Sarah’s IFH Journal - Day 3
(Sarah at the Exit - Instant Classic Improv)
We started today with questions from last week. The first question was: What are we doing today?
A variety of repetition exercises in different forms.
Another question was how to know when to switch from physical observation to a 'deeper' observation of an emotional response. David explained that this comes with time and experience.
The repetition exercise teaches us how to drop the polite, civilized facade that we have been socialized to have. That is really a defense layer which we drop, or unlearn, over time.
After we drop the defensive layer, we then need to learn how to let go. We have to let go of anything preventing us from being present. The responses we give in the exercise should never be manufactured. It needs to be the real you, not you 'playing' you.
If we are thinking, "My character would never say or do that," we are limiting ourselves and limiting our characters. Repetition helps us keep an open mind, by 'trying on' what is being named by our partner. If you think you already know what your character would do, you are scripting, you are in the future instead of in the present moment.
When you show the audience that you are not your character, that is called 'commenting'. So if I don't take my lines or direction or my partner seriously, and if I as the actor stand away from the moment and point at it with my own point of view, I am 'commenting' on the scene instead of being present in the scene.
Another point that came up was that an actor needs to love their character in order for the audience to love the character. And even if the audience isn't meant to 'love' a character, they have to at a minimum care about a character. So we need to begin by caring about our characters.
On our feet we did full body mirroring with a partner. Then we switched partners and tried to make them, move, laugh, and blink. We played Soundball, Kitty Wants a Corner, and Spaghetti.
Then we played a short game using "Yes, And" by striking a pose and letting the pose begin a dialogue that was built and moved forward using "Yes, and" to begin each response.
As a group we played "Going to London" and built a story by agreeing with everything the last person said about a trip to London. Then we played it again in gibberish to underscore that we can "yes and" with just energy and body language.
In the formal repetition exercise with my first partner, I had an experience of feeling as though I was 'melting'. My partner noticed this although he didn't have a word for it.
For him, it seemed as though I was tired, or wanting to leave the exercise. I wanted to explain. As we stayed in the exercise, I felt myself solidifying again. This could have been my ego dissolving as I let go of the civilized demeanor I have been socialized to use.
My second partner wanted to talk and ask me questions about comedy and improv. He resisted starting the exercise, and this let me know that he was feeling uncomfortable. We didn't have much time to do the repetition, and when we did he jumped around naming different physical aspects of my clothing and face. He was not yet able to give in to repeating my offers.
We then sat on the stage to do a group repetition. This was really interesting as everyone in the group is at different levels of experience and comfort.
We played, and the attention shifted around the circle. In the debrief, someone admitted to feeling the desire to 'save' one of the actors. I've seen this come up in other rounds of group repetition and I believe this is a normal part of the exercise.
In another moment an actor named me as 'competitive' which I believe is a result of me just having more experience with the game and having more vocabulary at my fingertips.
But even in this reflection I see myself judging 'competitive' as a negative thing, whereas I could view it more neutrally and accept the observation.
We debriefed about jumping in the moment we see something change. Here is another place to 'unlearn' our polite society. We are taught to not interrupt, but the group exercise demands that we do so.
In repetition, thinking about what you see doesn't help you or your partner(s). You have to say what you see when you see it. This translates into scene work because your character needs to win and has to change the other character in order to get what they want.
I personally want to work on repeating everything that is observed without rejecting or shielding anything.
Our homework is to revisit 5 things we like. We also need to list 5 people from our past that we really liked, 5 people we really didn't like, and the words of a song or poem that deeply move us. The key is to find words and people that make us the most emotional.
The next session of Improv from the Heart starts in June.
Sarah Elovich - Writer, Actor, Writing Coach (Re-Write Yourself)
Alameda, CA