Hello international impro friends!
Well, it has happened!
My book has arrived.
I can't begin to describe the feelings. Excitement, nervousness, joy and fear.
Fear?
Yes fear.
Fear of the unknown.
Writing a book is like an impro scene.
Improvisation is a vibrant art of spontaneity, freedom and impulse. Audiences the world over flock to shows where ‘anything could happen!’ But lurking at the heart of many companies that perform it is a contradiction, a bait and switch. Students who sign up for classes are taught ‘The Rules’, the strictly right and wrong way to be creative. Exploration is replaced with emulation and curiosity with compliance. How the hell did that happen?
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Take a breath.
I know this wasn't the plan. Things are changing rapidly. Maybe you are at home in quarantine or are facing this real situation soon.
Take a breath.
Emotion is a powerful driving force. It can motivate you, it can also exhaust you. You have friends and family who are there to listen, help and support. Reach out to them. Call them, text, email, – you are not alone in this.
Take a breath.
The reality of the situation calls for flexibility, thinking differently, openness, community and support.
Change our mindset change our perception.
Look at the ‘block’ (quarantine and changes) as an ‘offer’ (time).
We can all bring more awareness, humility, openness, curiosity, empathy and understanding into our work practice on and off stage and in the rehearsal room. We can make some subtly yet powerful changes in our improvisation that sends strong signals to the audience and creates more freedom on stage.
I would like to share with you a few approaches I use.
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To grow in our awareness of the improvisation art form we need to be students of humanity. By that I mean become an observer. Improvisation techniques have been developed by observation of human patters and behaviours. You’ll see this clearly in the works of Johnstone, Spolin and Close as they question and explore their observations and create exercises and techniques based on their discoveries.
Any new environment is a great opportunity to become an observer. To witness what is happening in the room between teacher and student and to observe ones own self and how we feel, think, respond and behave. We are only human after all.
A dance class was a perfect place for all of the above!
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The play to please hands control over to others leaving the improvisor as vulnerable as a leaf in the wind being blown around by the opinions of others. When we value our work only on the opinions of others we create a cycle of vulnerability and need. We begin to seek out praise, adjusting our work to achieve the dopamine hit.
This can be very dangerous to people's self esteem and can create an opportunity for others to exploit and manipulate, especially if there are power dynamics, like casting, involved.
For some people, when they aim to be good, the focus goes to self. In turn, they loose focus on their partners, audience, offers and the show. The improvisor begins to work solo in a group, instead of collaboratively with the group.
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We need to allow ourselves to be productively stupid again. To not know the answers and be delighted and curious by the questions. To get back into discovery and move away from delivery.
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Our emotional response to the note makes it negative or positive. If you are seeking validation and praise in notes then any note that doesn’t reward you, will be perceived as negative because it will rub your ego the wrong way. However, if you are listening to notes for information you will hear this note as that and be curious to learn more.
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Process rehearsals work in solving problems together as a team so notes are necessary as it is input of information to help understand if we solved the problems or we need to try new approaches.
End goal rehearsals work in identifying what you should and should not do in a very right and wrong mentality. It creates more individual and less team focus.
I’ve just had the wonderful experience of playing and directing the London 50 hour soap a thon. The theme was Western and the show called The Good, The Bad and The Fifty – a marvellous title.
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Children choosing their own outfit are wonderful to watch. Exploration, expression of individuality and choices. Choices made regardless of how people might respond because the response is not the objective, getting dressed is.
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As a student or audience member of improvisation you may have noticed that the spelling changes. Sometimes impro, sometimes improv. That magical mystery appearing and disappearing V.
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There has been, of late, a lot of horrifying and enlightening discussions regarding discrimination and sexual harassment in the improvisation community.
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A while back I received an email with a video promoting an improvisation workshop.
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Inspire Your Partner is a very important phrase. It goes hand in hand with Make Your Partner Look Good. Both of these are my impro mantras and what I aim towards each time I teach, perform or direct.
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I’d like to share my thoughts on a statement that is seeping into the international improvisation lexicon like a horrible mould. A statement I find in complete contradiction to our principals of supporting your partner and valuing them and their ideas.
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Internationally there is a Format explosion! Everyone is creating one and festivals now seem to be more focused on format presentation and format workshops, then collaboration between groups and skills development.
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