The British Theatre Guide: Improvisation

School & Youth Theatre

Improvisation

American readers will be familiar with the use of improvisation as entertainment, and, of course, UK readers will know of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, the Channel 4 TV programme. Many from both cultures will have used impro (what the Americans call improv) in drama training and even rehearsal. In this feature I want to look at how we can use impro both as a training tool and, by extension, a tool for explortory rehearsals, but not in the usually accepted way.

So what is the usually accepted way?

It's the creation of scenes or short plays, either to develop a character or explore a theme or idea. I want us to look a little beyond that.

Now don't get me wrong: I'm not suggesting that the "usually accepted" approach isn't valuable. It is, and for me it remains the major use of improvisation in acting training. All I'm suggesting is that, in certain circumstances, impro can do more. And it can do more by making use of the impro games used by American improv companies, by the Comedy Store, and by Whose Line...

Let's start off with a game that encourages speed of reaction - the Bunny, Bunny, Bunny game:

Everyone stands in a circle and the person who begins sticks his thumbs in his ears, flaps his hands about (like a rabbit's ears), and says, "Bunny, bunny, bunny". The person on his right sticks his right thumb in his right earand flaps his hand, and the person on the left does the same with his left thumb in his left ear.

(Sounds silly? 'Course it is, but I find kids love it.)

Then the centre person "throws" the "rabbit" at someone else in the circle, who must then do the "Bunny, bunny, bunny" thing, the people on either side joining in as before. Anyone who does not react immediately or makes a mistake is out. And so the "rabbit" is passed round the circle until there are only three people left.

It's silly; it's fun; and it encourages fast reactions, so it's a good way of starting a session. However it doesn't require any thought, so let's move on to a game which requires participants to think. Radio 4 listeners will know this one - it's Just a Minute.

A subject is chosen, and the first person to start must talk for one minute on that subject without hesitation, deviation or repetition. The others must jump in if they spot H, D or R. If the group leader agrees with the challenge, the challenger takes over for the time remaining. You don't need to be a Paul Merton to play this game, but it does help to have a good vocabulary and a great imagination!

Rather more demanding is the Alphabet Game, which is played in pairs.

Choose a subject for a conversation. Personally I like to set an argument on a subject of the participants' choosing. Very simply, the first says a sentence whose first word must begin with the letter A; the next then says a sentence, which must begin with B; then back to the first for a sentence beginning with C, and so on. The sentences must follow on from each other logically and sensibly.

Now that requires a lot of concentration and an agile mind, not to mention - again! - a good vocabulary. And if they manage to handle that quite well, try them on working through the alphabet backwards!

If concentration is still a problem, try this game. It's not really improvisation, but it requires participants to focus their minds.

Everyone sits in a circle. Choose a starting point and sing Baa Baa Black Sheep, with each person taking one syllable, Any mistakes, and you start again with the person who made the mistake. It will probably take a fair while to get it right, but when they do, they'll feel very proud of themselves, so take them down a peg or two by changing the song to Humpty Dumpty and then Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star!

So far we've concentrated on concentration and speed of reaction, but improvisation exercises can do more. Here's a game which teaches self-control, self-understanding, and something about character. It's the Masters and Servants game:

The rules are very simple: working in pairs, one is the master and one the servant. The servant must do everything the master tells him/her, with just two exceptions - the master must not order the servant to do anything which is physically dangerous or immoral. (If you use this as a classroom exercise - for which it can be useful - add the proviso that no one is to leave the room. The reasons for that, I think, are obvious!) The game stops after a pre-determined period, or when the person in charge decides it's gone on long enough - one major theatre company which tried this as preparation for a play kept it going for two days!

The point about this particular game is not what is done, but the discussion afterwards. Begin with the question "Did you like being a master/servant? Why?" and then lead on to a consideration of real master/servant relationships and why so many of them took it to extremes (and they will!!!)

By the way, you'll be asked by the servants "Is it our turn now?" The answer is "No". They will respond that that is unfair: you will, of course, agree, but say "no" nonetheless. That, too, makes for useful discussion.

You can find - or create - improvisation exercises to deal with almost anything you want the kids to learn. The best ones are those which you create yourself for your own group, so have a go! They have a lot of fun, and they really do learn a lot from these games.