Talk to each other about each other

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 just got asked on email about exercises that help coach relationships in improv, so I thought I'd share some of my favourites.

Many thanks to Mark Beltzman and Andrew Gentilli for introducing me to lots of these, and to Conor for inspiring the blog.

That makes me feel

Play a scene where each player starts each line by saying "that makes me feel..." followed by naming the feeling. It's hard at first to name a feeling straight away, but it gets easier with practice. If you don't have words just use sounds, which happens in real life sometimes anyway. For instance "that makes me feel rrrrahhhhh!!"

You look you seem

Scenes where you say "I feel...", "you are being....", "that makes me feel....", "you look ....", "you seem...." as much as possible and then make those emotional calls.

Talk to each other about each other

Scenes where the director asks the players to "talk to each other about each other" and gently side coaches to bring them back to that whenever they drift away. For instance:

Player 1: Dad lovely to see you again.
Player 2: Thanks Timothy, you too, it's nice to be out of prison.
Player 1: I can imagine, that's why I took you to this football match, take your mind off things and all that.
Player 2: Thanks Timothy, oh look hot dogs.
Player 1: Oh yes, hot dogs! Shall we get a hot dog?
Player 2: Yes please with mustard and ketchup and onions.
DIRECTOR: Talk to each other about each other.
Player 2: You really look after me Timothy.
Player 1: Thanks Dad, well you looked after me when I was small.
Plater 2: Well I had too, I'm your Dad! But you've gone above and beyond.
Player 1: Foul! Oi ref!
Player 2: Ref you bastard are you blind?
Player 1: Let's invade the pitch!
Player 2: The referee's a wanker!!!
DIRECTOR: Talk to each other about each other
Player 1: You've always hated authority figures haven't you dad?

So in that scene the players were talking to each other about each other, but when the hot dogs popped up they accidentally got distracted and 'yes-anded' a hot dog instead of the relationship. Same again with the football foul they saw on pitch. So the director who is outside this can help out by getting them back into it.

It feels quite vulnerable talking to each other about each other on stage, so sometimes without realising we create distractions to avoid these moments, but actually the relationship is the fun stuff to go into.

Focus Ball

I think this was invented by Roy at The Hideout Theatre in Austin, Texas. I love this exercise.

Two improvisers play a scene as above, trying to talk to each other about each other. Another improviser represents an "emotional focus ball" that floats between them. If they are talking to each other about each other, the relationship, then the emotional ball stays between them and near them or on them. If they start distracting away from the present relationship the emotional focus ball flies away to represent that, and they have to win it back.

It's basically a physical version of the director's side coaching in the game above.

Name the relationship

Another exercise is mini-scenes where you have to establish relationships within five lines. At first this can feel forced but eventually with practice it gets easier and more natural. 

Just saying it is fine, even if it feels a bit crow-barred in, because then you're in the scene. For instance starting with "Dad, I need to borrow the car for a job interview" is fine. 

Mark Beltzman used to say that naming the relationship is just the first quick game you do at the top of the scene, and then you are free to play another game by talking to each other about each other. 

When it comes to naming the relationship it can come from a natural place. Look at your scene partner, before the scene even starts, they are already giving you emotional and physical offers before the scene even starts. Connect to how you are actually feeling, and then blame the other character and the scene for those emotions - you feel like this because of them, your emotions are a valid part of the scene. What does this little moment at the start of the scene, even before the scene, make you feel like? What relationship does it remind you of? Who do you feel like? Who do they feel like to you? Those little whiffs of inspiration you get dancing around inside, turn the volume up on them and saying them out loud and proud as offers. 

What's special about this relationship?

Someone said once that as they'd just done a scene with a husband and wife wouldn't another one just be the same scene? No it wouldn't, because each scene we're exploring what's special about that specific and unique relationship. 

Husband/Wife, Mother/Daughter, Father/Son, Friend/Friend etc are all the initial labels of the relationship, that we can put in at the start of the scene. But by talking to each other about each other we can explore what is unique and special about that particular relationship in the present moment. 

Maybe it's a Father that wants to hang round with his Son's friends as one of his equals. Maybe it's a Father that hates his Son and wants to banish him to a far away land. Maybe it's a Father that loves his Son and wants the best for him. Each one is a totally different relationship and story. 

So don't let the label of the relationship limit you. There's no end of depth you can go into with any relationship and any role you get given in improv.

The story of Romeo & Juliet isn't "there was a bloke called Romeo, a girl called Juliet, they fancied each other, here's lots of other stuff now". The relationship is the story in many ways.

Step on stage to build a relationship

I've actually found it unhelpful to say to improvisers "do a scene". It's not actually an activity they can do, to do a scene. It's a bit like saying to a racing car driver "do a car" instead of "drive".

The scene is what happens around us, it's bigger than us, so you can't "do a scene".

