Game Library: “Soundtrack”

By completely removing the potential for speech, Soundtrack serves as the perfect remedy for excessive Telling on the improv stage.

The Basics

I’ve primarily experienced this game with a highly adept technician ably moving from one lush musical score to another, but it can surely work with an equally equipped live musician providing the accompaniment. A fully pantomimed scene occurs with this dynamic underscore changing periodically throughout the action to accentuate major discoveries and narrative tilts.

Example

“Bakery” informs the action. Player A begins alone onstage accompanied by a sleepy melancholic musical strain. With ingrained precision they place their wares in the various display cases until everything is “just so.” With one last look into the store, they approach the front door, unlocking the bolt and flipping the hanging sign to “open.”

The music immediately shifts into an up-tempo industrial feel. Customers, embodying the bustle and rhythm of the soundtrack, rush into the store. Player A retreats to the counter, watching as their cherished loaves and cakes are unceremoniously grabbed and pushed towards the register. One customer after another demands and receives attention. And in another swirl, they are gone.

And the music changes once more as a solitary figure, Player B, stands in silhouette at the baker’s door. The soundtrack is now a sweet ballad full of hope and promise. Player A lovingly straightens the goods around them without losing sight of their beloved who floats between the various shelves displaying a care and appreciation absent from the insatiable hunger of the prior store occupants. And then their eyes meet...

The Focus

Tell a detailed story through experiencing and showing your choices and feelings. In lieu of dialogue, make sure you’re activating your whole body to communicate your character’s hopes and fears.

Traps and Tips

1.) Use the music. Unlike similar formats that expect a more avowedly dance-like quality, Soundtrack doesn’t typically result in epic balletic numbers. But that being said, the music should influence your movement even if this is in more subtle ways. Let the rhythms and tempos infuse your activities and staging. Embrace a more stylized movement vocabulary. One of the advantages of using recorded and familiar stock pieces is that improvisers may be able to predict and subsequently honor significant shifts and builds. And while the base language is mime rather than dance, this doesn’t mean that our baker and their beloved couldn’t have a moment of dance (imagined or real) as part of the rising action.

2.) Use the music. In addition to rhythmic cues, the ever-changing soundtrack should also provide rich subtext gifts. Without the tools of language, the music should fill in this gap for the characters and relationships. (It generally works best not to “pretend” talk but rather just create scenarios in which the characters choose not to communicate with words as their emotions are just that strong.) Let the specific instruments stand in for specific characters and their streams of consciousness. Typically, accompaniment without lyrics is preferable as this permits the beautiful musical equivalent of specific ambiguity. Even if the melody remains similar for a while, listen closely for subtle or not so subtle shifts in the dynamics or instrumentation as it’s truly breathtaking when we can see an honest embodiment of what we are also hearing.

3.) And use the music. Lastly, the musical transitions are a big gift that should be fully exploited. Ideally, the technical or musical improviser will pitch these shifts at opportune moments in the action when the characters are ready to explore a new energy or facet. But even (especially) if the timing catches you off guard, don’t passively cling to your prior tone and choice. Quickly assess the overall mood of your new subtextual accompaniment and risk changing something onstage accordingly. If you’re offstage, a sudden energy shift can inspire and frame truly effective entrances (and exits, too, for that matter if you’ve previously been onstage). You don’t want to throw out what you’ve created – combine rather than replace – but don’t be afraid of some strategic character consistent inconsistency. Try something new, then figure out how to justify it.

In Performance

There are literally only a handful of improv scenes that I can vividly recall seeing from my teenage years. A group of Canadian improvisers toured New Zealand in the late 1980s and placed their technical improviser onstage with a comprehensive array of cued cassette tapes (remember those?) lining several tables. As a Gothic romance occurred on a cliff top, the sound improviser brilliantly shifted from one musical mood to the next without missing a beat, while the other improvisers similarly changed emotions and plot points on a dime (or, allowing for the conversion rate, a twenty-cent piece in the vernacular of my home country!) I think I’ve been chasing that level of physical and technical dexterity ever since.

