Here's a scene from a Pack show I did with Nick Leveski, a seasoned Chicago improviser. This scene evoked a huge laugh from the audience. Like many stage-to-video improv moments, the laugh gets lost in translation. But I believe I know what the audience liked. We didn't explain the scene; we lived the scene. When […]
A fun show from The Johnsons, highlighting their focus on emotionally engaging active endowments and their ability to support the group with patterns and games. [wpvideo cz2zuSqv] The Johnsons are Scott Beckett, Garret Collins, Shawn Hambright, Townsend Hart, Jon Hilowitz, Johnathan Nelson and Lauren Serpa
Your scene partner initiates, telling you, "You're terrible." Does that make you sad? Does that make you angry? What if your scene partner is just "some stupid kid"? Maybe he says, "You're terrible" and you just laugh; "Yeah, okay, I'm terrible." Making a choice about a relationship and relative status can help inform reactions and […]
The key to sustainable, dynamic two person scenes that are most conducive to improv as improv does best is setting up patterns of emotional behavior. While in the Facebook age, the world defines their friends by who, what, where and when, we know we know a person when we can say, “That’s how he is.” […]
Emotional Scenes: “How we feel about who we are, where we are and what we’re doing,” and “How we feel about who our scene is, where they are and what they’re doing” should be our focus in improv scenes. Let “How we feel” trump all else, especially plot and “sense.” Suggested Exercises: “I [FEELING] YOU.” […]
Relationship Stakes: Our “What” is emotional reactions to active elements. Commitment and repetition are the only “why” we need. But “Because” can elevate the emotional stakes of a scene with context. “Stakes” come in many forms – and we want to apply emotion to all of them. “I’m embarrassed to be seen in this Slayer […]
BLIND SCENES – Player One starts engaged in the environment (with an action, object, atmosphere, etc.). Player Two, starting with his back to the stage, has the first line of dialogue. Lessons: • No justification necessary – If players’ initiations don’t align, they don’t have to make sense of why they’re together. They can just […]
FREEZE TAG – Two players engage a scene, having been encouraged to be physical. A third player calls, “Freeze,” causing the players on stage to hold their physical positions at that moment. The third player replaces a player of their choosing, assumes that same physical position and starts a brand new scene. Lessons: • No […]
Scenic Engagement: How do you feel about who your scene partner is, where your scene partner is and/or what your scene partner is doing? Finding something active about your scene partner to feel about will help facilitate a scene you can both react through instead of think through. Suggested Exercises: SCENIC ENDOWMENT CIRCLE – […]
Objective: Reacting emotionally in-the-moment keeps our scenes effectively in the moment. You can’t calculate every change; you have to allow yourself (and your characters) to be vulnerable to the moment. React, and trust wherever it goes. We choose to feel, reacting emotionally without deference to “sense.” But. Our emotional choices can be aided, informed […]