iO Level Three - Week Seven

Class started out per usual with a brief discussion about past shows followed by a simple pattern game warm-up. Next came a series of open scenes - for us to basically shake out the cobwebs (each person got to do two).

After this Bill had 6 of us hop up on stage and form two lines. We were to do two person scenes where one player was to simply initiate a familiar situation and/or relationship and then a scene would progress normally. We were given permission to be as hack as possible with these initiations.
The purpose was basically to get the idea that even though it's a familiar situation with perhaps characters behaving predictably - it can still produce comedy and be interesting.

After the whole class had a turn at this exercise we moved on to an exercise called: Click, click, Boom. Again a small group of us got up and formed two lines. One player would initiate however they wanted and for the first few lines of the scene it would just be a normal scene. Eventually though (when the second player felt right) they would throw a curve ball and do something bizarre in the scene (ie pull out a gun, snatch a fly out of the air with their tongue, scream for no reason). The first player's job is to play it real and react to the move truthfully. The scene continues with the move slowly being repeated/heightened so it comes in waves as the other player reacts to it.

All in all an incredibly fun exercise and tool to keep in mind.