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YES AND (YES &) Rule
Number One: “YES AND”. Rule Number Two: When in doubt refer to rule number one.
Accept your scene partner’s offer and then advance the scene with your next
response; Agree with every offer offer; then, respond with detailed offers that
build and support your fellow players offers.. Conceptual NOs and BUTs stop the
action. Beginning students often go for the joke or sell out their partner by
negating offers, thus bringing scenes to a screeching halt.
JUSTIFY EVERYTHING Find a solution for every offer and every element
introduced in the scene. Think you made a mistake? No problem. Just find a way
to justify it.
IN THE MOMENT
Be prepared, Listen and focus on the current moment. Listen and Respond. Planning
ahead takes you out of the moment resulting in many missed opportunities and
often leading to forcing your concept of the scene and negating or selling out
your fellow players. Be flexible enough to move with the scene.
GIVE & TAKE Improvised dialog
going back and fourth between the players with a balance exchange of ideas.
AVOID Questions, blocking.
BLOCKING Rejecting information or ideas
offered by another player. One of the most common problems experienced by new
improvisers.
QUESTIONS
Rephrase questions as a detailed statement (Answer your own question) Most
questions are usually a sign of players overly relying on their scene partners
to carry a scene. “What is that?” should be something like “That is a very
exquisite flower you have there.” / “Where are we?”could be “It sure is cold in
this apartment.”
PANTOMIME
Use your space and define your environments, characters and actions. Avoid
being a talking head. Physical activities and choices take us “out of our
heads” and help keep us “IN THE MOMENT”
CONFLICT
GOOD / ARGUING BAD The best comedy and drama both derive from great conflict.
The worst (with rare exceptions) comes from bickering back and forth minute
details. In Improvisational theater, arguing details becomes petty. Rather than
demanding “I’m Right” try and solve the conflict.
BIG
CHOICES / BIG VOICES and MAKE BIG MISTAKES Mantras of EIGHT IS NEVER ENOUGH
producer, Walt Frasier. Take chances. Don’t wimp out. Don’t be afraid to fail.
Big choices lead to forward moving scenes (AS long as they do not BLOCK your
partner) Big mistakes lead to big rewards. Justified BIG MISTAKES lead to
outrageous results. Big mistakes are
noticed and learned from. Not being afraid to make BIG MISTAKES leads to many
more successful choices. Fall seven times and get up eight.
Accepting Embracing the offers made by other performers in
order to advance the scene.
Advancing
The process of moving the scene
forwards.
Arc Scene has a beginning, middle and end
Ask-for The question asked of the audience in order to start
a scene.
Beat A unit of
action in a scene. A scene is made up of a series of beats.
Breaking
the routine Interrupting an
action with another action in order to advance the scene.
Canceling Making previous action irrelevant. Once an action
has been cancelled, it's as if it hadn't happened at all. Usually a bad idea.
Charm The quality that makes an audience enjoy watching a
performer.
Commenting Stepping out of the reality of the scene by saying
or doing something that refers to the fact that it's a scene being played. Also
refers to "playing" an emotion rather than feeling it. Should be
avoided, though used sparingly it can sometimes be effective.
Complementary
offer An offer that meshes well
with what's already gone before (and usually enhances it in some way).
Conflict Many (but not all!) scenes are about a conflict of
some sort. If there's no conflict, the scene may still be truthful but somewhat
dull.
Context The broader setting for the scene (political,
social, etc).
Corpse To break up laughing while playing a scene. Usually
not a good thing to do.
Denial See "blocking".
Driving
Taking over a scene and not
letting other performers influence its direction. Makes you an unpopular
improvisor.
Endowing Assigning attributes to another performer's
character.
Explore
and heighten To take an idea
and see where it leads, exploring its natrual consequences while simultaneously
raising the stakes.
Extending Taking an idea and letting it become the central theme
of the scene.
Focus The audience's attention should only be in one place
at any given time; that place (or person) is the "focus" of the
scene. If more than one thing is going on simultaneously, the focus is split.
Experienced improvisors will smoothly share focus, less experienced improvisors
often steal or reject focus.
Gagging Trying to make a joke or do something funny that
doesn't flow naturally from the scene. Always a bad idea.
