improvarama

  How is your attention? How is your focus? Doing improv brings people to their full attentiveness, because without that you're lost. As Paul Sills taught me, that attentiveness and that improv work best when you get out of your head, when you "stop playwriting" and give the moment all you've got. It's powerful. It's wonderful. It's ever so real.  Great improv keeps us in the present. The past is too boring to play and the future is up for grabs so we must live every present moment tuned in, generating ideas, and sharing responsibility. Improv is life’s attentiveness optimized . — doug smith

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?

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!  

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

When we learn to improvise we dramatically increase and improve our possibilities -- not just in improv, but also in everything we do. -- doug smith  

Two people in a restaurant attempt to order their meals and run into difficulty with a server who refuses to acknowledge the existence of vegetables or water. RAISE THE STAKES: Other customers enter who each refuse to acknowledge the existence of something commonly believed to exist (like proteins, knives and forks, napkins, money.)

 A cleaning person discovers a spot that won't come out, but is determined to prevail.

The driver of a bus stops the bus and refuses to continue because "life doesn't mean anything anymore." The passengers must decide what to do. RAISE THE STAKES: No escape. Inexplicably all the exit doors are also locked.  

The life boat can handle one more passenger. Four people are left on a sinking ship and are now faced with dealing with deciding who will be the last person on the lifeboat.

An alien has just arrived at your office and asks you to explain God.

  Two workers install a box. A third person objects to the way that it is being installed. They cannot agree on the purpose of the box or the way it is being configured. RAISE THE STAKES: The box begins making noise. The box begins smoking. The box begins ticking. Animal sounds emanate from the box.

Challenges? Of course! Problems? Everywhere! Improvisation gives you and advantage: you can think on your feet in the moment, fearlessly. Creativity gives you an edge -- what you try that doesn't fly shows you a better way to get by. Don't stop creating until you stop breathing.  Don't stop improvising until you die. Keep the fun alive. -- doug smith  

It's awkward to experience a creative block when you need to create on the spot. It feels like driving an old country winding road on a dark night when your headlights suddenly go out. Not fun. Scary, even.  Ah, but sometimes creativity feels like that. Sometimes improvisation feels less than automatic. Should we keep driving, or stop in our tracks? Maybe coast? What drives you, what guides you is still there. As long as we put in the hours and work the practice, our practice will kick in and get us going. Don't knock the blocks, they are there to build on. Creative break-thru come after creative blocks. And -- those creative break-thru are sweet indeed. -- doug smith  

There is no creative justification for not being creative. If you wait, you're late. If you stall, you fall. Put pen to paper, put paint to canvas, put needle to fabric, put hammer to nail -- create. "What if it's not good?" "Of course it won't be good at first. Start, revise, let it fly..." "Let it fly?" "Yep." There is no excuse you should buy, no reason you should accept, no rejection you should take too seriously. There is no creative or non-creative justification for not being creative. You already are. Get busy. -- doug smith

Do you still doodle? You can probably remember a time in your life when you doodled a lot. Sometimes we draw less as we get older. It happens, but it doesn't HAVE to happen. We can keep drawing. We can keep sketching. And, when we do it fuels our creativity. Try bringing that same spirit of improvisation to some random, spontaneous drawing. it doesn't have to be good (although it might be!) -- it just has to flow. This is sa drawing I made in 1976. I'm fairly certain, although that was a long time ago, that I drew it in one sitting, without doing anything else.  Remember, it doesn't need to be great art to help your creativity.  -- doug smith  

Improv Prompt Four characters take the stage. The first three have the task of creating a new line of poetry to add to the accumulating lines of poetry until a logical or satisfying conclusion is reached. Make no attempt to make this funny. The fourth person, having heard the first three lines, creates a two line chorus. They will then repeat this chorus each round. "Why not make it funny?" "It might BE funny. The guideline though is to make no ATTEMPT to make it funny. The harder you try NOT to make it funny, the greater potential it has." -- doug smith

Scene for two people in a public place, like a restaurant, or an office break room, or a place of your choosing. Prompt: "I couldn't help but look thru your window, and I saw what you did." Go.

  Learn to improvise and a thousand other important things suddenly become much easier to learn. -- doug smith

Scene Prompt: Six adults must fit into a car better suited for fewer, smaller people. Your mission: sell the car to the world's most reluctant world leader.

What about that choices we almost make? One time, I almost bought a Jeep Patriot very much like the one pictured here (this one's a rental car.) I really, really wanted that Jeep. I'd been day dreaming about Jeep Patriots for about a year, and when my 2002 Chevy Cavalier started making death noises and losing its accessories, I was all set to buy one. I test drove one. It was nice. I knew I liked them because I'd rented them before. So, what's to choose? Find one at a reasonable price and buy it. Or so I thought. I also drove a Chevy Cruz. That car was amazing. It drove like a sports car. It was fast, quick, turbo-charged. It made me feel young and alive and daring and ready to improvise. I bought the Cruz. And I did love that car and kept it until it also began making killer noises and motions. But I've never stopped thinking about that Jeep Patriot. It might be that HAD I bought it that I would still have it. But I don't. We make choices, and mo...