Following the Impulse

I admit I was nervous. I hadn't taught an Improv Class in many, many years. Fortunately, when I put the word out to my colleagues, I got tons of helpful suggestions, exercises, books to read, etc. Those, in addition to my good old Viola Spolin (Improvisation for the Theater) gave me more than I would need to lead ten workshops! I planned it out and then just said, "What the hell. I'll just go in and try to have fun. And if I screw up, I'll just....improvise!"

That's what I did. The first session in Bamberg had just 5 adults, as I mentioned in a previous post. In Schweinfurt there were 9 initial participants, with 3 more joining us after Sports Practice. Here there were mostly kids -- just 5 adults (4 of whom were parents of kids who also participated and Travis.)

I began with some warm-ups, some I had done before; some were new to me. We did a breathing circle, played Red Ball and then did a Mirror Circle with different leaders -- and ultimately no leader. We had a Blind Walk/The Chair is There exercise to engender trust. Then we worked on Transformations - the game where you have to change one activity into another based on the movements and body shape of your fellow actor. After that we worked on Showing Where (using 3 objects and an activity, Showing Who, playing the Age Game, Showing Relationships, using Hi/Bye and then followed with Contentless Scenes. For the last, they had to memorize a simple scene and perform it with different attitudes and emotions. Ultimately, we put them altogether in scenes for which I just provided a provocative opening line of dialog. Each of the workshops lasted about 2-1/2 hours.

It was a completely different type of experience working with the kids and adults together. The littlest ones were the most enthusiastic, but the least attentive to detail, as one would suspect. There were a couple of kids, however, who were pretty amazing at following the instructions and clearly executing their objectives. The adult group "got it" a lot faster, so we were able to move along very quickly from exercise to exercise. With the kids, I didn't trust sticking with one thing for too long for fear they would get bored -- especially concentration exercises. I think I was wrong about this. They would laugh and speak out during inappropriate moments, which threw me for a minute. I just let it transpire; usually I laughed a bit with them.

I would do certain things differently were I to do this again. (I have another workshop to give in a couple of weeks, but it is more of a "life coaching through theater" experience, which will be significantly different.) I learned a couple of things though: I enjoy teaching improv. That's huge. I can do it, at least with this type of group that is not too experienced. A next challenge would be to do longer classes with professional actors. I will look into those possibilities when I return to New York.

Huge thanks to everyone who provided me with ideas, exercises, etc.: Jewell, Justin, Shayna, Annie, Liesl and Andrew (plus anyone I may have forgotten.)