This week we begin the process of using improvisation exercises to help us find breakthroughs in our work. By improvising based on what we know of our characters, we find the liberty to explore possibilities that are both in and outside the given circumstances. As you write about your experiences this week in class, ask yourself, "What do I do in a scene to tell the audience about my experiences?" What do you use? What do you do to "endow" yourself with particular traits, characteristics, etc. that reveal something to your scene partner? to the audience? to yourself? What objects are used in your scene that help your character tell the audience who they are?
Hagen asks us to link the emotional and sensory relationships ro each object in our scenes that serve us for each character we play (140). Remember--emotion memory tells is the psychological (or emotional) responses to an even while sense memory helps us identify the physiological responses to an event. Do you know what your responses are in a scene from moment to moment?
If we examine all of our scenes, there are objects in them that tell us about the character's lives...what we do with those objects are important in helping us obtain our objectives in our performances.
The improv exercise I did last week for my scene really showed a different side of my character. I was following the given circumstances of age but by changing that it made me look at myself in a new light. The exercise brought out irritation which quickly led to anger which I wasn't really expecting. I'm not sure what I thought would come of it but anger was not my thoughts. Even with that being the case, the exercise really helped to understand the different aspects to the relationship. There are many different emotions I have throughout the scene and that exercise was only focused on one tiny fraction of it. From moment to moment I have different moods and feelings which I am slowly uncovering and pinpointing. For instance, I have moments of irritation but then just as quickly I go to fear, disappointment, excited and other various little moods and all of these happen in under 10 minutes. It's a complex part of acting to go from mood to mood but I am working on making each different mood separate from the others so the audience and "Matt" can understand who I am and where I am coming from.
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed the improve exercises that we have done in class. I have found that it has been a great way to learn different things about my character without over intellectualizing the process. I have a problem of over thinking my acting sometimes and I find the improves to be liberating in that sense. Also I have found the improves to be a nice way of working on a character even when you have not put in the amount of work outside of rehearsal that you would have liked to have. To be straightforward Arms and the Man has dominated my time and creative energy these past few weeks, but it is nice to be able to explore the character of Matt and "riff" on some early "character sketches" that I may or may not use in my final scene.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes down to improvisation and basic, spur of the moment acting, I find that I come to use standards. Because there is only so much time to prepare (a few seconds or a minute perhaps) I have come to try and rely on a few basic things to be understood in a scene or to create someone real and experienced. I find that the most useful thing to me as an improvisational actor is the language and inflection. Because there isn’t time to write a character history and take apart the character deeply. I gather what I can from the given circumstances and make a spur of the moment choice about the character and their history. Whatever I choose is defined by two things mostly, the language that I allow the character to use, and the attitude and methods of which they interact. If there is an object in the scene it also comes down to the spur of the moment, “well, let’s say it’s appropriate to burn myself on this teapot, ok, cool” done. In improvisation it’s harder to know what your actions or reactions will be from moment to moment because they are honestly that, reactions. However when we go about getting a scene that we can study, we have to take a look at the same things. Except this time around we are given the opportunity to make choices based on more information. This can be sort of scary because of the options that it gives us, but a blessing in the same way. For instance, the object that really jumped out to me was the only one in my given circumstances. My character is drinking water at the bar instead of an alcoholic beverage. This can say loads and loads about my character. Perhaps he doesn’t enjoy alcohol because of a bad experience. Maybe he shouldn’t drink alcohol because he gets rowdy. Maybe he’s had a drinking problem so he can’t drink. Maybe he doesn’t drink alcohol because he would rather watch the bar sober, its funny. Maybe he’s a creep and wants the excuse to say or do things he normally wouldn’t while blaming it on alcohol, without being drunk. All of these are choices. Each choice is a legitimate one, but each one says a whole different set of things about a character. So, the object can be a doorway to a greater, deeper character. We just have to sit down and make the choice to follow through.
ReplyDeleteThrough the improvisation exercises that I've done both this semester and previously in Acting I, I've realized how helpful it is to have someone else there with you performing, as Joe called it: "spur of the moment, acting". Performing improv with someone else truly eliminates all predictions you could make about what they will do. It helps you totally be ready for anything as well as truly see what your character might be thinking or doing if the circumstances changed just slightly. Much of what we learned in Acting I has helped me gain a good foothold of the physiological sense memory and physically show the audience a point I'm trying to make, or make my current activity clear. In Acting II, I'm starting to battle with making psychological aspects of my character clear, even to the point of almost endowing them with qualities to make it evident. In many ways I think the two (physiological and psychological) can be linked. For instance, a mysophobe (someone afraid of germs), could use a combination of facial features, tonality in dialogue, and physical movement with the body such as curling away from dirty places, or keeping the hands close to the body. Combining physiological with psychological is much of what I've been focusing on with this scene. Improvisation has certainly facilitated this process by allowing me to play with different choices and see what works for what situation.
ReplyDeleteI am sure it is perfectly clear that I am not comfortable with improvisation; however that is why I am glad we have been working with it in class. I have found it very helpful to be pushed into things that make me uncomfortable, and to work through those issues. As an actor I have frequently found it hard to “stay in character” when through a curve ball. Of course with experience I have been getting better, but the work we have been doing in class with has been very helpful in this regard. Being a character without the crutch of the script has been so freeing. Up until this point I do not feel as though I have put enough effort in to the physical work on my characters. I usually pick one physical action that the character does (running my hand through my hair etc) but that has been about it. So clearly this is something I need to work on now.
