Improvisation

Jim Hoare is the author ofYour High School Improv Show Playbook and has added a Virtual Performance Pandendum (Pandemic Addendum) to the resource for adapting improv to a virtual environment. For those of you looking to put on a virtual Improv show, here are his top five tips and games suggestions! *1. Practice, Practice, Practice *Experiment with different formats to see which serves you best. If, after trying a virtual improv show on a platform (Zoom, StreamYard), or recording and editing a short improv show for scheduled streaming, you feel that the quality is not something you are proud to share with your community, don’t stream that performance. Consider it a valuable learning experience and try again. The goal is education, not TV ratings. Share what you are proud to share. 2. LightingYou must light the show for the video stream, not the theater, otherwise it may be too dark for those watching at home. You can do this either by adding more light to your performance space or by using a video camera with the ability to adjust to low-light. For those improvisors performing at home, it means having light on their face and not bright light behind them, which will make their face difficult to see. 3. Face MasksGood sound is key. With a socially distanced cast wearing face masks, diction, articulation, and projection are more important than ever. Use face masks as a teaching tool/aid to help students improve in these areas. Warm up with tongue-twisters and articulation exercises. When the face masks finally come off, their diction, articulation, and projection will be better because of it. For those improvisors at home, diction, articulation, and projection are just as important. Before streaming your show, ask someone who was not involved in the filming or editing to watch and listen to the finished product. If they cannot clearly understand what is being said, start over. 4. Social DistancingIf gathering actors in person, tape safe distancing boxes on the stage. However, students who live together, or who have been exclusively socializing together since March, with parents’ permission, may be able to perform together and stand closer on stage. Consider “Cohort Casting” for some group games. 5. Set Clear ExpectationsSet clear goals and expectations for online meetings with parents and students. Before your virtual improv show, set clear goals and expectations with your audience. “What you are about to see is something completely new. It’s not our usual improv show at school – and it’s not the next episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway? It is our best effort to Keep Calm and Carry On With Some Silliness during these challenging days. We hope you enjoy – and we look forward to being back together in person as soon as possible.” (or similar) Top 5 Improv Games to Play Virtually Games where individual players speak one at a time lend themselves to online viewing and screen sharing. Those games are more about speaking and less about physicalizing. Rather than move downstage to participate in the game, players raise their hands and unmute themselves or wait to quickly be acknowledged by you. 1. 185 (a game about puns)The object of the game is to come up with a bad pun that elicits a groan from the audience. Ask the audience to write in chat an occupation or hobby. As soon as the occupation or hobby is announced, any member of the team can step forward (or raise their hands and unmute themselves). The goal is to see how many puns they can come up with in the time given (usually about two minutes). The same person can go more than once. 2. Alphabet Game / A-B-C-provCome up with a relationship, a destination, and a means of transportation for two players (mom and son going to college, dad teaching daughter to drive, etc.). Decide which letter of the alphabet the scene will start with. Beginning with that letter and continuing in the order of the alphabet, the players must build a scene within 26 sentences or phrases, with each sentence or phrase starting with the next letter of the alphabet until every letter has been used. Before you begin, decide how many players will participate (two or more). You may want to establish an order, so that each player knows exactly when they will contribute the next sentence in the conversation (with the next letter of the alphabet). Sentences can be as short as one word or sound (Ahh! Grrh! Zowie!) but avoid run-on sentences which slow the pace of the game. *3. Lines You’re Not Likely to Hear *The whole team will come on stage and be given a person, character, etc. by the host. One at a time, players will step forward (or unmute) to deliver a one-liner demonstrating a line you’re unlikely to hear, from the suggestion. The goal is to see how many one-liners they can come up with in the time given (usually about two minutes). The same person can go more than once. *4. Thought Dubbing *Four Players – two seen (the