Secret objectives A few Saturdays ago I was running an impro workshop on ‘Keeping it Real’ – how to improvise scenes that were realistic featuring real humans on the stage. One thing we found very helpful was the use of playing secret objectives in scenes, especially ones that were connected to the other actor. We[…]
Approval and disapproval I’ve been thinking lots about the concepts of approval and disapproval recently and their effect on improvisers. Inspired a bit by Viola Spolin’s book. At the start of the workshop I got everyone to go round the circle saying their name. It sounds simple but lots of people mutter it, or pass it[…]
New character exercise Well, I say new, it’s from Viola Spolin’s book which was from the 1950s or early 60s, but I found it really effective on Saturday and in fact one of the most complete character exercises I’ve led. 1. Get four actors up on stage, in a line facing the audience. 2. Point[…]
How to take a show to Edinburgh This is based on a chat I had with various people at The Miller a couple of weeks ago. There were some people from various Edinburgh shows, including me, Fat Kitten, Fingers on Buzzards, The Couch and Do Not Adjust Your Stage, and various people interested in taking[…]
Listening Workshop Notes I lead at a listening/seeing improv class at our Rag Factory class this week, where I tried to put all my favourite listening games and seeing exercises into one workshop. I think listening and seeing are one of the most important and core skills of improvisation. If you aren’t listening or seeing[…]
Game of the Scene The term “Game of the Scene” pops up loads in impro and seems a topic of hot debate. There seems to be varying descriptions of what it is, online and in workshops. So I ran a workshop on it before August, and another one last night, an improv investigation. So here[…]
Edinburgh Blog 11 This is the last Music Box blog from Edinburgh. We’ve got our last show today, but I’m not in it as I’ve got a day off to sort things out at the venue and pack various bits and bobs. At the end of the run I’ve found myself with no personality left[…]
Edinburgh Blog 10: Why are most comedy groups white, middle class twenty/early thirty-somethings?
Blog Aug 29, 2011
Edinburgh Blog 10 First off, are most comedy groups white, middle class twenty/early thirty-somethings? I haven’t done a formal scientific investigation, so this blog could be based entirely on something that isn’t true. But from my random observations and general feelings based on four years at the Edinburgh Fringe, it does seem to be the[…]
Edinburgh Blog 9: Edinburgh Advice 308: You will get ill anyway, so you might as well drink
Blog Aug 29, 2011
Edinburgh Blog 9 So we’ve now passed over the half way point. And bang on the half way point I got the Edinburgh Flu, and spent a couple of days in bed curled up under a duvet reading sci-fi, hence the lack of blog recently. This was after one of my earlier blogs that actually[…]
Edinburgh Blog 8 After being here almost two weeks it’s strange that out of the madness of Edinburgh a routine has developed. Even The Royal Mile itself has become normal, with patterns developing out the chaos. Jules from our group will always be stood at the upper end, looking dapper and chatting in a charming[…]
Edinburgh Blog 7 Two things on my mind at the moment: Riots and Reviews. We currently feel like we’re in a happy little Edinburgh soap bubble floating around a sunshine sky while apparently in our home town all hell has broken loose. Weirder still is that all the riots are happening where are cast usually[…]
Edinburgh Blog 6 I went to the Meet the Press event a couple of days ago. This involves queuing up with other performers in order to meet the press and reviewers directly and have a chat about the show. It wasn’t at all as intimidating as I thought it would be, and was encouraging to[…]