back of a spreadsheet; back of the net

Last Wednesday’s improv session was really, really good.

There was lots of energy in the room. As facilitator I’m going to take some credit for it but it comes from everyone so everyone should feel good about it.

Where did the energy come from?

I think firstly directly from me as I was ready to attack the class with vigour (not my fellow improvisors but the session).

I was reminded of a conversation I had with a New York improviser I know who was commenting on our occasional lack of energy so I was all ready to go an be energetic.

I’ve been reading a lot about improv at the moment. Dad bought me Keith Johnstone’s Impro for Storytellers for Christmas and I’m really enjoying it. One of the elements that I think is leaking off the page into my handling of the group is the use of competition. I introduced just a touch of competition into the session by requiring players to race from their seats to the far wall when volunteering for a handle.

I must get Impro back my mate who I lent it to so I can re-read it. I’m finding the theoretical underpinnings useful.

What is also helping is that I am feeling really positive about myself as a leader at the moment. My work on the AV campaign and some useful coaching from a friend have really helped me get a handle on how I can lead a co-operative. There are many similarities between the AV campaign and the Improv group.

Also helpful was a good warm up. By chance I re-found one called Enemy / Defender, which I used about six months ago. Everyone plays a best of three game of Stone, Paper, Scissors with one other player. The winner goes on to the next round and the loser become an enthusiastic supporter, (gang member) of the winner. The winner of the next round takes on all the supporters of both her own and her rival’s gang. By the end, if everyone joins in, you have two largish groups of people baying at each other. Gets the heart going.

We’ve two new members who I think are really good. I think their ability and enthusiasm helped increase the energy in the room.

I think a few people had had some good news (and it was noticeable that one of the members of the group who I think is usually superb and who I thought was a bit off her game on Wednesday had been knocked off her bike a few days before.)

All in all the energy and the talent (old and new) made for a great session. One of our best to date. Some great scenes and some great group and individual efforts.

It was a Tin of Destiny session where we pick games out of a tin rather than work through a pre-arranged list. It makes the night a bit random. Sometimes they don’t work well but tonight was great.

 An early game had everyone playing in turn the role of a school child being caned for not paying attention.  Lots of players really able and willing to be altered by the physical assault. Humorous but quite powerful.

I had the good fortune to play opposite one of the new people  where we were playing a scene about a date going really well set on top of the Eiffel Tower. The natural end to a date going really well (best date in the world) is for it to end with a passionate kiss. Or at least one of the ways it could end that would be accepted in the context of the story and which would alter the characters and their relationship is with a kiss. (bit of Johnstone tilts and circles, the theory is seeping in).

I’d only just met the woman I was playing opposite. She was really, really good and I found myself becoming the me who would be on a really good date with the character she was playing. I could feel the Italian linen suit I’d be wearing and the slight smell of the roses I’d brought her still on the lapel of my jacket. It suddenly, came into my head to kiss her (not a proper snog you understand, but a stage kiss). The idea and the exact response you get when you think “I really want to kiss this person, I wonder if I should.” I wasn’t playing him, I was inhabiting him, but him was built up of all the successful dates I’d ever been on and felt, on the inside, like the night I met MLW.

So, really, really pleased with the session.

Next time I’m going to try and introduce completive Tin of Destiny. Three teams of 3-4 players. Each possible pair match up and both play the same random game from the Tin and are scored by the players from the other team on how well they did (quality of scene, interest, technical proficiency) and also they mark themselves on how much they enjoyed doing the scene.

Then I unleash my programme of workshops for the term.