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 […]
When asked for a desired focus for a scheduled coaching session, a Duo sent me the following: Mainly character stuff, fleshing them out versus building out more plot. Getting better at finding and sticking to the game of the scene. What follows is some didactic and exercises that filled two hours. DIDACTIC: How do You […]
I love Pattern Play. I love the way an ensemble, focused-outward on making each new move in the service of what they individually have seen come before, can make a group look like it has ESP. I love "the moment." I love the way an authentic reaction to a moment -that in no way could […]
Building a game out of heightening the pattern of an interaction isn't just for improv. It's a creation tool. At least if you're looking to create something coherent. Both of these cartoons appeared in The Washington Post's Sunday Cartoon section on September 30th. Read Jef Mallett's Frazz and Tim Rickard's Brewster Rockit below - but […]
It's a fine line between a character evoking a plot and a character reacting to their reality. A very fine line. But I believe that attention to that line can mean the difference between a scene where improvisers force a sequence of events dependent on an audience's satisfaction with a resolution and a scene where […]
A wonderful conceit about Seinfeld, explicit in the meta-dealings with Jerry's and George's sitcom pitch within the sitcom, was that it was a "show about nothing." Yet of course the truth is that, while maybe an episode is not be driven by plot, it is about "something" - every episode revolves around the way known […]
"Silver." "Eclipse." "Model." Not a Word Association that would pass muster. How does the second move build on the first? How does the third Cement the pattern? What's the progression?
Player One stands rigidly on stage, stroking an imagined object on his right wrist and says, "I love my shield." Player Two enters stage, stares agog at the imagined shield and says, "Wow-wie! That is one awesome shield." The question for you is: If you were told to enter the scene as the third player […]