Discover Top Posts Tagged with #improvnotes

Same Scene 3 Ways (Emotion, Physicality, Pacing, Genre)

A 2-person scene will play out based on a suggestion. These scenes shouldn’t be very long about 3 minutes or less. When the scene is over it will be played out again, but this time possibly with a different emotion, genre, speed, character, physicality, etc. When doing this exercise it depends on what you are working on but the 3 scenes can be a pacing exercise where you have the scene played normal, fast, and slow. Or an emotions exercise where they play 2 different emotions after the 1st scene or it can be a mixture depending on what specific skill set you are working on.

#same scene 3 ways #emotion #physicality #pacing #genre #improv #improvisation #improvexercise #improvnotes #improvise #improviser #improvising #theater #scene #scenework #actingexercise #comedy #humor

When #improv rehearsal ends with a discussion about ducks in a trench coat and all its possibilities. - #dailydoodle2017 #drawing #ducks #improvnotes

#dailydoodle2017 #ducks #drawing #improv #improvnotes

“I Know, I Know” (Listening & Agreement)

Start a regular 2-person scene based off of a suggestion. After the first line of dialogue both players must say “I know, I know” prior to speaking their next line of dialogue. This is to preload the scene with agreement and enhance listening.

For example a scene might start:

Player 1 “ This sleepover is going to be the best.”

Player 2 “ I know, I know, that’s because I brought rated R movies.”

Players 1 “I know, I know you’re so bad.”

Player 2 “ I know, I know……”

Side note: While doing this exercise players should avoid saying “but” to negate or change the scene.

#listening #agreement #improv #improvisation #improvnotes #improvexercise #improvise #improviser #improvising #comedy #theater #the3rdfloor #humor

Improvise As Yourself (Base Reality)

In this exercise you will play into your own honest reality. So in the scene the focus is to react honestly and to give the honest answer that you would say in your day to day life if in said scenario. Trying to be funny is not important as we are looking to build our base realities to be honest and find truthfulness and uniqueness in our own honest realities.

#improv #improvisation #improvexercise #improvnotes #theater #the3rdfloor #acting #base reality

USE WHAT YOU HAVE (Listening and Word Efficiency)

As soon as players veer away from what thy have already created the instructor or coach should reel players in to explore what already exist. This is “Yes And-ing” while exploring and adding details without creating unnecessary information or overloading the scene. A scene can start as simple as Player 1 saying “ It sure is dark outside” but now the next line of dialogue from Player 2 must keep the scene going down a path where “It being dark outside” matters by exploring what it means and adding information to the scene possibly by exploring what it means to them or their scene partner or framing what it means. A line of dialogue like “ I’m terrified of the dark will you protect me” or “ The dark will make it much easier to sneak out of the house” any line of dialogue that moves the idea of it “Being Dark Outside” forward. After that we want to continue only following the information that is already creating and expand on it. Similar to repeating the last thing said, we are just taking the little bit of information in the scene and not changing or veering away from it, but more so hyper focusing on it for a brief moment to keep the scene tight on details. For another example if “It sure is dark outside” a bad or so-so line of dialogue to respond with might be “The baby is finally asleep now” this makes sense, but takes us away from the “Dark” and completely realigns the scene to be about a baby. A better line of dialogue in the same vein might be “ That’s good, the baby only sleeps when it’s dark”. With this line of dialogue we still keep the scene about “The Dark”, but add the detail of it being why the baby is asleep, the dark still has value and we have added or explored what it being dark means. This exercise is to keep scenes extremely tight and put value into every word and detail we hear and say.

#listening #use what you have #theater #the3rdfloor #improv #improvisation #improvexercise #improvnotes #improvise #improviser #improvising #comedy #humor #scene #scenework

A reddit link to one of the most valuable list I have found on improv.

A list of Instructional Improv Books-

https://www.reddit.com/r/improv/comments/7ft5fj/the_big_ol_list_of_improv_books/

I have not read all of them yet, but every single book I’ve gotten through has had some element or another that I found valuable.

In no specific order my current top 5 based on what I’ve read thus far include:

How To Be The Greatest Improviser on Earth - WIll Hines

Improvising Now - Rob Norman

The Triangle Of The Scene - Paul Vailliancourt

Jill Bernard’s Small Cute Book of Improv

The UCB Improv Manual

Montage

A series of scenes that can be connected or not connected. We may or may not see 2ndor 3rdbeats for scenes. Tag outs and callbacks are welcome.

#montage #improv #improvisation #improvexercise #improvnotes #theater #theatergames #the3rdfloor #longform #long form

Genres (Short Form)

Similar to the short form game emotions, in genres one player will be the caller of the game while 2 players do a scene. First the caller will step out and ask for the audience to give suggestions of film genres (such as Horror, Drama, Romance, Musical, etc) once the caller has somewhere between 5-10 genres, the caller will then ask for a suggestion to get the scene started. When the scene starts the 2 players in the scene will start a normal scene based on the suggestion. Once the scene has some information the caller will then call out different genres of film and the players will have to continue moving their scene forward within the world of that genre. The players in the scene do not want to stop the scene they are in and start a new one, but more so use the suggested genre to guide where the scene goes.

For example: If we have a standard scene about a couple who is getting married and the genre romance is called, we would easily play into the genre and do/say something romantic “We should just get married today”, then say for instance action or sci fi is called, we continue the scene with the previous information, but throw it into the action or sci fi genre. Example:

Player 1 “ We should get married today”

Player 2” “I want to get married right now”

Caller “Action”

Player 2” But first we gotta kill these aliens”

For the Caller when changing genres it tends to be better to use juxtaposition such a going from romance to horror rather than keeping the genre too similar by going from action to sci fi. Finally the caller will decide when to change genres and therefore should always be looking for buttons or opportune moments to change genres on.