Week 3 Training with British Improvisation Theatre

I’m running Improv as a part of NTW TEAM from Nov 6th, and have been attending a different Improvisation course in Bristol run by the lovely Tristan Hancock, and telling you all about.

Week 3 – Thursday 18th October
So things started getting a bit more serious thins week, though maybe focused is the better word. We returned to analysing stories, and how we were telling them, and in a way there isn’t as much to tell about the sessions because we spent so much time making up stories. We played a lot of ‘And then…’ where you build of each other’s suggestions to make a story together. A few times this was played in front of the others as an audience and through this Tristan showed us the importance of going step by step. For example, if you say ‘We’re delivery drivers about to begin our route’, then first you might start by placing the last box in the back of the van, then closing the door, then locking it, then moving to the front of the van, opening the door, putting your seatbelt on, starting the engine, and so Tristan emphasised the importance of vocalising and doing each action. Whilst this sounds mundane in our heads when we commit to the actions on stage it is incredibly engaging, we become involved in that world and only then are we, as the audience, waiting for the interruption in the routine to get the story going. The other thing we discovered was the need to make your partner happy, do what they would like to do, which, personally, is an impulse I am still fighting. If you spend your time making them happy, you’ll be good to work with and people will want to spend their time making you happy. We also realised how involved you become in the story as performers that you completely forget things, as when my partner Tom and myself excited a van still clutching our steering wheels in our hands.
I genuinely don’t think we did anything else in the sessions. It was just as case of going of with different people to create a story, then seeing one or two onstage, then going off again. At one point we played ‘And then…’ in three’s which was so much harder, as everyone is pulling in different directions and people aren’t listening to each other as much. Or trying to hard to “get it right” and forgetting to have fun. One of the moments that really sticks out in my mind is when a scene was played of two grave diggers onstage burying a body. They went through the normality of the situation, getting the body from the van, digging the hole, etc, and then got stuck on how to break the routine. Tristan came to each of us for suggestions, evaluating each as he went along, but reminding us to try and stick with the action of burying the body. A lot of them broke the action, which is fine, but so many detracted from the actually burying of the body. So, we had finding another body there, which is good but stops the action of burying, another pair of gravediggers coming to do their work, again stops the action, discovering a chest, taking rings from the body, cutting it open to retrieve a package from the stomach, etc, etc, all great stories but they all stop the action of burying. The one we found was to stumble into a cavern beneath the hole, and that seems like the most logical through point for continuing the action of burying the body. They all have possibilities, but in this context discovering a cavern beneath gives the story a credibility, very effectively justifies why the audience is watching the performers burying this body. All interesting stuff.
Lots more to follow no doubt.
Charlie.

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Comment by Charlie Hammond on October 25, 2012 at 1:23

Thank you Nathan, I guess its just always at the forefront of my thoughts then. Seriously, Improv is such a maze, so many things to consider at once. Totally worth it though

Comment by Nathan Keates on October 25, 2012 at 1:01

Your fighting 'doing what your partner wants'? That is very hard to believe. This was one of the top qualities you had as an improviser. You would instantly know and do what anyone wanted. That is why I'd improvise with you any day.

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