Austin Improv

apiaryist wrote:Tension, exhalations, inflection, and every other minute detail of the human condition start to add up.

aurthur wrote:wha??



blah blah blah, that all adds up to a whole bouquet of what acting teachers refer to "indicating." To hell with that!!
...

Motivation! Everything else = parlor tricks!

I respectfully disagree.



Losing yourself comes from knowing your lines AND knowing your body.

nadine wrote:Some years ago I took an acting class in the State Theatre with a local celebrity, and I was bored out of my mind. I think it was a TV acting class though, so it was very subtle. And I stopped attending after 2 classes.

Too bad you didn't stay the course. I've either studied with or worked with most of the instructors at the State Theatre School of Acting (including Shana Merlin), and they really know their stuff. Looking at their current roster, the class I would most recommend for improvisers would be Babs George's class on "Creativity of Acting for Film and Stage," which I've taken 3 or 4 times myself for the sheer joy of it. Her class is about tapping into the natural, intuitive responses of your mind, body and spirit, to create characters that are truthful and vibrant; not contrived by the actor.

There are many credible acting teachers in town, each one teaching their own point of view and expertise. Some will appeal to you; some won't. I've studied with many of them, and have enjoyed synthesizing what I gleaned from each. If you are willing to be put through acting-for-stage boot camp, I'd highly recommend Barry Pineo's 9-week Austin Acting Workshop. His technique is all about storytelling, effective delivery of the scripted text, and going after your character's objective, starting with monologue work. His approach (180-degrees opposite of Babs) trains your body to be a confident, relaxed, effective and efficient story delivery instrument. If nothing else, he will rid you of your nervous habits, allowing you to stand quietly and confidently, before, during and after your performance.

And Arthur, of course, has tossed his hat into the ring ... teaching acting from an improviser's perspective. Should be interesting.

Arthur has a deepdeepdeep acting background, trust him.

Kathy Rose Center wrote:
And Arthur, of course, has tossed his hat into the ring ... teaching acting from an improviser's perspective. Should be interesting.

I improvise from an actor's perspective most of the time
I actually didn't get into doing longform improv until about 4 years ago...

The class I'm doing right now at Ultimate is improv, but the foundation comes from acting, so I'm going to say things.

This past week I saw a completely fantastic scene that was hardly what you would consider funny in most improv terms. It was character, relationship, and downright dramatic. Later on I was in a scene that was heartfelt and pained. No laughs, big applause at the end. What?

We've got a show on the 25th and the 'improviser' in me is worried I'm not going to be funny, because a lot of the good work I'm doing here is real, may not really have a game, etc. etc. I'm running around thinking 'okay, when are we gonna be FUNNY?' When do I get to kill someone with a blowgun?

That's the thing I'm running into over and over in the work. Let go of creating conflict, let go of creating a game, lay back, and discover some stuff. What I have to let go of to do that puts me in a really uncomfortable, vulnerable place. It may be just what I need to make the jump to the next level of improv, but it's really challenging. For example, I've never seen someone get uncomfortable and quit an improv class before.

I do find that when I do a funny scene coming from a real place, the laughs are deeper, and the other thing I've noticed is that the scene lasts. People remember it more. I played real scenes before, but always with a voice or shtick to hide behind. Not here.

I dunno! I feel like a clown who signed up for a seriously heavy clown theory school, and I'm like 'I wanted to use a slide whistle and make balloon dogs' and the master clown is like 'No. That is not what it is to be a clown.'

Hmm...

Milquetoast wrote:I do find that when I do a funny scene coming from a real place, the laughs are deeper, and the other thing I've noticed is that the scene lasts. People remember it more.

Totally, dude!
YES YES YES!

Milquetoast wrote: This past week I saw a completely fantastic scene that was hardly what you would consider funny in most improv terms. It was character, relationship, and downright dramatic. Later on I was in a scene that was heartfelt and pained. No laughs, big applause at the end. What?

