IMPROV BASICS
The concepts listed below are from www.improvencyclopedia.org, a very useful compendium of games and resources for theater improvisers.
OFFER - any action or dialogue that forwards a scene. Offers are supposed to be accepted
Strong Offer: clearly gives a direction toward which scene might evolve
Open Offer: leaves a lot of possible directions for the scene to evolveACCEPTING - Embracing each offer made by other players to advance the scene. Good.
BLOCKING - Not accepting other player’s offers, actually destroying them. Not good. In our first meeting at Holy Trinity, we defined blocking an opening offer as refusing to inhabit the same world as your partner. If you don't agree to "live" in the same world, then there is no scene.
IGNORING - Ignoring others’ offers. Not nice. Even worse than Blocking
Improvisers need to create a reality that is not really there, without knowing what other reality the other players have in mind. In order to clearly establish one united reality, improvisers should be accepting any offer from each other. When improvisers accept each others offers they are in Agreement. When they do not, they are in Denial.
PLATFORM - the who, what and where of a scene. Success of a scene often depends on a solid and clear platform, so you normally try to establish the platform as early as possible
NARRATIVE - the story being told in the scene. Stories should have a beginning (often a problem), a middle (complications), and an end (resolving the problem). Improvisers have to figure out together what the story is, as they go along. They don’t know in advance. Their job is to establish a platform and a problem, forward the action through conflict and bring it to a satisfying end.
ADVANCING - the process of moving a scene forward
CONFLICT - once you’ve established a Platform, you probably use a conflict to advance the scene. A conflict occurs when two characters have mutually exclusive goals or desires
I WANT - the character’s goal or desire - what the character really wants. Sometimes this is concrete, tangible and obvious. Sometimes characters want things they can’t admit even to themselves. Establishing conflicting goals help set up an interesting story because each character can try different strategies to get what they want.
YES, AND - “Yes,” means accepting the offer. “And” means doing something with it in order to forward the scene.
RAISE STAKES - make the events in the scene have greater consequences for the characters
ENDOWING - assigning attributes to another performer’s character. A good thing if it helps the other player establish his or her character and if it is accepted.
STATUS - Status is a character’s sense of self-esteem. When building characters, make sure to play different statuses. Allow your status to be changed. Good stories often involve changes of status.
HEDGING - Making small talk instead of forwarding the action. Not a good thing.
GOSSIPING - Talking about the action instead of doing it. Or talking about what other people do or did or will do. Not a good thing. Try and stick to the motto “Play it, don’t say it.”
