So you think you're a character?
So you take a 6-month improv class and you think you're hot stuff, thinking you might actually be good at this because all your friends were kind enough to laugh at your show, giving you compliments on how "quick-witted" you were on your feet - and then you don't do it for almost three months. Neglect the fundamentals, as they were. And you roll into a 6-week character building workshop, thinking, "I got this."
Uh, nice try, padawan. You DON'T got this.
Week 1 was really all about shaking off the rust, remembering what makes a good scene, and revisiting the character ideas you had during the 6-month class. Week 2, tonight, was where the real fun started.
This week's class focused on physical embodiment of characters. We were set up doing straight scenes for each other, with our only scene suggestion being one of two things - in the first round of exercises, the suggestion was a physical stance and in the second round of exercises, the suggestion was an action that we were to do in the 3rd sphere. Both actors received separate suggestions - from there, we had to build a scene that worked, and perhaps be inspired for future characters.
It was an interesting exercise for me. My first suggestion was "balance on one leg." This ended up being a scene of two sisters in a hot yoga class. My second suggestion was "stand on one leg" - oddly similar that I got it twice, but I embodied it differently, and it turned into a strange scene between two ER coworkers - in which I caught myself making rookie errors of asking questions and not saying how I feel. My third scene was the most interesting of the evening - my suggestion was "playing video games." I chose to be playing Wi Fit, and this ended up being an interaction between live-in partners arguing about who does the chores.
Through it all, though - there are still fundamentals that I need to work on - and this is what I will be focusing on in Jam this week....
1) Have an emotion about a situation - and express it to your partner.
2) Establish the who, what, where in a scene as soon as you can.
3) YES, AND.
4) Make statements, not questions.
5) No matter how ridiculous - commit to the scene - make it matter to you. Because if it doesn't matter to the people on stage, why on earth with the audience care?
Thus the improv journey continues......
Uh, nice try, padawan. You DON'T got this.
Week 1 was really all about shaking off the rust, remembering what makes a good scene, and revisiting the character ideas you had during the 6-month class. Week 2, tonight, was where the real fun started.
This week's class focused on physical embodiment of characters. We were set up doing straight scenes for each other, with our only scene suggestion being one of two things - in the first round of exercises, the suggestion was a physical stance and in the second round of exercises, the suggestion was an action that we were to do in the 3rd sphere. Both actors received separate suggestions - from there, we had to build a scene that worked, and perhaps be inspired for future characters.
It was an interesting exercise for me. My first suggestion was "balance on one leg." This ended up being a scene of two sisters in a hot yoga class. My second suggestion was "stand on one leg" - oddly similar that I got it twice, but I embodied it differently, and it turned into a strange scene between two ER coworkers - in which I caught myself making rookie errors of asking questions and not saying how I feel. My third scene was the most interesting of the evening - my suggestion was "playing video games." I chose to be playing Wi Fit, and this ended up being an interaction between live-in partners arguing about who does the chores.
Through it all, though - there are still fundamentals that I need to work on - and this is what I will be focusing on in Jam this week....
1) Have an emotion about a situation - and express it to your partner.
2) Establish the who, what, where in a scene as soon as you can.
3) YES, AND.
4) Make statements, not questions.
5) No matter how ridiculous - commit to the scene - make it matter to you. Because if it doesn't matter to the people on stage, why on earth with the audience care?
Thus the improv journey continues......