This format shares a great deal of creative territory with Ballet minus the utilization of a narrator figure. Review this Game Library entry here for additional pertinent insights.

Cheers, David Charles.
www.improvdr.com
Join my Facebook group here.
Photo Credit: Tony Firriolo
© 2023 David Charles/ImprovDr

Connected Concept: Telling

“T” is for “Telling”

In ninety-nine out of a hundred situations Telling on the improv stage will prove inferior to its antitheses showing. To tell announces or describes a choice in lieu of committing to it with all your physical, emotional, and subtextual being.

Tell Me About It…

This is just a taste of this entry/concept. Go here for more information.

Related Entries: Talking Heads Antonyms: Emotional Truth, Showing Synonyms: Cartooning, Commenting

Cheers, David Charles.
www.improvdr.com
Join my Facebook group here.
© 2023 David Charles/ImprovDr

Connected Game: Soundtrack

Game Library: “Booth Torture”

Booth Torture puts the invaluable Technician more overtly front and center in the improvisatory action.

The Basics

A suggestion is elicited. For the following scene, the technician is empowered to season the vignette with random sound effects, music, lighting shifts, and any other technical elements at their disposal. The onstage improvisers must work together to justify these offers, weaving them into the greater narrative.

Example

The play stems from the audience suggestion “shuttle.” The technician bathes the stage in a dense red light to start the action.

Player A: (calling from offstage as they enter) “Captain? Captain! There’s been a breach in the cargo bay. The upper decks are in lockdown…”

Player B: (assuming the role of the captain, and throwing themselves onto the ground) “Something knocked me over the head, Ensign. The autopilot must have engaged.”

They both lurch towards the left as if the shuttle has just conducted a counter measure. The booth adds a whistling wind sound effect.

Player A: “Do you hear that, Captain? The control room may have been compromised.”

Player B: (struggling to stand) “Help me get to the console. I have to implement the override protocols to secure this deck. Where are the others, Ensign?”

Player A: (ominously) “There are no others, Captain…”

The technician slowly dims the light and introduces the sound of chickens…

Player A: (with true terror) “…no other crew members!”

Player B: “The cargo? That was the cause of the breach in the cargo bay? I think I’m beginning to remember what happened…”

The captain lets out an inexplicable cluck of their own. They have been bitten…

The Focus

For the onstage improvisers, the game is really a justification fest as the technician punctuates the story with unanticipated contributions. Don’t be afraid to be equally as surprised as the character as you are as the improviser! A moment or two of palpable panic merely reminds the audience of the impossible task at hand.

Traps and Tips

As the tools required for the onstage improvisers are really identical to other justification games – it’s just the source of the torture that has been relocated to the booth – my advice below is primarily designed for the improvising technician.

1.) Start strong. I wouldn’t necessarily advocate that the booth should always make the first scenic move, as I’ve demonstrated in my shuttle example, but it’s helpful to offer up something significant and provocative in the first few moments. Such a choice clearly demonstrates to the audience who is in “control” while also allowing you to set the stage a little for what particular brands of mischief you have at your fingertips. Like any other game, the scene will benefit from a clear foundation, so it’s kind to help build this rather than let the team get something going only to essentially erase it with your first gift. A shivving technician need not be a blocking or pimping technician.

2.) Leave room. This is pretty standard advice for any justification game but make sure you’re not providing such a flood of technical elements that your fellow improvisers don’t have sufficient time to really acknowledge and then creatively utilize any of them. There will be occasions when the team might deliberately or out of necessity shelve an offer – perhaps our shuttle team don’t immediately contextualize the chicken sound so as to let it build suspense – but it’s good practice to wait for the players to use each prior offer before adding even more to the fray. You’ll also want to think twice before introducing elements that truly thwart the overall audience experience, such as blaring sounds that prevent the players from being heard, or prolonged darkness that stalls any physical contributions of note.

