Blog
by Steve Roe,
co-founder of Hoopla Improv, courses, shows and improv club. Twitter: @HooplaImpro. Facebook: HooplaImpro.
Website: www.HooplaImpro.com. Email: hooplaimpro@gmail.com.
Different people playing together with different styles and behaviours is what makes impro interesting and surprising to me at the moment.
Some people pick up on verbal offers, some emotional offers, some physical offers. Some people play games, some like stories, some like relationships. Some like impro as one big character exercise. Some like quiet, some loud, some quick, some slow.
The simplicity of agreement and support in impro is what can hold this collection of different people together as one.
Different performers have different strengths, and together this can create a strong show. I enjoy watching this in Austentatious. In any moment one of them will be establishing who what where, one will be playing a nice physical environment, one will be playing a strong real character, and another will be being a big fun clowny character, and another will have an eye on the story. It looks seemless to the audience because they work together so well, and it's the differences in the team that enable them to create a greater whole.
Sometimes when a team strives to find one overall style or type of player they accidentally end up missing the variety of performers, and also the performers stop surprising each other on stage.
I quite like having no idea what someone is going to do. Because of this I've been having a lot of fun improvising in various jams recently (The Playground, Yes Ampersand, Music Box). It's thrilling to go up on stage with someone you don't even know and improvise from scratch. It's vunerable too, you suddenly have no format or shared knowledge or previous pattern of behaviour, and the simplicity of impro is all you have. I love it.
People who have recently started impro get up on stage from the audience and improvise something from nothing. That's beautiful.
So long live the jams! Long live the variety! And long live the unexpected!
Blog
by Steve Roe,
co-founder of Hoopla Improv, courses, shows and improv club. Twitter: @HooplaImpro. Facebook: HooplaImpro.
Website: www.HooplaImpro.com. Email: hooplaimpro@gmail.com.
Thursday, 30 April 2015
Monday, 20 April 2015
Chat with Chris Mead about long-form.
Blog
by Steve Roe,
co-founder of Hoopla Improv, courses, shows and improv club. Twitter: @HooplaImpro. Facebook: HooplaImpro.
Website: www.HooplaImpro.com. Email: hooplaimpro@gmail.com.
I was chatting to Chris when we were planning the courses recently and the future of long-form in London popped up:
In a nutshell, what is long-form improv to you?
CHRIS: To me long-form is anything that isn't directed during the show. Anything where you don't have someone on stage telling the audience what the game is supposed to be. It's the Wild West. Anything can happen. Short form games are brilliant and silly and wonderful but long-form is where you stay in Wonderland and see just how deep the improv rabbit hole goes (to approbate the words of Morpheus).
STEVE: The more I do improv the more I realise it can be anything you want to be. It could be a bunch of improvised scenes that may or may not connect together for various reasons, or one big scene. Some people seem use the term long-form to mean a bunch of scenes connecting together in patterns, while others use it to mean one long story. Improvised plays, movies, Harolds, Deconstructions, Cat's Cradle, musicals, there's loads of variety in long-form.
What inspires you most about long-form?
CHRIS: It's the Wild West. That means you get to be a cowboy. More than that - you get to be a cowboy who has had ninja training on a pirate ship run by robots. Long-form is about pure creation as a collective activity. It's sport for everyone who never got picked for the team during high school. But it's also for everyone who did get picked too. At its best it combines elements of the circus, the theatre, the playground, the sports hall and the inside of your head.
STEVE: The joyous freedom and excitement of creating something from nothing, complete freedom of expression. I like the feeling of "I'm not sure if this is going to work or not" but then doing it anyway and pulling something out of the hat, for performing and watching.
What teachers/shows/companies/experiences inspired you and your long-form?
CHRIS: Unquestionably Baby Wants Candy, a long-form musical improv troupe from Chicago (although they have teams in LA and New York now). Their shows are the most joyful, spontaneous, incredible things I've ever seen on stage. They are constantly making each other laugh - they are playful in such an unforced and natural way. They are taking the conceits of musicals and using them to create belly laughs. In the same mold - the Improvised Shakespeare Company are phenomenal - not because of a slavish adherence to the language or plots of the time but because they use those tropes to create utterly perfect improv sets. Give me joy over accuracy any day. I also have to mention the improv duo Dummy - their show is the perfect balance between deep character connection and your ribs bursting out of your chest because you're laughing so hard.
