Ryan puts up his hand. "Yes, Ryan", Lindsay says. Ryan drops his arm. "You're saying so many interesting things. I want to write them down!" Lyndsay smiles. We all get our notebooks. The next day we're all very pleased that Beau brings his voice recording equipment to class. So yes, we all love Lindsay Hailey. And she loved us.
Lyndsay is called the hippie teacher. One of her frequent side-coaching sentences is: Don't invent, breath. She brings characters to life. And with that I mean that characters get real emotions, real feelings. Basically some of us started acting for the first time in their improv career. And that's why we love Lyndsay. She showed us a deeper philosophy of improv, in which some found the boundaries of the emotions they feel comfortable with. It was thrilling to see so many first time experiences in one small warm classroom. I enjoyed being a part of that for four days! We were never out of energy. While members of other groups had to be woken up after lunch break, we played games. We created a very positive and energetic atmosphere, which makes our group the safest group to be in. As an exercise we had to share our embarrassing stories, during lunch we voluntarily shared a few more. Everyone is very open, everyone wants to see shows, everyone wants to participate in whatever is going on!
The theme of week 2 is group work and physicality. At the end of the Intensive, every group will perform (their morphed form of) the Harold. The Harold starts with a group opening. This group opening can be verbal - for example, everyone does a short monologue -, or physical - for example, a group dance -, or a combination of the two. So basically it can be anything. We practiced the "Go to sleep and wake up as ..." group game. The suggestion was sheep, so we woke up as sheep. Group games are fairly difficult, because you need to be really aware of your fellow players and at the same time someone needs to take an initiative for the next move. And on top of that, he/she needs to connect to the rest of the group in some way to 'tell' what his/her thing is; otherwise they can't follow. So the sheep woke up; we started to give each other lamb massages. That was our 3. Then too many ideas evolved at the same time, so Lyndsay stopped us, and we returned to massaging one another. Then we started pounding each other harder and harder. That was our 7. And then it turned into a massacre. That was our 10. Ok, Lyndsay made us start over, but we got to a 10. We did the same exercise a few more times during the week, and often the hardest part is to bring it to a 10. We're all very friendly people, so we easily cooperate and bring it to a 7. But then we continuously repeat what we're doing, and you feel everyone thinking: Okay, what's next? And numerous times we could not come up with what's next, so we didn't reach the 10. Nonetheless, often, the thing that brings a 7 to a 10 is, in fact, the simplest thing present. For example, half way of the opening we were standing in half a circle, all faced towards the audience. That smoothly evolved from the start (I don't actually remember anymore as who or what we woke up). This was our 3. Looking good. Then someone started stamping his/her feet. Brilliant move, because very simple to follow - everyone joined instantly -, and the energy builds up to a 7. So we stamp our feet. Ok, nice stamping. Now, time to go to 10. How. As long as we don't know , we keep on stamping. I kept stamping, but I broke the pattern. I jumped around stamping all over the place. Beau did the same, so we were stamp jumping in circles around each other, aggressively looking in the other one's eyes. Everyone else started to make cheering noises. All of a sudden I wasn't in an improv show opening anymore, I was in a Fight Club basement. So that fight became the first scene after the opening. And fighting, in a broader sense, could have become the general theme of our Harold show. So what my point is from this example, is that a small change - not inventing anything new! - is good enough to trigger a tremendously rich environment, whatever that environment may turn out to be. I didn't know I would end up in a fight scene. Maybe everyone would have started jumping around, and it would be like the Foolish Days at the Beehive on Dam Square. I just did what I thought was necessary to turn a 7 into a 10. My fellow players took care of the rest. That's support at its finest! I gratefully accepted their offer.
Another lesson Lyndsay taught us was eye contact. Through eye contact we can read each other much better. No idea why - you could call that another hippie wisdom -, but it is true. We are way way more connected if we have eye contact. Yet, that could be the reason that we're afraid of it; like it's some sort of mental intimidation. On stage however, we need to connect, and eye contact can help us. It may feel uncomfortable, and therefore unrealistic. Instead, the audience will feel your tension, and they won't experience it as strange. Jake an Christine were stealing each other's apples. They elbowed to pick the juiciest ones from the trees, and whenever they had the chance, they took the apples from the other one's basket. Lyndsay yelled "Eyes". Now instead of looking at the opponent's basket or the tree, they looked each other into the eyes while they continued grabbing those apples. Everyone had to laugh right away. All of a sudden it was this beautiful cartoonesque competition! Of course, eye contact doesn't only trigger comedy. More so, it triggers tension (which could lead to comedy). And for the players behind the characters, it's almost impossible to not know what's going on. All of a sudden improvising becomes easy.
Like Ryan pointed out, we got so much improv philosophy thrown at us, we couldn't write it all down. Nonetheless, I have multiple nice one-liners, like "Don't invent, breath", and I'll have more after receiving Beau's recordings; let me know if you're interested, and I'll share those with you. As a last exercise, we didn't just receive feedback from Lyndsay, but the entire group was allowed to say what they believe your qualities are (so we stay in the positive). It's a good ego trip. So here is what they said about me: I stand on stage with confidence; I'm not afraid of silence. Good acting. They were impressed by my strangling - I strangled two women, one on Monday and one on Wednesday. And - and that's the compliment which is a milestone moment for me as an improviser, and I believe it's the best compliment an improviser can ever get - Phoebe said: "When I play with you, it feels like you lift me up to a higher level player." I felt some hippie energy going through my body when she looked at me and said that. Lyndsay was the last one to speak, and she also gave (all of us) a point of improvement. Then everyone had a final two person scene in which they had to play a character, who naturally had that particular skill. For example, Beau is a big strong guy, and he often plays strong characters, so now he had to play a little pageant girl (which he beautifully pulled off). Those scenes were among the most magical scenes during the week, because you could see the player, behind the character, struggle with his/her own being. I was in a scene with Kaithlyn. She had to move like a queen; little movement, high status in voice and posture and clear eyes. I had to be completely uninvolved. What Lyndsay wanted to show me was a state in which my character doesn't have to be emotionally present. It's not much fun, especially in a two person scene, but it's good to remember that doing nothing is also an option.
