Free Essay

Improv

In: English and Literature

Submitted By T1795
Words 1379
Pages 6
Kyra Brown
Improv
5/8/15

Final Paper

Wow, I find it unbelievable that Improv is coming to a close for the semester. It still feels as if we’ve only gotten through the first month of classes. Initially when I took improve I didn’t know what to expect. I wasn’t necessarily excited for Improv but I wasn’t unhappy to take it either. The first time I actually took Improv was when I was 16. I was in summer acting conservatory for NYC kids at Sarah Lawrence College and we had Improv every single day for several hours. It was so much fun and I found that I excelled at it. I was able to think quickly on my feet and create a piece with my partner in the exercise that was funny, flowed well and was easy to follow however, that was when I was 16. Now as a 19-year-old college student who hadn’t studied improve for several years, I was a little nervous. Its one thing to study Improv for a month straight and another, to take it as a college course. I was worried that maybe I might suck. Fear grew bigger and bigger inside the pit of my belly the beginning of the semester. As my fear grew bigger my patience grew less. I didn’t realize that many improve 1 students are freshman and although I was just a freshman myself last year, I could see the major difference in discipline between the two. I use to get irritated due to the lop-sided circle, the struggle to get through the warm-up games or the excessive side conversations. I didn’t feel connected to my ensemble and I also felt like we didn’t get through as much due to talking. I remember around that time whenever I participated in an exercise I would feel extremely lost and confused. Early on in the semester I was definitely concerned about trying to produce lots of dialogue in the scene. I use to think that if 2 people were having conversation in a scene it was good based off of that alone. I also use to think that if the scene generated laughter from the audience then that meant it was good as well. With the majority of the class being comedy majors, I felt as if I had to be funny. The thing is, whenever you force funny, it’s never truly funny. I use to wonder to myself “I hope Joe knows I’m not funny, I hope he doesn’t think I think I’m funny either because I don’t.” One thing I learned is you can’t beat yourself up in the middle of your scene or any other time because you’ll never improve. I use to beat myself up about my performance in class and it didn’t help. It just made me not want to come to class; I felt inferior to everyone else when it came to certain exercises. As class progressed I started paying close attention to key concepts that you teach us, I realized what my problem was. Myself. One of the things I use to struggle with was finding an action and pantomiming. I still struggle with this but not as much I’ve made great progress. At first I didn’t know why it was so important to get an action and stick to it but I realized why. Anything can sprout from an action; an action can help to establish a character, the characters relation to the other person in the scene and the plot. I noticed that once I grew better with my action/ object work my scenes began to come alive. One example I remember well was when we first started doing Henry’s. It was challenging for me. I remember one class we did them and my partner’s for my scenes were Karlie and Jessica. Karlie and I were coach and trainer in the woods and Jessica and I were co-workers at the movie theater. I remember for my silent scene with Jessica I didn’t know what to do. I started off the scene as if I was going to order some popcorn with my co-worker and it wasn’t working. There wasn’t much I could do or ways I could interact with my partner and you stopped me. You kept telling me to think of another way suddenly everyone was like “You guys should just work at the movie theater!” It was like a light bulb went off in my head. From that I chose to grab a bottle of spray cleaner and a rag and clean the counters and it created a great dynamic in the scene because Jessica wasn’t doing anything. Everyone was laughing because although I didn’t verbally express it you could see through my action that I was growing frustrated with her as a co- worker because I was doing all the work. I realized that if you simplify your decisions it helps as a catalyst for the scenes that come after. This was also one of the first times that my scene had something at sake. There was a clear relationship between us and we had a climax and resolution within our next 2 scenes. From that moment on I started liking improve way more. I always though Improv was fun but it’s not truly fun if you don’t think your good. Once I began putting more trust into my partner, the scene, and myself the scenes started coming alive. I’d say the next thing I struggled with other than being on time was showing the emotional connection between my partner and I verses plot. It’s so easy to fall into plot work in a scene because your giving the audience all this information that we perceive as vital and we think that because were specifically telling the person in our scene that’s showing a relationship. I was viewing it from a stand point that if I was in a scene with my best friend and we were talking about her boyfriend I’d tell her the truth and it’ll show that she’s my best friend to the audience. When in all actuality we can refer to her boyfriend in the scene but if that’s all that’s being discussed in the scene it’s not showing our emotional investment to each other, what we really want from each other or what’s at sake. It’s so easy to do plot work because that makes for a lot dialogue in a short period of time. However, I’ve found that when the dialogue comes it’ll come. Just because the scene doesn’t start off wordy doesn’t mean it’s going to end that way. Sometimes you just have to let go and let the scene take over. If you try to control everything: character, relationship, plot, etc. the scene isn’t going to grow to it’s best potential. I’ve learned a lot this semester from the technical side of Improv to the enteral. I learned to always have confidence, don’t be afraid to mess up or show your weaknesses. I also learned to have patience, Improv takes lots of patience and that’s something I’ve never had and I found this semester. I also learned to “yes, and” my partner. You can “yes, and” and still have a conflict within the scene opposed to shooting down your partner’s ideas. I realized that you don’t have to be the world’s best comedian to generate laughter; people laugh at things that remind them of themselves or things that they can relate to. Everyone can relate to having a lazy co-worker that’s what made it funny, living in the scene honestly opposed to trying to force giggles. I also learned so much from my ensemble that I’ve grown to love. They teach me so much every class and every one is so talented. Dylan, Tommy, McKenzie, Sadie, Karlie, Max and Manny have taught to just jump in there and Katie Mae, Aurora, Clay and others have taught me a lot of things as well. One thing I like about Clay is his ability to bring his personality into the scene yet we still know he’s acting but it just seems like natural Clay. I want to continue doing improv and get better at it.
Impr

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