STEVE: It was two improvised musicals at Edinburgh in 2008, One Night Stand and Showstoppers, and also The Mischief (then known as The Scat Pack) with Lights Cameras Improvise. Before that I already loved impro but those three shows really demonstrated to me that impro could be successful to a wider audience, with great production values, and great stories. I loved the way the story unfolded moment by moment, it felt like the actors were on a tightrope. More recently I've also enjoyed watching PGraph do improvised plays, I think they are great.
What do you think could be the future of long-form in London?
CHRIS: I don't know what it's going to be like. I do know that it's going to be super exciting and it's going to change the face of comedy in London. The thing is, we know improv can sustain a community, we can see it in Chicago and LA and New York and Austin and Melbourne and Toronto and Copenhagen where there are theatres dedicated to purely improv. In Chicago there are loads of them, pages of listings for different improv gigs all over town. London can absolutely do that. It's an amazing place and there are so many talented performers here. With the new late night tube lines and with all the amazing improv springing up across this fair capital of ours - it won't be long until the future's here. I know I've conflated long-form with 'all improv' in that answer but I've written it now so I'm not going to answer it again. No regrets. We're going to see a proliferation of long-form - narrative long-form - plays and genre pieces etc & non-narrative long-form - everything from Harolds to Decons to crazy made up forms that revolve around what's on your iPhone playlists.
STEVE: Variety. I think London is in a great position as we're influenced by so many different people and companies. We have short-form games, Keith Johnstone inspired narrative, Showstoppers hugely professional improvised musical, UCB and IO with Chicago and New York style long-form, Pgraph from Texas inspiring improvised plays and genres, and a strong connection to physical theatre and clown in Europe. I think the future of long-form in London could be a melting pot of styles, where nights and festivals showcase lots of different styles. I think this will free improvisers up to be experimental and try out new ideas and forms and create shows that they and the audience love.
Because of this Hoopla are going to be running a more open long-form course, and then after that shorter courses and one off classes on all the different formats. So improvised plays, Harolds, Deconstructions, Tag Flurries, movies, musicals, I think there is room for everything in London and the more the variety the better, and we're going to be aiming to inspire this as much as possible.
What (if anything) is holding back long-form in the UK and how can we solve that?
STEVE: I'm a big fan of making shows audience friendly, especially for people who have never seen improv before and don't know what it is. For instance one thing that would help is before a long-show starts having the host briefly explain what edits and tag-outs are. I've had groups look at me like I'm mad when I've asked them to do this, but the geniune audience of non-improvisers often find the act of someone running across the front of the stage kind of weird. It is weird if you think about it, plays don't end scenes like that. It's just one example, but in general thinking of what your show is from point of view of someone who has never seen improv before would help lots. Geniune audience members really don't care whether it's the second beat of the third scene or whatever, they don't see that stuff. They do see whether the actors are scared and hesitant or happy and spontaneous, so I feel that the spirit of impro and group dynamic is often more important than the technique.
What advice would you give to someone starting their own long-form improv group?
CHRIS: Get a coach. Get an outside eye. They don't have to be better than you, they just need to not be one of the performers in your group. That gives the coach the opportunity to have OPINIONS. They can give notes without it ever looking like it's coming from a place of jealously or insecurity. Conversely, do not ever give notes to a fellow performer who hasn't asked for your notes. Even if they do ask be careful - they are probably just asking for praise. So yeah - get a coach, get drunk, fall in love, have adventures.
STEVE: The best way to learn is practice at least once a week with everyone there, with a coach or director who isn't actually in the show, and perform at least once a month. Commit to a string of performances so you get to learn from each one. Treat shows like a party, a celebration of improv.
At Hoopla now we're trying to acknowledge these differences and show all the types of long-form there are. We're trying to introduce a range of skills to people that will help with any show, and inspire them to go on and create their own forms and keep experimenting.
Hoopla are about to release their next season of long-form improv courses in London, with Maria Peters, Katy Schutte, Chris Mead and Jon Monkhouse teaching long-form. Steve is also going to be teaching a narrative long-form course in 2016, all about improvising longer stories and plays.
