It's 2020, my friends. And my curriculum needed to get with the times. Goodbye, Dukes Of Hazzard. Goodbye, s/he, his/her, him/her, etc. 2020 brings new exercises, new insights, and new clarifications for teaching. Links have been updated on the Class Materials page, but they're also here. Enjoy!
Make a choice the moment you enter stage. Choose to feel. Feel something about something - an imagined object, mimed activity, and/or your scene partner. Allow both you and your scene partner to be dynamic. Here's the final scene from a class building out that progression and its value: [videopress L5WDXzrA] And here's the class' outline […]
Friends, it's 2018! Luckily all the bad stuff from 2017 has been tidied up nicely and we have a brand new start! No? Well,... how about updated improv curricula in lieu of world peace and universal sanity?
I'm wishy washy about improv class showcases. On the one hand, if the point of going through classes is to learn to do performance-ready-level improv, then it seems sadistic to make 101 students "put it up on its feet." But on the other, nothing informs an improviser like improvising and all it entails - collaborating […]
Exercise for practicing building organic group games collaboratively and ensuring everyone steps up to participate.
Objective: Collaboratively building something out of nothing on stage requires Confidence and Support. An improviser needs to be able to make bold choices and to stand by those choices. An improviser needs to accept and embrace each other’s choices. Make your fellow player “look good” should be an improviser’s guiding principle.
NAME THUMPER – Going around the circle, each person (teacher included) associates their name with an action or adjective – “Punching Patrick,” or “Pouting Patrick.” Go around once more so everyone knows everyone else’s name and action. Then play progresses with an individual doing their name/action and then another person’s name/action; that person then does their […]
PASS “YES” AROUND – A player points at / makes eye contact with another player who accepts by saying “Yes.” The accepted player walks across the circle to stand in the place of the player who said “Yes.” The player who said “Yes” points at / makes eye contact with another player who says “Yes” […]
AWESOME! – Around the circle, students say something about themselves and/or their day to which the rest of class enthusiastically responds, “Awesome!” Lessons: • Acceptance is fun – don’t waste time judging; the audience wants to see you enjoying one another
HOT SPOT (Singing or Monologue) – Players stand in a circle. One player enters the center and begins singing or telling a true, personal story. In no particular order, players enter to take the place of the player in the center to sing a new song or tell their own story. Lessons: • Hesitate and […]