Lock EYES!

Week number two of the Conservatory A experience.  It was only this week that I realized that eleven people are in the class instead of twelve.  That explains why I couldn't name or put a face to the mystery twelfth class member when trying to run through names earlier in the week.

Anyfuck, nine of us showed up this week, and those who arrived early were treated to a free yoga session by Christine, our Australian-in-Residence.  With that, we were nice and limbered up and ready to make funny.

We began with mirroring exercises, which is familiar (or should be) to anybody who's ever taken a beginning improv class. This culminated with all NINE of us mirroring each other on stage.  That was pretty cool.

Mirroring was a theme of the day.  Tim explained that mirroring or echoing is the most important tenant of improv.  By that, he explained that he didn't mean miming the actions of your scene partner(s), but rather mirroring their energy on stage and agreeing (be it emotionally, physically, or what have you) with the choice(s) that they make.  One of his favorite examples that he draws on involves him doing a scene entirely by himself of an alcoholic, abusive dad bitching out his anti-social and lippy son.

The upshot of this approach is especially crucial when performing scenes that begin entirely from scratch (no suggestions from the audience, no preset "game," etc.).  Jumping on board with an action or emotion builds trust with the actors so that they can solve the scene together.  An example of this mirroring that agrees with a scene partner would be Actor A doing object work that involved changing a tire.  Actor B does actions that somebody would do if they were helping to change a tire.  (But of course, the actors don't talk about changing the tire for the entirety of the scene, because that would be BOR-ing.)

Another insight that Tim gave us was that too often actors get sucked into the notion that when a scene takes place in everyday surroundings that today has to be the day that something momentous happens.  Example three co-workers in their break room.  Actor four comes in as the owner of the company and fires everybody.  There can be plenty of emotional struggle in a scene without somebody coming in with a stick of dynamite.

In our scene work in class, we had plenty of fun moments.  My personal favorite was a scene that involved Cameron and (if I remember correctly) Elizabeth, Christine, and Siera. They were three very controlling women who were dressing Cameron's character and coaching him on how to be a man.  He was reputedly instructed to "lock EYES," even when he had three women kneeling before him.  He was reduced to a sobbing mess and he was struck several times.  This description doesn't do the scene justice, but the entire class was in stitches.

Already looking forward to week three.