Being Altered
You’re on stage. The lights are in your eyes. You can hear the audience breathing….they’re out there…looking at you.
Wait…your partner on stage just said something. You don’t know what it is because you’ve been soaking in the moment.
Better not do anything….that way you won’t mess up.
Or…
Your partner said something to you…but you just don’t know what to do with it….so you do nothing.
No Response is Natural
In life it is perfectly normal NOT to respond. The display of emotions is revealing….it makes us readable (they’ll know what we’re thinking) and therefore vulnerable.
On Stage we want change
On stage we want to see the characters altered by each other. It’s why we’re watching. If we don’t see the characters altered then we’re not seeing the relationship or the story develop.
In life we want safety and on stage we want vulnerability and danger.
Be altered first then justify if after
Set up an exercise (in class or as a warm up) where one character says something (anything) and the other person response to it…with anything. Really, anything.
Fall, then figure out what to do on the way down. ~Del Close
This is a variation of an exercise called It’s Tuesday. Where one improviser says something rather mundane and the other person over reacts (perhaps with positive excitement) and then justifies the response. [Keith Johnstone, Impro].