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The Concept of Improvisation
The Concept of Improvisation
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Do people always know what to say next? To use actions never thought of ahead of time? To carry on a conversation when the person talking to you throws out a question way off base, and yourself, the person receiving the question, doesn’t know what to say? Welcome to the world of Improvisation. We all know how these questions make us feel, using improvisation is just the fancy term used. A theatrical skill used in comedies, dramas, and mostly in small time theatre groups (The Groundlings). Improvisation, the ability to compose, to make, recite, invent, or arrange offhand. Some points of view in a theatre perspective are a look ahead on train of thought, actions with movement, and where exactly is this going, (the ultimate meaning).
When people talk in conversations, they usually think of what they are going to say, a category, or subject. A look ahead, or train of thought is always a skill. Improvisation is also included in a scene or conversation that what ever comes out of the mouth at a steady pace and make some sort of sense. In many comical theatre groups today, they use improvisation by using the audiences’ thoughts or suggestions. So now the actors or actresses have to make up a scene using not their own thoughts, but the audiences, and make sense.
An action with movement is another term of Improvisation used in theatre. To use movement makes the point or thought the person is trying to get across a lot clearer. Actions that have no meaning with the conversation may confuse some people. For example, if someone is in a business meeting is talking a respective manner while at the same time is performing the act of skiing down a hill, the person seeing and hearing this would be confused. The action he/she would want to use is legs crossed, hands folded, and looking into the persons eyes while talking. No dialog can still move a conversation or theatrical scene. It all depends on how it is done.
Where is this going? The thought usually pops up in an individual’s head at one time. To have an ultimate meaning is another important manner in improvisation. To think of dialog is a skill many people do not have. In crowds, or groups, some people have to talk from note cards or a letter with an outline. Others can talk all day without those because they have the use of their brain that outputs dialog that makes sense with the conversation.
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is a comedy that has been interpreted in different ways, enabling one to receive multiple experiences of the same story. Due to the content and themes of the play, it can be creatively challenging to producers and their casting strategies. Instead of being a hindrance, I find the ability for one to experiment exciting as people try to discover strategies that best represent entertainment for the audience, as well as the best ways to interpret Shakespeare’s work.
audience. The form of dramatic monologue has long been a way for authors to give
... better way for people to express their emotions. First of all, improvisation is dancing what your feeling or thinking at that time so that expresses your emotions, and therefore contact improvisation would be more effective to get your feelings out on war.
“Devised theatre can start from anything. It is determined and defined by a group of people who set up an initial framework or structure to explore and experiment with ideas, images, concepts, themes, or specific stimuli that might include music, text, objects, paintings, or movement.” (Alison Oddey 1). Devised theatre, also called collaborative creation, is a form of theatre in which the script is created through a collaborative process with the actors and the playwright, rather than the traditional method of theatre with a premade script. Devised theatre is created through the process, collaboration, and multi-vision of the group. Similar to improvisational theatre, a devised theatre play is created in the rehearsal process from the performers interacting with each other. By the time the devised play is performed the work is a cohesive piece that is, for the most part, set in stone. This form of theatre is a modern form of theatre, that came about from the collaboration of many different type of artists, because of the need of the performers to have some input into what they are performing. The devised theatre form is most utilized in the USA, Great Britain, and Australia, but especially in our country. Devised theatre utilizes physical movements, rather than focusing on only the language.
Throughout the past semester, we in Acting 2 have studied the different techniques and methods of acting adopted by the great teachers. From Stanislavsky to Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg to Michael Chekov, we have learned the many different views of what makes a good actor. While outside class we read about these techniques and took notes on their specifics, in class, we participated in workshops in order to get a true understanding of their ideals. This way, we could actually see which seemed to work for us and which did not. Different styles seemed to work for different people, on a purely individual basis. Through these studies and experiments, we were able to understand the differences in the techniques and the pros and cons of each.