Instead I've found it helpful to get improvisers to replace the words "do a scene" with "step on stage to build a relationship". 

Meisner Technique

Meisnuer Technique training is awesome for playing relationships in improv. It's a bit out of scope of this blog to go into detail about what that actually this, but have a look into it.

Agreement and Relationship instead of Conflict

This is a classic IO exercise. Actors are put in situations that would usually breed nothing but conflict, but instead they have to find agreement and relationship. It's very good at helping people really listen to each line and realise how much is there for them to bond over and find the love!

Hope that helps,

Steve


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. 

Summer fun improv memories.

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'm on a bit of a break from teaching and performing until September now, and I woke up with these happy memories of the year so far and thought I'd share:

DANGER: DRAMA LUVIE ALERT!!!

End of Course Shows

These are actually my favourite shows ever, it's so exciting seeing people performing improv for the first time and it's always amazing seeing them blow the roof off The Miller! It was great having Steve Tanner and Jon Keene in a performance course, two old school friends of mine who actually named Hoopla years ago accidentally on camping trip to Devon. Also it was great having Hannah from Theatre Delicatessen and Nomad Studio doing a course, it's a classic case of Theatre Deli bonding people together and helping people learn from each other.

Anthony Atamanuik, The Nursery, C3Something

I was lucky enough to do some workshops with Anthony Atamanuik (Death by Roo Roo, UCB). He'd always been a performer I'd love watching (here he is in a monoscene, https://youtu.be/eyeFemMm9s0) so it was really inspiring to be taught by him too. His workshops felt totally in synch with what I want to do in improv, and it really woke me up to how funny and exciting improv can be. 

Many thanks to C3Something and The Nursery and Slapdash Festival for getting him and so many other great people over. In London we are in the amazing position of having people from all over the world coming to teach us and perform, it's becoming a melting pot of improv and the improv casserole it is creating tastes delicious. 

Hoopla Summer Festival

We tried out our first ever summer festival of improv with around 25 shows over two days. I enjoyed it so much I actually can't wait to do it again, probably for few more days next summer and maybe a smaller winter version too. I have the greatest respect for Little Sebastian, who did the last act of the first night and even though it was really late and many of the audience had gone to catch last tubes they were totally professional, upbeat and put on a great show. Also LadyG who performed solo and yet was totally committed to big emotions in scenes and combined clowning and improv really well, she also made me laugh loudly from the sound booth. Also Excursions ending the second night with Ella screaming from the back and then transforming the noise into the most beautiful song that has ever happened. Also also also so many fun acts and lovely volunteers and thanks everyone! Oh gosh I'm turning into a lovie. Sod it, nothing wrong with that, I'm a lovie. 

Audience

I love our audience, we really do have the best audience ever. People who watched ever show at our festival, we salute you! People waiting to get on front row for RH and Friends. People volunteering to be in games off the cuff. People putting up with the sound of the kitchen next door during a quiet scene on stage. It's great that we now have an improv audience, oh my gosh that's lovely, and we want to keep booking in fun and interesting things for people to see and participate in. 

New Improvisers

It took me bloody ages to pluck up the courage to perform in an improv show, and then ages again to do my second one. So it's amazing to see improvisers who are new to the scene be so supportive and so committed right from the start, there's a real spirit of anything is possible right now and new people are bring new energy that is inspiring everyone.

Teachers

I love having more teachers with us now, being able to catch up after workshops and swap notes and exercises has been really fun and made it clearer what we are doing and why. The moment I'm lacking motivation or energy I talk to one of them and they pick me up. I actually don't know where they all get their energy from actually, but it's contagious on a good way.    

Improvised Opera

I love doing this so much. It's with a good friend of mine (Becca Marriott) who is a trained opera singer (unlike me) and it's so much fun it's like being on a rollercoaster. I'm hoping to do more of this inbetween Becca doing 'proper' operas. 

Theatre Delicatessen

This place has made such a massive difference to us. Having a place with so much reasonably priced rehearsal space has enabled us to do more, and also helped the improv scene to work together. There were many nights where I think there were about 6 improv groups on the same night, and then hanging out in the bar after. The staff there are amazing too, so professional and friendly.

The Miller

It's also great having a lovely place like The Miller to work with. We've got a really great relationship with James and the rest of the team, and they are really supportive of improv, so it's lovely being in synch with a venue like that. I love being able to buy cider by the box at a pub too, although that is slightly jealous and usually results in me having to get a night bus after some dodgy fried chicken in Borough High Street.  

Performing with Friends

I recently read a blog with some advice from Amy Poehler (http://hellogiggles.com/amy-poehler-comedy-wisdom/) where she said to focus on doing good stuff friends, and I couldn't agree more. In fact I now have it stuck on a post it note above my computer. I love meeting up with people like Joel and Sophie on a Friday morning to record some improvised sketches, or teams to film things, or George and I improvising in the kitchen, or House Band to play some games, that's what it's all about. So hopefully in Autumn we'll be 'getting gooder' with more friends.