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy improvisational work a lot. Not only because it is a lot of fun, but also because I get a lot out of it. Improv is like a real conversation. You have to really listen to your partner and of course also vice versa. It is active work you're not just passively thinking but you really have to focus. It is a playful approach on a scene and reveals new details about “me” and I get to know my scene partner (actor and character) better. This brief chapter in Hagen's book does not provide a lot information about improv, thus it leaves us a lot of options how to arrange our personalized improv technique.
ReplyDeleteThe word endowment only existed in my vocabulary as applicable to objects and their changed attributes so far. But it makes of course sense to apply it also to the actors relationship to his character. It is not that hard for me to assume the role of a 17 years old high school student because it is not that long ago that I was one myself. So I just have to remember what it was like and pretend that I'm still going to high school. The typical problems “I” am facing will not be an issue too, because it is not such a unimaginable situation to face as a pubescent teenager. Although I never wanted to kill myself because for any reason I can imagine what it could be like. All of us are going threw times of trouble and to remember this emotion and exaggerate it a bit should not be impossible.
I love improv so much, that is always my favorite exercises that we do in class. I love taking something given and making my character mold around that. I felt like the exercise that Jackie and I did to help us with our scene really helped because I got to get mad but not just mad, frustrated too. I find improv helps me use emotions in a different way, when I get frustrated I end up leaving the situation, do something that will make me less stressed and come back to it to solve it, if I get pissed off and it gets to the “end with no return” that is when I cry. But with the exercise I couldn’t just get up and leave I had to finish out my scene with her because I was still stumbling around to find the emotion. My everyday emotions I feel are displaced in weird ways because I handle situations differently than the very typical stereotypes. Getting a scene and grasping the character is fun for me and with a “new personality” comes new emotions. And with the improv that is something that is very interesting to investigate for myself. On a bigger scale finding the new emotions for my characters helps me as an everyday person gain more emotions and reactions. Going back on past blogs I have found that by doing more improv the key is to erase the previous character you were and try to be a new one or just being open to not holding on to something!
ReplyDeleteMegan Kane
ReplyDeleteMarch 4, 2010
Acting Blog Week 7
Using improvisation in this class has helped me so much. When I stepped foot through that door as a freshman last semester, I was very nervous. When I realized we had to get up and work without even preparing anything I was very worried. However, now after being put to the test and using the improvisation technique day after day, I am very comfortable. I am so excited to come to class everyday and push myself. I have learned so many different things about myself through my different characters. Improvisation has really expanded my horizons and forced me to work outside of my comfort zone. As we all know, I have much work to do still, but I feel I have made so much progress and an actor. I am really excited to do the emotion workshop, and see where that exercise takes me. I am going to continue to give my all so that I can master all of the emotions outside of my comfort zone. This will help me become a more well-rounded actor.
Although I haven’t had a lot of work with improving on my character, I did do one exercise in class with David, where we sat face to face and had to talk to each other as our characters without script. This was emotional for me because I had to be mean to David, as my bi polar brother and show that I didn’t really care for him when that would tear me up if it was my actual brother at hand. I hope to do more work on both the characters I will be playing. This work really helped me find my given circumstances and it really helped form “Paige” and her personality. I hope that I can dig deep and find the right improvisational skills to pin point my characters.
ReplyDeleteI know that with my scene, I am a in a gym with a mat and my workout bag, but through the objects are just clues to tell the audience that we are in a gym. For me I feel that the conversation happens everywhere with people that you really don’t care for, but the writer wanted to put he audience in a certain frame of mind to keep the scene real and current. I know that I had to use emotion memory, not with the objects but with the relationship that I have between the girl and myself. I had thought of how self-absorbed girls act, talk and think out loud. SO what I have learned from the improve is that, I had to connect myself with a personality that was clearly opposite of my mine and really reach out and find out how girls like this act so I could use it for my character. Also with doing this, it really made me realize how narcissistic girl think, act and speak, and on the other side of it all how they get bullied or manipulated by other girls who act differently. The improve in class was a real eye opener for how to respond using a self-absorbed mindset; it really brought me into that kind of selfish world.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I like best about improv is the ability to fast forward and rewind in time. Such as in long form you may 'cut to' and so forth, it gives you the ability to show the backstory, and possibly the future. Also, I think it helps the actor discover him or herslf even more completely as a character because you are literally speaking for the character, as opposed to having a script and knowing which line you are going to say next.
ReplyDeleteAll the improv work we’ve done in this class and back in Acting I last semester has helped me SO much. Improvisation helps to produce natural reactions because there is so much on the line. Your mind works twice as fast because you don’t want to break character. Even though we’ve done a lot of it, improv is always daunting at first because of how challenging it can be if given a difficult situation. But once I’m up there, there’s always this moment of release where I feel free and unafraid of whatever happens. Improv exercises have helped me in so many ways. I no longer view memorizing lines as a chore because I’ve discovered ways to make it easier. If I just remember my objectives and what the scene is about, then I can rely on improv skills if I get lost. I’ve found that on good days, when I’ve truly focused on what I was doing, the improv exercises put me in a place where I truly become the character. Sometimes it’s only for a second or a minute, but I experience it and I know what to strive for.
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