Warm ups
I sometimes write myself notes to tell myself what I think about certain things. Here are my notes on Pre-show warmups.
First of all, as far as I’m concerned a vocal warm up is mandatory. It’s not enough that an audience can hear you. If I have to take a moment to reconstruct your sentence in my head, then it’s much less likely that I’ll laugh at your joke. The moment will have passed.
Nothing too elaborate, a little can make a big difference.
Like Keith says ‘the voice has to be a whip to discipline the audience’.
By the same token, a few stretches wouldn’t go amiss. Or have you already decided that you’ll perform all your scenes tonight standing casually in the middle of the stage?
As for the classic improv warm up.
My number one rule. If someone in the group wants to do a warm up, I’ll take part (enthusiastically I hope). Improv is about being there for other people after all.
If there are some technical aspects to the show then I’ll want to work on those a little. If there’s going to be rhyming then a rhyming game will help. When we were doing a Shakespeare show we made a simile game that worked very nicely.
Other than that, I like to hang out with the other players, and being improvisers, it’s not uncommon for a game of some kind to develop organically which is always more satisfying.
Finally, a tradition we got from Patti Stiles. Just before going onstage give each person a hug and tell them ‘I’ve got your back’.
January 13th, 2010 at 1:54 am
What is your simile game?
January 13th, 2010 at 11:39 am
If I remember correctly, one person would say the first part of a line. Something like
‘I hate you…’
then the next person would finish the line. Something like
‘…like the sun hates redheads.’
or ‘the ship sank slowly …like an old man easing himself into a bath.’
Then that person would set up the next line.