Improv Acting

I have been teaching a beginners 50 years and older improv class which is so enlightening for me as a seasoned improviser of about 15 years and yes, older than 50 years of age. I am soon I will be teaching a group of all ages improv about using our five senses in improv online or as I refer to it, Zoomprov. As I have been planning this class, I realize it could be a series of classes. And as I teach these newbies in a drop-in live class, there is overlap, of course. While teaching my new improvisers the make-believe art of improv acting, I’ve come to notice that it is not easy for some players to look the other players in the eye. It has caused me to want to start with an exercise where they line up, one player facing another and simply staring at the other in the eyes for a whole minute, then look at a make-believe object in their hand then stare at the other for 30 seconds and so on and then switch partners and do it again. This would not really be possible in the same way onli...

  Improv Blog 9 Being Present Today I started reviewing some of my improv notes that I have written from so many workshops I’ve taken over the years and, I quote myself, “Why didn’t I start doing improv sooner? I love it so much.” Then I found in another reflection, “Improv is like taking a vacation from my own life, though without my past life experience, I could never really improvise.” That is how improv infected or I should say, refreshed my life. I see it as a positive addiction and the rest of my life as nourishment by which to energize my improv. In my daily activity, I find myself more aware of the way people sound, not only their accents, tempo, timbre, or cadence but the changes that emerge with different emotions. And I notice their fill words, like “like” or “ya know?”, ya know? I find myself more aware of how people walk or dance or gesture. Their tics or nervous habits. I also try to absorb vistas or items that my character may be viewing and try to ...

  Improv Distance Like all creative endeavors, I find the judgment of one’s own performance can dampen the creative spirit. Creating requires letting go of our ego which is where our self-criticism lies. However, if you take time and take a step back from the creative process you can find insights to improve your performance. It’s why I like to be video recorded sometimes. Also, when one takes an improv break, one collects more experiences from which to gather improv ideas for performing. While doing so it is helpful to think about how various activities, including your and others’ gestures and expressions or accents and voices sound. Check out yourself in a mirror. Listen to others’ conversations. Revisit your own conversations. Watch how people really do things, like washing dishes, putting on make-up, hanging laundry, walking around a room, etc. Remember we don’t use props except in the game props. Everything in improv is mimed. All these practices can be ...

I feel fortunate for the Covid 19 pandemic. Not that I am happy about how many people got deathly ill or died, but it introduced me to new improv teachers because everything had to be taught at a distance. I have not gotten Covid in its multitude of forms and have been fortunate enough to get every vaccine and booster as soon as they were available. Of course, we are all fortunate that video conferencing was right there ready to unite us at a distance when we were in lockdown. Most of my improv was done on Zoom, therefore, I call it “Zoomprov” and to this day I love this form of improv though, granted, some of the possibilities are missing in this venue. It is amazing to me how we improvisers all adapt because we embrace change and creatively modify our art. The good teachers or leaders I’ve found on Zoom, do just that with all sorts of various short-form games, exercises, and long-form, as well. Before the pandemic, I was just getting started teaching improv in person. Since t...

I always loved watching live-action performances and at eight years old when I was cast in my first school play I was thrilled however, felt shy and self-conscious in that position. Fortunately, I didn’t have too many lines. On weekends I often had my younger sister perform plays with me for my parent. That same year for Halloween I was chosen to paint one of the storefront windows in our small downtown. Because my father’s sister was an artist I followed that lead toward visual arts. I never lost my fascination for acting arts though. In high school, I tried to gather my little sister’s friends to develop a play for a school project. In my twenties, as a young mother, I helped create my children’s school play sets and when I became brave enough, I started taking local acting classes and did some performing in a local community theater. I often had my children perform their own devised plays for their friends and family. Learning and remembering my lines was the bane of i...

 I very much want to be teaching or leading an improv class or workshop. As I’m out for a walk or hike I often find myself concocting exercises. Today I was thinking about one of my favorite games or warm-ups which is known to me as the Alphabet Game. We start a scene at some letter in the alphabet between two players (though it could be done with more players in a specific order) and in turn, the next player starts their line or lines with the next letter in the alphabet going around the alphabet, ending with the letter the scene was started. The results can be delightful. My thought was to combine that with a warm-up first that requires players to name things from a designated category. Now, I’m not planning this blog entry to be a description of warm-up games but rather an idea for an exercise that could help warm-up players. The idea of naming things in a category, such as the warm-up "Name three things" is really just food for thought for creating scenes. In...