“I have something I want to tell you”, she said.

“O-Kay”, he replied “I better fasten my seat belt.”

They talked about auto safety and traffic for a little while then a bell rang and the actors looked up at the rest of the class.

“That’s 20 seconds” I said.   “Take a few moments to discuss what you think the audience wants to know about this scene.”  The two actors started talking to each other and I gave the same instruction to the rest of the class, “find a partner and discuss what it is you want to know about this scene.”

At the end of a few moments I asked the actors to continue the scene.

The woman spoke first, “Steve, I’ve always liked you ever since you started dating my daughter.”

They continued for another 20 seconds, the bell rang again and I asked the audience if the actors had answered their question.  Most of the audience said ‘yes’.

We ran this exercise for 45 minutes so everyone would have a chance to see what it feels like from both the audience and actor position.  Here’s what we discovered:

The audience is a big guessing machine.

If their questions aren’t answered soon enough, they lose interest.

If the actors don’t know what the audience wants, how can they ‘play’ with them?

Here are the three things we kept hearing from the audience throughout the exercise:

1. 1. Names/relationships:  We want to know the names of the characters and their relationship to each other.
   2. Where they are:  We want to know the location of the interaction.  [Home, office, park or outer space]
   3. Why are we watching?  Trickier than the other two this one seems to involve commitment of the actors (“as if” they know where they are going) and following up on the elements of a scene.  (If you are driving in a car, you must be going somewhere that pertains to the scene…not just driving.)

What do they want exercise:

1. Two actors improvise a scene (not a game).
2. After 20 or 30 seconds ring a bell and stop the scene.
3. Ask everyone to pair up and discuss what it is that they want to know about the scene.
4. Resist the temptation to discuss this – and ask the actors to continue the scene and answer the question that they think the audience wants to know.
5. After 20 or 30 seconds stop the scene again and ask the audience/class if their question has been answered.
6. Stop and discuss or try it again.
7. And the workshop leader, I suggest you model curiosity about the outcome.**

If you try this exercise please write a note below and let us know how it goes.  Always learning….

Thanks.

*The class is a summer Improv class at a San Francisco Bay Area College that I am co-teaching with two wonderful improv instructors:  Paul Killam and Lisa Klein.

**There are more questions about improv than answers, aren’t there?

Image by:  ‘Kimberlee Kessler Design’

© 2010, Improv Notebook. All rights reserved. info@improvnotebook.comi

©2010 Improv Notebook. All Rights Reserved.

Peter Friedrich talks with William Hall

Yousra, a Baghdad-born Iraqi Improviser and her college theater professor Peter Friedrich will be at BATS Improv for one special night of interviews and performance.

At 7 p.m., BATS Company member Kasey Klemm will interview Yousra, about her experiences with improvisation in post-Sadam Iraq.

After a brief intermission, Yousra will take the stage with Five BATS improvisers for a night of free form improvisation, led by Kasey and Peter.

• William: how did you get hired to teach improv in Iraq?

Sheer bullheadedness. I started out an English teacher here and bugged my bosses about it until they let me try. This year it’s part of the curriculum. My study at BATS played a big role.

• Is it dangerous?

If it’s my mom asking, not at all. If it’s Shakira asking, I cheat death for a living. Honestly, I’ve given up trying to figure it out.  Worrying will not change it at all. I think if you did my job for a day, you would probably not be worried either. You’d be very distracted by the students in front of you.

• How many students do you teach?

It’s anywhere from 8 to 25. Sometimes I will spend half a day with another teacher’s class, to test learning styles and build a group. We’ve got a good thing going with that — teaching students that a class isn’t just students sharing the same space – -it really is an ensemble. Take risks together; get in trouble, save each other. Fail. Repeat

• Where do the students come from (within Iraq)?

All over the country, including Kirkuk, Mosul, Baghdad, Erbil, and our hip college town of Sulaimani.

• Why is it important that you bring one of the students to the US (BATS Improv)?
  

  December 28th at BATS Improv in SF

There are so many hardworking students in Iraq, with so much passion and determination. But without a bridge to the outside world, they can feel like they’re on the surface of the moon. Think about growing up in a country where the only visitors you’ve seen are soldiers. What we’re doing at BATS will send a message to all students in Iraq that whatever you are passionate about, there are whole communities of like-minded people waiting to connect with you. You’re not alone.

• Tell us a little about Yousra?

She’s from Baghdad, from a wonderful family. She used to be extremely shy, and wound up basically taking over the school. You will not find a more excited person in the world to come to San Francisco and walk on the BATS stage.  Our emails to each other have consisted of WWWOOOOO and Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh for the last month.

