Connecting with the moment and the people in it

by educ95si

This was posted on “Improv Connection” LinkedIn group by Paul Levy who is Founder,Director of FringeReview. He describes his experience facilitating a workshop on leadership. This highlights, i think, the very important fact that improv is about noticing what is in the field of now. It is about laughter, making a connection and fun…of course but most importantly, fundamentally…it is about the acknowledgment and non-denial of what is happening right now.

 

Working through misery using Applied Improvisation

– Paul Levy

So, you are the facilitator of a workshop on leadership. A group of managers sit in the room, ready for the session. They look miserable as sin. The company has been in recession crisis and there have been job losses and there’s been uncertainty. They really look demoralised. They really look like they could do with cheering up. Some improv games would SO tickle the funny bones and bring some healing laughter. The brief is to help them become better leaders of change; and there’s plenty of challenging change ahead for the company. They look like they haven’t smiled for weeks…

So here I am – the facilitator… I’m feeling tempted to reach into my improvisation kit bag and “get them” laughing. Now, THAT game always works.. It would be so easy to do. I could shake them out of it. And then the voice inside speaks …

“That misery is theirs and it is sacred. It is there for a reason and it is not yours to so easily and casually tamper with. Do not take their misery away, nor go around it. Work THROUGH it. Even if your feedback sheets at the end are the worse for it.”

Improv and its cult of “yes and” lends itself far too easily in my view to laughter. It’s become a bias in the field of applied improvisation. I am a pretty joyful person, but I also know the value of pain in reflection and learning. In some ways a physical frown is a kind of spiritual smile, especially when it leads to a deeper physical smile of realisation further down the line. Laughter should not be the too-ready default for applied improvisation – it should sit in a more balanced way on the shelf of possibility. Suddenly my traditional improv kit bag feels much emptier and I am now standing in THIS specific context and needing to encounter, not this misery, but THESE people. THESE individuals and THIS UNIQUE SITUATION. Oh, indeed, joy will most likely figure in this. I often find that to be the case. But now we have to step through this misery together, respecting it, acknowledging it, working with it, towards some understanding and practising of the leadership THESE people need in THIS situation. And, of course, the kit bag is put aside as I become an improviser in the room. I lead by example by BEING improvisational in meeting these challenges in the present. A new exercise is invented there and then. Some new thoughts arise linked to a new set of questions. Tears flow. Frowns are further creased. And then, towards the end of the last hour, the dawning light of realisation and the twinkling of a few pairs of eyes. But not all.

And then – a smile…

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.

Super Scenes Tonight!

by educ95si

I really enjoyed freeze tag tonight. Two of my favorite scenes were something as follows:

Improvisers M and B start the scene with M standing up with both her hands up like she’s gripping something and B lying down on the floor.

M: (starts to move her hands like she’s climbing a ladder)

B: God, it sucks to fall off the ladder.

 

It could have been the other way roun but it doesnt matter because it was amazing! It totally cracked me up. They started from their physical poses and neither of them had any idea what they were in for but within the first line spoken they had justified it perfectly.

 

Improvisers M and P start out by M pointing something at P.

M: (makes shooting noise)

P: AAAh, you have wounded me

M: (accepts the offer of “wounding”) Yes, I will keep you alive because I want you to spend your life in pain because you poisoned my fish.

P: (accepting the offer of poisoning fish) Your fish laughed at me…

 

It was great. Each improviser built on top of what the last one said working together to create the scene. I think this speaks directly to Lindsay’s last post titled “When you have nothing to say…”

 

Thanks for a great class everyone!

Contemplating on Chair in my Room

by paulkivelson

I spent an hour sitting in my chair just staring up at the ceiling. I found for the first 5 minutes thinking  about all the deep thing I must be learning from my quite contemplation. Then I checked the clock.  For the next ten minutes I looked up at the ceiling I just got more and more bored, until I checked the clock again. Then my started to wander and I found thoughts drifting all over the place. After the point of extreme boredom you find your own way to keep your mind occupied. The thoughts I had were not super deep they where in truth very one dimensional and mostly about what it would be like if I could teleport.

As I was coming out of my musings I had a thought about improv. The best mode to be in for an improv performance is that space after boredom where your mind is  nimble and able to freely wanders. The question then becomes how to get in that mental state without being incredibly bored for a while and a lot repeatedly looking at the clock. I guess that is why you take improv class so you can learn to go through all the stages of ceiling observation quickly.

Puppies and problem sets

by betsyoneducation

The example in Full Catastrophe Living of being engaged in looking at a sunset really spoke to me. I have been helping friends in San Francisco for the last week and a half by petsitting. Their incorrigible corgi has growled at me, and I have sworn back at her; one morning she literally drive me to tears with her unwillingness to let me catch her to put her in the pen.

But surprisingly the puppy has induced a mindfulness in me. For one thing, I have to put aside other worries (like problem sets) as I deal with her. Even more, she makes me more receptive to the beauty around me; just yesterday, as she tugged me up a hill as I walked her, my mind was clear, and at a switchback I was able to fully appreciate being there and watching the moon rise across the bay.

Thoughts About Improv

by aribelle13

This week has been very hectic, but I’ve been realizing that people use improv everyday! But I use it especially because I’m a dancer. People don’t usually think dance can be improv because they are used to seeing routines practiced and performed with perfection. But to get to those routines, we use improv! One of the girls in my dance group, tapTH@T, decided that she wanted to choreograph for us last year, but she had no idea what to do. Usually people have ideas or visions of dances that they want to create, but she couldn’t grasp a vision before it was her turn to teach at practice. She literally came to practice that day, said she hadn’t put anything together yet, and started tapping on her own. We weren’t sure if it was a joke, but then we all realized that she seriously hadn’t choreographed anything. The funny thing is that we all thought it was going to be a disaster; however, she used improvisation to come up with random steps and sounds that she liked in order to put together an awesome sounding combination. That eventually turned into an amazing routine, and it was never planned. Each week she would come to practice without anything to teach, make up some stuff, and go from there. It was awesome! I know people don’t do this type of improv everyday, but whenever I think about the word “improv” I think of her, that dance, and the fact that she came up with a really great routine from just improvising each week!