Blog by Steve Roe, co-founder of Hoopla Improv, courses, shows and improv club. Twitter: @HooplaImpro. Facebook: HooplaImpro. Website: www.HooplaImpro.com. Email: hooplaimpro@gmail.com.
I was chatting to Chris when we were planning the courses recently and the future of long-form in London popped up:
In a nutshell, what is long-form improv to you?
CHRIS: To me long-form is anything that isn't directed during the show. Anything where you don't have someone on stage telling the audience what the game is supposed to be. It's the Wild West. Anything can happen. Short form games are brilliant and silly and wonderful but long-form is where you stay in Wonderland and see just how deep the improv rabbit hole goes (to approbate the words of Morpheus).
STEVE: The more I do improv the more I realise it can be anything you want to be. It could be a bunch of improvised scenes that may or may not connect together for various reasons, or one big scene. Some people seem use the term long-form to mean a bunch of scenes connecting together in patterns, while others use it to mean one long story. Improvised plays, movies, Harolds, Deconstructions, Cat's Cradle, musicals, there's loads of variety in long-form.
What inspires you most about long-form?
CHRIS: It's the Wild West. That means you get to be a cowboy. More than that - you get to be a cowboy who has had ninja training on a pirate ship run by robots. Long-form is about pure creation as a collective activity. It's sport for everyone who never got picked for the team during high school. But it's also for everyone who did get picked too. At its best it combines elements of the circus, the theatre, the playground, the sports hall and the inside of your head.
STEVE: The joyous freedom and excitement of creating something from nothing, complete freedom of expression. I like the feeling of "I'm not sure if this is going to work or not" but then doing it anyway and pulling something out of the hat, for performing and watching.
What teachers/shows/companies/experiences inspired you and your long-form?
CHRIS: Unquestionably Baby Wants Candy, a long-form musical improv troupe from Chicago (although they have teams in LA and New York now). Their shows are the most joyful, spontaneous, incredible things I've ever seen on stage. They are constantly making each other laugh - they are playful in such an unforced and natural way. They are taking the conceits of musicals and using them to create belly laughs. In the same mold - the Improvised Shakespeare Company are phenomenal - not because of a slavish adherence to the language or plots of the time but because they use those tropes to create utterly perfect improv sets. Give me joy over accuracy any day. I also have to mention the improv duo Dummy - their show is the perfect balance between deep character connection and your ribs bursting out of your chest because you're laughing so hard.
STEVE: It was two improvised musicals at Edinburgh in 2008, One Night Stand and Showstoppers, and also The Mischief (then known as The Scat Pack) with Lights Cameras Improvise. Before that I already loved impro but those three shows really demonstrated to me that impro could be successful to a wider audience, with great production values, and great stories. I loved the way the story unfolded moment by moment, it felt like the actors were on a tightrope. More recently I've also enjoyed watching PGraph do improvised plays, I think they are great.
What do you think could be the future of long-form in London?
CHRIS: I don't know what it's going to be like. I do know that it's going to be super exciting and it's going to change the face of comedy in London. The thing is, we know improv can sustain a community, we can see it in Chicago and LA and New York and Austin and Melbourne and Toronto and Copenhagen where there are theatres dedicated to purely improv. In Chicago there are loads of them, pages of listings for different improv gigs all over town. London can absolutely do that. It's an amazing place and there are so many talented performers here. With the new late night tube lines and with all the amazing improv springing up across this fair capital of ours - it won't be long until the future's here. I know I've conflated long-form with 'all improv' in that answer but I've written it now so I'm not going to answer it again. No regrets. We're going to see a proliferation of long-form - narrative long-form - plays and genre pieces etc & non-narrative long-form - everything from Harolds to Decons to crazy made up forms that revolve around what's on your iPhone playlists.
STEVE: Variety. I think London is in a great position as we're influenced by so many different people and companies. We have short-form games, Keith Johnstone inspired narrative, Showstoppers hugely professional improvised musical, UCB and IO with Chicago and New York style long-form, Pgraph from Texas inspiring improvised plays and genres, and a strong connection to physical theatre and clown in Europe. I think the future of long-form in London could be a melting pot of styles, where nights and festivals showcase lots of different styles. I think this will free improvisers up to be experimental and try out new ideas and forms and create shows that they and the audience love.
