Baranosky Capstone 1

Alex Baranosky Live in 55! For my senior capstone I ran an improv workshop in Studio 55. The workshop was open to all theatre students as well as folks not in theatre and there were even two people there from the community at large. The goal of the capstone project was to combine my love of improv theatre with my love of education. I wanted to provide a workshop where students could (quickly) learn the basics of improv, the structure of some of the warm ups and exercises improv artisans use, as well as the games. The games closely resemble those played on the hit television series, Whos Line Is It Anyway? I had thirteen participants at the workshop on Sunday April 17th, 2011. There were four performance majors, three technical theatre majors, four other Drake students, and two people from the community.. The evening lasted from 6:30 - 9:15. I was very happy with the turnout and the results of the workshop. Improv is an excellent skill for all theatre majors to work on. It encourages quick thinking, characterization, and helps work on comedic timing. One of my favorite moments came at the end, when the DICEY students said what a great time they had, and that they had learned new things to incorporate into their regular improv performances.

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Below is a list of the topics we covered, warm ups we went through, and improv games we played. Some basics, I started by explaining some basic guidelines for improvisation. Below are the three basic rules and helpful tips that I provided to the players, many of them had never done improv before.

1.

Acceptance, yes and... - Improv is all about accepting what the other players say and enhancing it. Example: The sky sure is a pretty shade of lime green today Yes, and those purple polka dot clouds look nice

2.

Beginning - middle - end... - Improv is about telling a story. Make sure each improv scene has a strong beginning, middle, and end.

3.

Stock characters ... characteristics - There are a lot of gags in improv, one of them is pulling out stock characters. These are characters, impressions, quirks you know you have that you can use to create comedy. For example, maybe you do a hilarious old jewish grandma, or a really funny blonde cheerleader. These are stock characters. Next came the warm ups, these are activities that all actors should do before entering into a performance or rehearsal. I Warm ups

1. 2.

Zip - zap - zop - point and clap - focus and eye contact are key. mip - map - mop. Similar to zip, zap, zop except players can change the initial sound.

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3.

Go (or yes) - players point and ask for permission to change places with another player, that play then says go. Focus is on movement, eye contact and precision. What are you doing? - players stand in a circle and begin pantomiming something (tying their shoes) the person next to them then asks what are you doing and the first person must respond with something totally different (swimming from a shark)

4.

5.

Yes and... - a game style of the acceptance of improv. Go around in a circle and tell a story using yes and...

6.

Mind maps - divide into groups - give word and let them create mind map off of word then turn it into a scene and see if other groups can guess original word Game-time! These are the improvisation games we played during our time together. Some of the games are pure improv meaning players must create the story and characters on the spot, other games give players a little time to prepare before performing.

1.

First line - last line - players are divided into groups of four and given a few minutes to develop a scene based on a first and last line they are given. Example: First line - I just love apple pie! Last line: I am never going in grandmas closet again The groups must then create a scene that can start and end with those lines.

2.

Who, what, where - Again players are divided into groups given a who, what, where that they must then create a scene based on. The audience then guesses the who what

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where at the end. Example: Who- Miley Cyrus, What- a golden cucumber, Where- a rooftop. 3. Phone bank - Pure Improv - 5 players are lined up at a bank of phones, all talking to someone else. Player 1 starts with their conversation and player 2 must pick up on something (a word, or phrase) to then begin their conversaiton, and so on. 4. Park bench - Pure Improv - players rotate in and out of a park bench in NYC and have quick exchanges with one other player. Must justify a reason to leave 5. Next TV Show - Players are divided into groups again and given a genre and must create a trailer for the next great TV show. 6. Forward - reverse - Pure Improv - players are situated in a square on stage with 2 in front and 2 in back. Each pair has a relationship as the square rotates. My favorite game, and is easily explained visually. 7. Gift exchange - Pure Improv - a player is returning an item made of something, with something on top. Example: a snow globe - made of meat - with John Travolta on top. The gimmick is that the player who is returning the item does not know what it is. And it is up to the store clerks to give clues to help them get it. 8. Dating game - Pure Improv - an eligible bachelor or bachelorette is paired up with three potential dates and can ask them questions. However, the eligible bachelor does

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not know the other threes quirks and must guess who or what they are through questioning. Example: Bachelor #1 is King King, #2 is the entire movie of Inception, #3 is Oprah Winfrey. 9. News from a land - Players are again divided into groups and given a land Candyland Narnia Neverland and must create a newscast for that land. Puns are welcome. 10. Press conference - Pure Improv- two players are sent out, and the audience de-

cides who they are, Ketchup and Mustard, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and then must ask questions so they players can guess who they are. This was a favorite!