5 Tips For Improving Your Improvisation!

Yours Truly, Bobby Keniston

So today at Theater is a Sport, I'm talking about improvisation and how it relates to theatre, particularly in school and community theatre. 

To answer the first question you must all be thinking.... WHAT IS IMPROVISATION?

In simplest terms (or, at least in the terms I think of it), improvisation is the act of creation with no (or very limited) preparation.  It is diving in and just creating.  It's being spontaneous. 

Because of this almost freestyle nature, improvisation can make many newcomers to theatre nervous.  Scared, even.  Heck, even I get nervous when playing improvisation theater games from time to time. 

It's acting without a safety net (the safety net being lines written for you).

But, then, here's another question:  WHY IMPROVISATION?  WHAT'S THE POINT?

However, I'm a firm believer in improvisation and its uses in character development and really digging into questions of motivation and "as ifs".  Not to mention, it can be SO MUCH FUN.  It's a great way to learn to trust yourself, and trust your cast mates.  And, if you can become proficient at improvisation, it truly comes in handy when you get on stage and something goes awry. 

In a sense, I believe Improvisation to be the purest form of acting, really.  The goal of any play should be to appear like it's happening right there in the moment, and the performers should appear to be creating their own lines and actions.  It's trying to create the notion of improvisation, only you've had rehearsal and lines written for you. 

And, my favorite thing about improvisation is that it makes the two biggest rules of acting come to startling life:  LOOKING and LISTENING.  And then, REACTING.

So here are a few tips for spontaneously creating a scene when playing theatre games or learning to improvise.  Hopefully these tips will help you to keep a scene going:

TIP #1:  I did not invent this, and anyone who has ever had any experience with improvisation has probably heard it:  YES, AND...  What this means is that you should take what your partner gives you, and treat it as fact.  And then build on it. 
For example:    
PARTNER A:  Boy you sure are getting fat!
PARTNER B:  It's the Ho-Hos, man.  They call to me in the middle of the night.  It's like I'm cheating on my wife with snack treats!
That's accepting what your partner is giving you, and building on it.  This scene could now go in different directions, with the subplot of the wife o what-have-you.
Now, Partner B might be as skinny as a rail, but not in the truth of this improvisation. 

TIP #2:  ESTABLISH YOUR CHARACTER ASAP!  When improvising a scene, it's a good idea to cut the malarkey and get right into it.  Audiences will want to know who you are from the get-go. 
For example:
PARTNER A:  Doctor, help me!  My arm was just cut off!
PARTNER B:  Careful!  Your dripping blood all over my examining room!  Don't you have any manners?
Right away, Partner A has established him or herself as a person in dire need of medical attention, and Partner B has built on that, making his or her doctor a bit fussy and unfeeling.  This scene could build in many interesting ways. 

TIP #3:  Some call this setting up a BLOCK and some call it DENYING, and both those terms are true, but I'll put a more positive spin on it:  GO ON THE JOURNEY WITH YOUR PARTNER.  Remember that in an improvised scene, it is not about YOU.  It's about you and your partner(s) working together as a team.  Blocking or denying your partner is a way to kill a scene very quickly, which, obviously, is the exact opposite of what you want to do. 
Here is an example:
PARTNER A:  Doctor, help me!  My arm was just cut off!
PARTNER B:  Your arm is right there.  And I'm not a doctor.
And another:
PARTNER A:  Is this your first frat party?
PARTNER B:  What are you talking about?  I'm in the supermarket!
And another:
PARTNER A: (miming holding a puppy)  Do you like my new puppy?
PARTNER B:  There's nothing there!
See what I'm talking about?  Go with your partner.  This is all part of Yes, and... to an extent, but it's more than that, too.  It's about moving in synch with the person you're performing with, and not shooting down their creations. 

TIP #4:  KEEP RAISING THE STAKES!  Just like a scripted scene, a performance is more interesting if the stakes keep going up, and the action keeps rising and rising.  Scenes are interesting if they build.  No one wants to see something stay on the same level for too long.  It's boring.  Part of the point of improvisation is for you and your partner to keep building, just like a written scene should keep building.  Now, fun improvisations often go off and build in a somewhat exaggerated or surreal fashion, but that's okay, too.  As long as it builds.