3.) Play back. Often, many of the larger choices emanate from the booth, but this shouldn’t be a relentlessly one-way street. You can still respond to the pitched ideas from the stage: the air leak is a good illustration of this dynamic as it builds off the established conceit in an unexpected but not wholly unhelpful way. (Similarly, players shouldn’t wait for the next big offer to come from the booth but should fearlessly pitch their own strong ideas too.) Not every addition needs to torture to the same degree or in the same way, and a slightly useful choice makes the next bizarre one (chickens) all the more effective. Also, remember that you can playfully alter the timing, intensity, and repetition of a choice – each offer doesn’t have to top the last in terms of its bizarreness. And think twice about offers that irreversibly impede or kill off characters (or just needlessly violent effects in general).

4.) End strong. Leave yourself somewhere to go. In my current venue, we’re able to flood the stage with haze, which is probably the coolest effect in our toolbox. Yes, that would make for an impressive first salvo, but if you’ve nothing else of that same ilk available, you may be setting yourself up for a difficult curve of absurdity. On some level, there is a built-in expectation that things will get “worse” for the onstage players, so keep something in your pocket with this in mind. If your technical set up permits, it can be a nice finesse to curtain call (or reintroduce) most of your prior elements, especially if they’re still strongly in play, as this intuitively heralds that the end is in sight. And while you want to provide a “game” climax, make sure you’re equally attuned to what the storyline might need to finally land. You might need to hold back a little at the end of the scene for a story button to have the space it needs.

In Performance

We should always play with full-throated acceptance of the choices bestowed by our fellow technical and musical improvisers. This format elevates this critical collaborative truth while providing the technical improviser a chance for a little gentle revenge for all those times onstage players wandered out of their beautiful lights or ignored a rich environmental sound effect!

Cheers, David Charles.
www.improvdr.com
Join my Facebook group here.
Photo Credit: Tony Firriolo
© 2023 David Charles/ImprovDr

Connected Concept: Technicians

“T” is for “Technicians”

The improvising wizards working behind, above, and in front of our performance spaces.

Honoring Technical Improvisers…

This is just a taste of this entry/concept. Go here for more information.

Related Entries: Ensemble, Hosting, Music Synonyms: Lighting Improviser, Scenic Improviser, Sound Improviser, Stage Managing Improviser

Cheers, David Charles.
www.improvdr.com
Join my Facebook group here.
© 2023 David Charles/ImprovDr

Connected Game: Booth Torture

Game Library: “Expert Double Figures”

If you’re going to find yourself in a typically-to-be-avoided Teaching Scene, Expert Double Figures at least comedically reframes the whole affair.

The Basics

An interviewer conducts a session with an expert whose field of study has been elicited beforehand from the audience. While both characters provide their own voices, their gestures are supplied by fellow teammates (or possibly audience volunteers). Non-talking players stand closely behind their assigned fellow performer and insert their arms under the armpits of their talking counterparts whose own arms are tucked away out of sight behind their backs. In this manner, it “appears” as if both players are now forming one character each. Gestures – welcome or otherwise – should be incorporated and justified by the interviewer and expert throughout the scene.

Example

Player A performs as the interviewer, Player B takes on the role of an expert on the subject of railways, and Players C and D assume the arms functions, sliding themselves into the positions described above as the lights transition...

Player A: “And welcome back to On the Right Track! I’m your host, Greg, and let’s get this interview moving…”

Throughout the above, Player C provides peppy gestures culminating in a sweeping outstretched arm towards the guest. Player D, as the expert’s hands, waves to the audience.

Player B: “It’s an honor to share the stage with you again, Greg.”

Player D offers up an extended hand…

Player B: “…and I’ve brought you a little gift. Have you been a good boy this year?”

Player C reaches over to take the proffered object with one hand while dabbing A’s forehead with the other.

