Yesterday in Conservatory, Tim introduced us to the concept that having teams or sub-groups within an ensemble is OK. This is a good lesson to get out of the way early in a class of twelve. (I was correct after all. Our class has twelve people in it, not eleven.) He introduced us to that concept during our warm up. He then had us do an extended exercise where we struck poses and took turns and then had us group together to make scenes from our poses, sometimes in groups of two, there, four, etc. That was pretty cool.
A theme throughout yesterday's class was playing scenes at the top of our intelligence and being emotionally truthful to the situation. Part and parcel of that concept is acting. Yes, acting in the true sense of a scene instead of trying to blow things up by trying to be funny for the sake of funny. This sounds beginnerish, but it's a trap that experienced improvisers fall into all the time. Hell, I was in a scene yesterday where I made the beginner mistake of making the scene too much about the action or the object work that I was doing. You'd think after a year of doing this several hours each week that wouldn't happen, but it did.
Tim also shared with us an overall suggestion for our scenes in that we should try to get to the "who" with our scene partner instead of concentrating too much on the "what" within the scene. Too often improvisers get caught up with plot in the scene. That's when things get forced and you try to be funny for the sake of it.
That's all I got for today. I've got a dog to walk and phlegm to cough up. (Having a cold in July really sucks.)
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