Drinking Buddies Sketch

I'm slowly but surely working out how to film sketches and improv, and have tried out a few things this summer. One sketch was The Drinking Buddies Sketch (not yet edited) which was so much fun. I found myself writing something down without thinking ("10 people are stood in my bedroom shouting wake up") and then on the day there's this "holy shit this is real" feeling. Everything we've filmed so far has been so much fun to do, mainly it's the bringing people together and making something from nothing. I'm going to be editing soon and we are going to film loads more in the autumn. It's much harder work than I thought, so new found respect for directors and editors, but also much more fun that I thought. 

Pubnic

The big improv picnic turned into a pubnic due to bad weather, but it was still really fun and nice to chat to people I don't usually get to chat to, without having to worry about last tubes or night buses. 


And loads more, so thanks everyone! Have a great summer and we'll be back with loads more shows and workshops and things from September.



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.

Stop measuring yourself against others

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. 

Recently I've had a few people in workshops who have been looking like they've been having a great time all workshop, have been really fun in all the games, and yet afterwards have revealed in the pub or over email that they actually felt like they were doing really 'badly' and were the 'worse' in the group. 

Often there is a large gap between how we perceive ourselves and how we are perceived by others. Most of the  performers I know still have this, as do loads of people new to improv. 

So why do measure ourselves to others?

Here's my own experience:

I signed up for a week long intensive workshop with a visting US teacher the other year. Only torwards the end of the week did I realise that all I'd been thinking about was how well I was doing as compared to the rest of the group, whether I was the best or not, and collecting compliments the teacher said to me like mushrooms in Mario Kart. What a waste of time! It could have been a golden opportunity to form a team with the people there, to really bond, to maybe form a show group. But it was just me and my ego, sitting in the corner with my notepad. 

For me I think this attitude is a leftover from my education. 

At school with GCSEs and A-Levels we had to line up to collect our results from the headteacher. One by one we walked into his office, were given our grades, and then had to walk out where there would be about 100 of our year group who would then immediately know. Everyone knew what everyone else had got. We'd been told these results were the most important things in our lives, so how good you felt about yourself was directly connected to what you got and what you got compared to everyone else.

At my university our final results were stuck on a wall. Not a facebook wall, an actual wall. They weren't listed in alphabetical order, but in order of grade. So you would go up and start at the top looking for your name, and the further down you got until you found your name the worse you had done. Everyone else's grades were there to see, everyone knew what everyone else had got, and all they talked about in the pub afterwards was what everyone had got. Being better than everyone meant 'happy', being worse meant 'sad'. 

When studying for most exams there were right and wrong answers (I did a lot of Maths), and right and wrong methods of getting to these answers. Our value and efforts had a directly measurable result that could be directly compared to others, and my entire self worth was wrapped up in my postion in that hierarchy. 

After that there were job interviews, with lots of friends going for similar jobs, and people either got jobs ('happy') or didn't ('sad'), and then there was how much they get paid, yet again more ways for people to measure themselves against others. 

However in improv, and most creative endeavours, there is no right or wrong. This takes ages to really 'get'. There is no right or wrong, no correct outcome, no limits and no rules. The only person that can define what you want to do is you. This is scary at first but eventually liberating. You can do anything you want. What do you want to do on stage or screen? Do that. What do you find beautiful and fun? Do that. Nobody else can tell you that. Courses and things might offer options but really it's up to you to then take what you like and do what you love. 

This can be a breakthrough for beginners. Sometimes they stop mid game and say they don't know what to do, but if you ask them what they actually feel like doing, and they do it, genius can come out. After years in work or education where there is a mystical correct way of doing everything, and a prescribed sequence of actions to be learnt, to be in a fully open and creative environment can be frightening at first but eventually liberating. 

Similarly for performing groups. For ages they can try and perfect a set form, but usually they become amazing when they discover what is unique about them and pursue what they find fun, and often discover a whole new thing.

Because there is no defined value or grading system, because it's an artistic endeavour and therefore defined by the artist, there is actually no reason to compare yourself to others. Every group is singing their own song, so just sing the song you love.

Yet sometimes we don't do the things we love in improv or the arts because we fear being measured by others, but nobody can do that as there is no grading system in the first place, there is no right or wrong. A 100m runner can't tell a 100m swimmer they are too slow at the 100m, they are doing their own thing. 

So you can't do 'badly' at improv as there is no right or wrong in the first place, it is an act of pure art and creativity. And you can't be the 'worse' in the group because there is no grading system.

There are no rules in improv. There are some guidelines that help people play together, but the only person that can define the values/rules/ is you and you are totally free to do what you want. 


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.