Matthew Matheson's blog

Week 5 day 2 at IO :: Deconstruction and The Harold

Hello hello again :)

Here are my notes on the two forms we covered today - The Deconstruction and The Harold. Both wonderful ‘old skool’ longform improv pieces.

Hope the notes prove helpful.

Deconstruction

Key (image above):

S = Source Scene (the first scene, and the one we revisit and pick up where we left off as we go through the piece)

T = Tangental Scene (a scene that takes place in the same world as the source scene, but doesn’t include those characters or talk directly about the Source Scene

A = Abstract Scene (a scene that is inspired by the themes, patterns or rules that came out of the Source Scene)

1. Take a suggestion
2. Two people come forward and do a 7 or 8 minute Source’ scene - grounded in reality, remember your emotions
3. Do a Tangental scene
4. Do an abstract scene
5. Do a Tangental scene
6. Return to the Source Scene (exactly where it left off)
7. Do an Abstract scene
8. Do a Tangental scene
9. Do an Abstract scene
10. Finish with the Source Scene (exactly where it left off at 6, above)
11. See image above

Deconstruction notes

• The actors in the source scene do not enter any other scenes
• Make the Source Scene as grounded as you can - be as realistic to the scene as you can be and almost ‘be yourself’

The Harold

The signature longform piece. See image below for the current IO Curriculum stand on the Harold, as created by the late Del Close.

1. Take a suggestion from the audience
2. Your opening can be one of many things, our preference is an organic opening (see earlier blog posts from week 2 and 4). Ideally in the opening, the suggestion should be explored, left and returned to. Remember to listen to the last thing said and build on it - don’t change it. Let it morph and change naturally (see week 4)
3. The next three scenes should all be inspired by the opening, but different
4. The Group Game should be INSPIRED BY THE OPENING AND ORIGINAL SUGGESTION, NOT THE PREVIOUS SCENES so as to create a theme throughout the show and remind us what the original theme is (this is a common mistake)
5. The next three scenes are inspired by the game slot and perhaps develop the story from the first scenes a little
6. The next Group Game should again be INSPIRED BY THE OPENING AND ORIGINAL SUGGESTION, NOT THE PREVIOUS SCENES
7. The final three scenes are Tangentle, and should gently overlap -they do not have to be colliding worlds and are not intended to be
8. The final Group Game should draw from the three scenes and include all people from those scenes

Side notes

• Don’t use accents unless you are a dialectition - people in France don’t speak with an accent, they just speak. It will distract the scene - just make it clear you are in France or are french
• Emotion emotion emotion - don’t forget those emotional responses!
• Remember the bare bones - “who is this person to me, what are they ‘ really’ saying and how does this make me feel”
• A great improviser is a true paranoid - there always has to be a reason and emotional response to something

Week 5 day 1 at IO :: Armando and The Living Room

Hello dear readers :)

This week is all about learning various formats and then creating our own formats - I’ll cover the formats here, but won’t spend too much time covering stuff that is in previous blog posts (eg when we revisit two person scenes etc)

Hope you find it helpful.

Warm up - I like/Don’t like

• Stand in a circle
• One person in the middle
• Person in the middle points to someone and says ‘do you like your neighbor’
• The person pointed at can provide one of two responses
• 1) No. (If they say no, the people on either side of them switch places)
• 2) Yes, but I don’t like people who xxxxx (where XXX is something specific - eg ‘but I don’t like people who wear blue sandles)
• If someone chooses option 2, all the people in the circle who fit the bill for the statement have to shuffle around and take a new position
• The person who asked the original question has to try and get one of the spaces in the circle that become free - either from lots of people shuffling around, or from two people switching places either side of the respondent
• After a shuffle, whoever is left in the middle asks the same question of someone else
• Rinse and repeat until warmed up

The Armando

• One person comes forward and asks for a suggestion from the audience
• A personal monologue is then provided by that person. During the monologue make eye contact with the audience, reinforce how the topic of the monologue makes you feel, as often as you can and at the end
• A number of scenes are then created off the back of the Monologue
• When the scenes are exhausted, the monologist comes back out and performs another monologue
• Further scenes are then created
• Another monologue takes place
• Final set of scenes are created

Armando notes

• We want to see scenes inspired by the monologue, not re-creating the monologue
• Monologues are often medium stake, in a scene you might want to heighten it, play with a rule, or tweak something obvious. 
• The monologue is the simplest source of material for a show

