Philosophy

My philosophy of improv can be summarized as  "acting first". Truthful, mindful, in the moment acting is the only advantage we have in improvised theater over other forms of entertainment. 

A playwright may spend years writing, re-writing, and editing their work. They may get feedback from colleagues and test audiences, and have the luxury of time to make sure every word in their play is exactly as they want it before it ever sees the stage. The director has months to design sets, and may have weeks of rehearsal to perfect the blocking and stage direction. In improv, we don't have that opportunity, so it isn't realistic to expect to create a narrative on the fly with the same polish as a professionally written and produced play.  We should still attempt to create a great story, but we won't be as good at writing the narrative as the professional playwright.

A headlining stand-up comic can spend years honing an hour long act. They may tell the same jokes hundreds of times at open mics and workshops, tweaking the wording, the timing, even the order of the jokes to find exactly what works best to get the most laughs per minute before it ever gets included in their act. In improv, we don't have that opportunity, so it isn't realistic to expect to think of funny things that can compete with the jokes in a professionally produced stand up show.  We should still attempt to make the audience laugh, but we won't be as good at writing jokes on the fly as the professional stand-up comic. 

So what can we do? Why in the world would an audience come to an improv show instead of a play or stand up performance? 

Because of the one advantage we do have - the acting. 

Great scripted actors are great because they are able to speak the lines as if they are saying them for the first time, even though they have rehearsed them over and over. Scripted actors know what their scene partner is going to say and do because it's in the script, yet they must convincingly pretend to be surprised by what happens.  The biggest challenge is to make it seem like it has never happened before. But it has - hundreds of times. 

This is where the improv actor shines. The spontaneity that scripted actors work so hard to feign...we get for free.  The more we can live in the moment, in the mind of the character, the more spontaneous and truthful our performances can be. This is what makes improv special. This is the unique thing that the improv audience connects with. The spontaneity. The surprises. The moments.

An improviser has two minds - the mind of the actor and the mind of the character the actor is playing. We should spend as much time as possible in the mind of the character LIVING and BELIEVING the circumstances of the scene we are playing. Occasionally we must come up for air and visit the actor mind, check in with the audience and our scene partner, and think about technical things like pacing or blocking or making a move to further the story. But we want to spend as much time as possible in the character mind, reacting truthfully to the things that happen to us and around us. This is where the magic is.  This is the cornerstone of my teaching.