Follow me on Twitter!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

For Charity!

A few weeks ago I caught a disaster movie marathon at a local theater, the centerpiece of which was Irving Allen's disaster epic “The Towering Inferno”. “Inferno” is a movie on a grand scale, and is first and foremost proof that viewers had an obsession with procedural dramas well before “Law & Order”. There are some things that are a little dated, but what sticks out the most are some rather clunky dialogue bits – ones that don't advance plot, deepen characters or stakes, and are often uttered by random characters: for example a shot of people evacuating the building holds on an older couple who say that there were supposed to be fire drills, but none were ever conducted. There is a clear point to the movie – entertainment, but the filmmakers took the opportunity to deliver important (though not subtle) messages about fire safety.

As artists, our goal is often very basic – to entertain (or on a deeper level, illustrate on the human condition). This doesn't make what we do normally ignoble or unvirtuous; something could be said for providing laughter to the masses, but often that is as far as we go. The possibility is there to do something good with our craft either by message (even if it is the hamfisted approach that “Inferno” takes) or by product. Improv is actually a very useful tool for both kinds of change – it is unique in that it is able to instantly change to meet developing pop culture, news, or social changes as well as being an exceedingly populist craft in that its inspiration is derived directly from audience influence.

I've now organized two different improv charity shows, and I firmly believe that this craft can be very useful for doing good, and appropriately so – it is the most populist art form, one where even the objective audience gets to participate and also because it is cheap to produce. Most improvisers are used to doing gigs for no money, so you typically can get away without having a limited (or no) performer's budget; the only true cost that you won't be able to escape from will be space rental. If you want to do a charity show, you can always look into cheap options: the first show I produced was on a university campus and because we were a student organization, we could rent a very large, very nice space on a Saturday afternoon for no cost. With enough logistical working and sufficient advance notice, you may even find a space willing to allow you to use their usual space for free. (People are very rarely loathe to help out a cause, they usually just lack the initiative.)

As for the show itself – I recommend the simpler, the better. You may have a fantastic, high concept idea that you have been just dying to put in front of an audience, but the key is to make the show lean & accessible. Something fun, and light – with emphasis being on things that anybody can step in and enjoy – is better. Save your new, experimental 'prov for your regular showcases. What can often work well is a drawing: at the university show, we had a bunch of local businesses donate some gift certificates and the like which we raffled off (mostly because university regulations prevented us from selling tickets, so this was how we raised money). For the current show, we're just charging admission, and everything over cost (which is, with free actors, only space rental) we're donating. Beyond that you just need to market the hell out of it. Unfortunately for productions like ours, which have limited budgets, you need to get creative, but the internet actually provides a bunch of cheap alternatives which have varying levels of success. Any free print listing is a must get, but never underestimate the power of word of mouth; the strange energy of these kinds of shows is a product of the “special” or “one-time-onliness” factor, but also the rather common desire among people to help others, especially if you're giving them something in return (that's the performance!).

Now, go out and spread some cheer; for charity!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Defining You and Me (AKA Us)

“The relationship is the most important thing in every scene you will do.”

As I discussed in my last post, there is a danger in attempting to apply hard rules like “You must know each other for X amount of time” and “It is only sufficient to name the relationship” to found dynamics in scenes, but how can we teach these concepts? Here are three exercises I created that I've used with my group that illustrate the concepts and give players practice with stepping away from those previously named crutches.

Relation Dash – Take two players, and give them a relationship; for our example, we'll take the relation of roommates. The players are going to do two scenes – the first is these two characters meeting for the first time, in our example, maybe it's move-in day at the dorm. The point is, we are going to specifically outline that these two people do not know each other and see the dynamic that develops (maybe it's your classic party animal/studious roommate dynamic, or maybe it's a freshman and a junior who transferred in from another school). Next, we're going take the same two players, and have them play the same characters and relationship, but with a certain amount of time passed – in this example a year might suffice, and we can take them on move-out day. The exercise has two goals – one, to mandate two people meeting each other for the first time so that players can see what that kind of dynamic feels like; defensive, nervous, eager to please, etc. You don't shy away from that, you embrace it, play it honestly, and keep accepting the reality. The second goal is to see how a dynamic changes over time (rising hate, perhaps, to a loud, disrespectful roommate or a comfort to someone you got to know, for example) and to see what the difference between a new and an established relationship is.

Click, click, mom – I've adapted this one from a Bill Arnett exercise; two players, and give one person a slip of paper with a relationship written on it (e.g. Mom/Child, Boss/Employee). Have the two players start a scene and after 30-45 seconds or so, have the player read the slip of paper and drop that relationship into the scene. Again, we're looking at two different things; the first is that what the relationship is doesn't really matter (although I should point out that it is hard to maintain some dynamics, say a resentful one, when you discover you're the other character's mother – coach the players to maintain their original point-of-view in the face of such adversity) there are an infinite number of variations on the same named relationship, because (and this is the second point) dynamic (which is to say point-of-view, attitude, etc.) is independent of relationship. You might be surprised at the kinds of dynamics that can emerge, and seem completely organic in relationships you would never expect to support such a dynamic. You can, additionally, coach players to ask themselves “If this is true, why is it true?”

Relationship Drills – Two players; assign them a single relationship (e.g. Teacher/Parent), and instruct them to do four different scenes which will all have the same relationship. Each scene should be two minutes or so – long enough to establish the dynamic. The characters can change, as can the setting, but the important part to coach is that we don't want to see the same dynamic played out four times; in our example, we don't want to see concerned teacher/apathetic parent four times. Encourage the players to test the boundaries of the relationship to see what kinds of dynamics can emerge; we did a really great one where a single parent asked the teacher out on a lunch date to hit on him. The goal of the exercise is to get the players to not go for the most obvious dynamic, because other possibilities do exist, and can all be equally entertaining. Basically, not every older/younger sibling scene has to be an authoritarian dynamic.

These exercises have worked well for me so far – feel free to use them at will, develop them, and provide me with any feedback on them. The most important thing is to continue to foster a philosophy in your group that emphasizes an open mind, and honest dynamics. Happy relationship hunting.