iO Level Three – Week Three

For the first time since the class started there was less than 20 people in the room today. We officially have 18 people signed up for our section - however the past two classes have seen multiple people sitting in. Today we actually had a few regular people missing and one new face (who was actually in my level one class - so not new to me - hooray).

Anyway we started off the class with everyone hopping up and playing a quick name game again - incredibly simple this one - you just pass the focus by pointing to someone and saying their name - that's it.
We followed that up with a pattern game - everyone in a circle, one player looks to their left and says some object (like red, or zebra, etc) and claps in unison with the person they are looking at. That person then turns to their left and says a new object in that same category (so if player A said red, Player B would name another color, Blue -- If A said Zebra, B would name another animal, beaver - etc) and claps in unison with that person.
This continues around the circle till it reaches the starting point. Once there it starts again only this time both players say the object they mentioned before in unison while clapping (so Player A looks a Player B - both say Red and clap - player B looks at C - both say Blue and clap - etc).
We ended up getting four different patterns like this going around the circle at the same time - though they were close on each others heels.

Next Bill had us just bang out some quick warm-up two person scenes - and once everyone had gotten two under their belt he had all but a third of the class sit down.

Bill then introduced us to what he calls the Clingy Priest exercise.
The small group forms two lines against the back wall - A player form Line A steps out and quickly gives the player from line B a character - by saying something along the lines of:
"Oh look it's the Clingy Priest from my parish..."
And then then the scene commences with Player B embodying that character to the best of his ability (some other examples besides Clingy priest are: Judgemental Step-mom, insecure cop, perverted uncle, overly enthusiastic business man, etc).
Again this is to get in our heads that How we do what we do is who we are on stage.

After everyone had gone through this Bill switched it up on us. Now a player from Line A enters the scene and silently gives himself a character like one of the above and then plays that in the scene. The player from line can give himself a character as well but is mostly there to support A in this exercise (basically to play the straight man).

After this we took a brief break and when we got back Bill again had a smaller section hop up and form a back line. This time around we would be focusing on character mirroring and general agreement: one person would hop out and assume a character then another player would join them in the scene mirroring their character (copying it basically). Bill would only call scene once the second player heightened that character even more than the player who initiated it.
Eventually after everyone had tried their hand at this a couple of times Bill varied it up on us again - having people come out and mirror each other's characters, only to have a third person walk on once the scene and characters had been fairly established and completely change the setting.
So once the new player walked on the three were suddenly in a completely new space (dare I say context even) initiated by the third player (for example two overly enthusiastic businessmen who were having a scene in an office - suddenly find them selves at a Drive through window ordering food - and they have to maintain their character's activity).
This exercise really hammered home the idea that it's what you are doing or talking about in a scene that makes your character, it's how you do it or talk about it.

At the end of Class Bill asked us this question:
"What's more important the Actor, or the idea?"

Our answer was the Actor, because as Bill said: "Give me the best premise in the world and I guarantee you I can find terrible actors who will kill it [ruin it] - I'll even work with them and coach them, it'll still turn out terrible. On the other had give me a terrible premise and I bet I can find a few actors who will make it wonderful."


This class left us with these ideas:
Keep it Simple
Don't be afraid to say exactly what is going on
How you do what you do, that is your character
Let things really affect you - react to what your partner says and does
Characters are portable
The art is in concealing the craft