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Archipelago Theatre

ArtsClasses.net

Improvland.com

YESand

Past Mouthings-Off:

Beware the Wacky Card!

Go Ahead, Screw Up.
It's Good for You!

Could You Be More Specific?

Creativity: What Is It
and Who Has It?

Focusing on Process

Fun with Responsibility
and Discipline

Do It Now

Twenty Years of Now!

Improv and the Method

Simplicity in Improv

Exploration Versus Invention

Vulnerability in Improv

Spirituality in Improv

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"No, it's all made up...

...Yes, even that part."

For some reason, we in Transactors Improv (as probably do folks in other improv companies) find ourselves saying things like this to dubious audience members after performances.

Many people simply do not believe that what we do isn't planned in advance. I understand that; I had a similar response the first time I saw Transactors Improv, which was before I joined the company in 1989.

So this isn't something that usually causes me to lose sleep, at least not unless the skepticism makes its way into print. A few years ago a critic for the Raleigh News & Observer attended our musical show and not only told people in the audience that what we did wasn't improvised but also insisted in his review that we had planned everything in advance, from the lyrics and melodies to the characters and plot.

More recently a critic from the Asheville Tribune doggedly tried to get us to "confess" our secrets after a performance. Members of the company repeatedly told the scribe that what we did was made up on the spot and tried to explain how our scenes evolved.

Nonetheless, that review explained that one of our "tricks" was to plug in "rehearsed or thought-out material into new situations," which the writer said was something improv guru Viola Spolin used to do. The writer also suggested that we recycle "zany lines."

Sigh...

These writers may not have realized it, but by suggesting that what we do is not improvised they are calling us dishonest. It is no less slander than a sports writer's unfounded claim that an exciting contest is fixed. Every event whose outcome is not predetermined--sports, elections, improv--is subject to charges of being planned and history tells us that those charges can have merit.

Still, no one likes being called a liar in print. And beyond impugning our honesty, insisting that what we do isn't improvised dismisses the decades of hard work, study, thought, and feeling that go into it.

We Transactors often wonder if people would question the spontaneity of our performances if we had gone out and stunk up the stage. If what we do is good, must it therefore not be spontaneous?

The fact is; we are often stunned to hear people suggest that what we do is planned because we feel we could usually do better. "That crap? If we were going to plan something, it would be better than that," we think. We'd write a song that has an even rhyme scheme and structure or we'd have a scene in which people don't forget each other's names.

But maybe we couldn't plan better than we improvise...

First off, to incorporate preexisting lines or material into our shows seems so difficult that I cannot imagine doing it well. I rarely remember scenes and almost never remember lines after doing improv professionally for 16 years, so I doubt I could bring something back that I can't remember. It seems that trying to work in planned material would utterly paralyze us, taking us out of the moment, and, moreover, would be dishonest and no fun.

Beyond the logistical challenge of using pre-planned material, I highly doubt that doing so would improve the product. The company has written sketch material, mostly for radio and occasionally for stage (very little since the 80s and always clearly labeled) but I don't think it was better than or even as good as our improvised stuff.

Writing and planning gives you an opportunity to refine the work. You can make lines 'just so' or find and link thematic elements, for example. But something magical happens when two or more players are creating something in the moment. It's the mixture of different personalities and artistic senses, the immediacy, the... something.

So when people wonder if we plan things, I often think, "No, we couldn't have planned for something that wonderful." The strange chemistry in the process often surprises us. We laugh in delight off stage and after the show we excitedly try to figure out how it all happened, just like my brothers and I used to dissect touch-football games we'd played.

Now there are structures we work with. We use a show list that tells us what we'll be asking for and who will be in specific scenes. Some scenes employ a construct. For instance, the short form "Take Five" is about two actors doing a play (based on a dramatic situation suggested by the audience), who are interrupted by a manic director. We know the "Interview" long form will include scenes in which characters are interviewed by the audience.

These structures help us to improvise in different ways and to take our creativity in different directions, including those that involve music, dance, storytelling, and other disciplines.

I've often said that goal of scripted work is to look improvised and the goal of improvised work is to look scripted. If what we do looks so good, so intricate, and so fulfilling that you just can't believe it's not planned, I can find the compliment in that.

But you really ought to try believing instead. Take an improv course and find out how you can improvise too!

There's no "trick" to what we do, no attempt to deceive.

It's magic.

-Greg Hohn, Director