Extending improvisation

https://youtu.be/upRThYmzNfU

Stimulus - Difficult customers in a restaurant

In this improvisation we were required to develop a scenario. The strength of the story line  needed to be driven by maintaining our characters. The objective was to create an engaging story line by  working in the style of Mike Leigh, the director. He creates plays by bringing actors together and getting them to improvise around a theme. This can produce really dynamic results as he  carefully considers the cast before he introduces them.Their improvisations feed directly into the script he produces.
Feedback:
Feedback we received was that we weren't 'difficult' enough. It was all delivered on one level and there was no defined beginning, middle or end.The only element of dynamism was right at the end when we stormed off. I smiled when we stormed off which meant I was fully engaged with my character. We were commended for our naturalism, this would work in a t.v drama.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tPBNHwB-TI

Stimulus -Fairytale

We were asked to re- create Cinderella with just the five of us. We were also given the task of doing it in the style of a soap opera. . However, we hadn't included any of the type of features you would expect to see in a soap.
This was a good experience for me as I had to multi - role as none else volunteered to take roles as the improvisation developed. I played a male role and an angry and unpleasant role. I tried to maintain each individual character by applying emotional memory in the style of Stanislavski. As a man, I had to dance with Angel so I tried to use a deeper voice as well.

Feedback:
Feedback I personally received was that I was spontaneous and seized opportunities as and when they presented themselves. Group feedback was that we had committed to following the original storyline and  that we had produced an entertaining and developed scenario. A constructive criticism was that we hadn't created a soap opera style of drama. For that, we could have raised the level of 'drama' and possibly by over-reacting to incidents or by slightly changing the story to include more contemporary elements.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64GG7uAz0qs&feature=youtu.be

Stimulus - All change!

In this improv, we had to start the scenario off with two of us, then the third person comes in and changes whatever dynamic we have established. When Mikey came in and affected the atmosphere, Emily and I had to respond to this in a believable way. I was able to stay in character, despite the drastic change of pace and emotion.
Feedback:
We were told we had created a 'kitchen sink drama'. These became popular in the 1960's and involved a naturalistic acting style and often dealt with disturbing or emotional themes. We were told we sustained our characters successfully and we responded sensitively to each other.

https://youtu.be/QU2zzd4EXH8

Stimulus - Role Swap

This improvisation involved swapping roles mid way through the piece. In this improvisation I started off in the first couple so I had to carefully examine the role I was playing so that it could be easily replicated by the person that took my role over.We responded to feedback which was to observe more closely each others intonation and tone patterns, as,whilst we got the movement, the actual tone of the improvisation changed with the new couple coming in.  So, we had another go with the focus on intonation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipFIif2jbgg&t=99s

Stumulus _ Role Swap
Our second attempt at this stimulus. This time we really used listening skills to try to take on the vocal tone and intonation patterns of the person whose character we were taking over.. My aim was to make sure that any one who copied me, could easily mimic my voice and body language.

Feedback we received was that this second improvisation was better, in terms of us assimilating the original characters.