Improv 1

My improv class ended this week.
It's been great, a wonder-choice for entry into New York city life. Partly because it gives me instant contact with people socially at least once a week. So my Tuesday evening 7-10pm slot has been enjoyably anticipated (I even took to having a tasty 'mini-tiffin' thali at one of the celebrated Indian restaurants in the area around 28th/Lexington beforehand, to add to the routine!) Also because playing about like children is great after serving the machine all day. But mainly because a fundamental part of improvising with other people is to develop a sense of trust and rapport, which involves of course listening, taking risks and inevitably looking stupid and breaking ice pretty quickly. So quite quickly I had some new friends, including 2 who I am sure I will continue to see now that the 8 weeks is up.
And part of the course is that we get to do a 'grad show', a 50 minute set of improvised scenes based on audience suggestion. We are still pretty bad at it of course but it went well. Interestingly the qualified regular actors on our 'level 1' course, weren't necessarily the best at improvising, but were the best at doing characters/emotion, being on display and projecting.

There are no less than 3 improv schools in NYC - they all have their own impressive premises with lots of studios for classes and a big theatre and bar - which are a bit studenty but great for that too. So interesting that there is such a buzz of improv in New York. The equivalent in London has a pretty loyal following and is very good quality but it does not have the turnover of students evident here.
Standing backstage having been told 'places' by the front of house, I loved the signs on the stage entry door like 'what to say next is in your partners eyes'. Also 'yes, and...' which is the universal improv chant, the idea being that when your partners on stage imply or direct the scene a certain way (e.g by saying "so it's great that you agreed to come and get a Brazilian done with me Janine", you must  comply and then build on it rather than deny their idea either subtly or crudely ("er, we're fighting a war in Iraq!"). Which means you really have to bend as the idea you just had may not fit.

I did a scene where Chinese Emelda (BioChem Phd student moved to US 7 years ago) taught me to shoot a pistol as a keen apprentice cowgirl.
And I did a scene where Stan (Chicagoan young buck commercial realtor who uses the word 'man' in sentences addressing men so very authentically) helped me to prepare a shepherd's pie for new girlfriend, which began with me celebrating love with moans as I mashed the potato.
Good fun!

And tonight I saw one of the dozens of nightly improv shows on every night of the week. The suggestion was the Olympics of course and the team of 3 women pulled out the most entertaining set of scenes for us - so convincing and natural. They ranged from a female archer who was denied being seen in press interviews by her team because of her unsightly mustache. In another scene later on, a news TV show, she was then announced as being disqualified for turning out to be a man....etc. They did it very well.
Olympics! I youtubed the opening ceremony to find it wasn't on there disappointingly. I wonder how it is for y'all in London.
Anyhow their skill at making interesting moment to moment scenes reminded me of something that buddy Darren said once, something that I realised I had assumed too but hadn't crystallized into words. And that is that he gets the sense that good improvisers are fundamentally different from good tennis players, knitters, cooks, musicians etc. in that we (Darren and I) get the sense that they are just better..... people somehow - because the art seems to be part of being human in some intrinsic way. It has totally to do with having your attention on yourself and others in balance, empathy, tracking the moment as it unfolds and being able to draw naturally on everything you have ever experienced as well as abandoning control to your silent instincts as they flow. All this as a simple thing rather than as a mighty conundrum. Children seem to do it effortlessly before they get self-conscious and sassy.
I haven't concluded that this is all true at all, but it is an interesting one.