Ask us anything!
I'm currently reahearsing with a troupe as we are preparing to present a play. I'd like to offer a workshop on improvisation, but I'd like it to be designed specifically for actors who come from a scripted theatre background. What approach and what exercises and games would you recommend?
Ian
http://improviser.fr/blog
I’m going to cheat on this one, mostly because I don’t have an answer I’m happy with yet. Caveat: I haven’t read it yet so it might be total shite.
-fv
I asked via twitter and facebook what I should write about. The first inspiring response was from one of our students (hi, Joe) asking about improv books. I can do that. I’ll be brief and only covering books I’ve read. Sorry, sweetheart, I haven’t got time for anything else.
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Promise, this is the last I’ll mention Jill Bernard’s Small Cute Book of Improv for a bit. I best absorb my reading by writing about it (plus I bought a 50% of Jill’s future income).
In JBSCBoI, Jill passes on the listening advice from Todd Stashwick which I think is great:
Listen like a thief.
(I’m sure Todd has a great follow up to a catchy line like that but I know nothing of it so here’s me with my created-from-whole-cloth, hackjob version.)
Every sound, every movement is a clue. A thief needs to know if they will be caught at any given second. An improviser needs to know what their partner is giving them, intentionally or unintentionally, every second. A sneeze, the ring of a bell, each word can be significant if you make it significant.
It’s not just listening, watch like a thief, too. Note every movement, each scratch, each glance, where they just put down their mug. Like a thief operating in plain view, you should be on edge, aware of everything yet not show it lest you give yourself away.
Digression: This is where familiarity comes in. When you play with people you don’t know, you need to listen for everything. When you play with people you know, you can read them more easily. I believe players should try to play with people they don’t know regularly or else they might fall into routines and habits. Habit is one of the enemies of improv.
So, listen like a thief but don’t forget to do something with what you hear.
-fv
Ask us anything!
I'm in an improv rut. I do improv on a weekly (sometimes biweekly) basis and I have found that lately I'm not enjoying my own company on stage. I feel like I'm not contributing to scenes and that my ideas are stale and uninspiring. I feel like I'm letting down my scene-mates. I essentially feel like a bad improviser. Do you have any tips on how to dig myself out of this situation (or at least on how to avoid being overly-critical of myself)?
Ah. The dreaded Improv Rut. I think I’m coming out of one myself so I totally relate. In Jill Bernard’s Small Cute Book of Improv (which I just finished reading), she talks about the Sine Wave of improv, of alternating between peaks and troughs. It sounds like you’re in the middle of a trough.
How to get out? First, be patient. You’ll come out of it eventually. It can be frustrating but there is an end. Second, try new things. Push your physicality, try stronger characters, use bigger emotional reactions (don’t be phony, just amplify what exists), play with your environment. Don’t force anything but find inspiration in new things. Finally, don’t get down. This really happens to everyone and it will happen repeatedly.
My theory on this is that your old tricks don’t work because you find them boring and so you find yourself boring. Find something new that engages you in the scene and play with it. And while I won’t tell you to stop beating yourself up over it (we all do that), I will tell you to just accept failure (real or perceived) as part of the learning process. It’s the people who can best accept failure and rejection that keep going through the troughs to the other side where gold and glory lay.
-fv
