Improvisers like to think of themselves as “smarter than the average bear”. We’re required to know a lot of trivial information as we perform in front of pop culture savvy patrons willing to through the most obvious (or obscure) suggestions at us at the top of a show or game. We devour a lot of TV, music, film, and literature to stay on top of things. We involve ourselves socially in new groups to shake things up and gain life experiences we draw from on stage. We travel to new locations to pick up new accents, characters, and languages to enrich our palette of initiations. All of this work is great – until the actor feels compelled to use all of these tools to make their dialogue “witty” and “smart” and they get standing their talking and reveling in their dialogue instead of (re)acting on stage.
Sit, Stand, Lean
The venerable Michael Gellman blew my mind on the first day of class where he had us play Sit, Stand, Lean. Being a young, brash improviser fresh off my intro class curriculum, I was eager to show him how to play the game. So, we played it the way we did in our Level C class and have a great time with it standing up, laying down, sitting on the chair. He then stopped us and goes “What the hell are you guys doing?” We looked at him dumbfounded and unsure of how to respond. He then asked us why we were moving around like a bunch of animals losing their minds instead of making theater people they’d be willing to pay good money for. We indignantly responded by saying, “That’s how you play the game!” He shook his head and showed us how to really play the game (gonna save the details for a future blog).
What we learned ultimately was to play Sit, Stand, Lean without letting the audience know we were playing it. We had to justify why any of us changed positions with our (re)actions and dialogue. Coming out to do a scene that had some “rules” to it made the scene more meaningful and forced the dialogue to be attached to supporting the game. It was magical! Just by that demonstration I quickly realized I knew absolutely nothing about improv (and still don’t – as Michael says and I agree – “I know nothing about improv. I just have a lot of (*$% opinions!”).
Walk In With A Game
Give yourself a game to play with at the very beginning of your scene. For example, you may decide that you can only speak to your scene partners by quoting Bible “verses” or maybe you device you’ll only be able to repeat the last line said to you as dialogue in a scene (check out Matt Damon from Chicago – their entire form is based on this concept). Coming out with these games in mind is a gift to yourself; you no longer need to worry about being “witty” or being “smart”; you can come out and react to what’s given to you and focus on the relationship and meaning of what’s being said (asking yourself “Why do I care to hear this?”). Here are some more ideas you can try to use to focus your scenes:
- Limit your dialogue to only 3 words at any given time
- Injecting an “SAT” word into the conversation and justifying why you used it.
- Cawing at the other players every time they say the word “you”.
- Exiting and re-entering the stage every 30 seconds for a reason only you know.
- Changing your accent when you sit down or stand-up.
There are a million other things you can come up with to play with during your scenes. The best part is you don’t have to share this knowledge with anyone before you start playing. provided you along with everyone is supportive of the scene work, the game itself will be supported by everyone involved.
GAME ON!