Next week, week 3: Scene Work and Characters, with Jeff Griggs. I'm looking forward to it already!
The theme of week 2 is group work and physicality. At the end of the Intensive, every group will perform (their morphed form of) the Harold. The Harold starts with a group opening. This group opening can be verbal - for example, everyone does a short monologue -, or physical - for example, a group dance -, or a combination of the two. So basically it can be anything. We practiced the "Go to sleep and wake up as ..." group game. The suggestion was sheep, so we woke up as sheep. Group games are fairly difficult, because you need to be really aware of your fellow players and at the same time someone needs to take an initiative for the next move. And on top of that, he/she needs to connect to the rest of the group in some way to 'tell' what his/her thing is; otherwise they can't follow. So the sheep woke up; we started to give each other lamb massages. That was our 3. Then too many ideas evolved at the same time, so Lyndsay stopped us, and we returned to massaging one another. Then we started pounding each other harder and harder. That was our 7. And then it turned into a massacre. That was our 10. Ok, Lyndsay made us start over, but we got to a 10. We did the same exercise a few more times during the week, and often the hardest part is to bring it to a 10. We're all very friendly people, so we easily cooperate and bring it to a 7. But then we continuously repeat what we're doing, and you feel everyone thinking: Okay, what's next? And numerous times we could not come up with what's next, so we didn't reach the 10. Nonetheless, often, the thing that brings a 7 to a 10 is, in fact, the simplest thing present. For example, half way of the opening we were standing in half a circle, all faced towards the audience. That smoothly evolved from the start (I don't actually remember anymore as who or what we woke up). This was our 3. Looking good. Then someone started stamping his/her feet. Brilliant move, because very simple to follow - everyone joined instantly -, and the energy builds up to a 7. So we stamp our feet. Ok, nice stamping. Now, time to go to 10. How. As long as we don't know , we keep on stamping. I kept stamping, but I broke the pattern. I jumped around stamping all over the place. Beau did the same, so we were stamp jumping in circles around each other, aggressively looking in the other one's eyes. Everyone else started to make cheering noises. All of a sudden I wasn't in an improv show opening anymore, I was in a Fight Club basement. So that fight became the first scene after the opening. And fighting, in a broader sense, could have become the general theme of our Harold show. So what my point is from this example, is that a small change - not inventing anything new! - is good enough to trigger a tremendously rich environment, whatever that environment may turn out to be. I didn't know I would end up in a fight scene. Maybe everyone would have started jumping around, and it would be like the Foolish Days at the Beehive on Dam Square. I just did what I thought was necessary to turn a 7 into a 10. My fellow players took care of the rest. That's support at its finest! I gratefully accepted their offer.
Another lesson Lyndsay taught us was eye contact. Through eye contact we can read each other much better. No idea why - you could call that another hippie wisdom -, but it is true. We are way way more connected if we have eye contact. Yet, that could be the reason that we're afraid of it; like it's some sort of mental intimidation. On stage however, we need to connect, and eye contact can help us. It may feel uncomfortable, and therefore unrealistic. Instead, the audience will feel your tension, and they won't experience it as strange. Jake an Christine were stealing each other's apples. They elbowed to pick the juiciest ones from the trees, and whenever they had the chance, they took the apples from the other one's basket. Lyndsay yelled "Eyes". Now instead of looking at the opponent's basket or the tree, they looked each other into the eyes while they continued grabbing those apples. Everyone had to laugh right away. All of a sudden it was this beautiful cartoonesque competition! Of course, eye contact doesn't only trigger comedy. More so, it triggers tension (which could lead to comedy). And for the players behind the characters, it's almost impossible to not know what's going on. All of a sudden improvising becomes easy.
Like Ryan pointed out, we got so much improv philosophy thrown at us, we couldn't write it all down. Nonetheless, I have multiple nice one-liners, like "Don't invent, breath", and I'll have more after receiving Beau's recordings; let me know if you're interested, and I'll share those with you. As a last exercise, we didn't just receive feedback from Lyndsay, but the entire group was allowed to say what they believe your qualities are (so we stay in the positive). It's a good ego trip. So here is what they said about me: I stand on stage with confidence; I'm not afraid of silence. Good acting. They were impressed by my strangling - I strangled two women, one on Monday and one on Wednesday. And - and that's the compliment which is a milestone moment for me as an improviser, and I believe it's the best compliment an improviser can ever get - Phoebe said: "When I play with you, it feels like you lift me up to a higher level player." I felt some hippie energy going through my body when she looked at me and said that. Lyndsay was the last one to speak, and she also gave (all of us) a point of improvement. Then everyone had a final two person scene in which they had to play a character, who naturally had that particular skill. For example, Beau is a big strong guy, and he often plays strong characters, so now he had to play a little pageant girl (which he beautifully pulled off). Those scenes were among the most magical scenes during the week, because you could see the player, behind the character, struggle with his/her own being. I was in a scene with Kaithlyn. She had to move like a queen; little movement, high status in voice and posture and clear eyes. I had to be completely uninvolved. What Lyndsay wanted to show me was a state in which my character doesn't have to be emotionally present. It's not much fun, especially in a two person scene, but it's good to remember that doing nothing is also an option.
Next week, week 3: Scene Work and Characters, with Jeff Griggs. I'm looking forward to it already!
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