Chaplin films are that rare kind of classic that is actually still enjoyable. I was rewatching The Great Dictator a few weeks ago and noticed this amazing scene, which I would love to show all my students when I’m teaching them status.
I remember several years ago, while touring, going to an improv show.
The style of play can be summed up by this little snippet
setting: a fish and chip shop
A: There’s a severed head in this deep fryer.
B: Isn’t it your wife’s head?
A: (unfazed) why, so it is.
Now, this complete lack of emotional response is pretty much always
good for a laugh (there’s a rather fun game called ‘stiff upper lip’
that plays on this), but like so many things that are always good for
a laugh, you’re really selling all your narrative stocks for a quick comedic gain,
rather than letting them grow for the big (potential) pay off.
Whenever I see a scene where people remain unaffected by big events (and as often as not ‘people’ is really me) I always think to myself ‘that was a bit of a ‘head in the deep fryer’ moment’.
Here’s some wonderful advice for teaching youngsters from Emma Brittenden, who is an awesome teacher of drama and improv.
Dress smartly
Read books or do something boring before teaching young ones
Do something silly before teaching teenagers
Smile.
Ask students about their days and listen. Don’t offer advice.
Ally yourself with the students, against the world.
Generally, suggest things directly to pre-teens; suggest things ‘other people would profit by doing’ to teens.
Don’t acknowledge students’ neuroses. Instead, speak generally to students as if they’re acting in the opposite manner.
Praise hard-work.
Praise anything the students do that’s outside of their comfort-zone, but don’t acknowledge that you know it was uncomfortable for them.
Never tell students off: it only makes you look weak.
If a student’s not trying, act unperturbed, back off and spend more time with the rest of the class.
Only mention yourself if in a self-deprecating way, and only if the lesson’s going well.
Practise what you preach.
Associate the class with success. If they’re silly on a particular day, change the lesson to harness this.
Another chart I call upon from time to time. This is to say that the more you commit to a character the more you look like a dork (my students know this), until you commit enough to push through the other side of dork and into awesome (my students don’t always know this).
A lot of people seem to think that if they signal that they’re not really trying then they won’t look like such an idiot. However, it’s this very thing that makes them look stupid. Our only hope for survival is to grit our teeth and push on through to awesome-town.
(note: this is just me collecting together things I’ve already written)
When I’m teaching improv to beginners. These are the exercises I like to use (depending on the time available).
Teaching YesAnd
(the Saturday Morning game)
Sometimes I’ll follow this up with, yesand story, Yesand experts, then maybe arms experts.
Meeting the Monster (a variant on word at a time).
Ding! (Maybe I will have used this as a warm up).
Then finally,
A great exercise I learnt from Patti Stiles to practice mime and playfulness
-Player one enters. Sets up the location in as much detail as possible using mime. Leaves.
-Player two enters. Causes as much mischief as they can in the mimed environment. Leaves.
-Player one enters again, discovers mess.
You can then have player one try to fix things, and then leave again. Then have Player Two come back in again, only to have player one come in and discover them.
It’s a lot of fun, and really gets people paying attention to their own and other people’s mime.
Here’s a game that worked really well for some High School juniors I was teaching. It’s my variation on ‘Emotional Rollercoaster’.
Emotional Hero
-Pick one actor, they are the hero of the story.
-Start a scene.
-Every once in a while the tutor will call out a different emotion. The other players must cause the hero to experience that emotion (while at the same time continuing the scene).
-etc
Why I like it
A good way to think about stories is that they’re about a character going through some changes. In order to play this game you have to do that.
It’s silly enough that the kids don’t mind playing a bunch of different emotions.
Get’s the kids used to being changed by each other. If the tutor calls out ‘sadness’ it’s not enough for the hero to just start crying, one of the other players has to steal her puppy or remind her that she’s an orphan.
Silver Bullets
A problem I often see with my High School kids is silver bulleting.
In an improv context it means solving a story problem instantly.
One of the ways we teach storytelling (not, to be honest, my favourite) is ‘find a problem, make it worse, then fix it (ideally using reincorporation)’.
Often players will cancel any problem immediately using a silver bullet as a way of preventing the story going forward (forward = scary).
Example,
A: Oh no, we broke the vase!
B: Here’s some glue… there! Good as new.
The most popular variant of the silver bullet would have to be the Deus ex machina.
An example I saw today
(From the story of Barry who lives on a desert island)
A:… and then Barry landed on a rock and dislocated his arm.
B: and then a Doctor appeared and said ‘I can fix your arm’.
What I want to say is, if you’ve put your characters in a tough spot. Don’t let them off the hook so easily! Take some time to really make them squirm. And if you’re watching the scene from the outside, let the players onstage try and solve it from within.
Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood has always bothered me as a story. It’s great most of the way through, but the ending has always struck me as pure D-ex-M. Recently I came across this;
These early variations of the tale differ from the currently known version in several ways… once the girl is in bed with the wolf she sees through his disguise and tries to escape, complaining to her ‘grandmother’ that she needs to defecate and would not wish to do so in the bed. The wolf reluctantly lets her go, tied to a piece of string so she does not get away. However, the girl slips the string over something else and gets away.
It has been noted that in these stories she escapes with no help from any male or older female figure, but instead utilises her own cunning. The woodcutter/huntsman figure, added later, would limit the girl to a relatively passive role. This has led to criticisms that the story was changed to keep women “in their place”, needing the help of a physically superior man such as the woodcutter to save them.
It’s always more satisfying to have your heroes solve things themselves.
Sometimes silver bullets are ok!
On the other hand, scenes about things getting broken can get a bit boring. Sometimes the problem is introduced as a way of blocking what the story is really about.
I remember seeing a scene about a pitcher who was nervous about his first big game. It came time for his first pitch when he discovered ‘there’s no baseball!’ The scene then became about looking for a baseball rather than confronting his fears. A quick ‘here’s one’, probably would have put things back on track.
Last week I had the pleasure of tutoring some High School Theatre Sports teams.
I never know quite what I’m going to teach but I always prepare a list of exercises that I think might be useful that I can glance at when I’m stuck.
My stand out performer this week was definitely ‘make an object, say a line‘.
Make an object, Say a line
How it works: Standard open scene, but players can’t speak unless they have created an object through mime (one object earns you one line).
What it does: mime skills, less talking, less worrying about story, less talking about what you are doing*.
Origin: unknown.
*Players will hopefully work out that if they mime a cup and say ‘I just got a cup’ then they have put themselves back to square one (needing to mime a new object).
This is the first time Amazon’s recommendation system has turned up something interesting.
Unscripted Learning: Using Improv Activities Across the K-8 Curriculum
Using improv to teach other things is something I’ve been thinking about for a while. So I may have to look into this one.
I found the chapter on improvising maths here (PDF).