May I have a suggestion…
A suggestion, a scene-start, an ask-for (as they are called in Australia) …it’s the way improvisers often like to start their scene. It’s when we ask the audience for something to inspire the actors… and/or to get them started.
- A location
- A place two people would meet
- An occupation
Get Past Words…
Here is an idea that might give your workshop or performance group a different way to get them.
- Pass out index cards and pens (crayons also work well) then ask the audience or students to draw something on the cards.
- When you want to use a suggestion for a scene start in class or in performance pull a card at random and let that inspire the scene.
Ann Feehan, the coordinator of Laughing Stock in San Francisco came up with this idea:
A lot of verbal thinking is about planning and realizing that starting a scene with words probably contributes to people thinking too much at the top of a scene. I gave the cards out blind to students and got rather inspired scenes. Feeling instead of thinking at the top of the scene, seemed to integrate the performer and their performance.
I had played around with the idea of having the audience draw a picture for a scene start. (Imagine an audience member drawing a picture on a dry erase board as the beginning of a scene.)
Cards were drawn in her weekly free class to people living with HIV and other life threatening diseases. Click here to learn more about Laughing Stock and to make a donation to support it.
These scene starts give the actors the opportunity to start without language. Improv theatre is more than just speech. (Speech tends to be intellectual)… the physical movement on the stage will ‘speak’ louder than any words. Unlike words, the images are open to interpretation, which allows the actor to connect to the image in a way that is authentic and uniquely theirs.
Please let us know about your experience with drawing images to inspire improv scenes.
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