The purpose of scenes in the Armando

[Roy Janik]

Here's an interesting quote about the Armando, by Shad Kunkle, by way of Ratliff's blog:

[quote="Shad Kunkle"]“The scenes are trying to disprove the conclusions the monologist comes to.â€

[Milquetoast]

I don't quite see what Shad means by that, so perhaps an example is in order.

[Wesley]

In my personal opinion, the scenes have no inherent point beyond the ones you decide to give them.

If you decide to disprove the monologue, you play it that way. If you decide to deconstruct the monologue and find themes, you play it that way. If you decide to amplify the monologue and play one aspect to increasingly frantic extremes, you play it that way. Maybe you recall scenes, maybe you don't.
I'm personally working on a way to use an Armando to tell a cohesive, long-form narrative story arc and hopefully we'll do it soon.

I think some forms are created with a specific, thematic, dramatic, theatrical, etc point in mind, but I don't believe that the Armando is one that has to be played a certain way to achieve maximum effectiveness. I think there are several ways to play it and all of them achieve different ends via the same shell. At its heart, the Armando is simply monolgues and scenes and you control it, not the other way around. It is what you make it. No more, no less.

[arthursimone]

Classic Armando puts an experienced improviser in the driver's seat, setting things up for some awesome thematic deconstruction, sometimes even using devices from the side for heightening...


I think most of the monologue shows you'll see here (Stool Pigeon) are just ways of showcasing unique guests and storytellers, who should simply be made to feel super-comfortable and rockstarish in an in-out fashion... it's sometimes hard to focus on the form itself when dealing with a new person each week.

[Asaf]

Yeah, Shad is talking about one way to play it. And I have seen many professional improvisers including some of the guys who created the format do it in a way that has nothing to do with what he is talking about.

[ratliff]

I should point out on Shad's behalf that he was actually repeating this as someone else's observation, so it's not fair to attribute it to him.