- •Introduction
- •1 What Is Improvisation!
- •2 Rules
- •The History of The Rules
- •Fear Fear Fear
- •Breaking The Rules
- •3 How to Improvise Part One: Do Something!
- •Part Two: Check Out What You Did.
- •Part Three: Hold on to What You Did.
- •The Magic of Improvisation
- •4 "What About My Partner!"
- •Take Care of Yourself First.
- •Take Care of Your Partner.
- •Listening to Your Partner.
- •What If I Am the Partner?
- •5 Context and Scenes
- •Context
- •6 Common Problems
- •Too Much Exposition
- •Talking Too Much
- •Justifying
- •I Love/I Hate
- •Pausing
- •Bailing on a Point of View
- •7 More Than Two People in a Scene Three-Person Scenes
- •Entering Scenes
- •Four-, Five-, Six-, and Twenty-Person Scenes
- •8 Advanced Improvisation
- •Opposite Choices
- •Specificity
- •Pull Out/Pull Back In
- •Curve Balls
- •Reaching for an Object
- •Personal Objects and Mannerisms
- •Personal Variety of Energy
- •9 Advice and Guidelines for Improvisers Talent
- •The Concept of Training
- •Men and Women
- •The Perfect Actor
- •Auditioning Guidelines for Improvisers
- •Common Patterns
- •Summary
- •10 Improvisation and he Second Law of Thermodynamics
- •First Law of Thermodynamics
- •The Second Law of Thermodynamics
- •The Thermodynamics of Improv
- •11 Exercises to Do at Home
- •Dada Monologue
- •Word Association
- •Gibberish
- •Solo Character Switches
- •Character Interview
- •Styles and Genres in a Hat
- •Sound to Dialogue
- •Environment
- •Body Parts
- •Breakfast
- •Object Monologue
- •Scene with Emotional Shift
- •Scenes of Status Shift
- •Heightening
- •Read a Character from a Play Out Loud
- •Film Dialogue
- •Write an Improvised Scene
- •Counting to One Hundred
- •Notes on Good Acting
- •Exercise
- •12 Annoyance
Introduction 3
1 What Is Improvisation! 4
2 Rules 5
The History of The Rules 5
Fear Fear Fear 8
Breaking The Rules 9
3 How to Improvise 10
Part One: Do Something! 10
Part Two: Check Out What You Did. 14
Part Three: Hold on to What You Did. 15
The Magic of Improvisation 16
4 "What About My Partner!" 17
Take Care of Yourself First. 17
Take Care of Your Partner. 17
Listening to Your Partner. 18
What If I Am the Partner? 18
5 Context and Scenes 21
Context 21
Scenes 22
6 Common Problems 26
Too Much Exposition 26
Talking Too Much 26
Justifying 27
Pausing 29
Bailing on a Point of View 30
7 More Than Two People in a Scene 31
Three-Person Scenes 31
Entering Scenes 32
Four-, Five-, Six-, and Twenty-Person Scenes 35
8 Advanced Improvisation 38
Opposite Choices 38
Specificity 39
Pull Out/Pull Back In 39
Curve Balls 40
Reaching for an Object 41
Personal Objects and Mannerisms 42
Personal Variety of Energy 43
9 Advice and Guidelines for Improvisers 46
Talent 46
The Concept of Training 46
Men and Women 46
The Perfect Actor 47
Auditioning Guidelines for Improvisers 50
Common Patterns 52
Summary 53
10 Improvisation and he Second Law of Thermodynamics 54
First Law of Thermodynamics 54
The Second Law of Thermodynamics 55
The Thermodynamics of Improv 56
11 Exercises to Do at Home 58
Dada Monologue 58
Word Association 58
Gibberish 58
Solo Character Switches 59
Character Interview 59
Styles and Genres in a Hat 59
Sound to Dialogue 60
Environment 60
Body Parts 60
Breakfast 60
Object Monologue 61
Scene 61
Scene with Emotional Shift 61
Scenes of Status Shift 62
Heightening 62
Read a Character from a Play Out Loud 62
Film Dialogue 63
Write an Improvised Scene 63
Songs 63
Counting to One Hundred 64
Dance 64
Notes on Good Acting 64
Non-Fiction Summary 64
Exercise 65
12 Annoyance 66
Introduction
It's strange that I'm writing this book. I wasn't supposed to. Since I was a kid, I've loved math and the sciences. From the time I was in second grade I always knew I would be a veterinarian. "If your dog is sick, just call Mick," was a sign I had always imagined outside of my office.
Then one night in high school I saw a play. I can't remember the name of it, but I do remember the effect it had on me. I knew that although I loved science so much, there was a part of me that wanted to be up there on that stage. I went to that play the very next night, and I was even more astonished. The actors were moving in the exact same places on stage as they had the night before! I had no idea—I thought they just memorized the lines and kind of moved about wherever they wanted—I didn't know it was practiced that much. (While I was in high school, you didn't go to rehearsal; you went to play practice.)
I decided that I wanted to have a go at this thing, so I auditioned. My first role was Grumio, in The Taming of the Shrew. I went on to do several more plays in high school, and arrived at Indiana University with a strong desire to be a veterinarian and a conflicting desire to be on stage. It didn't take that long to discover that the latter would win my heart. I began auditioning and performing in play after play, and eventually switched my study to theater. I did indeed love the rush of performing.
Soon, though, I became a little bored. Not with the performing, but with the rehearsing. I felt like the rehearsals were the same thing over and over. I was pretty selfish back then; I wanted the feeling I got when I performed without the repetitious work of the rehearsals. Performing without rehearsals, was there such a thing?
That's when I picked up a book called Something Wonderful Right Away, by Jeffrey Sweet. It was a collection of interviews of people involved in something called improvisation. As the title states, you could create something wonderful right away. To me, that meant all the fun without the rehearsing. A friend of mine, David MacNerland, and I decided to form an improv group, never having seen or performed any improvisation. (Maybe David had, I'll have to ask him.) We created a group called "Dubbletaque" and performed for full houses for nearly four years.
Improvisation became my passion, and I moved to Chicago to pursue it.
I studied and performed everywhere I could. It was in this study that I learned for the first time about all of the intricacies of improvisation: forms, rules, scenic structure, and whatnot. It was also at this time that I began to form my own point of view in regard to what makes improvisation work or not. That is in this book. I didn't really know any of this in college, we were just kind of making it up as we went along.
So many years later, here I sit. I'm not a veterinarian, although my love for math and science remains to this day. I think you might notice that in this book. Ironically, as a director, I now value the theater and rehearsing more than ever. There's certainly value in something wonderful right away, and an equal yet different value to something wonderful not right away.
This book is for those that have a desire to improvise scenes better. I truly hope it helps.
"If your scene is sick ..."