Links

Find Scene Inspiration in Four Easy Steps! Guaranteed!→

This post lays out a thought process for distilling themes and finding characters from monologues. I’m careful when I teach it; I’d rather my players be present in the show and not be doing math on the side lines. I’ll introduce this concept in class, do some exercises that use it explicitly but I always remind the student that the audience (and myself) won’t be judging them on their inspirations but on how well the scenes are played. However a player gets their inspiration, whatever technique they use to cook it, it is the scene that occurs onstage that is most important.

EDIT: More stuff from Bill on separating specifics on Reddit.

Entangl→

This is a great improv app I found on Reddit ages ago and finally got to put into practice when training with the Full Disclosure cast a few weeks back. Add a minimum and maximum amount of time in seconds, and click start. The timer counts down to a randomly set time, blaring an air horn to mark the end of the scene. Then it starts again with a different amount of time. Really awesome, especially when running a min of 2 seconds and a max of 12 seconds to encourage people to get out there and start doing stuff.

Observed Key Factors to Successful (and Unsuccessful) Improv→

Commitment goes beyond what you do in scenework. Commitment is itself a practice. When you do an exercise in class or practice, do a scene, run a long form set, or even do a stupid warm up exercise to start a session… doing it with commitment is going to give you and everyone more than just doing what you have to do.

I got a note: when you’re playing a married couple, act more like you’re married. What are some actionable ways to do this?→

Well, you’ve known each other for forever, so every argument you’ve had is a rehashing of an old one. Nothing much fazes you when you’re fighting–unless it takes a turn and gets really, really bad, at which point you get confused, then deeply hurt (this is someone who you didn’t think’d be like this, and you bet half your stuff you wouldn’t).

If it’s a healthy marriage, your body language and speaking language is also really relaxed–what haven’t you done in front of the other person? You’re not aiming to impress, you’re aiming to coexist. This isn’t a first date. If things are well (if the couple is healthy) you talk smoothly. If things aren’t (the couple is unhealthy), then the inverse of all this. You want out of the situation ASAP and the other person is right there keeping you from doing that, and that’s a major source of stress.

If the marriage is going well, reflect that. If it’s going poorly, reflect that. You’ve likely seen both and know how to replicate the social conditions if you think like a reductionist about it.