Improv Blog Three- Online Vs. In-Person

 Yesterday I was excited to know I had an Online character workshop for one and a half hours. It was enjoyable though, in retrospect my critical self would say the last long-form exercise was a bit chaotic a fracture structure though we seasoned players played through it fairly well. And then, we lost our workshop host due to her losing power where she lived.


She lives on an island in western Canada and I was playing on the north island of New Zealand. This is one of the things I love most about Online Improv. The diverse locations of people with whom you can play. There are of course many elements missing such as a 3-dimensional experience and real physical interaction but just you wait, the 3-dimensional experience will be coming soon in the form of virtual reality. That does not resolve the tangible aspect of in-person improv practice. That is tricky anyway, permissions to touch and breathing others air complicates in person these days. Also, you have to leave your home to do more than walk around, hike or grocery shop.


The early ending of the online character workshop by about 20 minutes was not as much of a let down as it would have been if I didn’t know I had an in person practice with people in my current city of Wellington later that evening. I had not done in person improv since the start of the pandemic. Living in a capitol city of a country provides for some of the delightful experience of improvisers showing up from other countries and experiencing their different names of games and styles of doing exercises or warm ups. As it turns out our improv leader for the practice is from Brussels which added to my difficulty in comprehending some of his words spoken. The other issue I have is that New Zealanders “Kiwis”, admittedly don’t enunciate very well and let their volume trail off. I wanted to call out “STAGE VOICE!” though I did not because I was not leading the workshop.


I also realized that in live improv you have to think about the “stage picture”, something I hadn’t thought about much while doing it online. Online I only think about the square in which I’m presented to the other players though I do try to suggest a larger space in my presentation of where I look and what I do with my hands. Stage picture involves being aware of where you are on the stage and where other players are: stage left, stage right, down stage and up stage and keeping it balanced naturally which also involves being aware of your volume.


Online, there is usually only one microphone and you don’t do much more movement than using your upper body, face and head and stand up and sitting down. If you move too far away from the microphone you won’t be heard. Frustrating as it may be, internet sound glitches are common and quite forgiven. I guess one might say, you’re always having your close-up so you really need to consider your expressions as a form of communication though it’s also true on stage because even if the audience can’t see them, your other players can.

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