TIP #5:  RELAX AND DON'T BE IN YOUR HEAD TOO MUCH!  You're going to be a very nervous improviser if you stay in your head too much.  If you keep worrying, "I don't know what to say, I don't know what to say, I don't know what to say...", then guess what?  You're not going to know what to say.  But if you really look, listen, and put trust in yourself and your partner, then you can do this.  Don't worry about being as funny as the Upright Citizen's Brigade, or Drew Carey's Improv shows.  In fact, right now, don't worry about being funny at all.  In fact, don't worry.

Just make a scene.  Relax.  Create.  You'll be fine.  No one's life is hanging in the balance.

Remember, improvisation can be a really great time, if you can let yourself go. 

And also remember--- theater is a sport.

Any questions or comments?  Let me have 'em!  Share them with me below, or send me an e-mail at theater.is.a.sport@gmail.com!

A Note About Competition, Part 2: My Kids

Welcome to Theater is a Sport.  My name is Bobby Keniston, and it is going to be an abbreviated post tonight.

So tomorrow is the big day, the day we have been working toward for the last eight weeks or so.

Tomorrow, my kids and I head to the one-act play competition sponsored by the Maine's Principal Association, where we will be competing against four four other schools for the opportunity to move on to the State Festival in a couple of weeks. 

In truth, there's not a whole lot more to be done now.  My kids have performed the show twice, we've been working on strengthening it this week, and, come Saturday at 3pm, it is going to be performed for the judges, and they will be the deciding factor in whether we win or not.  Regardless of what happens, my kids have worked hard, and the process has been an educational one, and they've made tremendous strides in understanding a rather difficult play with difficult characters. 

No matter what, of course, I am proud of them.  No matter what, of course, they have no reason to feel like anything but winners.

And yet, I want them to win.  I want our play to win. 

Not because I wrote the play, and feel like it is a good one, more than capable of winning.  It's called Aeroplane Over the Sea, for those interested, and it is published by Brooklyn Publishers.  I will one day write a blog post all about how and why I wrote the play.

And no, I don't want to win out of some pressing feeling of bringing a trophy home to our school, although that would be nice.

And I don't want to win for any kind of self-validation, a pat on the back, proving I do my job well.  I do my job the best that I can, my student actors seem to like me and trust me.  I am lucky in this.  A trophy, while nice, cannot give me a sense of "job well done", especially if I don't feel it in myself already.  The only person who really knows if I've done my job to the best of my ability is me, and I believe I have. 

I want to win for my kids.  My kids deserve to be winners, and that is why I want to win.  No matter what I can possibly say, whenever you compete, no matter how great a sportsperson you are, winning feels so much better than not winning.  I know this because I have been fortunate to win a few things in my life--- maybe not as many as I would like, and certainly my life is not perfect, but I do have memories of being a winner for some events that have mattered to me. 

And I want my kids to have that.

It's funny--- for a guy who has yet to have been blessed with children, I am using the term "my kids" an awful lot.  And, no, I don't suppose I even say it in a paternal way, but merely as a teacher to their students, but that is something.  It is still a position where an authority figure develops a genuine caring for a group of young people's successes and challenges. 

As I said, we have done what we can, and as long as they stand on that stage Saturday and do the best that they can do, then there is nothing more to be done.  And I know they will do their best out there.  Thus, in so many ways, things are out of my hands at this point (especially after our tech time at competition). 

So why can't I relax?

I suppose it is becaue I second guess myself, wonder what more I could have done to prepare these students.  After all, I know what to expect from these competitions.  Have I really done all I could do to prepare them? 

I think so. 

So much depends on the opinions of three people.  Three people.  Three people with thoughts, opinions, and personal tastes that can't be turned off.  It's not like scoring a touchdown or getting a ball through a hoop (which, of course, have their own challenges).  I mean, sure, there are the mechanics of it, vocal projection, memorization, character work, concentration, all of that good stuff, but at the end of the day, honestly, it comes down to what the judges liked better.  It really does.  And I am not putting them down for being impartial--- they are human beings. 

In any case, this will be a valuable experience for my kids (there I go again), and we will get to watch a bunch of theater over a few days, meet some like-minded people, and then just hope for the best. 

I most likely will not have another post for Theater is a Sport until Sunday.  My time is going to be pretty well taken up these next few days, and I won't be at home. 

So, until then, send warm thoughts to me and my students, and remember:  competition can bee good, and theater is a sport.