Improvisational Actor
I sometimes get hung up on the word “player” (see last blog). We are players! We play, but we also must remember that we are doing improvisational theater. This means we are also improvisational actors.
The first thing about being an ‘actor’ is character interpretation. Actors play characters, interpreting characters motivations and emotions. We put on a mask and become someone else. When we improvise, we must have a character! If we don’t we are not improvisational actors. We are not even players. Without characters we are just folks trying to get laughs. We are stand-ups without the discipline to write, re-write and rehearse. We are at best quick witted buffoons.
Characters allow us to be in a different place and time. They let us be someone else for a moment and say and do things that we would never do in real life. They give us a chance to take things emotionally in a different way. We can let our characters get hit and deliver emotional slings and arrows. They can allow the player to drop their defenses. Characters are a, if not the, critical element to what we do as improvisational actors.
Another thing about the word ‘actor’ is a person who acts. A gear puller. Someone who makes things happen or things happen to them. A person who can push someone off the subway platform or gets pushed. Someone who gets in the middle of things and makes things happen. A person who can create change.
Too often I see scenes where nothing happens. Where players are talking about someone or something off stage about things that don’t effect the characters on stage. There is no emotional transaction. No change. Theater is about change. Every good scene is about change. Every (non-experimental) play is about change. Good improvisational actors know that every scene is about change. About change being inflicted or attacking the relationship or character on stage.
A scene where there is no relationship (of importance) and the laughs come from a pattern or a joke I call those ‘games’. Games are great and I think they are what most players are good at performing. I love them, even in long form, but only in moderation. To be an improvisational actor you need to be able to act in any type of scene; relationship, comedy, serious, game, etc, you need to be able to let the character be moved and be able to act upon other characters.
I may be a player, but I also hope that I am an improvisational actor too.