Objective: Players entering a scene in progress should always seek to heighten the games already in play. Heightening those games with concentrated pattern mechanics will increase the impact of those tertiary moves. The following outlines Tertiary and Polish moves with supporting video of me actually teaching a class those moves: Walking On and Walking Off […]
Embodying the Environment. We can be set pieces. We can be crowds. We can be animals. We can be inanimate. Bottom line, we can flesh out the stage picture as Tertiary Players without adding to the dialogue. Check out this great example of players assuming the role of what other players were seeing on a screen.
I sat with across from an executive. It was a benign conversation - a check-in meeting. Neither of us was all that engaged. Looking down at his desk, I noticed he'd arrayed files on his desk in the order of a rainbow - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple (though Roy G. Biv forever, squad). I […]
USSR 1730... Vladimir Toma invents a heating device... "Yah, so, this I call...vodka..." The difference between one actor delivering all three of those lines and three improvisers delivering one of those lines apiece is huge in terms of audience reaction. When the audience sees that a player is accepting a choice given to them - […]
Check out this Two Person scene performed by Shaheen Ali and Christopher May. In it the performers weave patterns of emotional behavior to link characters, relationships and environment in a sustainable scene. Enjoy! [wpvideo 3EOke0v5]
Watch this scene, starring Scott Beckett as "Mr. Johnson" and Jonathan Nelson as "Jeeves."
An improv stage can be anywhere. On it we can do anything. You could be in a submarine on Mars raising talking chickens. Often improvisers are good at labeling the moment. But you need more than words; you have to be in the world. This exercise focuses on attaching emotions to the scene's active elements […]
Objective: This exercise is about channeling personal memories to evoke details and define mime.
When we fill a blank stage with objects and an environment through committed mime, the world we create becomes that much more engaging, for players and audience members alike. The audience loves to be able to "see" what we create on stage. And if we really look at what we create on stage, we'll find it […]