This is a rather silly and fast warm-up that gets players all working together to create the inner workings of a Machine with their bodies and voices.
The Basics
The boat elicits an appropriate machine. Players step forward one at a time and enter the playing field, providing various “cogs” in the machine by providing repetitive motions and sounds. The process continues until everyone has joined the process and the machine can be viewed (and heard) in all its unlikely glory.
Example
Players explore crafting a “car.” As the lights rise, Player A steps into the middle of the playing field and moves each arm up and down in a piston-like motion while emitting a steaming sound. Once this has been established for a few seconds, Player B joins the image by making a spitting motion with their hands while providing a similar sound as if they were some form of a fuel injection system. Player C enters…
The Focus
I tend to think of this as a complementary action offensive where players each quickly add some “missing ingredient” into the picture. (Parallels can certainly have a place too – if one player provides the left front wheel of the car, it’s a nice finesse for another to provide the right front wheel…) The joy of the game directly corresponds with the level of player attack and commitment.
Traps and Tips
1.) Pace your entrances. It’s easy for the game to drag if entrances feel sluggish or reluctant. While it’s helpful to give the first player or two an opportunity to establish some basic geography and staging, each subsequent entrance should generally come a little quicker than its predecessor. Avoid multiple additions occurring all at the same time, as the audience (and fellow players) will want to see and appreciate each component, but you also don’t want glacial pauses that give the audience little to watch other than a line of anxious improvisers in their heads. Well-paced entrances will also hopefully facilitate more balanced staging and levels.
2.) Establish then retreat. Especially if you’re playing this with a more sizeable group, you’ll want to hit the stage with a strong action and accompanying noise so that the audience knows where to look next. Once you’re in the mix, however, it’s considerate to pull back your sound a little (in particular) so that later additions have some physical and acoustic room of their own to shine. It’s a shame for the arc of the warm-up for the last players to immediately get lost in the shuffle, or for more self-conscious participants to wimp and offer the most meager of sounds in the hopes of not being noticed.
3.) Find the music. Rhythm is your friend, and when players start to view the machine as a musical opportunity, the warm-up tends to blossom. Consider which metaphoric instrument in the orchestra you might provide as the contraption takes shape. When the final machine includes pounding percussion, screeching strings, soaring winds, and resonate brass instruments, the final result can be rather impressive in spite of the seemingly simple conceit. If you’re personally a little rhythmically challenged, it can be an act of ensemble love to defer to others to at least get the machine cranking before making your entrance.
4.) Take it home. If the ensemble is attentive and aggressive, the machine can assemble quite quickly. A playfully attacked construction can be quite successful in its own right, but there are also some inherited conventions that can help secure a strong button. While I’m not a big fan of using language in the machine in general (as players can tend to cop out and just passively say a word rather than really commit to a sound) a final entrance as the character “using” the machine often plays well and, in this situation, they might utter a brief phrase (and repeat it in the established cadence). If you are playing with an emcee or caller at your disposal, they can also offer an adjustment to help facilitate the climax such as “the car is running out of petrol,” or “the car is falling in love…”
In Performance
Machines offers a nice quick warm-up that can easily accommodate a larger cast. In addition to using mechanical objects as your inspiration (it’s difficult to see the inner workings of a stationary prop like a pencil or brick!) I’ve also had some success creating machines that explore an emotion or state of being. In this situation, each addition embodies a more metaphoric idea, so if you’re making a scene that explores “love,” perhaps a player might enter and sigh as they hug and release the air.
Cheers, David Charles.
www.improvdr.com
Join my Facebook group here.
Photo Credit: Scott Cook
© 2022 David Charles/ImprovDr
Connected Concept: Story Series for Improv I
ImprovDr.com 