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Improv Jam: Thursday 25 April 2013
This week’s jam: Inspiration
Important venue info: This week we’re at 8 Stoney Street (opposite The Old Angel Pub) at 7.30pm. Despite heating, it can get a little chilly so wrap up warm!
This week’s jam is run by: Parky
It’s me again this week, with the third in a series of recent jams working on the very basics of getting an open scene up and running. Two jams ago, Lloydie did a load of work about keeping scenes grounded and justifying your behaviour and your reaction to your scene partner. Last week, we did some basic ‘yes, and’ and ‘who, what, where’ exercises in order to give ourselves a firm foundation for everything that happens next in a scene.
This week, I want to concentrate on ‘inspiration’ for scenes.
How many times have you seen a scene where the players have been given a word and use it in the first line of dialogue?
“Your suggestion is ‘tortoise’.”
“Look! It’s a tortoise!”
Yawn.
The idea of a scene suggestion is that it inspires you: it’s not that you have to base your scene entirely on that suggestion. So, I’ll be doing some work with word association, using our imagination and trying to come up with scenes that don’t feature a large falling anvilesque ‘clang’ when the suggested word suddenly appears.
And, of course, inspiration is about providing support and help to your scene partner. As the picture above says, “to be inspired is great, to inspire is incredible.” Will you be able to inspire your scene partner to brilliance?
There will be lots and lots of open scenes and some great circle activities. Don’t be afraid of a little bit of side-coaching also: it’s all about doing the best work we can.
Thursday 25th April
8 Stoney Street
Nottingham
NG1 1LH
Entry Price: £2
Improv jam: Thursday 18 April 2013
This week’s jam: Don’t be Pig 1 or Pig 2
Important venue info: This week we’re at 8 Stoney Street (opposite The Old Angel Pub) at 7.30pm. Despite heating, it can get a little chilly so wrap up warm!
This week’s jam is run by: Parky
Those of you who were at Lloydie’s jam a fortnight ago will remember that we tried to do a load of scenes that were grounded in some odd version of reality. Actions and words were justified so we knew all about our character’s motivations.
This week, we’ll be doing some similar work around ensuring a scene has a strong and firm foundation before weirdness/wrongity ensues.
Again, it’s all about awesome, simple, funny scenes in which we know who everyone is, what is going on and where we are. Before we go off on a flight of fancy, I want everyone to know all about the two people we’re watching – the relationship between them, who they are, why they’re together and where we find them. Without firm foundations, everything can come crashing down (hence the porcine related jam title. See what I did, there?)
There will be lots and lots of open scenes and some great circle activities. Don’t be afraid of a little bit of side-coaching also: it’s all about doing the best work we can. If your foundation isn’t firm I will blow it in Big Bad Wolf Styley, and make sausages out of your quivering flesh*.
(* metaphorically)
Thursday 18th April
8 Stoney Street
Nottingham
NG1 1LH
Entry Price: £2
Improv Jam: Thursday 7 March 2013
This week: The Character Jam
This week’s jam is run by: Parky
Creating interesting characters and the relationships between them is the bedrock of improv. However, how often do we create the same type of character or someone who is just a thinly disguised version of ourselves?
This week, we’re going to try something we have never done before. There will be lots of games and open scenes designed to help you establish a firm character, imbue that character with a back story, mannerisms and traits and, over the course of two hours, become that person.
This Thursday, you’ll play the same character for the whole jam. But what character, I hear you cry? That will be totally random and decided on the night. Ooooh! Fun!
Upcoming:
Thu 14th March: Gorilla Burger – it’s back at The City Gallery – a chance to get on stage and be awesome. This Gorilla Burger also features a class showcase from MissImp’s beginners improv students. Come along and give them your cheers and whoops.
Improv Jam: Thursday 24 January 2013
This week’s jam: More Little Imps for Big Imps
This week’s jam is run by: Parky.
Hello all. Little Imps is going from strength to strength and so this week is our second adult jam based on the kid’s stuff.
What does that mean? Great circle exercises, some open scenes and lots of our most popular shortform games. We teach the kids the basics for the games that will be in their show and so we’ll do exactly the same at our jam. There may even be a 10 minute break in the middle for squash and biscuits*.
Expect some open scenes, word at a time stories, Story Story Splat!, TV channels, alphabet games and much more. Oh, and there may be side-coaching and analysis about what went well during scenes/games (how do you get better without feedback?)
See you there.
(* There may not) Read the rest of this entry