Player A: “Well, apparently not, as you seem to have brought me a lump of coal!”

As Player D pats their hands clean…

Player B: “Actually, that’s a sign you’ve been a very good boy as you have nearly unlimited power in your hands right now…”

The Focus

There are pluses and minuses in terms of whether to use fellow players as the arms or one or more audience volunteers. Teammates can often more expertly pace the gestural curve of absurdity, and there’s usually a greater sense of immediate trust. Volunteers are a little more hit or miss and may turn the game unabashedly into a torture scene through an excess or complete absence of movement. The latter of these dynamics can quickly scuttle even the most patient and proficient improvisers. But as is the case with most games that include audience involvement, a volunteer increases the charm factor tenfold and may win over an otherwise tepid auditorium. Whichever approach you prefer, the game requires active, full-bodied listening and skillful justifications.

Traps and Tips

1.) Warm up. Especially if you’re performing with unfamiliar arms, it’s important to take a few beats to determine your rhythm and preferred form of attack. If you’re using a volunteer, the first few lines of dialogue will normally involve teaching them some of the basic rules and techniques, as well as empowering them to take some physical risks. With a fellow teammate, the requisite rapport will (hopefully) come more naturally. In either situation, I’m an advocate for starting with natural and smaller choices that help establish the characters and relationship. This makes the absurdity that’s likely to follow all the sweeter.

2.) For the talkers. Pay attention. It’s surprisingly easy to almost forget that your alien arms are making choices alongside your dialogue. If you inadvertently ignore or overlook early physical offers, you’re not taking full advantage of all your scene partners. It’s particularly impressive when the small gestures (or lack thereof) are suddenly woven into the fabric of the character, so don’t just wait for that big move as such a mindset will disincline you from catching the stream of smaller subtler offers. It’s helpful to occasionally set up your arms for a strong moment, especially if they are being provided by a reluctant or overwhelmed audience member, but make sure this doesn’t become a one-way street (track?) or you’re actually placing the bulk of the justification burden on your obscured scene partner.

3.) For the gesturers. There’s only so much coaching you can do in the moment with an audience member, so these notes are primarily targeted towards improviser arms. Make sure you give yourself room to grow. If you start with the biggest and wackiest thing you can conjure, then you’re starting on shaky terrain; hence, my preference for leaning into more casually “normal” gestures at first (if not exclusively). There’s also something quite wonderful about selling the illusion so well that when larger choices appear, they become truly surprising for everyone. I’d also strongly advise against pre-setting “bits” – a pair of glasses suddenly appears in the expert’s shirt pocket for you to grab – as cramming such a move into the narrative will nearly always be at the expense of the more organic choice you’ve extinguished in the rush to get to the funny.

4.) For the whole team. Yes, you could just stand and have a relatively static and regular interview or teaching scene. But why would you just stand and have a relatively static and regular interview or teaching scene? The challenging teamwork required to embody the two characters invites action and mischief. Once you’ve warmed up and found your stride, playfully create activities to perform. This game configuration invites the use of demonstrations, ideally that require both characters (and all four performers) to closely collaborate. If you allow the scene to devolve into another talking heads diatribe, you’ve probably missed the boat (train?) a little in terms of really fully exploiting the game’s unique features.

In Performance

A related version of this game is Arms Expert where only the expert has their gestures provided by another person, usually an audience member. The mechanics are obviously the same, although now the focus squarely resides with the expert persona and their unexpected behavior. There are advantages to this slimmed down approach: with one audience member unpredictably pitching moves to two talking improvisers, you now have twice the brain power engaged in the tricky task of justification. With four arms that have their own minds, the challenge unmistakably increases, but so too does the creative potential, which is why I find myself returning in my own work to this four-player iteration.