The Living Room

• Sit in a semi circle on chairs to the side of the stage
• Get a suggestion
• Start a conversation and allow it to ebb and flow across the group - with people voicing their opinions and thoughts on the topics that arise, but don’t force them - keep it like a living room conversation
• Perform scenes as inspired (someone will need to jump up and someone else with them).
• Jump up to perform a scene as often or as little as you want
• The point of the scenes are to prove or disprove the content in the conversation
• After a scene has ended, sit back down and continue the conversation exactly where it was left off

Side notes

• The two person, emotion led scene is an anchor - with it it works, without it fails. Look at the two star wars trilogies. The first star wars movies, whilst not amazing from a special effects perspective, are brilliant because there was emotion between the characters. Look at the new films and notice what is lacking? Emotion.
• Once you set up a binary action in a scene, it becomes boring
• The Armando is like the Indian Myth of using all parts of the buffalo - the monologue is the buffalo itself, and the scenes use every part of it
• A ‘normal’ (or expected) emotional response to a fact leads to a healthy dramatic scene, a ‘incorrect’ (or unexpected) emotional response leads to comedy
• Anger is the hardest emotion to play with, it’s the hardest to morph into something else and very often dominates
• Always begin the scene from where you are standing - don’t walk out and then start.

Week 4 day 4 at IO : Working on challenges, vulnerability and ‘breaking the Harold’

Hello!

What an amazing day today - we started off this morning working on the things we’re not so good at as individuals (are you a leader, or follower, or are you the glue, what do you do good, not so good etc).

We then looked at how vulnerability informs our scenes before moving onto an exercise called ‘Break the Harold’. See image - need I say more. This was a lesson in commitment and it was mindblowing.

AM - Warm yourself up

Tribal dance

• Stand in a circle
• One person comes out and does a tribal dance with a chant
• Everyone else copies
• We work round the circle till all have taken part and led a dance

Do do do do

• In a circle
• Click your fingers in rhythm
• One person say a word, next person say a word, everyone say both words followed by ‘do do do do’
• Continue round the circle getting faster

Working on your challenges

• Split into teams of 8
• Do three openings and deliberately do what you know you’re not as good at
• If you’re a leader, follow, if you’re a follower, lead etc

Break the Harold

Pre-cursor - you have to commit to this 100% - whatever happens, patterns, scenes and all

• Perform a Harold
• At some point, the director will call out a name and shout ‘Break the Harold’ - it’s that persons job to do the best they can to ruin the show, whatever that may be
• If someone does something - everyone else should follow that!
• The director will shout ‘Name, Break the Harold’ a few times during the show
• Go with whatever happens :) See how it works out - ours was nuts!
• Notice how if everyone commits to everything, and doesn’t think twice, the show rockets. This is where we want to be

Notes

• Don’t have speed for speeds sake, but have speed for hesitations sake (ie don’t hesitate during a game slot or opening)
• If you start pushing people off stage in an opening, all get off damnit
• Commit, commit, commit - don’t think, do

Week 4 day 3 at IO : Language Barriers, Character work and ‘The Bat’

Hey guys

Sorry for the delay in getting this post up - been quite busy over the past few days! Mind boggling good class on Wednesday and Thursday this week - doing ‘The Bat’ was one of the most surreal, trippy and amazing things I’ve ever done - we went on for 42 mins in the dark! Here are my notes from the days activities.

AM - Self directed warm up

• We were asked to warm ourselves up to get used to doing so without a coach

Listening exercise - ‘We did it’

• Close your eyes
• Do the standard counting 1-20 exercise
• Now get a suggestion
• Once ready, start again, but instead of counting to 20, you are going to form sentences, one word at a time
• When you feel like a sentence is complete, you must all shout ‘we did it’ and start again
• Only if everyone shouts ‘we did it’ can you continue
• If two people say something different at the same time, you start again
• If two people say the same word at the same time, you can continue