characters) and two only heard (their thoughts). Give Player 1 and Player 2 a relationship and a location. Player 3 will voice the thoughts of Player 1 and Player 4 will voice the thoughts of Player 2. Players 1 and 2 must remember to pause to hear what they are thinking from Players 3 and 4 and then adjust the scene depending on what they are “thinking.” You may want to have Players 3 and 4 hit “Stop Video” on their device so that we only hear them. If so, then Players 3 and 4 must have clear, distinct voices that Players 1 and 2 will recognize as their thoughts. *5. World’s Worst *The whole team will be given a noun, occupation, etc. by the host. One at a time, players will step forward (or unmute) to deliver a one-liner demonstrating the WORST example of the suggestion. Like Lines You’re Not Likely to Hear, any member of the team can step forward. If the player is at home, encourage the use of props/items or people who may be nearby. This game is about being clear and demonstrative. The same person can go more than once. Click here to learn more about Your High School Improv Show Playbook

Guest blogger Jennine Profeta is a Second City performer and theatre educator, as well the instructor of the Drama Teacher Academy course Yes, And… How to Teach Improv. She shares her Top Ten Tips for Teaching Improv with us here! Tip #1 – There are no wrong answers.There are no wrong offers. Students are very reticent sometimes to put something on the table. They’re scared that they’re not going to say the perfect thing. Don’t worry about perfect. Just put something out there and know that things are going to spin out from it. Tip #2 – Improv is overwhelming.You can just choose from anything in the world and students are afraid that they’re not going to say that perfect thing, that they’re not going to be funny, or they’re not going to be able to contribute anything. We are aware of this and we’re going to address this. Tip #3 – Improv is a team sport.We are in it to win it together. We’re all friends, we all support each other, we all help each other out. When we do shows, a lot of us have adopted this thing called “I got your back” so we go around and we tap each other on the back and say, “I got your back” because, again, it’s a reminder that it’s a team sport. Tip #4 – Keep physically open.Students tend to cross their arms, cross their legs. I know I stand in a crossed arm position because it’s comfortable sometimes, but it’s also defensive and it shuts us down. You’re actually not really able to listen as well when your body is crossed. Get them to open up – uncross those arms, uncross those legs. Sometimes you have to remind them several times throughout a class. Tip #5 – Listening.It’s all about communication and collaboration, so we need to listen to each other. All acting is about reacting and improv is this in the purest form. You have to be able to listen and to react to your partner. Tip #6 – Focus on the wins and the challenges.This is an important tip when giving feedback – as opposed to focusing on what is right and wrong. Just focus on the wins. There is no wrong in improv as long as we’re listening to each other and supporting each other. Tip #7 – Emotion is your friend!I like that say that, in life, it sucks to be grieving. It sucks to be sad, to be terrified. But in the classroom, it’s a really fun thing to play with. It can inject a lot of fun and energy into your scenes. So, the more that they can embrace their emotions and just riff off of them, the more they’re going to have in their toolbox. Tip #8 – Funny, funny, funny.That should be a happy by-product of what happens. Not that we’re standing on the sidelines, thinking about the perfect joke. Improv is all about humor. We just want to start communicating our ideas, working on offers, listening, and accept the fact that the laughs are going to come as a result of this thing that we’re building together. Tip #9 – Avoid questions.We want to avoid questions in our scene work. Some students don’t want to commit to the scene or again they think that whatever they have to say is not good enough. So instead, they go into the scene and go, “So, what are you doing? What’s your name? Why are we here?” I stop and say, “Okay, let’s reframe it. Instead of a question, let’s make it a statement.” Say, “We are at…” and then you’ll watch them, like, “Uh… Disneyland.” Yes, perfect! That’s great. Tip #10 – Have fun.Every time I hit the stage, I like to play and have fun. In improv, there are often rules and structures that are introduced in a lot of the exercises and games that we play. It doesn’t mean that it’s not fun; those are there to help us have fun, to hone in on the points that we want to hit so that we can have a great time and just laugh. Want to hear more tips from Jennine? • Listen to the Theatrefolk Podcast Top Ten Tips for Teaching Improv. • Check out Jennine’s Drama Teacher Academy course Yes, And… How to Teach Improv.

