Being Affected: There's power in being vulnerable enough to accept another player's perspective. Suggested Exercises: HITCHHIKER – One player starts, driving a bus, expressing an emotional perspective ("I love the South"). A second player enters the scene, boarding the bus with a contrasting emotional perspective to the driver ("The South scares me"). Gradually the driver […]
Attract, Don’t Fight: Will your scene partner not agree to your awesome idea? Don’t fight him on it. Show him why what you want is superior. This not only disengages argument but it also engages active scene elements. You want your older brother to build a sandcastle with you. He doesn’t want to. Have so […]
Objective: A scripted actor’s whole job is to make an audience believe that the emotional reaction they’re rehearsed is real in-the-moment. In improvisation, we have a leg up; we are all experiencing what’s happening for the first time. So just react. Don’t be in your head thinking about how you should feel or why we […]
ACTION PASS – In a circle, a player turns to his left and executes an action, any action. The next player observes that action and attempts to recreate it EXACTLY in turning to the player to their left. Progression: • Do it once through. Then immediately have them do it again focused on slowing down […]
I AM SUPERMAN – Everyone stands in a circle. One at a time, each player will enter the circle, say “I am [NAME] and for the next 30 seconds, I am Superman” at which point the teacher will start a timer and the player does whatever they want until the time is up at which […]
YES, YES I AM – Form lay-up lines on either side of the stage. The player on stage left endows the player on stage right with a strong emotional perspective (“You think Ringo is the best Beatle”). The player from stage right accepts the perspective (“Yes, I do’) and commits through several lines of dialogue […]
Objective: Leading with emotion is a hugely powerful way to ground a scene in-the-moment. Don’t over-think an easy win. You don’t need a motivation. You just need commitment to the moment. Just react emotionally.
Objective: In any scene you have at least two different emotional perspectives to play from: Your Personal and Scenic Emotional Perspectives – How you feel about “I” and How you feel about “You.” Your Personal Emotional Perspective = How I feel about who I am, where I am and what I’m doing. Your Scenic Emotional […]
Personal Engagement: If you were all by yourself on stage, how would you feel about who you are, where you are and/or what you’re doing? Finding an emotion and an active scene element to feel that emotion toward can be the continued catalyst for a successful scene. If I say, “I love cats,” I’m […]
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 – […]