THE BAT

• Lye down in a circle with your heads together/next to each other
• Close your eyes and turn off the lights
• Take a suggestions and very, very slowly start to create a soundscape
• Remember that you have to exactly mimic the people to your left and right - not be different
• As soon as a sound is established - find the heartbeat/pulse/rhythm for that sound as soon as you can - this means you should be making the sound at the same time, to a rhythm
• Let the sounds very, very gently ebb and flow and morph into new sounds
• Do not force ANYTHING let it happen naturally - your soundscape should rise and fall naturally
• At the right points, your director will ask two people to start a two person scene over the soundscape
• The scenes are to be inspired by the soundscape taking place behind you, and there is no pre-agreed decision as to who will do the scenes
• That scene will end and the soundscape will continue and at some point later (again don’t force it, give it time) another scene will take place, with the sound scape gently throbbing in the backgroud
• This entire piece takes place while you are lying down, in the dark, producing a soundscape of intune rhythmic sounds in a group
• If you feel like you are in a trance, being carried by the sound, listening carefully for tiny variation to follow and your tripping out, you’re probably doing it right :)
• At the end, find a way to end the piece then place your hands over your eyes.
• Call out how long you think the exercise took - you’ll be surprised
• Slowly bring yourself awake again, and take 5-10 minutes rest before doing anything else.

This was one of my most favorite moments of the entire program. Amazing.

Gibberish scenes

This was intended to help us work with the language barrier that some pupils faced because English was not their first language
It also helped us English speaking folk realise that it’s not always about the dialogue and that there are so many other ways to communicate

1. Two line scenes, with the initiator talking in gibberish, respondent in English
2. Three line scenes, with the initiator talking in gibberish, respondent in English and initiator again in gibberish
3. Remember to be clear, whatever you do

Gibberish Harold

Do a Harold, in the following format

• English opener
• First beat - half English, half gibberish
• English game slot
• Second beat - half English, half gibberish
• Gibberish game slot
• Third beat - anything goes

Character work - group creation of characters to use in the afternoon

• Get into threes
• Take 5 pieces of paper and a pen
• Draw 5 pictures of people, one on each piece of paper
• You have to draw collaboratively, one facial feature at a time
• Name collaboratively - one letter at a time
• Now take your character drawings and stick them on the wall

Character matching

• In twos perform two person scenes
• In your two - point to a character on the wall (together so your pointing at the same character)
• Describe 3 key features of that person
• Now both run a two person scene together where you are both playing the character you choose
• Use the features and characteristics you think that person would have, imagine how they would walk, talk, interact.
• Start big to get you into character, but tame it down and remember not to talk ‘about’ the character - find an emotion and point of view
• At the end of each scene, stop and analyse it
• Another two people up, select another character, off you go

• Do  12 minute organic opening, off the back of a suggestion
• Get those patterns running immediately
• If you hear something twice, it’s a pattern (damnit!)
• Eg if someshouts ‘we love food’ and everyone shouts ‘yes’ and then someone shouts ‘we love drink’ and everyone shouts ‘yes’ - that’s a pattern
• Don’t let it become scenic

Notes

• Don’t confuse high energy with mania
• If someone says something twice, it’s a pattern!
• Make sure your can both lead, and follow

Week 4 day 2 at IO :: More opening, more scene work and a complete Harold

Hey guys

Here are my notes from day 2 this week - hope they are useful.

Group warm up - kerplunk

• Stand in a circle
• First person says ‘1 frog’
• Second person says ‘2 eyes’
• Third person says ‘4 legs’
• Fifth person says ‘kerplunk’
• Sixth person says ‘in the pond’.
• Continue round the circle, but next time there are two frogs and the numbers are doubled
• First person says ‘2 frogs’
• Second person says ‘4 eyes’
• Third person says ‘8 legs’
• Fifth person says ‘kerplunk’
• Sixth person says ‘Kerplunk’
• Seventh person says ‘in the pond’.
• Continue till you can do it with 10, adding a kerplunk for each new frog and doubling the numbers

Shapes into scenes/physical triggers/opening

Step 1

• This exercise is completely in silence
• In twos, create the letter ‘A’
• In twos, create a dog
• In twos, create a tree
• In twos, create something that symbolises hope
• Now get into threes, and work through a number of similar objects given by a a director
• Now do it in four’s etc and continue until you’re in one complete group

Step 2

• In a large group, create four objects as given by your director
• When you are at the peak of the final object, speak as if from the point of view of the object
• Speak one at a time, just sound bites, don’t let it become sceney
• Now morph into another object, but don’t talk about what this object will be - just let it happen
• When you become that object, speak from the point of view of what that object is
• Keep changing objects, you have 10 seconds for each change

Opening + 6 beats

• Off the back of the above, do an opening
• Then do three scenes
• Do a game piece
• Do another 3 scenes

Half and half Harold

• Group splits into two
• Half the group are responsible for edits and game sections
• Other half are responsible for scenes, and editing game sections
• Complete a Harold
• This is a hard exercise and helps you understand if you are dropping your stuff in the wings
• Reverse the roles and do another Harold

Notes

• Remember strong first line and a great emotional reaction
• Call you our your strong statement asap - don’t sit on it, come out with it!
• Don’t ask too many questions, be confident in your own choices
• Find a way to end game pieces that works
• Make sure your opening has a massive physical presence

Week 4 day 1 at IO :: Openings and the start of a Harold

Hello all :)

Hope you’re smiling today - apologies for the slight delay, was at a ball game last night! Here are my notes from yesterday - we’re now moving into the territory of the Harold.

