Life is Improv
Last week I decided to go to an improv class in town.
Backstory: A few months ago, I met up with a friend who reads my scripts. After he gave me a few notes about that particular one, he suggested taking improv classes, because it would help with my writing and might help with my current job and so on.
I work in public relations, which can sometimes resemble improv, because sometimes you just have to dive in when breaking news happens around campus or if a news reporter reaches out about a major story in the national news, trying to give it a local spin. There's always something that comes up and it keeps us on our toes.
Sometimes, though I've been doing it awhile now, I have a harder time adjusting to those things that aren't planned - covering events, writing a press release at the last minute, etc. But, improv would help me to just go with it, rather than panicking when something comes out of the blue. The class sounded like a good idea, but there was a sort of dread in my soul the more I thought about it. Okay, a little dramatic, but you get the idea.
I grew up doing a lot of acting and performances - church and school plays, choir, talent shows, the whole thing. I continued that in high school, but hated improv. I remember feeling major anxiety anytime our drama instructor would announce we were going to do improv scenes. I didn't like not knowing what was coming. I didn't like not knowing what words were going to come out of my mouth. I liked a good script that I could memorize, because memorizing was no problem for me.
So, I followed the improv class on Facebook and signed up for one of their classes in December. There was a mix-up with the dates and when I got an email reminder for a different night, I chickened out and decided not to go. I told myself I would go the next time they had it, which was January.
It is now January, so I signed up again.
Tuesday night, I showed up for the class, a little nervous. The crazy thing about improv is that there's really nothing you can prepare for. You just show up and hope for the best. I arrived a few minutes early and no one was in the parking lot, so I waited. After I saw a couple people walk in, I decided to join.
It was a two-hour course, and we covered a lot of ground. Did I mention it was free? Even better.
We started with a couple ice-breaker games. The first consisted of walking around the room, then lining up for questions whenever the instructor told us to do so. If we didn't have an answer, we could pass. On the last round, we were able to ask the instructor a question.
The next one was Everybody, Go! We all stood in a circle, then one person would step into the middle and say "Everybody, go!" Everyone else would say "YES" enthusiastically, then the main person in the middle would do an action/say something that everyone else had to mimic.
Another game required us to each say a word, which would eventually tell a fortune. That one was a little tricky if you were trying to think of the word that would come next or how it would all come together. You kind of just have to let your mind do what it does and it also forces you to pay attention to the word before you.
Finally, we started into scenes, like "What's Wrong with Neil Patrick Harris?" We split up into two groups of four people. You look off into the distance and someone calls out something that is wrong with Neil Patrick Harris. From there, the group interacted and practically narrated what is going on with Neil Patrick Harris. It really makes you visualize what's happening, rather than just saying a bunch of random lines that don't make sense.
Then, we worked our way to longer scenes - starting with three-line scenes, another exercise called "That was some party last night..." and others where the instructor set us up for the scene and told us where we were, and off we went.
Throughout the night we really learned a lot about the craft of improv. It was about more than just the scene itself. He told us to not try so hard to be funny and to not try to figure out what the next line was going to be (the "writer's brain" portion of our mind then goes into overdrive).
A few key lessons that stood out:
Less is more. It trains us to think in the other part of our brain, not the writer's brain as he mentioned, that is constantly trying to figure out what is coming next in the scene.
Live in the moment, you don't want to know where it's going.
You can't keep the scene (good or bad), so just let it go.
Lean into whatever it is you're feeling. That will really help the direction of the scene, between you and your partner.
Pay attention to how your partner is also positioned. The details are going to tell you how the scene is going to start out.
I found it really therapeutic. It helped me notice certain patterns about myself in the scenes - what I was feeling and why I might be feeling that way. I've also tried to be more in the moment and let myself feel what I'm feeling, rather than trying to push it away.
For now, I hope to at least do the class once a month. I've missed acting and this seems like the perfect way to get back into it.
That's all for now,
Shelby