The Most Basic Improvisation Game you Need to Master
When learning drama improvisation, it is important to start at the very beginning. We need to free our voices to respond from our gut. Our inability to respond instinctively is part of a self editing process that begins with our parents calling us ’silly'or ’naughty'and continues through our education.The most basic game is a ’sound around’. The actors stand in a circle should to shoulder looking straight ahead. The first person starts, turns their head to the right, and makes a noise at the person next to them. As soon as that person ’receives the impulse'they turn their head to the next person and make a noise. Beginning actors who are nervous, will actually plan in their head what noise to make, and make coherent sounds like ’bark'’woof'’tweet’. The role of the moderator of this game is to work with the group to create a quicker and quicker pace which will circumvent this thinking process. As soon as a beginning actor learns what a true impulse feels like, this physical experience can be transferred into all of their other improvisation work. All too often, however, the authentic aims of early improvisation games are skimmed over, and the authentic physical experience of transmitting a true impulse never happens. This, in my opinion, is one of the reasons there are so many horrible improvisors! How the moderator works with the team of actors to release that innate impulse through improvisation games is a highly developed skill that comes from years of experience. Good teachers are like yogis, gurus, and midwives helping the actor give birth to the clown inside. Perhaps, they are also like a psychotherapist, helping to undue years of damage from the state education system.
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