Warm up - pattern game

• Stand in a circle
• Pass the clap, but instead of a clap, use rap words or sounds
• Once comfortable, introduce the ‘you’ and ‘name’ pattern

• Stand in a semi circle
• Get a one word suggestion from the audiences
• One person step forward and do a short monologue (one or two sentences, keep it short)
• Next person responds to something that mattered to them with another short monologue
• Rinse and repeat over and over
• Don’t forget to make a stage picture, get physical
• Don’t let their be and dead air - keep it going
• Once complete, all move off stage and create the first three beats of a Harold
• Once complete, discuss.

Opening - Invocation

• This is a specialist IO piece
• Get a one word suggestion from the audience
• In a group, one by one say ‘I see……xxxxx’ and describe the object in detail
• Next, when you feel you have exhausted the object, say ‘You are…..xxxxx’ and explain a little more personally what this is
• Next, when exhausted, change to ‘Thou art’ and add a more poetic feel to your statements
• The energy should be matched across the group at this stage
• Finally, change to ‘I am’ and call out the various incarnations of this object, no matter how far removed from the original suggestion
• Allow yourself to really explore the suggestion, don’t end on the name of your suggestion, stand in groups and come together on stage
• Start by trying this exercise in a line, before then adding physicality and practicing as an opening
• Don’t allow any dead air - if it’s dead air, repeat the last object
• Once complete, all move off stage and create the first three beats of a Harold
• Once complete, discuss.

Opening/warm up - flock of birds

• Stand in a circle
• One person does an action (with sound), and all follow and copy that action
• Now let the sound and shape morph organically and create a stage picture with this
• Everyone should absolutely match you with no hesitation
• Keep a heartbeat - your sounds and moves should be in sync
• Call out a soundbite to say what this item is - then punctuate it with sound bites
• Remember to say yes and all follow the theme, not adding new stuff
• Once complete, all move off stage and create the first three beats of a Harold
• Once complete, discuss.

Opening - parts of a tree

• Create parts of a physical tree
• Let it build one step/person at a time
• For each new element include the statement ‘I am’
• For example, start building a tree as a group, ‘I am a branch, I am the broken bark on the trunk’ etc and when something big happens ‘eg I am the chainsaw at the base of the tree’ you then all change and become the chainsaw
• This can be described as scene painting and invocation having a baby :)
• Once complete, all move off stage and create the first three beats of a Harold
• Once complete, discuss.

The keys are to attack it till it’s dead and if people start slipping off stage, get off stage with them asap

Week 3 day 4 at IO :: Scene work, personal feedback, brit gigs and family visiting

Hello my dear improv reader friends :)

Good day today - lots of scene work, a personal feedback session and my sister and brother in law arrived for the weekend from UK. Oh - and all the brits got together to do a gig at the CIC Theatre here - great fun :)

Hope the notes prove useful for you!

Create your own warm up

In a group, remembering what you have learnt, do your own warm up :)

Something important it happening to us all

• Scenes off the wall
• Your inspiration is ‘something important is happening to us all’

The power of good staging

Step 1

• Two people up to do a scene
• Focus of the scene is one person has to ask another to be his best man
• Another two people up, repeat the scene, but take a different stage picture (both either side of the stage)
• Repeat with another radical stage picture (sit back to back)
• Repeat with another radical stage picture (faces one inch apart)
• Note how just changing your stage picture can make a massive change

Step 2

• Two people do another scene (asking someone out on a date)
• Change staging so that it’s like a split screen tv and your facing the audience instead
• Another two do it, and they now choose their own stage picture
• Note how just changing your stage picture can make a massive change