Cheers, David Charles.
www.improvdr.com
Join my Facebook group here.
© 2023 David Charles/ImprovDr

Connected Concept: Teaching Scene

“T” is for “Teaching Scene”

Teaching Scenes (much like transactional and stranger exchanges) are widely discouraged in most improv circles. The basic dynamic – that one character has all the knowledge and agency and must tell the other what to do – is rife with pitfalls while also inviting players to wander into other problematic habits, such as asking questions, conflating text and subtext, and becoming reduced to talking heads where you ponderously discuss action rather than engage in it.

Lessons Designed for Teaching Scenes…

This is just a taste of this entry/concept. Go here for more information.

Related Entries: CAD, CROW, Game of the Scene, Strangers, Talking Heads, Transaction Scene Antonyms: Subtext

Cheers, David Charles.
www.improvdr.com
Join my Facebook group here.
© 2023 David Charles/ImprovDr

Connected Game: Expert Double Figures

Game Library: “Contact”

Also known as Touch to Talk, Contact demands creative staging choices to satisfy the central game premise. If you find yourself in a passive Talking Heads scene, this device will get you back into your whole body.

The Basics

Every line of dialogue must be accompanied by the speaking player appropriately making physical contact with another on stage. When a physical connection becomes severed, the dialogue must immediately stop as well until a new form of contact becomes established.

Example

Two dental office coworkers are at a work function, standing patiently at the lunch buffet line. They are awkwardly silent. A moment later, when they have finally made it to the front of the line, they both reach for the same plate and their hands touch.

Player A: “I’m sorry – after you of course!”

Player A hands B the plate and they both assess the meager remains of the lunch buffet before them. Player B leans back with exhaustion, momentarily resting their head on their co-worker’s shoulder.

Player B: “I knew I shouldn’t have taken that call from home. Shall we split the last piece of bacon?”

With surgical precision, Player A cuts the bacon in two, placing one half on each of their plates. In a flurry of overwhelming energy, Player C arrives, draping their arms over the shoulders of the two hungry workers.

Player C: ‘Back for seconds already? Leave some for the rest of us! But seriously, I’m excited for your demonstration…”

Player A and B shoot each other a panicked look while C absent-mindedly takes the half-piece of bacon off B’s plate and munches it. A second later, C has disappeared back into the hotel event room. Player A surreptitiously elbows B…

Player A: “I completely forgot all about that…”

The Focus

Perhaps it’s somewhat unavoidable that players will tend to quickly break any silences with “panic” connections. As best you can, though, embrace energetic lulls and allow them to build tension and interest. Earn each moment of unique contact and use this need for human connection to forge more dynamic staging and relationship choices. Rushed or half-hearted touches won’t do much for the scene or game.

Traps and Tips

Pedestrian physical justifications drain the scene of its playful creativity, so look out for these “solutions” that are essentially wimping ways to reduce the stakes by “cleverly” dismantling the primary obstacle.

1.) Unjustified contact. Without insightful justifications the scene quickly devolves into an odd and inexplicable dance of peculiar gestures. You don’t want every line to simply become a spoken rationale for the previous strange physical choice or there will be little room to actually generate fulfilling content. Don’t overlook emotional, subtextual, and situational details that helpfully frame and incorporate your contact moves – show rather than tell your reasoning. This strategy allows justifications to coexist alongside more traditional scenic choices and endowments, such as Player C’s smarmy supervisor’s arrival. It’s also fair game to create a point of contact with one player in order to facilitate talking to another: or put another way, your contact point and the intended recipient of your dialogue don’t have to be one and the same.

2.) Handsy contact. If you’re not careful the vast majority of contact initiations will become hand centric as such moves are socially safer, less vulnerable, and more accessible. Such an approach is likely appropriate when you’re playing the game with younger improvisers where personal boundaries are particularly important. In well-established and high-functioning ensembles, on the other hand, a steady stream of handshakes, back pats, and finger prods will quickly sap the scene of its risk and charm (although issues of consent and decency should still clearly apply). In these cases, consider applying the following rule or, if you’re feeling extra adventurous, veto any forms of hand contact altogether!

