arclight wrote:I don't react well to seduction scenes. I never initiate them, and I have a horrible time playing them. They don't come up very often for me and I generally weasel through them while on-stage but I just lock up dead in workshop & rehearsal. Rhythm too. Either one tends to engage my fight-or-flight response but I fake my way through songs better than seductions.
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I guess the question is how do you cope with scenes & situations that (despite your best efforts and for whatever reason) leave you locked up and dead inside?
I hear you Bob, I'm not necessarily a fan of being the recipient of a seduction in a scene. ...Especially when there's nothing else going on -- like at the top of the scene -- making the sudden seduction feel like a move of desperation. To address this very generally, I think it has to do with what you bring to the scene as a character and improvisor in these cases. The reason it feels initally icky to me is that, when I don't bring anything else to this scene, I feel forced to just play along -- either be seduced or shy away from it. In my view, either is just a plain, basic "yes" with no real "and".
I find that giving your character some other motivator can make it actually funny, and way more fun to play. This way you can "yes" the seduction and make it something far different than the standard seduction thing. For instance, off the top of my head, if you get someone trying to seduce you:
1. endow yourself with unbelievable vanity. As they get turned on, you get even more turned but about your own looks and self.
2. you are an extremely busy person. You are so into getting it on, but you have a meeting in two minutes -- get flustered trying to juggle seducing them back with managing a time when you can meet again with everything else that begets an extremely busy person.
3. you (the character) get seduced by people ALL the time. Play along somewhat blasé, go through the motions with boredom infused into your speech and actions (which will then likely make the other character to react to your seeming boredom)
Any of these (and far better ones) would move it away from the typical seduction thing and make it more unique, more specifically about the two characters that are on stage at that moment. It also gives the other improvisor much more to react to.
The other thing that always floats in the back of my mind when someone makes any move is "what does this really say about our relationship? about our history? about who they are? about who I am? about where we are?" In real life, people say things all the time that -- put in context of the people's specific situation -- says something about any of those questions above. If you're at work, any number of people could simply say "You look nice," and yet there's something different infused in or driving that statement depending of who said it. Instead of just assuming that you are in a bedroom or something when being seduced, just make a declarative statement that answers one of those questions.
"Come here big boy -- I want to taste some sugar." (this would be pretty bad, eh?)
"Linda, I'm sorry -- despite your efforts, your son will be suspended from school." (now you're a school principal)
"Come here big boy -- I want to taste some sugar."
"We're going to have to make this quick -- we're going to be over the drop point in 30 seconds." (now you're both supposed to be jumping out of that airplane)
"Come here big boy -- I want to taste some sugar."
"Oh Corrie, please, you know I have no control when call me sugar! We can't do this yet again?!" (the other person has seduced you many, many times before and you cannot say no -- let anything they say be the exact thing that gets you worked up) --this is one of my favorites: the person who just can't resist something, no matter how they try throughout the scene.
"Come here big boy -- I want to taste some sugar."
"I'm still mad at you, Juana. That car is fucking totalled!"
and
"Come here big boy -- I want to taste some sugar."
"Mom, you smell like margaritas." (duh dunananh! you've got a dysfunctional family!)
I think it always helps to have those questions floating through your head when someone intiates. When a scene begins on stage, imagine what happened just before we saw these characters, like seconds before. What was just said or what had just happened that would cause this person to seduce me? This can give you a place to work from if someone's suddenly seducing you. It gets harder and harder to establish something like that as the scene goes on, but if you make some declaration in the first few lines about the other character, yourself, the relationship, location, history, etc., it gives the scene a specificity and uniqueness, gives the characters some specific motivation (beyond just "turned on") and makes it that much easier to play for both improvisors.
And the last thing is to just have something strong when you come out into the scene. Even if someone else initiates -- with a seduction thingy -- just stick to whatever it was. You can still be that drunk hobo looking for a dumpster. You can still be that little boy who's kite is in a tree. Or whoever. It will make the scene that much more interesting and will likely give the other player -- who maybe started out the scene with a seduction (or a transaction, or teaching) because they had nothing else -- something to work with and react to now. It's the Annoyance Theater style -- it's sort of the opposite of "yes, and" but I think the two work well together. Taken to extremes, they'll lead to two people blindly supporting each other and never declaring anything, or they'll lead to two people doing their own thing and not listening/reacting to one another. If you infuse some strong choices into the scene, it can give the other player something definite to react to.
And the last, last, last thing, either accepting or rejecting the seduction is fine, funny, and playable. But I usually prefer to watch and play when things are absolutely yessed. It's almost like a challenge met that way, and leads to an undeniable energy that the audience (and the players) feel. I don't always do it, but I emphasize going for the absolute yes in any scene, whether the other character intends to seduce you, kill you, kill themselves, eat babies, whatever.
Sorry I'm being superlongwinded, but I read through this thread yesterday and today and had been thinking alot about it. I think we've all gotten caught in the "seduction", "Johnson, get in my office!", "Now class, I'm going to teach you about..." scenes -- any of the ones that can leave you feeling locked up, dead inside, or (specifically, for me) just that you're (boringly) playing out something to it's logical end. But these are some of the ways that I think those paths can be diverted to something more interesting.
It's certainly cheaper... and more entertaining.