General feedback notes - each person performs 5 scenes to use their feedback

• If your characters are often very ‘you’ - do scenes where you hold the intensity of your character at 8-10
• Push the physical and push the visceral, but keep it grounded
• For those that naturally heighten, during rehearsals allow yourself only one heightening move per scene and all to have be grounded with emotion
• For those that have no on stage ego and are very considerate, try not to over think, start the scene with a noise, hold it for 5 seconds and then let that inform the scene
• For those that are strong, friendly and giving - push yourself to be selfish in scenes, be unlikable, be selfish and escalate emotions
• If you use your games a lot, try using the natural space now
• After feedback, all do a piece using your feedback

Notes

• It’s easy to get so focused as you approach your performance that you can forget your toolkit - don’t :)
• Don’t forget to change things up

Week 3 day 3 at IO : Saying yes (to all sorts of things), listening and a birthday surprise

Hello guys

Here are my notes from todays sessions - a good day with a lot of emphasis on scene work, with lots of long montage pieces. Funny that given this week is all about scene work :s

It was also the lovely Kayla’s birthday - happy birthday girl :)

Yes exercise

• Work in pairs
• One person talks, the other person only responds with ‘yes’
• Notice how agreement to the conversation whatever it is helpful, but that not having ‘and’ causes a small amount of conflict as you can’t build

Step 2

• Now do as above, but instead of turning to the director to say how you would respond, respond in the scene instead.
• The initiator has to work with you and continue the scene and support the scene

• Example - you are all in a shop, but you need to get to the changing room, but a changing room hasn’t been painted into the scene.
• Create an imaginary hall way and walk along and around this, as if sweeping all the previous objects in the scene away, and come to an end when you reach your destination (so it’s almost a new scene, but actually just a new location)

Notes

• You have to be listening to say yes
• There are a variety of ways of saying yes - you can accept themes, people, realities - all sorts
• Yes and is agreeing to the reality in the situation, not just dialogue
• Give objects real size and weight
• Everything comes from somewhere and goes somewhere

Week 3 day 2 at IO : Character work, intensity and energy matching and listening

Hello readers :)

Here are my notes from day 2 of week 3 - getting into some meaty scene work now.

Character warm up

• Stand in a circle
• One person step forward and initiate a strong character, physically and verbally
• Everyone in the circle copy that character as best possible
• The initiator slowly move toward someone and pass that character to them
• That person takes on that character, moves to the center of the circle and then slowly changes into a different character
• Repeat until all people have taken on characters
• Keep your energy (character) and intensity at about 8-10.

2 person scenes - intensity matching

• As before, except have a different character, but match the intensity
• Be careful to not conflict two much - opposing character often lead to opposing view or conflict

Notes

• Read ‘Truth in Comedy’
• Think of a Harold as a music album which ebbs and flows and has different pacing throughout
• Remember to allow the scenes to have relationships and emotion.
• Remember your ‘I feel, I think’ statements
• Don’t feel the need to justify your physical, character or object choices
• It’s easier for emotion to inform context, that context to inform emotion
• Opinion is easier to react to than history

Week 3 day 1 at IO : The two person scene and getting real

Hello all!

I hope you are well and smiling :) Here are my notes from day 1 of week 3. This week is all about getting under the skin of scene work - hope it proves helpful.

Warm up exercise

• Stand in a circle
• Turn to the person next to you and make a physical gesture and a sound
• That person then passes that same sound and gesture to the person next to them, and continue until it reaches the original person
• The next person then makes a different physical gesture and sound that is passed round the circle
• Continue this until everyone has passed something round the circle

3 line scenes

Usual three line scene format

• Step 1 - perform scenes where you know each other
• Step 2 - perform scenes where you know each other and talk about specifics
• Step 3 - the initiator says something about themself, the partner responds and then says something about themself, the initiator reacts
• Step 4 - do this again, but slow right down and make sure you react with emotion
• Step 5 - initiator says something specific about partner, partner reacts, then says something about initiator, and initiator reacts
• Step 6 - do all the above but first make eye contact, touch your partner and then start dialogue

• Pair off into twos
• Have a normal conversation
• Now one pair come up front and continue that conversation while doing a specified environment task
• Go back to everybody talking in twos
• Another pair come forward and talk with object work
• Continue until all groups have spoken
• Notice how honest, grounded scenes are more engaging

Side notes

• Love everyones ideas as well as your own
• Opinion is easier to react to than history
• Remember not to try and make jokes, don’t ask too many questions, don’t have scenes between strangers.
• Playing it cool isn’t as satisfying as an emotional reaction