3.) Repeated contacts. A surefire strategy to encourage bolder physical choices consists of adding a “no repeats” rule. It’s tempting to parallel moves made by your teammates: they place their hands on yours, so now you place your hand on theirs. If you apply a “no repeats” condition, all previously used forms of contact are now burned and can’t be used again by anyone onstage. If I’m directing in Gorilla Theatre, I’ll often introduce this rule once the scene is up and running as it’s a guaranteed way to ramp up the challenge, but it’s also possible and fun to just make this feature part of the setup and premise right from the get-go. Much of the true fun begins when the most obvious and “normal” forms of physical connection have all been used!

4.) Passive contact. Another helpful best practice is to exclude passive contact as a way of enabling a player’s dialogue. In order to speak, the pertinent player must initiate their own form of contact and cannot merely piggyback on a touch established by a teammate. In this way, C placing their arms over A and B’s shoulders only releases C to speak. If A wants to respond in the moment, they can’t use C’s connection to do so but must rather create their own move, perhaps by bluntly lifting and removing C’s hand (or, even better, trying to just use their own shoulder to execute this particular extraction).

5.) Sustained contact. Casually existing in the same prolonged state of physical connection serves as a final cheat worthy of discouraging and avoiding. Used sparingly, a loitering handshake or epic hug provides a delightful opportunity for a character to complete a more significant speech act. If players spend the majority of the scene holding hands just so they can talk, however, then the spirit of the challenge has been discarded. Once a physical move has been made and utilized as a means to talk, it’s generally helpful to now consider this physicality spent even if it continues as part of the scenic given circumstances. After all, not every physical choice needs to be prompted by a desire to speak.

In Performance

This game can inspire really imaginative and unique staging, elevating a mundane relationship or premise into something quite new and wonderful (and, frankly, probably just a little odd too). Be sure to enjoy both the opportunities for novel physical connections and the power and dramatic potential of the silences when such connections are impractical or unnecessary.

Cheers, David Charles.
www.improvdr.com
Join my Facebook group here.
Photo Credit: Tony Firriolo
© 2022 David Charles/ImprovDr

Connected Concept: Talking Heads

“T” is for “Talking Heads”

Talking Heads refers to the improvisational plague of performers essentially only acting from the neck up (not the highly physical 1970s rock band of the same name). Whether sitting or standing, these players – and the scenes they populate – are largely intellectual affairs devoid of dynamic staging, physicality, and subtext-infused body language.

Escaping the Road to Nowhere…

This is just a taste of this entry/concept. Go here for more information.

Related Entries: Environment, Stakes, Sticky Feet, Telling Antonyms: Physicality, Stage Picture Synonyms: Waffling

Cheers, David Charles.
www.improvdr.com
Join my Facebook group here.
© 2022 David Charles/ImprovDr

Connected Game: Contact

Game Library: “Tag-Team Monologue”

Part wresting, part dramatic storytelling, Tag-Team Monologue combines the excitement of competitive sports with the esteemed theatrical tradition of standing onstage alone and speaking to an imaginary scene partner.

The Basics

The team performs a monologue from the unique perspective of an original character. One improviser begins the narrative and stands center stage, with their remaining teammates waiting behind them in a line. At opportune moments, a waiting player tags the current speaker out (usually with a gentle tap on the shoulder or back) and picks up the story exactly where it left off. The team continues to tag each other out until the monologue finds an organic button.

Example

The monologue gains inspiration from the audience suggestion “Thanksgiving.” Player A steps into the spotlight to begin with their fellow teammates standing closely behind.