• How does the Bagdad/Iraq community react to improv?

I have actually not heard one bad reaction. Perhaps that’s a sign I need to push things a bit more.

• Why is this work important to you?

A shy student fails at some random exercise, like becoming an elephant in Bippety-Bop, realizes nothing bad happened, and then smiles and fails again next time, with feeling. How can you not want to see that again and again? It’s just the coolest thing there is. Sometimes the effects are so sudden and reverse-catastrophic. One student walked out of a single improv class a year ago with a new personality and is still riding it out. I could watch stuff like that happen for the rest of my life.

Get your tickets now: www.improv.org Monday Dec. 12, 7pm

© 2009, Improv Notebook. All rights reserved. info@improvnotebook.comi

©2010 Improv Notebook. All Rights Reserved.

As a member of the programming committee, I volunteered to coordinate the improv Jam!

I wanted to find a way to include as many people as possible and at the same time give the performers a venue to play as well.

We started with some all-group activities led by Matt Weinstein (Playfair). Everyone was engaged and had fun, so much so that we were asked to quiet a bit to not disturb the diners in the restaurant. (Woo Hoo!)

We then moved on to some large group improv scenes.

• String of Pearls
• Speaking in one voice
• Category Die

After the group scenes, we moved into scenework and games for anyone that wanted to try something.

The audience at this conference is amazingly supportive and wonderful and helped make the evening a great success as much as the 30-40 performers who got up and improvised.

© 2009, Improv Notebook. All rights reserved. info@improvnotebook.comi

©2010 Improv Notebook. All Rights Reserved.

The emcee is like the host of a party and the theater is their house.

For me emceeing in two simple rules that cover almost everything.

The two underlying rules of emceeing

1. Help the audience enjoy the show.
2. You are not the focus.

Emceeing a show? Here are some guidelines that might help

• take your time and be calm (or present being calm)
• fill in the setup for the games if the players miss pieces, so the audience knows what to do
• keep the stage warm/hot – fill in big spaces during transitions when the energy drops, so the audience knows what to look at
• there is no need to “cap” each scene, or add your own jokes or comments on what we just saw
• you can help the show by calling lights to “save” scenes
• if things go wonky, you can help by being lighthearted and adding what is needed or just acknowledge it
• step on the tail of the applause with the next action
• in Theatersports jump on getting the scores and announcing the challenges
• in Freestyle or Micetro jump on calling out the next players
• in  Theatersports you can make emcee challenges to help with shape of show
• help facilitate the “schtick” for players/teams in costume but also help contain it (the balance is easier from offstage)
• add enthusiasm to the show with good presence on your emcee duties
• being shy drains the energy
• being gaggy or “funny” will bleed energy and distract the show
• keep the pace of the show, move things along

That’s my take on it – what is yours?

What do you think – What makes a good emcee?

Leave your comments below, we want to know!

© 2009, Improv Notebook. All rights reserved. info@improvnotebook.comi

©2010 Improv Notebook. All Rights Reserved.

A man is sitting reading a magazine slowly turning the pages. The sound of each one is all you can hear until the rustle of his pants as he crosses his legs. A woman enters the room and sits right next to him, uncomfortably close. He looks up and back at his magazine trying to ease away from her slightly without being obvious. She exhales with a snort of indignation and stares at him, her face getting closer and closer to his and she says in a low voice….

This summer working with Keith Johnstone we did scenes starting with 20 seconds of silence followed by one character saying something to change the other. Those first 20 seconds were riveting to watch “nothing” happen. However, there was so much that was in that “nothing”. Watching as an audience member I created stories about each character and small traits and gestures took on great meaning – it was engrossing.

The audience is not passive, they are searching for the “reason”

- Keith Johnstone Aug 2009

For the players, these scenes with silence gave time to relax and have “nothing” happen. It was 20 seconds just listen for the offers that were there – a shift in position, crossing legs, a slight glance of eye contact. Then a small bit of dialog (5 seconds) and another 20 seconds of silence.

Nothing, nothing, nothing, something!

- Keith Johnstone Aug 2009

This was a shift for me to think about breaking scenes down to smaller slices of very present, in-the-moment focus. For those short periods, listening, connecting, acting, and focusing on what was already there was easier because it wasn’t for a whole scene – just this short part of one.

It’s so easy to rely on being wordy, but so rewarding to let go, slow down, and enjoy the silence.

