Improvisation- Quick and Unexpected Acting

Improv was something I was hoping we would do in this class, so I was very excited when I saw that improv was planned for when we got back from our Thanksgiving break! I have played many improv games before and I really like doing them. I have never performed a true improved skit in front of people, but I would love to do an improv skit one day.

Some of the improv games we did in class on Tuesday were pretty fun, yet challenging. One of my favorite improv games to play is the one (I forget the name of it, sorry) where we stand in two lines and rotate between performing and action and making up a line. I usually have a hard time thinking of a creative action to do, but some crazy one-liner will always come to me pretty quickly. I am not the most creative person, but I think in our improv games I did pretty well in coming up with good reactions and lines. It felt good to make everybody laugh. One of my favorite moments was when I quoted my grandmother in the game and made everybody laugh.

The other improv game we played with the creating a scenario and an objective was much harder to play. While I could come up with scenarios and objectives for my classmates came easily for me, performing it myself was really hard. With the first game we played, the scenes were very short and usually comedic. This game required a lot more thinking and focus. Also, I was laughing a lot throughout the scene as well which is something you don't want to do on stage. While I feel that this was a good improv game to play, it was a bit too challenging and I preferred the first one we played a lot more. It was also much more easy to understand.

Improv is a very challenging part of acting. While some people do it for fun or in troupes, good actors have to be skilled with improv. In case something in the show goes wrong or a line is forgotten, actors have to be quick-witted to say or do something that will make sense to the storyline and keep the conversation going. One things that I learned in class was to never say no while doing improv. It stops the conversation and kills the mood of the scene. I view improv in the way that improv is sort of like surfing in a way that you have to ride the wave in whichever way it takes you, even if it somewhere you don't want to go, to stay afloat. Improv can be very challenging, especially if the person you are acting with does something unexpected. You always have to be focused and thinking about good ways to act and react.

I hope that we can continue to play a couple more improv games if we have the time to before the end of this course, although I am excited to work on my final audition piece which I am planning to be a dramatic monologue.