I can happily report that I have done one whole scene! I’m even happier to report that it only took one scene to entirely revolutionize my feelings about short form improvisation. Seriously.
I was thrilled to spend last week in Seattle at Unexpected Productions. I finally met The Mr. Keith Johnstone which was entirely fascinating. His workshops and the Micetro he directed were a little bit of foreign territory to me in the best of ways. For now I’ll just say that I highly recommend working with Johnstone if you have the chance, just make sure you have a sofa handy that you don’t mind cutting a hole into.
For lack of a proper word I will call Randy Dixon the boss of the Playbook. He’s like its manager. I guess if I needed a proper word I would use editor, compiler, CEO… Regardless, it’s his and that is why I wanted to kick off the project in a scene with him. It seemed appropriate to start at the beginning and so the ABC game it was…
You know the one; every line is started with a word beginning with the subsequent letter of the alphabet…
Example:
“All of the men are ready for battle Sir!”
“Bring one of them to me Soldier. Can you bring me one that looks scared?”
“Daniel looks scared Sir! Everyone else is excited to get shooting…”
etc… that’s how it works. I think it’s safe to say that most improvisers have played this game and likely they did so early on in their improv career. I have never thought much more of the ABC game than to consider it something easy and something that an audience might enjoy as filler between things of substance. For ages I’ve been silently caught in the trap of convincing my audience that the improv we do is not the same thing as ‘Whose Line is it Anyway’ games. I’ve been like every other kid who graduates from the CIG and wants to ‘grow up’ and do long form.
I’ve been struggling for the past few years to figure out what the real differences between short and long form are (or more importantly, if differences even exist at all.) It must be more complex than the amount of time we spend on stage. Is short form completing a ‘game’ and long form completing a ‘narrative’? Those are not mutually exclusive. It’s a good point of debate and today I don’t have a definitive answer on where I stand. Just wait a year though… I’ll have all the answers ;)
If every scene of the Playbook changes me as much as the first one did this will be an exhausting year! Anyone know Justin Bieber’s ‘One Time’? No, me neither, but one might change the title to ‘One Scene’ and sing it that way to describe what this has done to me. Mr. Randy Dixon is a brilliant improviser and at the risk of sounding like a screaming Bieber fan I must admit that Randy is a huge influence on the improviser that I
currently am. It was a complete honour to share a stage with him and there couldn’t have been a better way to get the project/party started.
Well! We did the ABC game. It was over 5 minutes long which is the first thing that was new for me. I’ve only ever experienced the ABC game as a mad rush to get through the alphabet and show the audience how well we know the order of letters. The scene was slowly paced and I would say it was thoughtful. It wasn’t particularly funny although there were definite moments of humorous discovery. (Discovery is one of my new favorite words.) I’ve never taken the time to let a ‘game’ like this breathe. I’ve never let my characters be sincerely affected and changed in the ABC game. I’m excited as I type this because my improv world is a lot bigger now! Every scene should be played with a point that is greater than whatever restriction or rule is added to it. I’m excited to play every scene in the Playbook with meaning, or at least try to. (I’m looking at you Party Quirks.)
The audience doesn’t want to laugh because somebody made a joke. The audience wants to care about what happens and if they laugh it’s from relating and believing what they see. I think we all know that to be true and yet it’s rare to find improvisers who really perform with that in mind.
I challenge you to try this! Start with the ABC game. It’s a 26 sentence scene. Make eye contact, be truthful and don’t rush. Also don’t do that thing where you screw up the alphabet to get a laugh (not that I think you would do that…). But don’t. This was the most fun and has genuinely opened my mind to a world of possibility.
A very clever friend of mine remarked ‘It’s hard to find people who do short form for the right reasons.’ From now on I will be one of those people.
xoCaitlin
A lot of groups play this where every line starts with the letter. I always think that this version, where every sentence really makes you listen to your scene partner, makes for much more interesting theatre. In the easy version, everyone is always thinking of their next line, and sort of half-listening to their partner.
ReplyDeleteI'll be curious to hear what you do with Party Quirks. :) I've never seen it played in a way that has an interesting narrative question/answer.
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ReplyDeleteAfter reading the post I started thinking about the differences short form and long form and got reminded of two things I've heard about it. One was from Keith and the other from Randy.
ReplyDeleteThe first one is about efficiency. I think that both short and long form should explore a narrative, a relationship, change, and that in a way they are both trying to do this within the bounds of a form/style/game. In shortform however, this exploration needs to be much more efficient and some things may not be as thoroughly explored as in a long form, but they still should be there. For me this is akin to the difference between a short story and a novel. They both should tell a self-contained story, have compelling characters, have them change in one way or another, etc. The difference comes in how this must be done to achieve this.
The second thing I remembered while reading this was that "The scene should drive the game, not the other way around." And here is where I think the biggest risk/problem of short arises. In your example, the ABC game, when the scene takes its time and let's the game come naturally you have a delightful scene; but when you are just in a mad rush to go through the alphabet you're letting the game drive the scene at the cost of having a good narrative/relationship/improv. And I have been guilty of that way too many times.
And I'm with Tony, I'd love to hear what you do with Party Quirks.