Because of this Hoopla are going to be running a more open long-form course, and then after that shorter courses and one off classes on all the different formats. So improvised plays, Harolds, Deconstructions, Tag Flurries, movies, musicals, I think there is room for everything in London and the more the variety the better, and we're going to be aiming to inspire this as much as possible.
What (if anything) is holding back long-form in the UK and how can we solve that?
STEVE: I'm a big fan of making shows audience friendly, especially for people who have never seen improv before and don't know what it is. For instance one thing that would help is before a long-show starts having the host briefly explain what edits and tag-outs are. I've had groups look at me like I'm mad when I've asked them to do this, but the geniune audience of non-improvisers often find the act of someone running across the front of the stage kind of weird. It is weird if you think about it, plays don't end scenes like that. It's just one example, but in general thinking of what your show is from point of view of someone who has never seen improv before would help lots. Geniune audience members really don't care whether it's the second beat of the third scene or whatever, they don't see that stuff. They do see whether the actors are scared and hesitant or happy and spontaneous, so I feel that the spirit of impro and group dynamic is often more important than the technique.
What advice would you give to someone starting their own long-form improv group?
CHRIS: Get a coach. Get an outside eye. They don't have to be better than you, they just need to not be one of the performers in your group. That gives the coach the opportunity to have OPINIONS. They can give notes without it ever looking like it's coming from a place of jealously or insecurity. Conversely, do not ever give notes to a fellow performer who hasn't asked for your notes. Even if they do ask be careful - they are probably just asking for praise. So yeah - get a coach, get drunk, fall in love, have adventures.
STEVE: The best way to learn is practice at least once a week with everyone there, with a coach or director who isn't actually in the show, and perform at least once a month. Commit to a string of performances so you get to learn from each one. Treat shows like a party, a celebration of improv.
At Hoopla now we're trying to acknowledge these differences and show all the types of long-form there are. We're trying to introduce a range of skills to people that will help with any show, and inspire them to go on and create their own forms and keep experimenting.
Hoopla are about to release their next season of long-form improv courses in London, with Maria Peters, Katy Schutte, Chris Mead and Jon Monkhouse teaching long-form. Steve is also going to be teaching a narrative long-form course in 2016, all about improvising longer stories and plays.
Blog by Steve Roe, co-founder of Hoopla Improv, courses, shows and improv club. Twitter: @HooplaImpro. Facebook: HooplaImpro. Website: www.HooplaImpro.com. Email: hooplaimpro@gmail.com.
Sunday, 1 March 2015
12 Extra things that can help you be a successful improv performer in the long-term
Blog
by Steve Roe,
co-founder of Hoopla Improv, courses, shows and improv club. Twitter: @HooplaImpro. Facebook: HooplaImpro.
Website: www.HooplaImpro.com. Email: hooplaimpro@gmail.com.
1. Give yourself one thing to play with per show.
In an improv workshop you have a coach giving you exercises to do and things to focus on. When you start performing it's good to start giving yourself your own thing to play with per show, don't wait for someone else to tell you, take the responsibility for yourself.
This might be things like 'yes and', 'treat it like it's real', 'react and add', 'play with character', 'build a physical envionment', 'be emotional'. But just bring one conscious thing per show though, too many and it's confusing. One conscious thing helps remove fear and distracts our ego so our subconscious can take over and do the fun creative stuff!
2. Turn up on time
Don't turn up late for a rehearsal or show holding a coffee you bought on the way there. It's very disrespectful to the rest of the cast and means the team can't warm up together and form a group mind.
3. Treat each show as a learning experience
The first two improv shows I ever did went really well. The third one however was so awful that half the audience left in the interval! After the show I was so upset I went and hid under a table in the green room rather than have to be in the pub downstairs facing friends who had come to see.
I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote a list of everything that was awful about the show. Luckily I didn't throw the list away because over the following weekend I wrote the opposite thing against each entry on the list, what the positive version of the show would have been. Then next to each of those I wrote an exercise that would help us learn how to do that. That list of exercises became our syllabus for our next two months of rehearsals, which later became our syllabus for when we started running our own improv workshops.
So there you go, my most painful and humiliating improv experience also turned out to be my biggest learning experience.