Fear of failure is a huge concern in drama class. Nobody wants to fail – it’s not a good feeling, and students are hyper-aware of not only their own feelings, but their perceptions of what others in the class think of them. Making a mistake can be paralyzing because students are afraid of looking foolish, unintelligent, or unaware in front of others – so they often won’t even try a task without a huge amount of anxiety. However, the following improvisation game, The Alphabet Improv Game, is great to try with your students because it’s a pretty challenging one. It is inevitable that your students are going to make mistakes and “fail” while playing it, because even the most seasoned improv performers find this one difficult. The point is to try the game, make mistakes, and see that making mistakes is not the huge deal that students can make it out to be. The goal is that your drama students will realize that everyone makes mistakes – it’s not just them, stuck in their own heads. And at the same time, they get to have a lot of fun! InstructionThe Alphabet Improv Game is played as a full class. • Have students sit in a circle. • Select three to four students to start the scene. • Have the rest of the group choose a location (e.g. supermarket, classroom, movie set, theatre rehearsal, corporate office, desert, jungle). • The first group of students will start the scene. However, each sentence spoken by a new person must start with the next letter of the alphabet, from A to Z. (Each word in the sentence doesn’t have to start with that letter.) • Students need to listen carefully and remember what letter they are currently on! • For example, if the scene is taking place on a movie set: 1. Student 1: “Annnnnnd…action!” 2. Student 2: “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?” 3. Student 1: “Cut, cut! Can you do that again, please? We can’t hear you!” 4. Student 3: “Don’t speak so quietly.” 5. Student 2: “Everyone else on this set can hear me…can’t you guys?” …and so on. • If a student starts their sentence on the wrong letter or repeats a letter that was already used, then they have to sit down and the next student in the circle replaces them. The scene continues on, with the new student either taking on the same role or coming in as a different person. The location remains the same. • If there is a long pause and none of the students can think of the next sentence, all of the current students have to sit down and the next three to four students in the circle replace them. They pick up from the last letter used. So if the last line was “Man, it’s so hot out here!” then the next sentence must start with N. • The scene must be completed by the time the students get to the letter Z. Then the scene may start again with three to four new students in a new location until the full class has had the opportunity to play. • If your students find this game too easy, have them go through the alphabet backwards, from Z to A! If your students ask, there is no prize or reward for one person/group being able to complete the game in one try. This is not a competitive game and that’s not the point of it. After each student has had a chance to participate, have a debrief conversation with the class. How do they think they did? What were the easiest and most challenging parts of the game? How did your students feel if they made a mistake? If you notice students are getting overly critical of themselves, acknowledge that there is always room for improvement but that everyone makes mistakes and it’s completely normal to do so. Then ask them to discuss positive moments that arose while playing the game. They will explore their thoughts further while completing an individual Reflection. Distance Learning AdaptationsAlphabet Warm-Up (Full Class) • The goal is for students to recite the alphabet out loud, from A to Z, one person at a time. One student says “A”, another student says “B”, another student says “C”, and so on, without following an assigned running order. • If two students say the next letter at the same time, or a letter is skipped, the group starts over at A. Students cannot cue or coach each other, or give visible hints. • Ask students: What is the purpose of this exercise? What are the benefits to students of doing this warm-up? Alphabet Storytelling (Full Class) • Determine a running order of students. • Students will tell a story, one sentence at a time, starting with the letter A. The next student will start their sentence with the letter B, and so on, from A to Z. (Each word in the sentence doesn’t have to start with that letter. See the example in the article above.) Students must focus on starting with the correct sequential letter, as well as ensuring their sentence has a specific beginning and ending, and that it makes sense with the story topic. • If a student starts their sentence on the wrong letter or repeats a letter that was already used, they are out. The story continues on until the students reach Z. • Once students are able to tell a story with an assigned running order, try the exercise again without a running order. Students will need to listen that much more carefully to avoid interrupting each other. Virtual Alphabet Improv Game (Full Class) • This game can be played using a video conferencing program, pretty much exactly the same way as the in-person version. Assign 3-4 students to create an improv scene, and have the rest of the students ready to jump in if a letter is missed or a long pause occurs. If you wish, determine a running order for participating students in advance, so students know when they are “on deck.”