is post #2 in a series of principles I thought might be useful... this one stolen directly from The Museum of Conceptual Art

2. Dare to be dull

State the obvious. Take the next logical step. If everyone tries to be too clever in a dozen different directions, it just causes a train wreck.

If you're creating a group story by having each person contribute one line, don't decide three lines in advance what you're going to say when it's your turn. When your turn comes, just say whatever the story needs, even if it's dull or doesn't match your previous idea of where you wanted the story to go.

Part of this involves realizing that the whole scene isn't resting on your shoulders. You just have to do your little part.

Improv principle #1

This is post #1 in a series of principles I thought might be useful, mostly taken from the Internet, perhaps with my own spin on it as well.

1. yes, AND...

If your partner in a scene says, "Look, it's a train," say, "Yes, and it's coming this way." Use what you are given and add to it. Don't try to push the scene toward your own pre-conceived ideas, or it will die a slow and ugly death. Listen to your partners, take what they offer and build on it.