iO Level Two – Week Six

Today our class ended being moved downstairs to the Cabaret theater – I have to say, you don’t really realize until you’re on it having to actually improvise how terrible the sight lines are for that stage (and how tiny it is) – you have to stay within about 2 feet from the back wall to prevent turning your back to any audience members on the sides.

Anyway after ranting about the stage with Susan we started off the class with the now familiar name game – I think it’s fair to say now that we’ve finally mastered each other’s names and hand signs.

After a quick round of this Susan let us in on what we’d be doing for the rest of the class: Story Theatre. Now for those of you not in the know Story Theatre was a concept brought into the improv world by Paul Sills back around 1969 in Chicago, which basically consists of the players narrating their own characters' actions. Circa 1970 Sills adapted it and created a musical named: Story Theater
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Sill%27s_Story_Theatre ).

With Susan we focused on the method behind story theatre – namely the narrating of improvised fantasies/stories with a major focus on using our bodies and environment to visualize and create the stories.

The warm up to this (to give you an idea of what the hell “Using our bodies to visualize…yada yada” means) consisted of Susan asking us to do such things on stage as: be a school of fish (which lead to all of us swimming about the stage), create a thrown for a king and queen to sit on (which lead to us hoisting two players to our shoulders, while other players became their armrests & foot stools), depict Jesus walking on Water (two of us hoisted Jesus aloft and moved him forward as he made a walking motion over the rest of the group who started writhing like water), and my favorite Flying people around (I went first …. The entire group hoisted me up and flew me around the stage … incredibly fun and a great moment of trust… and probably most of the group's workout for the week). In the end one of the secrets she let us in on was the simpler the better: if it only takes three people to fly someone – then just use three (that frees the rest up to create more of an environment).

All in all it was an incredible amount of fun (and probably the most actual improvising in a single class I’ve done so far at iO). We basically were told we could hop in and out of the pieces whenever we felt like it – as long as at least 8 or so players were on stage … so didn’t start out in a piece but feel like making a move from the audience – leap up and join in. It was great fuck ensemble work (I was up the entire time).

Though right before she let us loose she gave us a few pearls of wisdom that not only apply to Story Theatre but actually to improv as a whole.:

When you’re flying another player around on stage, don’t stand directly under them. Don’t try and be a Hero! Always support the neck and head & set them down feet first.

“Lead with people instead of plot.” Plot will come after the people are established in a scene

“You don’t know where the product is going to take you, so enjoy the fucking ride.”

“Speak in sentences, not paragraphs.” It’s hard for your fellow player (especially in Story Theatre) to respond to long-winded paragraphs

When in doubt, match your scene partner’s energy – a lot of improv (and especially story theatre – or any group work) is about mirroring and symmetry on stage

With Heightening don’t think about “what we could do better” instead focus on thinking “what did we do” and what is needed.

And at the end of Class – Susan left us with this little tidbit:
“The only time you look shitty is when you hesitate while you’re wondering what is going on. Or when you make a choice only to change your mind half way through.”
Act/be confident and you’ll look great