4. Perform 1000 shows
I got this from one of Keith Johnstone's books. Rather than telling yourself you are going to perform one improv show and see how it goes, tell yourself you are going to perform 1000 improv shows no matter what. This takes the pressure of show number three, and show number 23, and means each show is part of an ongoing learning experience.
5. Keep going
I was talking to Nick Oram from Do Not Adjust Your Stage recently about this. They've become an incredibly popular group, they are one of our regular monthly house teams with a large loyal audience and have also been picked up by various international festivals and also been performing sold out shows at The National History Museum.
I asked them what their secret of their improv success was and he said they've just been going non-stop for a long time. There were loads of other groups around when they started out but Do Not Adjust Your Stage have just kept it going. He even said there were some points when the cast were thinking of going their separate ways, but they never really got round to splitting up!
Constant on the job experience is amazing. Yes there are things you can learn from books and workshops, but really just by getting up and doing it regularly you'll learn without really thinking about it.
Also by doing it for so long there is now something uniquely Do Not Adjust Your Stage about them.
6. Read non-impro books too
Impro books are helpful but there are also various general creativity books that can help keep you motivated. I've recently enjoyed reading The Artist's Way and The War of Art.
7. Do acting classes
Impro workshops aren't the be all and end all. Acting classes can train voice, movement, stage craft, emotion and presence that can make impro more professional. In London there are some good classes at City Lit, The Cockpit Theatre, Act Up and also the big drama schools like RADA and LAMDA if you really want to go for it.
8. Don't worry what everyone else is up to
The impro scene isn't a competition. It's perfectly possible that everyone can have a good time, and everyone can perform in shows they enjoy performing in. Love and joy isn't a limited resource.
We probably end up comparing ourselves to each other in some kind of league table because that's what basically happened at school for the first 18 years or our lives. Sometimes I think our jobs as performers and artists is to break down that fake barrier between people, so we should really try to break it down between ourselves first.
If you feel yourself perceiving barriers within the improv scene then book a space and invite groups along you don't usually work with. Get off facebook and talk to the real humans, and the barriers aren't there any more.
9. Keep focusing on the basics
If you are working on a show format you should still spend about half your time focusing on impro basics, even if you think you've got them. This could include things like Listening, Yes And, Commitment, Character, Who What Where, Emotions. Make a list of what you think the basics of improv are, and make yourself do them on a regular basis.
10. Do your own warm up
If you're at a show or jam where there isn't an organised warm up you can still take the time and responsibility to warm up yourself. Find something that works for you, maybe some stretches in a park around the corner, some solo objects from a box, anything that gets you present.
11. It's a whole new show each time
Just because the last impro show you were in went amazingly well it unfortunately doesn't mean anything for the show you are about to do. So start from scratch each time, each show is a whole new beginning and each audience is a whole new audience. Sometimes we remember the hilarious scene that we were in the week before, but forget that the foundation of that scene was actually a very real platform of who/what/where that wasn't funny. So don't go on stage looking for immediate laughs, but welcome it in when it happens.
12. Pursue what's fun
You can put on whatever you want to. Put on what you find fun. Put on what your friends and family find fun (your first audience). Don't treat it as something to get right. Treat it as a regular party that you get to host for your friends and share some good times.
Just added this bit: Eat healthy and exercise! The impoverished artist is an unhelpful stereotype, you are more fun to watch when you feel healthy, so look after yourself!
Blog by Steve Roe, co-founder of Hoopla Improv, courses, shows and improv club. Twitter: @HooplaImpro. Facebook: HooplaImpro. Website: www.HooplaImpro.com. Email: hooplaimpro@gmail.com.
1. Give yourself one thing to play with per show.
In an improv workshop you have a coach giving you exercises to do and things to focus on. When you start performing it's good to start giving yourself your own thing to play with per show, don't wait for someone else to tell you, take the responsibility for yourself.
This might be things like 'yes and', 'treat it like it's real', 'react and add', 'play with character', 'build a physical envionment', 'be emotional'. But just bring one conscious thing per show though, too many and it's confusing. One conscious thing helps remove fear and distracts our ego so our subconscious can take over and do the fun creative stuff!
2. Turn up on time
Don't turn up late for a rehearsal or show holding a coffee you bought on the way there. It's very disrespectful to the rest of the cast and means the team can't warm up together and form a group mind.
