Improvisation

Since we came back from Easter Holiday we have been working on improvisational skills. At first I wasn`t that confident going on and developing new ideas on spot but I belive everything is about practising and being open-minded. Sometimes is really hard to accept new ideas so I just keep saying same words. Or the worst thing is then all words vanish out of my head when improvising. But second time I was on I felt more confident as I just went with the flow.

Improvisation is

like a game and as we all know game`s got rules.

1. Being open-minded. I would say, the rule number one is always accept the idea other actor is given to you. For example, it can be different place, different mood or things. Always ALWAYS say yes and just go for it. That`s the point of the game. Discover new places that you have never been in and most important enjoy whilst improvising. 
2. Listening and reacting is essential as without it you leave other actor misunderstood or confused. But not forgetting that you`ve got to act like in real life. Acting is behaving truly in imaginary circumstances.(Rob always says that) 
3. Not blocking. The worst thing is then other actor doesn`t agree with what is said and tries to imply its own ideas not going with the ones which are already given. For example
   A: Look, there is a flying elephant behind you!
   B: No, there is no flying elephant.
4. There is no fail. We all do mistakes and its acceptable especially while improvising. There is no bad story or bad idea. Everything is acceptable. 

This week we played many improvisational games and did some work in pairs on accept and build. Rules are very simply. A asked any of questions (why,what.who?) and B had to answer using hers/his imagination. I was working with Isabella and I found really confusing but when Jerome and I was on stage it was much more better than before. I felt more confident about what I am doing. 

Another game was called one word at a time. It means that person can say only one word. It was really funny when Ria, Isabella and Brandon improvised. I didn`t expect Isabella coming as a toys` robber. Everything was happening in the tree house, by the way. 

Freeze frame improv is when two or more actors are on stage and some can say stop or freeze, swope with any of the actors and begin a completely new story line which is not related with the one who had been developed before.

Ria and I playing objectives game 

"Objectives" game was both confusing and useful. All of us wrote a place and a phrase on a piece of paper and mixed it. When I was working with Cashe our location was haunted house and my phrase was "Don't touch that meerkat!!!" and Cashe`s phrase was "you said you love me". So it`s two completely different phrases which we had to fit in in our conversation. It`s hard because you`ve got to think how to fit the phrase in smoothly, without others noticing and don`t forget about the location.

When second time we played objectives I was working with Ria and our location was driving lesson. She was an instructor while I was her student. In my opinion, it was easy for Ria as her phrase was "It`s too big!" so she was shouting all the time that everything I do is too big! My phrase was "How can I show up without an invite?". So to save myself I started randomly talking about the party and how can I show up without an invite. It was that noticeable as I thought it would be but at least I said my objective.

Goalkeeper (Ospina) game is when 1 actor stands in the middle and others have to create a short scene about 5-10 seconds long and goalkeeper has to accept all of them. I haven`t been goalkeeper but Shadey mentioned that it was hard. I think it`s really important being open minded and going for different ideas. For example when Carlos was goalkeeper my idea was playing basketball which Carlos has changed to football. after me was Romaine`s turn and his idea was fighting with swords. 

The language game is very easy to play. Two actors are on stage and two actors are translators. So I was the actor on stage who says "bla bla" and Sam was the translator. Our location was the elevator. That happened that elevator stopped working so I went "blasnlkaslasdo" and Sam translated "Oh no! The elevator broke." It was easy to improvise because all you ahve to do is to thing about your body language and listen to translators. 

Ria and I playing the language game 

Another game we played was "emotions game". I was in pair with Nurray, I was a dentist and she was my patient. Meanwhile we improvising emotions Queen Mara or Rob gave us different emotions and we had to improvise the scene using those emotions. For example, it was hard for me thinking of how to play neglected emotion and when immediately change it to happy, not forgetting that I`m a dentist. 

Party quirks is one of my favorite games so far. We watched a video of actors playing that game on TV show which is hilarious. So it`s very similar to objectives game. There is a host and 3 guests with different objectives. My objective was singing Christmas songs and I found it very enjoyable, though I sang only two songs. 

"Boris" game  is about an imaginary guy called Borris that comes if the actor playing criminal excuses is not believable enought and he "beats" him/her up. But Borris doesn`t actually exsist so the actor has to improvise how he/she get punched in the face etc. For example, when Brandom was playing criminal he improvised that "Borris" was strangling him and kicked him off the chair.