To improvise is to compose and perform at the same time, or as some would like to call it spontaneous improvisation.
When I think of theatre, I think of it as a form of expression. This idea was supported by all three clips. This can be said because, in “The Playboy of the Western World,” we saw the use of an older form of dialogue to tell a story. In “Nightwalk”, the use of facial expressions, body movement, and noise was used to depict excitement, show curiosity, or aid in narration. Furthermore, with “The Rockaby” a poetic and metaphoric narration was used. And with “Beijing Opera Performance,” props and bells were used to tell a story. All of this to show how versatile and creative theatre truly is. It can range from simple to abstract. With that being said, one this that was discussed in the “Three Actor- Audience Relationships” was the interaction
Whether communicating through speech or some other method, your communication style has a lot to do with how much of what you "say" will truly be understood and accepted. It is very important to understand your own communication style, so you can recognize both its strengths and weaknesses. This also means it is helpful to understand
Since this was only my second play I realized that with a small cast as “Black Comedy” had each actor must work together and know the other actors’ lines. When someone would miss or forget a line, another actor would have to either help them get back to where they should be or go with it. I learned just how important cue lines were in this production. They tell you were you should be in your blocking, in the play, and who’s line is next. A way that helped me learn my lines this time around was when I thought I knew them I would write them down and then go back over them with the script in my hand.
In our daily verbal or written communication, the meaning of our words are influenced by the speaker, the listener and the context or situation the utterance is applied.
The way the actors move their body and show the audience what they’re doing is really important. In improvisation the movement and gestures are important because most of the time there is speaking but the actors aren’t very sure what is going to happen next. The audience can get really easily confused so it’s important to keep the audience on track the main rule in mask and in most theatre is not to rush so the audience has more time to think about what is happening on stage. Some of the characters have some special move most is acrobatic and some are types of walking and clocking the audience. Specific characters had a stock gestures over the time to fill in blanks or to leave time for other characters to think of their next move. Characters do move a lot around the stage it is important to move around often on stage to not bore the audience. Time is vital thing in improvisation it is important to take time in consideration people tend to take time to think of what could happen next but if you were the audience then u would need to leave time for everyone to think. Most actors in Commedia dell arte are well known for being flexible or physical control. The lower classed people tried to be as small as they could be when surrounded by a higher classed person who made themselves very tall. The lover always likes to move her hands as a result to making
Thinking big mean to draw a picture or make an idea of what you talk
Speech- The dictionary explanation of speech is “The expression of or the ability to express thoughts and feelings by articulate sounds” or “A person's style of speaking” Speaking is physically being able to produce sounds and sound patterns of our own language (mine being English) from our voices, or to be able to produce speech with a familiar rhythm.
Gestures are the movement of our hand and body (Rasberry & Lindsay, 1994, p. 202). Gesture is body movements that strengthen the verbal message and by the thoughts or emotions of each individual. Body movements, such as the use of clear verbal message or convey thoughts or emotions through movement of performs. Most communicators engage in some degree of hand gesturing while speaking, in normal communicative interactions (Garcia, Cannito, & Dagenais, 2000). According to Rasberry and Lindsay (1994), gesture is a movement that involves the movement of the hands and body of an individual. Although, gesture can be done using a limb such as the head, shoulders, and legs but gesture in non-verbal communication is usually done by using hands and arms. Furthermore, Richmond and McCroskey (2009) stated of, type of gesture can be divided into four parts, namely descriptive gestures, emphatic gestures, suggestive gesture and prompting gestures. Firstly, the descriptive gestures explain or enhance verbal message. Descriptive gestures help the audience to understand comparisons and contrast, movements, function and number of objects in that someone expressed it (Richmond & McCroskey, 2009). These gestures, viewers can understand more clearly the gesture is performs by someone. Secondly, as stated by Richmond and McCroskey (2009), emphatic gestures underscore what is being said. Usually this