This week in the satellite jam session the ensemble members
worked in two groups of six on Harold openings, and each group played an open free form 25-minute improv set. The rest of our time was spent warming up and discussing the improv. No names are mentioned so you are more inclined to be objective and empathic.
I had the groups working on a “static line” free-association
opening. The goal of the opening is the players will popcorn words and ideas back and forth for 45 to 75
seconds before morphing into the first scene of the
set by someone stepping out of the line and initiating the first scene. Challenges in this opening are to stay
connected by keeping eyes up off the ground and on their fellow players. Words should be spoken with decisiveness and clear enunciation. The purpose of the opening
is to litter the stage with offers, that they may be picked up as in-the-moment inspiration throughout the improv
set. The pacing of the piece is greater than that of bringing a good or creative offer to the mix. Hit the beat when it needs to be hit, and try not to overlap. That's the whole game, the content is secondary to the flow.
1st Set Notes:
A scene starts and a player sits typing with determination, the second player immediately kneels beside them, watching over and concerning
themselves with their scene partner’s task. The kneeling
improviser will enjoy more success and momentum in scenes when they think before acting, not just following their first impulse. Their initial direction of focus when the
scene starts should be in agreement with the co-created reality of the scene. Say to yourself I agree with what's going on here. And then the only decisions needed to be made are in regard to how you'd like the scene to progress, choosing the paths you are interested in taking, and then developing opinions about the offers that come up in the scene and being surprised and changed by them. All other energy goes to being playful and scenes thrive.
A couple scenes started interestingly with fun, productive, scene moving offers and as they walked the path, progress fizzled. They experienced a sense of, “Well, what do we
do now?” The note here is that the offers given at the beginning of the scene
are integral to the scene as a whole, and as long as we are paying attention in
the moment we will give ourselves gifts to use later in the scene. Follow
through with the games you create for yourself! A scenic example of this opens on two players huddled behind a block at center stage. They concernedly discussed and gossiped about what was happening around them, referencing people getting
shot instead of just fired. A third character entered and joined the two behind the box, asking for a Sprite. At this point the scene fizzled and ended oddly. There was no need for the scene to fizzle. The world they had created had two major things going on. The severity of
the world outside of their bubble was contrasted with the childlike nature of
drinking sodas and gossiping while hiding behind a mini-fridge in an office. In these moments players need only play and heighten both sides of the world to follow the productive, wide-open path. The world around them becomes more severe and their bubble becomes
more innocent. Rinse, rather, repeat.
The set ended with a lengthy callback scene about a couple who,
in the first scene, had been about to get married and the Groom had walked in
on the Bride and they ended up having brown-chicken-brown-cow relations right then and
there, mere minutes before the service. In this second scene, the Mother was laying
into the Daughter about the state of her wedding dress during the service, and
the Daughter eventually confessed to making love with her Husband before the
ceremony. The Mother was shocked and outraged and a third character entered
with the wedding tape, which, as he described, was mainly just thirty
minutes in the Bride’s quarters before the Wedding. The Mother was outraged and furious and
then the Husband comes in and the scene became heated between he and the Mother. The Father of the Bride
entered the scene and, oblivious to the facts, became quite eager to see the wedding tape. At this point
the Mother was trying to stop the Father from viewing the tape and the Husband
wanted the Father to watch. This pattern looped until I side-coached the
Mother to stop arguing (1) and then we got to see the Father turn on
the tape and have a reaction. After he turned on the tape but before his reaction, a player swept the scene yet I side-coached to have the scene continue and ignore the edit. The Father could have chosen any honest reaction and it would be the best response, and it was, he was okay with it because they were both adults.
The notes for this scene are the two
side-coached moments.
1) Roadblocking forward movement in a scene is fine, momentarily, if a character
disagrees with a course of action; support, though, comes from allowing the
scene-partner to make up their own minds about what they want to bring to the
scene after the roadblock has been expressed. A player should be opinionated with their character points-of-view and allowing of space and time for response.
2) The scene edit happened to come right as the journey was finishing, which would have disallowed the audience a chance to see a moment that was being built up to. Regardless of the length of the improv set, if you cut the scene now to come back to it later the audience will never see the Father's particular response; they may be informed of what it was but the don't get to be in on it. Let them be in on it. We drove all the way to Disneyland and right when we got inside the gates BOOM. Edited. And we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to view the Father
reacting to watching the tape. Put in the work to buildup an idea, and then
enjoy the spoils.
2nd Set Notes:
A scene starts with a nervous character being welcomed into
a Disney Tattoo Parlor by a confident tattoo artist. The scene was a negotiation of
what type of tattoo was going to be given and whether the artist was capable or
not. The tattoo artist made a couple of bold offers in the scene but did not
revisit them. One of the bold offers came after the customer claimed to want a
tattoo of Mickey and Minnie, to which
the artist stated, “Dirty.” The setup the tattoo artist immediately provides for themselves
with this offer is for any time the customer makes a choice the artist can
state their judgment of said choice. The second bold offer came after the
artist drugged the customer. While describing the tattoo procedure and noticing
the effects of the drugs in the customer, the artist stated that she was a man.
The setup here is that the artist has given herself the go ahead to reveal
secrets to the customer while the customer is drugged. These things should be continued. The artist will enjoy
more success and momentum in scenes when they play along with the tune they’ve
created for their own scenes.
Another scene took place between a Mother and Daughter. At one point, the
Mother turned to her daughter and, although she was several feet away, the
Daughter said, “Don’t touch me!” The Mother agreed and continued along with the
story. The note here is to be aware that
the “Don’t touch me!” offer is bigger than face value, and implies subtext that
doesn’t so much need to be addressed as respected. If the Daughter is saying “Don’t
touch me!” she is either over-dramatic or has real concern because of things that
have happened in the past. The awareness of the undertone is key for the success
of the relationship between the two improvisers. This lesson was echoed in
another scene, where a child flinched when their parent arrived to take them
away. The parent character can continue to act nice and kind and doesn’t need
to address the flinching but being aware of the possible truths behind it, without selling it out as nothing, is paramount. Awareness brings choice-clarity.
I hope the notes are helpful to your own improv. Thanks for reading!