Presentation

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Preparation for Improvisation by Bronya McCarthy

Working with text.
1. Read the play carefully.
2. Make some notes on first impressions.
3. Analyse the text to find the Themes and Issues.
4. What are your Objectives?
5. Break down your objectives into Units.
6. Justify your choices to support your thought process which will give your character a sense of Truth.

Write the script in a way that you understand, put your own interpretation to it but remember your responsibility to the playwright.

Verbing and Mood.
Verbing implies how the line should be said and what action should be expressed.
Mood, analyse the shifts in emotion throughout the lines to create the emotional journey and indicators of rhythm and pace.

Uta Hagen’s “Nine Questions”

Answer the following questions for character study in order to define the role with as many specifics as possible. Consider these questions as research questions and continue to add answers and details as the character is explored and rehearsed.

1. WHO AM I? (All the details about your character including name, age, address, relatives, likes, dislikes, hobbies, career, description of physical traits, opinions, beliefs, religion, education, origins, enemies, loved ones, sociological influences, etc.)

2. WHAT TIME IS IT? (Century, season, year, day, minute, significance of time)
3. WHERE AM I? (Country, city, neighborhood, home, room, area of room)

4. WHAT SURROUNDS ME? (Animate and inanimate objects-complete details of environment)

5. WHAT ARE THE GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES? (Past, present, future and all of the events)

6. WHAT IS MY RELATIONSHIP? (Relation to total events, other characters, and to things)

7. WHAT DO I WANT? (Character's need. The immediate and main objective)

8. WHAT IS IN MY WAY? (The obstacles which prevent character from getting his/her need)

9. WHAT DO I DO TO GET WHAT I WANT? (The action: physical and verbal, also-action verbs)

Suck the text dry of all that it offers
Stick to the facts for a strong base to let imagination grow!
Collect Information from sources
Research

Exploration of characters

Get inside the character

Observation! Every day life is all around us; look at people and see how they behave! This is a great resource for character development.
Inspiration!
Be inspired by everything around you and be open to anything. Say yes!

Setting and Blocking
What is around you? What are your obstacles? What is in your way?
Where are you going?


Improvisation
Who are you speaking to? How are they responding to you?
Can you push their emotions or do you need to give them more space? Do they look bored? What can you do to gain their attention and keep it?
What will you do if you freeze up?
The more you relax, the more your mind will open and flow with ideas. Freezing up is common and happens in everyday life, something will eventually spark an idea.

If you know your character inside out then you can be spontaneous but remember other actors around you may need particular cues from you as they are not inside your head, they need to respond to you.

Be creative. If you have a pen, don’t just write with it, it can be anything you want it to be, as long as you believe it then others will too.

If something goes wrong, unless there are health and safety issues or a time you can purposely break the fourth wall and add for example: comedy, it is imperative to stay in character and include the problem into the piece.


Suggested books by me:

Keith Johnstone. Impro: Improvisation and the theatre. Methuen 2007.
Viola Spolin. Improvisation for the theatre, Third Edition. Northwestern University Press. 1999. (great for theatre games and focus)

Hope this was of some use!

Thank you for reading Ü