improvarama

Topic: Improv  Goal: Create a new and amusing scene. Prompt: Use this quote to prompt your improvisation:  What you see in the mirror is not what the world sees. Coaching: What do you hope to see? Why would anyone see anything else? What are you afraid others might see? How do people decide what they see about you? What does one character in the scene want that they cannot have?

A smile can stop ten sad thoughts from filling your mind.  -- doug smith 1.  I started to type "smile" in the title and my fingers somehow typed "Smith" instead. That makes me smile... 2. Yes, this is related to improv. When we help other people smile we're building some part of a better world. What fun! 3. See how powerful improv can be? What if, in creating something new, we used that same quote but featured this picture: That changes things, right? Or we could get even darker: Because improv is not all comedy, or does not NEED to be all comedy or sunny and light. Although, sunny and light is nice so here's another nice smile for you. Now, go make someone (and yourself) happy: smile!

Status is in every scene. People jockey for the top spot. Conflict spins out of the struggle to be recognized, to be in control, to win. Improvise a scene using this prompt: The struggle for status inevitably disappoints. Have fun!  

Build a scene inspired by this quote: If forgiveness was easy we would never hesitate to forgive. Key questions include: What's the conflict? What do your characters want? Where are you? No need to overcomplicate the scene. Simply supply a need for forgiveness and the obstacle that makes it hard to forgive. -- doug smith

Improv level: Advanced If the essence of drama is conflict, this challenge will help you build some nuance into your dramatic scene work while also helping you avoid the temptation of going for the laugh. Improv is more than comedy, and comedy is funnier when you don't play it for the laugh. Make it real. Here's the challenge: Create a scene based on this quote -- Defend to stabilize, even neutralize, but not to destroy. It's your theme. It's your structure. It's your turn... -- doug smith

Improv Level: Advanced I'm currently writing this on Google's Blogger platform and it has the interesting feature of allowing you to date a post into the past. I'll do that with this post as an example. I'm writing it on July 13, 2025 but I'm going to send it back in time -- not far, just a nudge, say perhaps June, 2025. You've seen many examples of time travel in movies, plays, and literature so now it's your turn. Create a scene with this premise: You can go back to any one day in your life and re-live or change it. That's the scene: the decision to change it and then what happens next. Based on what you know about time-travel, what would be the side-effects? What would be the results? What would be funny about any of that? Now go. Your turn! -- doug smith

  We make ego into a bad word but try excelling without it. That tension between control and out-of-control? That's magic! -- doug smith

Get bold or get forgotten! Who's your favorite actor? What performer grabs your attention? When you are on stage where is YOUR focus? There is a place for nuance. There is a time for subtlety. And, there is a time for drama! Get bold or get forgotten! -- doug smith  

Build a scene from this quote: Hatred burns the hater more than the one hated. -- doug smith  

The price of evil is paid long after the evil is forgotten.  -- doug smith

Some people will do things that will never make sense, and still we go on. -- doug smith  

Reading someone's descriptive intro of themselves a while ago I remember that they said they were a poet and a memoirist. Hmmm. How do they live? How do they earn money? Are they so successful with social media ad dollars (or something else?) that jobs are even a consideration? Far be it for me to judge but seriously, doesn't it take a large swallow of solipsistic hubris to declare oneself a memoirist? Oh, truthfully, everyone SHOULD be a memoirist and keep some kind of journal (says the man on volume 63 of his) but to announce it to the world? Maybe, yes! Good for her! What do you think is IN those memoirs? Juicy stuff? Dramatic stuff? Profound stuff? That's the topic of your scene: now improv it! -- doug smith  

Improv Level: Advanced Location: anywhere Situation: Time travel has been unlocked without sending you the memo. Start any scene and at some point (in time!) everyone freezes, except for one person who then gently rearranges the scene, snaps their fingers (or rings a bell, because bells are nice!) and the scene resumes with the now altered time change. Bonus Level: Include "easter egg" references to other time travel sources. -- doug smith

How it works: Use the following quote in your poem anywhere: Add more of you to who you are and you'll be able to travel far It could be at the beginning, in the middle, at the end -- anywhere that suits you. You could even repeat it as often as you like, it is entirely yours to play with. Notes: Yes, this is improv so let it flow and yes it is poetry because improv is more than acting and because this site is intended to be a full tilt creativity generator.  Generate! -- doug smith

  Use the following quote to develop an improvised scene in three parts: Resistance causes friction; friction causes fire, and fire burns. Optional part four:  Resolve the fire.

Prompt: "If love is the natural order of things, we should stop resisting..." Situation: Any conflict. Contrast that conflict into a more natural order. Wind it down. Search for peace. "How do you make that happen?" "That's the challenge..."

The more we pretend the past doesn't matter the more likely it is to haunt us. Prompt: Improvise a scene during which at least one character avoids dealing with the past -- its thoughts, its actions, and its consequences. Notes: It's drama, so of course, ramp up the stakes and the consequences -- doug smith

What if we could not acknowledge that we are not who we used to be? And, what if we could? -- doug smith