Thursday Workshop Notes 9 th September 2010 Workshop was taken by Steve Roe, second workshop at the new venue St. Mary s Hall in Balham. The themes that arised were Saying Yes and concepts of offering, accepting and blocking. Whereas last week was Yes And night, we were able to do more scene work tonight where we could spot where offers were being missed. Overall I found it interesting that quite often it s really obvious when an offer has been blocked, but more often they are just missed or ignored. Sometime actors are saying yes to the concept of the scene, or where they both think the scene should be going or what should be happening, but then miss what is actually happening. What is actually happening is always more fun that what should be happening, as it s more likely to send the actors into places they didn t know were there. And then we re interested. I found that scenes where the exact offers weren t quite picked up on, even though the mood and general ideas were, were more difficult to follow and the audience loose interest but you can t quite work out why. I think it s because they have to use up so much energy in a wave of okay I think it s about that, okay it s not about that, oh it s about that, oh it s not about that. Whereas when we replayed the scenes and previously insignificant offers were picked up on and expanded the audience really enjoyed it and got carried away into it. This time the audience energy is it can t be about that, oh it is about that, oh that s interesting about that, oh I didn t realise that, ha ha ha yeah I thought that about that, oh look what can you do now, oh my god you did that with that, ha ha didn t realise you could do that with that. The workshop also reminded me of the wider implications of saying yes or not saying yes in impro. When everyone in a group says yes it frees people up and expands them. Then you can do anything, because you feel it will be accepted and built upon. You are then unfrozen and can come on stage with a bold physical offer because it will be accepted. When people start saying no in impro there becomes a lack of trust. Fine improvisers begin to freeze up because they feel they can t do anything and instead have to do something good or funny immediately, otherwise they feel unhelpful. This is when fine improvisers say things like I can t think of anything anymore or I was frozen on stage. They blame themselves but it s not a problem with the individual, it s a problem with the group as a whole. The whole group should play games like yes-and and practice accepting like a footballer practices passing. Unless the whole group are doing it to gain a group trust then there s little point, as a no will spread like wildfire. Once this is established then the individual regains confidence and can come back on with brave offers that won t be shot down. Any block will gradually remove trust and bravery from a team, for instance: Actor A : (Enthusiastically) Hello Celia! My name s not Celia, it s Mistress Von Helgar. Ha ha, for now, but how likely is Actor A to enthusiastically run on again and name Actor B in the next scene? Or two months later if they are still going? Eventually Actor A will start to freeze up, and not endow anything at all, and think they are bad at impro and even get told to endow more. But really the problem is more fundamental than this, and the group should look at itself and go right back to the basics of acceptance, because this is what has triggered Actor A s retreat back into their brain cave. There is a lot of talk about how sometimes you can block an offer and whether you are accepting the reality, the suggestion, the emotion etc. For example Will you marry me?, No could lead to a great scene. But really I still think it s essential to still go back to worshops like Thursday 9 th September 2010 Page 1 of 5 www.hooplaimpro.com
this and practice saying yes to everything as an exercise, because before you can do that you can t really do anything. Also it s not just something you learn once and then say done that, it has to be something that gets done time and time again. Group Chat We did this lying down in a circle on our fronts. I like this because it feels more personal and you can get to know people. Also I m less conscious of people seeing my paunch. This is the team for the evening. Sometimes when people arrive for the first time they are under the impression that everyone else knows each other, so I have to remind them that this is not the case and that it s a drop-in. We form a team for the evening and have to trust each other. You don t have to be clever or funny to do this. I do actually mean this, it s not just something I say for the sake of this. The funny comes from people building on each other and saying yes to each other, so that the impro takes them into a funny place. When this trust and saying yes is in place the most obvious things grow. When they fall apart you end up having to just be funny, and that s really difficult. It doesn t matter what you do here. Don t worry what the workshops for, it s just for fun for this evening only. Walk Around merging into other games The actors walk around the room just to break things up. They have to mumble to each other as they walk past each other. Then they had to say with conviction something ordinary they did today as they passed each other, eg: I had beans on toast for lunch. And I went to work. There s more to that than you think. It s basically teaching you to just say what s on your mind, the most obvious thing, but with commitment. Scenes often start closing down as the actors go quiet and retreat to the back of the stage. It s not a problem with their vocal chords, it s just that they ve lost confidence in the obvious. But there s something satisfying about someone striding on stage and saying with confidence Martha, it s time for strew. We then added the rule that one of you had to say the obvious thing, and the other had to say oh, that s lovely. We then changed it where you had to run up to different people with excitement, like you couldn t wait to say what you had to say. This generated a lot of excitement. This then turned into a physical only game that I learnt from Kevin Tomlinson. All the actors run around and then run up to random people and the only rule is they have to jump at the same time. Sometimes it s immediate, sometimes they build up to it, sometimes they dummy jump, but they have to jump at the same time. It s very funny. Thursday 9 th September 2010 Page 2 of 5 www.hooplaimpro.com