3. Treat each show as a learning experience
The first two improv shows I ever did went really well. The third one however was so awful that half the audience left in the interval! After the show I was so upset I went and hid under a table in the green room rather than have to be in the pub downstairs facing friends who had come to see.
I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote a list of everything that was awful about the show. Luckily I didn't throw the list away because over the following weekend I wrote the opposite thing against each entry on the list, what the positive version of the show would have been. Then next to each of those I wrote an exercise that would help us learn how to do that. That list of exercises became our syllabus for our next two months of rehearsals, which later became our syllabus for when we started running our own improv workshops.
So there you go, my most painful and humiliating improv experience also turned out to be my biggest learning experience.
4. Perform 1000 shows
I got this from one of Keith Johnstone's books. Rather than telling yourself you are going to perform one improv show and see how it goes, tell yourself you are going to perform 1000 improv shows no matter what. This takes the pressure of show number three, and show number 23, and means each show is part of an ongoing learning experience.
5. Keep going
I was talking to Nick Oram from Do Not Adjust Your Stage recently about this. They've become an incredibly popular group, they are one of our regular monthly house teams with a large loyal audience and have also been picked up by various international festivals and also been performing sold out shows at The National History Museum.
I asked them what their secret of their improv success was and he said they've just been going non-stop for a long time. There were loads of other groups around when they started out but Do Not Adjust Your Stage have just kept it going. He even said there were some points when the cast were thinking of going their separate ways, but they never really got round to splitting up!
Constant on the job experience is amazing. Yes there are things you can learn from books and workshops, but really just by getting up and doing it regularly you'll learn without really thinking about it.
Also by doing it for so long there is now something uniquely Do Not Adjust Your Stage about them.
6. Read non-impro books too
Impro books are helpful but there are also various general creativity books that can help keep you motivated. I've recently enjoyed reading The Artist's Way and The War of Art.
7. Do acting classes
Impro workshops aren't the be all and end all. Acting classes can train voice, movement, stage craft, emotion and presence that can make impro more professional. In London there are some good classes at City Lit, The Cockpit Theatre, Act Up and also the big drama schools like RADA and LAMDA if you really want to go for it.
8. Don't worry what everyone else is up to
The impro scene isn't a competition. It's perfectly possible that everyone can have a good time, and everyone can perform in shows they enjoy performing in. Love and joy isn't a limited resource.
We probably end up comparing ourselves to each other in some kind of league table because that's what basically happened at school for the first 18 years or our lives. Sometimes I think our jobs as performers and artists is to break down that fake barrier between people, so we should really try to break it down between ourselves first.
If you feel yourself perceiving barriers within the improv scene then book a space and invite groups along you don't usually work with. Get off facebook and talk to the real humans, and the barriers aren't there any more.
9. Keep focusing on the basics
If you are working on a show format you should still spend about half your time focusing on impro basics, even if you think you've got them. This could include things like Listening, Yes And, Commitment, Character, Who What Where, Emotions. Make a list of what you think the basics of improv are, and make yourself do them on a regular basis.
10. Do your own warm up
If you're at a show or jam where there isn't an organised warm up you can still take the time and responsibility to warm up yourself. Find something that works for you, maybe some stretches in a park around the corner, some solo objects from a box, anything that gets you present.
11. It's a whole new show each time
Just because the last impro show you were in went amazingly well it unfortunately doesn't mean anything for the show you are about to do. So start from scratch each time, each show is a whole new beginning and each audience is a whole new audience. Sometimes we remember the hilarious scene that we were in the week before, but forget that the foundation of that scene was actually a very real platform of who/what/where that wasn't funny. So don't go on stage looking for immediate laughs, but welcome it in when it happens.
12. Pursue what's fun
You can put on whatever you want to. Put on what you find fun. Put on what your friends and family find fun (your first audience). Don't treat it as something to get right. Treat it as a regular party that you get to host for your friends and share some good times.
Just added this bit: Eat healthy and exercise! The impoverished artist is an unhelpful stereotype, you are more fun to watch when you feel healthy, so look after yourself!
Blog by Steve Roe, co-founder of Hoopla Improv, courses, shows and improv club. Twitter: @HooplaImpro. Facebook: HooplaImpro. Website: www.HooplaImpro.com. Email: hooplaimpro@gmail.com.
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