© 2009, Improv Notebook. All rights reserved. info@improvnotebook.comi

©2010 Improv Notebook. All Rights Reserved.

Thiagi is the founder of The Thiagi Group and a leader in desigining training faster, cheaper, and better with an irreverent process that eliminates unnecessary steps that don’t add value. Each month he produces a GameLetter that is “SERIOUSLY FUN ACTIVITIES FOR TRAINERS, FACILITATORS, PERFORMANCE CONSULTANTS, AND MANAGERS”.

A few months ago I wrote up a post on a training activity named Quick Choice that I generated with a group of collaborators and we sent it off to Thiagi. As you can see – we made the newsletter.

If you have not read any of Thiagi’s work or been to one of his workshops I can’t recommend it enough.

© 2009, Improv Notebook. All rights reserved. info@improvnotebook.comi

©2010 Improv Notebook. All Rights Reserved.

Which do you do:

• Improv
• Improvisation
• Impro [in certain parts of the world]

A Google search suggests that Improv is a theatrical term and Improvisation  is a musical term.

In talking with companies in the US and abroad this is what I’ve found.

If you use the word IMPROV in the title of your show
the audience will expect ‘comedy’.

Christian Utzman (The Un-Scripted Theater Company in San Francisco) discovered this on his own.   Christian always takes his marketing material into the center of San Francisco’s shopping district, Union Square and asks tourists what kind of show they expect based on the flier he shows them.  If their answer is different from the show they’re planning, they redesign the flier.  Christian says, ” sometimes we  have to shoot a different photo”.

One thing he’s learned is that if the show is not a comedy show, they don’t use  the word ‘improv’.   When they promote their Shakespeare style show (Shakespeare Un-Scripted) they will us will use either improvisation or improvised (as in ‘A full length improvised Shakespeare play.’).

Which do you prefer?  And why?  Thanks in response for your comment.

© 2009, Improv Notebook. All rights reserved. info@improvnotebook.comi

©2010 Improv Notebook. All Rights Reserved.

I’ve known Keith for about 20 years.  He has taught me many things…mostly about eliminating fear from the stage….so that we can reveal ourselves.

Earlier I asked you to help me put together my list of questions.   I asked you,what would you like to know about him, his theories and his view towards improvisational theater.  Many of you wrote in…thank you.

The interview took place on Sunday at 6pm in the BATS Improv theatre in San Francisco (see photo below).

_________________________________Thanks to David Boyll for the photo.

Keith Johnstone and I talked for an hour.  Well…mostly he talked…which I think is the idea.

He spent about 30 minutes on growing up in a small fishing village and then 30 minutes on improvisation.  He told one joke and talked about the kind of improv he does go to.

He also told us ‘why he still teaches’.  Good stuff.

I’ll write up a little bit about the interview and post it here ….er..soon.

Thanks to everyone for your questions.

© 2009, Improv Notebook. All rights reserved. info@improvnotebook.comi

©2010 Improv Notebook. All Rights Reserved.

Photo by Rich Ross

Day 1 of 4 days with Keith Johnstone…and here are a few highlights from my notebook:

The workshop was held in a small theater in downtown San Francisco.  There were 24 students ranging in experience from novice to +20 years of experience.  The workshop lasted from 10am until 4pm.  And seemed to meander from lecture to exercise…with lecture taking most of the weight.

Keith Johnstone wrote IMPRO in 1966 after just 3 years of experience.

The audience wants change – so freeze games are popular…but in freeze games the players are not moving things forward.

If you’re not obvious – it’s almost impossible to get narrative going.

If you know how to do it (improve or teach) it means that you’ve codified your bag of tricks!

Occasionally Keith would call for “anyone who hasn’t been on the stage yet today…and people would step forward.

If you play a scene where you meet a talking mouse where he voice is provided by an actor off stage:

• if you are scared it’s looking for a cat.
• If you’re less scared it’s looking for your cat.
• If you’re unafraid it’s looking for you.

I mentioned this progression to Keith the next morning and he look at me with a sly smile and said…

“If you’re really frightened, you’re looking for a cat too!”

More to come…

© 2009, Improv Notebook. All rights reserved. info@improvnotebook.comi

©2010 Improv Notebook. All Rights Reserved.

1. We’re all about IMPROV
2. We’ll respond to your questions and comments
3. We’re well behaved (mostly)

http://twitter.com/improvnotebook

© 2009, Improv Notebook. All rights reserved. info@improvnotebook.comi

©2010 Improv Notebook. All Rights Reserved.