We then invented a WHOLE NEW GAME out of this where if you jumped as a pair you then found another group, jumped together with them, formed a group out of that and so on until the whole room jumps as a big group. This is very funny to watch, a bit like a human chemical reaction. We stopped that then cos we were knackered. Three Line Scenes Sometimes I don t feel like doing three line scenes and think we should do more warm ups first. But then I remind myself that people have come to improvise so getting them to do three line scenes and err, improvise, as soon as possible is a good thing. I ve never done three line scenes and then regretted doing it, as you can always learn loads from it. First we did them just for fun with everyone getting a big applause. I think this is important as people learn loads from the first one, and are warming themselves up. Then we did another round like this. Then we did one where I just got people to concentrate on saying yes to what had just happened. One of the actors raised a point that hadn t occurred to me as a way of explaining it before. She said So if they something, that s the truth, and that things truthful? I thought that was a good way of looking at it. There s nothing to start with, but if I say I m wearing blue trousers, then that s all true. There are indeed trousers, they exist, they are blue, that is true, and I m wearing them, that is true. When I looked at it that way you could see loads more little offers that were missed or the truth was questioned for no reason. I ve got a trained monkey dressed in full combat fatigues and he s ready to fight That s not a monkey, that s an ape. No, it s a monkey, he just said it was so that s the truth. I don t really want to see a scene of two people discussing the difference between an ape and a monkey. I do want to see a monkey going off to war. Blah blah I know it s not always the case, but really for this exercise it s good to be able to agree and accept. This exercise generate some great three line scenes, such as a creepy owl scene. One of the actors then started a scene with the massive physical offer of lying down on her front on the floor with arms outstretched. The other actor immediately joined her. I liked this so much that we did another round of actors starting with massive physical offers. On all times the actor joining them said yes immediately and scenes flourished. It was really satisfying. The room was now full of bravery, as people were doing anything knowing full well the other actors would not question them or block them. Thursday 9 th September 2010 Page 3 of 5 www.hooplaimpro.com
Saying Yes Scenes We then expanded these three line scenes. We formed an audience and actors took it in turns to go on stage and one start with a massive physical offer and then just say yes to whatever happened. I reminded them to just play the exercise, and not worry too much about the audience. After each scene I gave feedback on when they were missing offers or not saying yes. This feedback varied from pair to paid but common things were: - Saying no instead of yes. A gentle reminder is all it takes to send someone in the other direction. - Reminding people that they can start obvious step by step and something will happen. This produced a gem of a scene where a ballet teacher taught a student, went through six years of teaching, and then appeared on stage in a purple tutu. - Making more than one offer at a time I only picked up on this because it s what I do, but actually leaving more of a gap to get the other actor in can lead you to a more unexpected place. - Saying yes to the concept rather than the exact offer. This is fine sort of but actually I found I couldn t follow scenes like this. So we went back to picking up on the exact lines and a real gem of a scene about making sherbert lemons formed, with some awesome characters thrown into the mix too. As the room was now in a very yes mode the actors were getting really free and able to make bold offers, as they knew they would go somewhere. For instance the last pair: Knock knock. Who s there? The Police! Actor B flushes drugs down the toilet I can t explain why it was so funny, but it was. Compare this to scenes that happen when no has spread like wildfire and people have retreated into their brain caves: Knock knock. Who s there? Sarah. Sarah who? I don t know any Sarahs. Oh. Er, er After each scene I gave feedback and tips and then the pair do a whole new scene all over again. I find this very important to do something straight afterwards, otherwise you might get feedback and then not get a chance to act on it for weeks or months, but which time it s lost it s meaning. Really in impro we can only really give feedback on what s going on right there, so if you don t actually act on it it s not really going to do much. Break Biscuits and TEA were had this time. Jinni was rewarded with this week s Commando Action for putting the kettle on. Thursday 9 th September 2010 Page 4 of 5 www.hooplaimpro.com
We did more in the first half as I felt it was important everyone did the scene exercise with equal time, so the second half was shorter but still fun. Jumping game Same as before. Although after tea and biscuits this was not the best idea. Yes, I'll go along with that, absolutely. We split into pairs. One person in each pair can only say: Yes I ll go along with that Sounds Good to me Absolutely The other person in the pair can say whatever they want, but it s important to keep it in the present and have things to actually do rather than talking about a plan or the past. For example: Let s go down to the beach. Yes! Ah, beautiful sea today. Fancy a swim? Absolutely. Right then, trunks off. I ll go along with that. We then did this in pairs in front of the group. It was interesting that the person with the limited lines still came across as a three-dimensional character, it didn t look like one person leading a scene at all. Final Thoughts It was an excellent mix of people who had done loads with us before and others who were completely new, and I thought the group worked really well together. Also made me realise how important it is that I concentrate on the 80% of what s important on Thursdays, as there isn t an awful lot of that going on so I think it s important to do the games and exercises that people should return to time and time again. Thursday 9 th September 2010 Page 5 of 5 www.hooplaimpro.com