What Did I Miss?

Did you miss the most important thing in improv?

What is the most important thing in an improv scene? I think you could ask that question to 20 improv teachers and get 42 different answers. While the answer will undoubtedly depend on the style of play that teacher favours, I have a possible answer; one of the 41 perhaps. For the sake of a few paragraphs, let’s suppose it’s true for now…

What if the most important thing in an improv scene was the last thing that was said or done. If we exist in a world of “Yes, and” / “Accept and build” / “Listen and react” then the last thing said is of importance because it has the capacity to add something to the scene.

Even if the last thing said (or done) is fairly innocuous, even if it doesn’t look like it is adding much, the person responding can treat it as extremely meaningful. A simple “yes” in agreement can be made important in numerous ways (“So you’ve come around to my way of thinking”, “You don’t seem enthused” etc).

In the first chapter of his book A Swim In A Pond In The Rain, George Saunders takes you through an exercise where you read a page of a short story by Chekhov, and then analyse that page before moving on to the next. This exercise illustrates that Chekhov is wasting nothing. Everything he writes is there for a reason. Everything he writes adds something to the story, and deliberately so. The way the environment is described fits the mood of the piece and the characters. The way the characters are revealed tells us about their place in the environment, in society, and their relationships to each other. Each word uttered tells us about their relationship to one another and their status. Before the story starts we have nothing, and then each detail starts to fill our brain with information.

An improv scene is just like this; every moment is important. It’s easy to waste things in an improv scene. We can be looking for all sorts of other things: our relationship to each other, who the hell we are, how does this relate to the suggestion, am I finding a game from this?? I would suggest that if we are treating the last thing said as vitally important (one of maybe 41 things we could use as the most important thing in the scene), then we have a chance of ticking all the boxes I just mentioned. You might reveal who you are by your response. You might reveal the relationship between you and another by your response. You might find a game from your response.

What I like about this priority is that it’s more likely to keep me in the scene than thinking about characters, status, game or anything else. I have to stay with my scene partner in order to focus on what is happening, and treat it as important. Why have these words been said today, and what does this mean?

I sometimes do an exercise in classes where I make improvisers take five seconds between each line before responding. I’ll often shout “now” when the five seconds are up so the people participating don’t have to focus on counting. The focus of the players has to be on the words and actions that have just happened. They have five seconds to process what just occurred and then find something important about it to respond to. I always enjoy the scene work this produces.

I’m sure the other 41 answers for what makes a good improv scene and great and worth all of our time, but just as the meaning of life was “42” in the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, number 42 is the meaning of improv for me - at least for today.

Shows and Workshops

NOTTINGHAM:

I’m back teaching at the Nottingham Playhouse this term. If you’re in the East Mids in the UK, there are just three spots left on the Core Skills programme for this term - and it starts in just over a week’s time. It’s a ten week grounding in improv, and I’ll be teaching the final six weeks of it. You can book on here: https://nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk/project/making-it-up-core-skills/

There are just a couple of spots on the Advanced Skills programme this term, and that is by application only. You can apply here: https://nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk/project/making-it-up/

LONDON:

I’ve teamed up with improv legend Katy Schutte and improv musician extraordinaire Sam Marshall to teach a Musical Improv Weekender in March - and there are ONLY TWO SPOTS LEFT. Day one is a Skills Camp that will go over some of the foundations of musical improv. Day two delves into specific areas and forms you can use as a musical improviser. You can book for one of the days or for the whole weekender. Interested? Step this way: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/katyschutte/1523636

Have a great week

Lloydie