Gibberish A nonsense language.
Gossip Talking about things instead of doing them. Also,
talking about things that are offstage or in the past or future.
Handle The premise for a scene or game.
Hedging Making small talk instead of engaging in action.
Information
overload Introducing too much
information into the scene, making it difficult or impossible to ever find a
satisfying ending that resolves everything.
Instant
trouble Making an offer that
introduces a problem or conflict but that doesn't relate to the narrative of
the scene prior to that point (see "Offer from space"). Example:
Suddenly turning into a Werewolf.
Interactive Theatre Any form of theatre in which the audience is not a
passive performer. Encompasses a range of different styles, ranging from
"spot" improv to loosely-scripted stories such as murder mysteries or
faux events (e.g. Tony and Tina's Wedding).
Masking Standing in a place where you can't be seen
properly, or in such a way that you're hiding someone else or some important
action. Should be avoided.
Mugging Making silly faces instead of reacting truthfully.
Generally frowned upon.
Naming Identifying characters, objects, places and so forth
in the scene.
Narrative The story told by a scene. Scenes should have a
clear beginning, middle and end.
Never-Ending Story A story that continues to introduce so many new ideas, that it becomes impossible to tie the narrative together.
Objective
The thing that a character in a
scene is trying to achieve.
Offer Any dialog or action which advances the scene.
Offers should be accepted.
Offer
from space Dialog or action
that is bizarre and that appears to come from nowhere.
Physicalization Turning intent into action and movement.
Point
of Concentration What the scene
is about.
Post-show Discussion of the show by the performers and crew
after the performance, in order to identify problem areas that may have arisen
as well as things that worked particularly well.
Plateau A period during which a scene is not advancing.
Usually a bad thing.
Platform
The who, what and where of a
scene. The success of a scene often depends on having a solid platform.
Playlist The list of handles and/or ask-fors to be used in a
show. Also called a "running order".
Pimping
Playfully getting another
performer to do something difficult or unpleasant which you probably wouldn't
do yourself. Used sparingly, can be quite entertaining. Best strategry is to
choose things the other performer does well.
Raising
the stakes Making the events of
the scene have greater consequences for the characters. One technique for
advancing.
Reincorporation Bringing back an idea from earlier in the scene, or
from a previous scene in the show, or even from a previous performance.
Stand-up comedians refer to this as a "callback". Always fun, but not
something to over-do.
Running
order See "Playlist".
Setup Explaining the handle of the scene to the audience
before the scene starts. Also involves doing an ask-for. The performer who does
the setup usually shouldn't start off on stage in the scene.
Shelving Acknowledging an offer but not doing anything with
it, with the intent of using it later. Of course, later never comes.
Sidetracking Finding activities to do, as to avoid doing what you
established in the beginning. Example: Setting out to fix your car, but seeing
the garage is a mess, you decide to clean it. You begin to clean and find an
old photo album. You look at pictures, etc.
Space-object An object that's used in the scene but which doesn't
really exist. A mimed object. In general, anything that doesn't support weight
(like a chair) should be a space object.
Status A character's sense of self-worth. Many scenes are
built around status transfers, in which one character's status drops while
another's rises. Physical environments and objects also have status.
Stepping
out Breaking the reality of the
scene. See "Commenting".
Synthesis Combining two dissimilar ideas into one, such as
hearing two suggestions from the audience and combining them into a single idea
that gets used in the scene. Can be fun.
Talking
heads A scene that involves a
lot of standing (or worse yet, sitting) around talking rather than engaging in
physical action.
Transformation Turning something into something else (one character
into another, one object into another, one environment into another).
Tummeling Bantering with the audience during setups.
Uber-mime Overly elaborate mime that's so detailed as to be
hard to follow.
Waffling Failing to make decisions. Talking about what you're
going to do instead of doing it.
Walk-on
(or Walk-through) The act of
entering a scene, making a strong offer that advances the scene, and then
exiting. Use sparingly (This being a special note to Mr Frasier).
Wanking Doing something cute and silly that makes the
audience laugh but doesn't do anything to advance the scene. Very annoying for
the other improvisors.
Wimping Accepting an offer but failing to act on it.