Добавил:
Upload Опубликованный материал нарушает ваши авторские права? Сообщите нам.
Вуз: Предмет: Файл:
Mick Napier - Improvise.doc - известная книга в...doc
Скачиваний:
9
Добавлен:
02.09.2019
Размер:
513.54 Кб
Скачать

Reaching for an Object

You are in the middle of a scene. It is going well. You have a char­acter, your partner has a character, and you both are playing a scene that is about something. For an added extra challenge, reach your hand out into the air, or the environment of the scene, and pull it back with an object in your hand. Keep playing the scene. Keep holding the object. If you are brave enough to do this without pre­conceiving what the object is before you reach, you will soon discover what it is, and it is likely that it will be in the ballpark of what your character or the scene is about. This is similar to throwing a curve ball in the scene and catching up with it later. That was a verbal mechanism; this is a physical one that involves the environ­ment. This scary move will escalate the play and discovery of the scene. At best, it heightens what the scene is about; at worst you'll create it as an incidental object in the scene and provide color to it.

Let's say you are in a scene and you are playing a drunken clown. The scene goes on for a while and you are wreaking havoc on some kid's birthday party. You boldly reach your hand out to grab some­thing from the air and have no idea what it is. You bring your hand back toward you but you still don't know what you are holding. You scare another kid with a threat and an insult and then take a swig off a liquor bottle. Ah, that's what that is in your hand. A fearless move on your part has allowed you to heighten the character and the scene. It might be that you already thought of creating a bottle, then you reach out for it. That's fine, and good improvisation, but I'm also inviting you to reach out without knowing what you are grabbing to put you in this wonderful but frightening state of discovery.

For added, extra-scary fun, try this at the top of a scene. When the lights come up on stage or someone says "go" in a workshop, reach your hand out into the environment as suggested before, and simultaneously say something. As always, this could be preconceived before the scene begins, but I am challenging you to do it without knowing, or instantaneously cancel your preconceived thought. This move will most assuredly snap you into a character energy that prob­ably never occurred to you. Don't worry about figuring out the object right away; just make that verbal initiation first and foremost. With practice, you will be able to initiate verbally and determine the object at the same time. It will feel like magic; thank goodness it's not.

This is especially useful if you have gotten into the rut of going to your environment at the top of a scene and then standing there silently, wondering what to say, or doing the opposite—having no environment at all in your improvisation and just standing there talking. Either of these unfortunate patterns can be broken with reaching for an object.

Personal Objects and Mannerisms

I've looked closely for years for that which separates the good improviser from the excellent improviser, and I began to notice this one particular positive pattern. Many superior improvisers will create a personal object or a mannerism for themselves in the scene.

Earlier, in the section about specificity, I mentioned the value of an object for a character in regard to the content of the scene and what it is about. I would like to elaborate now on the value of the object or mannerism to give your character more substance, believability, and integrity.

Imagine a scene where an executive is standing, waiting for an elevator, talking to an employee about his marriage. The scene is good or not, who cares. Now, imagine that while this conversation is going on, the exec has his hand out in front of him, palm down, and is flicking his ring finger up and down occasionally. It becomes obvious, after a while, that the executive has a yo-yo while this con­versation is taking place. It now transforms from an archetypal exec­utive to an executive who is yo-yoing. More dimensions: a fun, unexpected choice for an executive and another layer for the scene.

A personal object provides insight into the personality of the character. And probably some more laughs. Specificity allows the audience to see a fuller picture of the characters and the scenes, and quite often is what they empathize with and laugh at. Having the courage to create this piece of business and environment will add great substance and specificity to your character.

Even if the improviser created an object that wasn't an opposite choice, like a pointer, it still adds depth to the character. This is the difference between when object-work and environment become a crutch to go to when you're in your head and when they become powerful tools for bringing more to a scene or a character.

If you don't want to use an object, then try a personal character mannerism. Human beings rarely just stand there, arms to the side or in their pockets, and talk at each other the way we often do in improv land. People have ticks, mannerisms, and other behavioral attributes that make them more individual. If you can tap into that behavior. then your characters will become more individual, as well. Think of the executive talking by the elevator; maybe he's obsessed with stroking his right ear. Fun and peculiar. He's not the ole boring exec; he's a bit quirky. A southern belle who does a little wave after every­thing she says is far more interesting and fun than the typical sitting-on-porch-with-southern-drawl. Audiences love idiosyncrasies in people, and that little touch on your part is a doorway to another part of the character.

Your commitment to personal objects and mannerisms for your characters has you show up in ways that you might not otherwise, breaks you out of stereotypical patterns, and creates fuller and often funnier characters. Practice at home.

Соседние файлы в предмете [НЕСОРТИРОВАННОЕ]