The Acting Blog

Improvisation and the Advanced Glasgow Acting Class

I want to tell you something about the project my advanced students are currently working on in their Tuesday evening classes.  Not because I am trying to persuade you to join them, cos I’m not, but because I think it might be interesting to hear about the work we’re doing together.

The advanced acting class at Acting Coach Scotland is a place where students that already have a firm grip on the technique of Practical Aesthetics explore more advanced elements of the technique and the training.  This is an invite-only class and the standard of the student is high.

In this block of classes, we’re doing something different, we’re creating improvised scenes from scratch, working on them for a while and then handing them to playwrights to work up into script scenes.

The project started with the students creating an improvisational scenario for two other acting students.  We do this with the tools of Practical Aesthetics.  The student actor created a scenario, involving two people in a situation.  They determined the location and what the individuals wanted from each other in the scene.  Then they decided upon Essential Actions for the characters in the scene.

The next part involved a story conference with the students telling each other their ideas and I worked as story editor, working out any kinks, strengthening any parts of the story that I felt were vulnerable and challenging some of the thinking behind the decisions made.

The ‘actors’ for each scene then created an As-If for their improvised scene, to make a personal connection to the circumstances of the scene.  Then they go from Repetition to connect with their partner, to Repetition with Action to begin to habituate the essential action whilst staying connected with their improv partner and finally into the As-If to bring it all together.

The students will work for a couple of weeks now on exploring the scene through improvisation before our three playwrights Ann Marie di Mambro, Chris Dolan and Philip J Larkin come in and watch the work in progress improvisations.  They’ll then take their notes, their impression of the scenes and an audio recording of the improvisations and spend a week creating a scripted scene from it.  The students will then work on rehearsing the scenes under my direction and using Practical Aesthetics to bring the scenes to performance.

I’ll keep you up to date with how the scenes develop and the process the students go through as they experience the generation and fruition of ideas into their performance.

To You, The Best!

Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009

Tweet me

Tags: Acting Coach Scotland, Advanced Acting Class at Acting Coach Scotland, Glasgow Acting Class, Improvisation, improvisation for acting, Practical Aesthetics

Improvisation Etudes

Improvisation is a vital skill for the actor.  I believe that all good acting should be improvisational by nature, that once the ground work on the script is done, once you fully understand the script, then your job is to live instinctively and spontaneously in each moment of the play.  That probably scares directors, they can’t control or nail it down, but the requirement to be ‘Different Every Night’ should be always be within the imaginary context or the given circumstances of the play.

Improvisational etudes are the cornerstone of many acting classes.  Games and exercises which build the ‘Yes AND’ capacity of the actor help the actor to live in the moment when the performance comes.  Too many actors hate improvisation because they don’t see the point, they don’t see the connection to the job of the actor.  When I teach that great acting is always improvisational, actors whisper ‘what EVEN with a script?’.  As if I would advise them to disrespect the playwright like that.  That’s only a job for actors with bigger Egos than the writer.

The trouble is that early on in our improvisational training, we come across the laughter and applause that ‘funny skits’ create.  After that, most people are just trying to be a bad episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway?  Improvisation isn’t about

I don’t agree with ‘improvising the character’s past and their future’, I think that’s a waste of time, it doesn’t serve the actor, it just fills up time, or put differently, wastes time in an often very short rehearsal period.  You know NOTHING useful about telling the story of the script or how to play the scene from an hour spent improvising the antecedent events of the play.

I believe that the best improvisations occur when you train actors to follow a strong action and help them connect to the script.   Setting a scenario where the actor needs to come up with a solid WANT, ESSENTIAL ACTION and As-IF helps them to prepare for the thing that they will be doing on stage some other time. In other words, it’s preparation for the actual job of the actor.  Improvising the character’s past will focus the actor on the job of ‘writing standing up’ a scene which is not in the play.  If you use something you made up to inform your choices, then your choices are not based in the play.  In other words, you desire to be a playwright.  So, do it, if you have all of that ability to ‘write’, WRITE.

If you join an Improv Group, fine, that’s a different kind of activity, it’s aim is to create, and in that case, more power to your elbow.

Improvisation training helps us to learn to live in the moment, chasing a goal, connecting to the part.  When that is refocused onto some kind of creative act, it distracts the actor from their job.  It’s as if a couple of hours spent improvising on the piano will suddenly help you play a difficult Chopin.  Rubbish!  Practicing the Chopin will help you play the Chopin.

To You, The Best!

Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009

Tweet me

Tags: improvisation etudes, improvisation exercises, improvisation for acting, why do actors improvise?