The Absurdity of Improv

IMPROV IS ABSURD. The challenge is to correctly pretend to be someone else while accurately engaging with the environment that isn’t there. In this workshop we'll destroy our expectations of 'getting it right' and rediscover the fun in The Absurdity of Improv. ​ The workshop is taught in 3 parts: ​ IMPOSSIBLE TASKS - We’ll charge ourselves with completing a challenging, ultimately impossible goal and learn how to have the most fun when it inevitably unravels. In this portion of the workshop we’ll learn an opener from a show James directed called ‘The Elastic Time Cannon’. The opener is a dialogue sequencing game played for accuracy first and chaos later. ​ THE ABSURDITY GAME - The communication that happens in an improv scene is like an iceberg. The interaction between characters is that little bit you get to see above the surface. Beneath that, there’s a massive amount of communication happening between the players. In The Absurdity Game we’ll strip away the usual tools of communication as we try to get each other to play games without being able to talk about the rules. This will help isolate our shared sense of play. ​ BOOBY TRAPS - There’s a lot of great advice out there on how to avoid trouble spots or getting lost while improvising. There isn’t nearly as much advice on what to do when you’re IN trouble or when you ARE lost. This is James’ offer of what to do when, despite your most sincere efforts, you find yourself in a scene that is disconnected, confusing, uncomfortable, etc. We’ll set ourselves up for trouble as we throw wrenches into the cogs of our scene work and see how it feels to accept, allow, and adopt these unnerving situations.