We've got a show on the 25th and the 'improviser' in me is worried I'm not going to be funny

You know what? Fuck funny. That shit up there, that's what I want to see. Any douchebag can be funny, but if you can pull off those "no laughs, big applause" scenes consistently, you will be my hero.

The bonus part is, you're (and this applies to most improvisers I know) already a fairly naturally funny person, so if you stick to the real shit, the laughs will come regardless, and be deepened and made more impactful by the dramatic bits. So, yeah, do that. Leave the formulas and schticks and the poop and dicks and moon monkeys for someone else.

Just chill out and be sweet. Let it all go.

no laughs won't get you big applause if'n there isn't 100% commitment to the reality of the character's wants

blocking happens without thinkin'
storytelling happens without thinkin'
it all comes out like breath if you do it right

Wesley wrote:
You don't take an acting class to improv your improv. You take improv classes to improve your improv.
You take and acting class to improve your acting. Then you use your improved acting alongside, or subordinate to, your improv to make your physical and emotional reactions more realistic.
You apply from acting the stagecraft aspects often lost or minimally used in improv training (finding your light, body movement, facial expressions and micro-expressions, staged combat, etc) improv still tells the story and creates the moment, acting just brings what improv has decreed to more vivid life.

To me the question is like asking "Would taking more maths classes make me better at chemistry?"
Yeah, it probably would. Though you can certainly learn and get by in chemistry for a long while with only rudimentary maths skills. Math helps chemistry, but math is not the same as chemistry.

Plus, for me, any and every thing you learn, every new skill you master, every new fact you digest, every new hobby you try, helps your improv . . . or should.
Would taking a cooking class help your improv? It should - you'll learn new terminology and technique you can reference on stage in scenes. But would it help as much as acting? Probably not. everything helps, some things just help mroe directly is all.

so...yeah, especially if it is something you haven't studied before, an acting class will definitely help your improv...I don't think it makes any sense at all to say you don't take an acting class to improve your improv if that is your goal. It seems pretty clear that it can and probably will help you.

it's also really hard to do an improv scene and try to be real, really ACT in the scene, and find the other person just wants to be funny and goofy. because you're coming out and trying to come from a place of honest emotion, making yourself vulnerable onstage only to have the other person kick you in the nuts to make themselves look funny. it's like jumping off of a cliff, expecing, HOPING, that someone is going to catch you...and then hitting the ground because they were busy juggling.

sorry, had a couple of bad experiences this weekend that reminded me of this thread, and needed to come and vent.

the_reverend wrote:it's also really hard to do an improv scene and try to be real, really ACT in the scene, and find the other person just wants to be funny and goofy. because you're coming out and trying to come from a place of honest emotion, making yourself vulnerable onstage only to have the other person kick you in the nuts to make themselves look funny. it's like jumping off of a cliff, expecing, HOPING, that someone is going to catch you...and then hitting the ground because they were busy juggling.

sorry, had a couple of bad experiences this weekend that reminded me of this thread, and needed to come and vent.

I hear you. It seems that improv is so prevalently associated with comedy that even improvisers who understand that improv doesn't have to be funny still act on a compulsion to satisfy the status quo of making funny in their performances. Most of the time when I'm improvising and I put comedy aside in the interest of reacting and relating as a real and layered human character, I feel like I'm fighting that compulsion to be funny myself. And that sucks, because feeling like that takes me out of where I want to be. Or puts me in my head, as they say.

Jordan, what's the point of reference? Show I saw? Other show?

I could see certain types of 'authentic' play working with very 'presentation'-y performers, but at the bottom of everything you've got to be able to connect and support each other. But yeah, that's about play, which I think isn't what le thread is about.

“They’re overreacting, paying too much attention to each other.â€

[quote="sara_anm8r"]“They’re overreacting, paying too much attention to each other.â€

"Television is ruining you, Vincent!" -Milos Forman