Putting the Horse After the Cart
Dear Annette,
How are you? I am fine. As I’ve mentionned earlier, I’ve been taking workshops with Remy Bertand in an interesting little building called the Rag Factory. I realized last thursday what was so innovative about what Remy was doing. Normally, in a workshop for beginning improvisors we focus on breaking the ice and getting them ready to accept ideas and to add to them in the context of a scene. To do this, we lead vocal and physical warm-ups, and group exercises to demonstrate offers, accepting and blocking. This is great and it does help to teach people about the lingo of improv and the types of decisions that are generally stronger or weaker. However, I have noticed with a great deal of novice improvisors that they are very comfortable when it comes to simple games that involved accepting and building on ideas, but these same people become tense and their creativity is stifled when the exercise expands to scene-work. The sheer amounts of choices is daunting, and the inexperienced improvisor is afraid of “screwing it up”. I believe that a large part of this is due to the fact that the improvisors feel isolated within the scene, that they don’thave a strong feeling or understanding of togetherness, support, synchronicity, and many other important aspects of improv that we assume will develop over time.
I’m very happy that I’ve been taking Remy’s workshop for beginners. In the six week course, he helps to lay a strong foundation for the learners, by aiding them to gain an intuitive feel for the general concepts of teamwork, status, and play which are integral to improv. This is accomplished through activities involving listening, watching, and non-verbal communication, eventually leading to more complex activities in which the participants must use these skills to accomplish some goal without planning or using verbal communication. And all of this is done before even one scene is attempted. All of the exercises seem like harmless games, so ego is discarded. And ego is one of the improvisors greatest enemies. But that’s a topic for another day.
So anyway, Annette, I think that Remy’s methods are pretty cool but they’re only for those people who are willing to take their time and really delve into the psychology behind improv. This is no shortcut to the lucrative world of professional improvising.
Love,
Marc
PS Check out some of Remy’s videos from his myspace page featuring Dave Dupont, NBA (Hons) – Shaolin Business School of Neuro Kinethic Implementation.
This one’s my favourite:
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