Results from the Thanksgiving Experiment

by betsyoneducation

What better place is there to conduct an experiment than when around a dinner table with someone else’s family? I thought through which of our improv games from class might be a nice icebreaker as we ate, considering especially that most participants probably wouldn’t have any improv experience.

I had everyone tell a story around the table, one word at a time. Several participants–who hadn’t been talking much beforehand–seemed to feel coerced into playing. One played it safe with every word choice, never volunteering anything novel.  The other repeatedly used the same word each time (“surprisingly”);  while it might have been intended as an amusing running gag, it also dodged the issue of creative effort. The most enthusiastic participant was a middle school teacher, though it felt more like she was going along with it rather than actually enjoying the game. Given the resistance and lack of enthusiasm, I judged that one round of the game was enough.

Interestingly, the two who seemed least into the game, and who had been closed off before, later raised some personal subjects with the group.  They were obviously difficult matters they had been struggling with, but they talked about them honestly and directly, and the others were active and attentive listeners. I’d like to think that the exercise helped get the ball rolling on talking together, but it may require further feast days to determine this.

Status

by educ95si

An example of projecting high status with eye contact. Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) talks to Agent Starling ( Jodie Foster)

George Bush talking about his future in politics. See if you can observe anything. I don’t have anything that you’re supposed to find, just putting this here for you to consider.

Lady GaGa on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Put your observations in the comments.

Schooling and Creativity

by betsyoneducation

Sorry for my flakiness on this blog!!! I keep forgetting everything about how to log in. (Is it WordPress or Blogger or something else? What’s my login? How do I reset my password??)

In the reading, it’s amazing how Johnstone points out the many aspects of education that confine, belittle, and standardize students. Luckily I have had an education that seems far more open-ended, though certainly there are default ways through classes that are very rote. That is, in almost every class in every grade, there’s room to be creative, but with the expectation that it’s not the safe way to go.

Probably the biggest contrast in teaching styles I have encountered was between my 2nd year and 3rd year Spanish teachers. My 2nd year Spanish teacher used to teach Latin, and she clearly thought it was a shame that Spanish was a spoken language. She seated us in alphabetical order, had us correct homework together, supplying answers in alphabetical order, and forced us to write all assignments in cursive in black ink. She required us to make vocabulary flash cards for each unit, on pieces of cardstock at least 1 by 3 inches in size. There was never ambiguity about what was going on, and she kept clear control of the class by making sure none of us enjoyed it.

In contrast, my third year Spanish teacher was a little scatterbrained and required the help of a dozen student aides to keep things remotely in order. As a fund for an end-of-the-year party, she forced students to pay a quarter if they swore in class, or if they spoke in English on Spanish Friday. (In contrast, the main person ever talking in the other teacher’s class was the teacher herself.) But the biggest assignment of the year (and the reason I thought of this teacher in particular) was to create a dramita. Either performed in class or filmed, the dramita required each participant to help write a script in Spanish and perform his or her 50 or 100 words from memory. She would show us movies from years past (my favorite was “Arroz Con Sangre”, a martial arts movie students filmed behind a local drugstore) that inspired us to try to make something really cool. And not only did the dramita unlock creativity in students, it also sparked a genuine desire to learn how to express new ideas–to really communicate something–in Spanish.

I’ve been having a blast in this class, even though my posts have been sporadic. I’m definitely keeping in mind what I can apply from this class to other areas of life–including exercises to make people do at Thanksgiving!

Quick thought on improv with my nephews

by moppezzo

Cat’s post was totally what I was thinking about this weekend. I babysat my nephews, and managed to iphone-video-capture 4 minutes of my 3-year old nephew improv-ing about monsters, and I was struck by the incredible creativity and originality he had (though I’m not sure my research on creativity would allow it to be called that!) I don’t think many adults could generate these different ideas. On the other hand, my older nephew, Chase, was doing a lot of rejecting my bids while playing. None of my ideas were taken up. When playing secret spies, (which is basically a make-it-up-as-you-go as-long-as-there-is-some-air-of-stealth running around), I offered that “now it’s time to go find the treasure!” He replied “no, no, no, cuz NOW it’s time for us to go OUTSIDE and make a plan.” (What the plan was for and what making the plan was never were discovered, we ended up doing something else outside). When I suggested during our plan making that we go rescue the captured Foo Foo, (a partially-ripped, partially stuffed, quite-loved bunny), Chase said “no, no, cuz now FooFoo’s been gone too long. Let’s pretend that now he’s on the bad guy team and we can’t go get him anymore.”  I kept suggesting new things so the game wasn’t so reactive on my part, but he would constantly block my additions to the game, either because he wanted control of the game, or because he couldn’t think enough on his feet to go with my contributions (PS, he’s 6). I don’t know what my observation means– is this developmental, contextual, or just specific to these two kids and I can’t generalize from it? All I know is, A. it wasgreat to witness pure imagination in a 3 year old. and B. I super love my 6 year old nephew just as much and delighted playing with him, but it’s truly bumming to have all of your contributions shot down while in an improv scene!

 

Elephants jumping over the moon

by catnguyen919

Do ya’ll remember the Miss Mary Mack clapping game?

Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack

All dressed in black, black, black

With silver buttons, buttons, buttons

All down her back, back, back.

She asked her mother, mother, mother

For fifty cents, cents, cents

To see the elephant, elephant, elephant

Jump over the fence, fence, fence.

He jumped so high, high, high

He reached the sky, sky, sky

He never came back, back, back

‘Til the 4th of July, ly, ly!

I wonder whether these children songs/games were some sort of improv as in they just said whatever came out of their mouths. I know a lot of children say random things that come to their minds and have the most absurd comments, but isn’t that what improv partially is?

As I was Watching Saturday Night Live …

by paulkivelson

I was half watching the fake news on Saturday night live they played a clip where the people on stage where trying to sing at the same time without predetermined words.The point of the joke was how bad they where singing. However the thing they where doing was really an improv game. The Improv game that they were playing the fake song they sang together was something that required prefect sink with each other to pretend to be horrible and other things.
I thought that it was interesting that we actually see all these improv around us and we do not even release that it improv. It is crazy that improv is saturated in all we see at a level behond the metaphorical and fiscal. I think that improv needs to be more recognized by the general populous because then people could appreciated a lot more of the media they see at a deeper level.

Improve and Delirium

by catnguyen919

My friend and I were hanging out in my room and it was almost 4 am. We were at the point of delirium. We were laughing uncontrollably at everything we said (even when it was not remotely funny). I remember asking my friend what the weirdest situation he could think of would be..he went into some long story about a couple on the beach..something with a shark involved..then something about getting his arms eaten..not exactly sure what was going on but let’s just say that it was definitely a weird story. Mission accomplished. We somehow got onto the topic of abstract situations. Again, I’m not entirely sure what he was saying, or trying to say, but I went with it. I asked the question of whether it was better to scuba dive in Arizona or Antarctica. He said Antarctica because there was a lot more interesting things to see..I replied with on like penguins..he said no hawks..then I said oh and bald eagles (in Antarctica.) Thinking back on this moment, I’m not quite sure what to call it, but part of it did feel like I was in class put into a situation where I just went with it. At the beginning, it started off as not really improv, but as the “play” went on, it felt more and more like we were just saying what was on our mind. It may be partially that we were at that state of delirium, who knows, but maybe improv is kind of like being in a state of delirium where you just say whatever you feel like and whatever triggers your thoughts. Just thought it was interesting. Delirium=improv.

LARPing

by paulkivelson

I tried something new this weekend LARPing. LARPing is live action role-playing you basically walk around a small room and talk to other people in the room. However you adopt a persona with hidden goals and abilities in a fictional setting with a fictional back stories. Now I am a nerd I will freely admit it, but I have always shied away from LARPing because I did not want to take my nerd levels that high. However when I saw the description of the LARPing event I had my interest sparked. It said come if you enjoy fantasy, acting, and improvisation.
I so I tried it and /i have to say it is really like improvisation, but with some different elements. It is in a way like competitive improvisation, someone will do something and unlike in normal improv the person is forced to take their fellow LARPers lead. It was fun and it defiantly taught me about a new way to experience improv.

Improv Everywhere

by riegera

The credit for the idea behind this post goes to Paul as well as to our latest class session. Paul blogged a post a little while ago about a comedy improv group that takes it to the streets. The concept was hilarious albeit familiar. Although the clip we viewed was of an “impromptu musical” which we decided was about 50% improv, it sparked my memory. Several years ago I heard a public radio broadcast about an improv group that randomly selected a “lonely looking fella in a bar”, bestowed the name “Ted” upon him, showered “Ted” with gifts and “inside jokes from the college days” and threw him a birthday party. I’d been looking for the name of this group ever since and did not find it until class last night. It was the same group! Below you can see a clip of how the group begins with a setting and a common goal and improv within the created scenario.

 

Belated Halloween Post

by riegera

Reading through our class blog, I became slightly green eyed about the Halloween posts and although Halloween has come and gone, I still wanted to blog about it. If you asked, I could list off the names of five or more friends who declare Halloween to be their favourite holiday. Growing up in Europe, Halloween was not nearly as popular as it is here in the United States.

Sure there was the whole “All Hallows Eve” deal. Some kid on the block would initiate a party with sparkling cider, Jaffa Cakes, number biscuits, Party Rings and candied apples and you’d come dressed in something homemade that was sure to be random or etherial (example: I was a woodland fairy, a sheep, autumn, a greek muse, a snowflake throughout the years…you get the picture). Despite the tasty snacks and fun crafting sessions, I never quite understood the neon-colored candy crazed Halloween celebration particular to the United States…until I moved.

Halloween in the US seems to be reserved as the single day in a year where complete and utter spontaneity and randomness are festive for the occasion. People of all ages gather together to indulge in the fun of being in a costume and blabbering nonsensically in “character”. Even though life in general is an improvisation, you are bound by social order and public morale. Acting the way one would on a Halloween night on any other day of the year would probably result in being cited as a “public nuisance”. Therefore, I consider Halloween a sort of improv holiday; a chance to let go and act out.