Improv

11 September. We looked at quite basic improv work this week. In our small groups, we had some very little scenarios to look at. We did an exercise where one person left the room and in a pair, we made a scenario based on an emotion, and the person who left had to guess what the word or emotion was. We had a funeral, a therapy session, and a patient anxious for test results. This helped us to look at  what we were trying to convey, and how the audience would feel in response. On THURSDAY, we did scenarios in pairs as there were 5 of us. These pieces were contrasting. Fair example, one person wanted a pet, the other didn't. There were family scenes, friendship ones and school scenes. It really helped to work with a range of people, with different acting styles.I researched Mike Leigh and looked at his work on youtube. He is a very talented director. His actors are fantastic as they work in a team, without corpsing, and with the ability to devise scenes based on anything.   18 September. This week, we continued doing little scenes. We worked in a small group of 3, creating scenarios based on conversations or relevant group ideas. Callum discussed  the Mary Rose, so we made a scene about that, with a tour guide, a mother and a bored child. We also did a dispute improv, with a problem of different people wanting to watch different things at a cinema. We also worked on a difficult restraunt customers with conflicting problems. We also did a guessing game where we had to assign someone a character, or real person, and make them guess and imagine themselves in their shoc, in order to work out who was chosen for them. This was quite hard as the spectrum of types of character or real person are so broad.    25 September. This week we were introduced to solo improvs. This was where we focussed on one actor, with a scenario. Mina was a person none alone, hearing a sound at the door, and panicking as it was from the kitchen. My first attempt was with lots of speech, and my second had none. I found that without any speech, I found it hard at to portray what I wanted to, however, apparently my expression and movement was better that way. Too much speech took away from that. In future, I will try to use my body more, and speech a little less, but using a fair mixture. We were introduced to one line improv. We were given a line and one of us had to use it at first, launching in to an improv. WE worked together well on this, as the improv sparked from the line, and we worked together while put on the spot.    2 October. This week, we advanced the one liners, by only one person knowing what it would be. This stopped us from overthinking, or being able to plan much storyline. We also looked at people in a place with a problem, as this was a basic improv technique that helps you define characters, or a rough setting for a piece.   14 October. This week we worked on one line improv, in a group of 4. This is very different as this exercise began in a pair, and was increased to 4 people. We also looked at particular scenarios, like people on the edge of  a cliff. We had a couple of seconds to plan, but then we began. The topic was so broad that it could lead anywhere, and it actually traveled down the suicide path, and it was interesting for me to put myself in the shoes of some one trying to put a stop to a mass suicide.   3 November    Today we taught basic improv games to some delegates. We taught Da Da Diddly, and fortunately unfortunately, also what happened to Maria. They seemed interested and had a few questions about the course for us.   We then worked in a group to do a restraunt imprOv. We each had a character trait to impersonate. Mine was a newly redundant character. We had five minutes planning time before starting. We then realised we'd been overthinking so we began. We got our timings  well, and worked together well. We then worked in pairs with doctor patient improvs. It helped us to work together, with enough room for dialogue. We also learnt how each other worked. It was good to work with Charlotte and Angel, as I had not worked with them much before.        https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPD-HHuaHTJEan6NiESguUA


This is a link to my youtube channel which has my improvisation videos on it. Here you can find my solo improvs, and work in a small group.

14 November.  This week, we looked a little at Stanislawski, and how he plays on the emotions in his pieces.  We were given little, emotional scenes like being desperate for the toilet and being late for a plane.  I carried these out quite well, as I was able to connect myself to my character and almost embody them.  We also had to pretend to bully each other, which was so hard as it felt quite realistic.  None of us managed to treat each other unkindly, because we had built up a bond.

 

22 November.  This week, we did work on emotions, as in the words, where we had to act out different emotion words.  We had things like happy, sad, shallow, excited, upset, fragile/vulnerable, and many more.  We had to make a sound, and then maybe a movement that fits the noise.  I liked it as you could study the certain emotions that we have.  We also made a scene of emotions made in gobbledygook, which was interesting as the emotions were still there, even in gobbledygook.  I think it was a good exercise for me.  Some people really struggbed with this.

 

30 November.  This week, we did a game where we replaced words with a random other word.  It helped us to warm up, and to understand our conversations with others.  We also did a radio game, where someone would tune us in and out like an old radio.  This was fun but hard to create a variety of different radios especially while being played and paused very quickly.




7 February.  Last Tuesday we had the chance to go to a theatre in Breckon.  It was amazing to meet the Ceo of the theatre, and have a look around.  After lunch we had the chance to do our monologues and then it was time for improv.  To start with, we did physical theatre, getting into the shape of hoovers, elephants, and other objests.  This was hard as everyone chattered and planned the cape too much instead of an automatic reaction.  We then had the mystery character improv where I had to play the ex-prison convict.  Everyone had to guess who it was but when I gave a huge clue away by leaving the stage when the crime was brought up, no one seemed to get what I was indicating.  It ended up with us all accusing each other, but yet still no one seemed to notice it until the Ceo called me out at the end of the piece.  Our final piece was a therapy session where I had to be the leader.  We had a mix of characters, and it almost leant towards theatre of cruelty.  Mikey was pretending to scream and was talking about someone who he was clearly afraid of, Charlotte was very quiet, but then screamed and refused to speak (whilst in character, which was very effective), Angel told a story about her sister being hurt which was eerie, and Callum told this story about an old lady who had followed him around.  This was eerie, and meanwhile I played a very relaxed and open therapist.  It was deffinately spinetingling as Callum kept tapping, and other voices kept cutting in.  This was a fantastic opportunity and I feel we have had access to a variety of different styles of improv today.