Player A: “It was my first holiday season in my own apartment, and I was determined to prove to the rest of my family that I could succeed at adulting. I’d spent most of…”

Player B: (tagging in as A returns to the back line) “… November researching just how to cook the perfect turkey and fixings. Two weeks earlier, I pre-ordered everything from the local…”

Player C: (tagging B out) “… farmer’s market. Needless to say, I was over the moon when the day before Thanksgiving several overflowing biodegradable grocery bags arrived on my new apartment’s doorstep. I rushed to get it all inside, and im…”

Player D: (replacing C) “…mediately started to lay it all out on my kitchen counter…”

The Focus

Although the nature of the tags in this game are rarely the primary performance consideration, the narrative will struggle without strong and generous Takes as the speaking improviser is largely at the mercy of the teammates standing behind them.

Traps and Tips

1.) Find the character. Observe and listen closely when the first player establishes the character and launch as an ability to mimic and maintain these early offers provides the game with a solid foundation. The story should be told in first-person, so assuming facets of the same characterization greatly enhances this narrative style and voice. Mirroring verbal cadences, adopting a similar physical stance, and weaving memorable words or phrases back into the mix all give the game the aura of design. Be cautious of careless character inconsistencies as opposed to those that are offered knowingly to create tension or opportunities for growth.

2.) Find the moment. Stories that get lost in generalities and a nowhere time and place tend to struggle and result in less enticing narratives. As I’ve demonstrated in my example, a little preamble or contextualizing is common and perhaps even helpful for unifying the team in terms of a basic theme or focus. Player C is the first improviser to leap the story into a particular “now” – in this case, the day before Thanksgiving. Strive to get to this pivotal moment as soon as you can, and be wary of then slipping back jnto more generic timeless action or jumping quickly forward to other events that could also be fleshed out to craft an entire tale in their own right. When the story focuses on a smaller story arc of a few minutes or hours (rather than spanning multiple days or weeks), you’re more likely to chart an exciting journey.

3.) Find the rhythm. The tag feature of the game provides abandon and risk, and it’s great to build to some unpredictability and even a little narrative danger by tagging when the timing feels right instead of when you know the next contribution you’d like to personally make. Give the story and initial tellers sufficient space to creatively build a firm foundation. As I’ve noted numerous times throughout this library of games, story should take precedence over the game, especially initially. Once the team and audience have a strong sense of the narrative north star, then ramping up the pace of the tags will feel exciting. In case it doesn’t go without saying, players shouldn’t tag in a set order either but should also change this up as the story builds.

4.) Find the trust. There is something innately a little scary about standing center stage and performing a monologue with only the sparsest sense of your teammates’ presence behind you. The current speaker is completely at the whim of their fellow players in terms of the edits as there is no (gracious) way to give. The speaker may telescope to everyone in the theatre that they have nothing left to offer the story – a feeling that quickly becomes excruciating for all involved – but ultimately the responsibility and power to rescue such improvisers solely resides in the hands of the back line. Subsequently, focus takes should be timely, brave, and generous. Don’t fall into the well-worn shivving “bit” of letting a speaker appear to squirm a little in the hot seat if the player is truly uncomfortable and in need of a lifeline.

In Performance

Audiences uniformly enjoy a simple and playful story told with energy and conviction. The tagging dynamic provides additional risk and whimsical staging possibilities, but don’t rely on this gimmick as an evasive tactic to reduce the preeminence of the storytelling challenge.

See my related Game Library entry on Tag-Team Song here for some additional pointers on specifically when and how to deploy the tagging device.

Cheers, David Charles.
www.improvdr.com
Join my Facebook group here.
Photo Credit: James Berkley
© 2022 David Charles/ImprovDr

Connected Concept: Take

“T” is for “Take”

When it comes to moving focus around on the improv stage you really only have iterations of two choices: you can Give focus by directing it to another or Take focus by personally owning the next dramatic moment or step.

Ways to Take…

This is just a taste of this entry/concept. Go here for more information.

Cheers, David Charles.
www.improvdr.com
Join my Facebook group here.
© 2022 David Charles/ImprovDr

Related Entries: Bulldozing, Commandment #2, Edits, Give, Stage Picture Antonyms: Passenger, Split Focus Synonyms: Entrances, Sharing Focus

Connected Game: Tag-Team Monologue