Playfulness, Risk and being Structureless [Full Article]

To speak of importance is a reason to write. Whilst responding to a few articles online I noticed that what I trying to write in a couple of words did not say anything I was trying to. Therefore, I decided to write an article on 'play, taking risks and being structureless'. In the composition I mention a few elements of what improv is for myself and how and who I run various improvisation projects with.
Finding improvisers that play the same consistent short-form games is common. The tearful aspect of this discovery is that players will define their role in each game that their team plays and stay with that. The partier who is having a birthday or anniversary are setting their twiglets on the dining room table for their guests. They have their celebrations multiple times each year. Definitely a lucky person, but surely tedious to play that role every time. Even more so if the game has been played for many years and still just doing the same old guessing game.

“Ah, Watson I heard Sherlock took his last sniff.” And applause. Try guessing after years of not playing that role in the game, will it be fun? I consider the prospect of not improvising when I am improvising scary. If you can do it, quit. Phelim McDermott talks about being able to improvise as impossible and says, “...otherwise there is no point in doing it.” This is one of my most favourite quotes about improvising. Improvisers could be said to be worried then and this is addressed by Keith Johnstone when we discover people end up pressed up against the wall or even off-stage (in beginning classes).
The audience sees the player and the story. Improvising will show 'you'. Not just the exterior presentation you wish to let lose on the everyday world that you meet, shake hands with and murmur your words of elegant meanings and purposeful phrases. Augusto Boal states that we all present ourselves in life like we are in our own performance. Boal's 'Rainbow of Desire' shares the thought that everyone performs naturally. The last time I saw a person be their self in the present of others was in fact never. Barry may well be upset, but is the upset he is displaying to get the pity and sorrow of those around him? Barry might know, but also it needs to be said that Barry might not know. Sub-conscious desires are controlling what you get up to and will choose for you. (Not that the conscious self and the sub-conscious self are separate beings). Therefore, the more we listen and follow the sub-conscious the better the results in everything else. Then Barry might even realise that he is trying to get Sally and Jacob to hug him in the park on that miserable Saturday afternoon.
The most enjoyable moments in improv are when the player risks. I wrote an article about this for Ludus Ludius based on a mainstream news article about a mouse. As every player is delving into the depths of their own sub-conscious and coming up to the audience with their life's truffles, the choice to try and hide and go for a quick gag could be quite apparent. Even more so, are those that don't even get that far. Risk will be scary, but the audience think improvising is scary anyway.
The answer to risk is play. Look at kids.

The fact is that kids play freely, spontaneously coming up with stories and games and everything adults now train for years to do. Play is human nature. Admittedly it happens with children. Look at a dad who has got a young toddler, he starts playing. I once saw a dad in the Wales Millennium Centre that told his kid off for being on the (free) Glanfa stage. I have also seen parents play at the best of their ability. The fear creeps in when another adult is around. Walking passed a dad and a young child playing catch they stopped for me to walk passed and there was plenty of room. Playing is an innate ability that is animalistic. Lions will play to train their young to fight. Gazelles play on the mountains to make sure they can handle the mountainous lands they live in and run from their predators. Humans learn through play. Our foundation phase in schools now teach through play. Crazily the adults that lost their playful attitude now attempt to control the children's play in order for them to learn. “...education can be a destructive process...” (Johnstone, 1989, p. 16) The education system nowadays complains that the concept is failing. If the kids that have gone through that phase were dealt with well then we should have some of the most socialised children now. Play can be on your own, but it is likely that during that process the youngsters in question have played with others. The children move on and begin their treacherous educational life where all they are told to do is 'put down what I say on paper.' From socialised young people to robotic teens. Constantly being told off for being a 'lion' or a 'gazelle.' “No fighting, Jerry.” Or even, “Get off that fence, Julietta.” However, controlling kids' lives is what we have to say and do or maybe that evil nasty man lurking around will take them and harm them. When can they fail and try again, if there is only one answer. I feel I always learnt the hard way, but that has made who I am. Over years of media attack, the playful nature of society has diminished to ensure our thinking as adults will keep the children in on their Xbox till the early hours.
Playing cannot be scary. What is scary is the judgement. The part of growing up where we learn that other people will mock you if they do not agree with you. Playing is not the scary part, its being concerned what other people think. Furthermore, after our education system has taken place, some decide to be actors. Our actors read through their script and enter a theatre and perform. The scripts that are performed we call a 'play.' Surely then the actors are experts at playing. The play is certainly named to be done in a playful manner. As improvisers, we spontaneously create our plays or productions. These experts can indulge in playing without fear. It is the usual hiding from their reality that stops play for these experts too. Jerzy Grotowski left having an audience and rather preferred the idea of the performance being for those involved, paratheatrical. The level of play that this would involve would be without fear then.

The social judgement that happens when you step out your door and you perform who you are is on-stage too. Theatre critics praise and insult the actors that they watch creating this fear in the actors.
Many theatre practitioners teach acting in their experience and theories. Some agree with the sentiment I have made. Philippe Gaulier teaches through the use of play or pleasure. The issue is that English uses the term play in many ways and other languages do not even have the word. John Wright runs an amazing play course and it truly assists with digesting the people around you.
Play connects people. See the sparkling eyes of the youth and then see adults involved together with in a playful environment, the image is the same. The essence of human connection is the capacity to sparkle. Friendships are built upon playing.
If you can improvise there is not more challenge, no more risk. No risk means no pleasure for the performer and the audience. Also, there has to be play, like what Gaulier and Wright utilise to their best in the theatrical world. Gaulier is well known in the 'clown world' as well as others. Gaulier speaks about the essential part of performance and theatre as, “I teach theatre of freedom, I teach theatre of the imagination, I teach theatre and the dream of theatre, I don’t teach a style, when you show your please you show something fantastic.” (http://www.performingplays.co.uk/uploads/resources/14/philippe-gaulier-by-charlotte-clisby.pdf) Likewise with the way John Wright uses play in his theatre work. Wright describes how people perform, “When we're having a good time we forget that we are working hard, flops become more bearable and can be seen in the context of the workshop rather than signalling the end of your career, as a result we can take more risk.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wright_%28theatre_director%29#The_Wright_School) So when we play and risk we engage ourselves in the activity and lose fear and panic over the scene and stage. As improvisers we revel in this and we can both engross the conscious in what we are doing and more importantly the others around us. In a competitive impro show the players should not be concerned at only part of the players making the show happen, but everyone. I have had the best moments in competitions when I play and play well with others.

Strangely a book about improv has this exact title, 'Plays Well With Others' by Les McGehee. The best 'instructional' videos on improv are from him – well the most enjoyable. I have never read the book, but it probably lives up to the title.
Suddenly in the competition I found myself actually caring about what happened and started losing that playfulness within. It wouldn't take a genius to work out what happened then. What we did stunk! I felt like I wasn't living up to my title. Until I took a risk, I played to make the show great even if it broke the rule of make the show look like a competition and don't really need to win – we played to the opponents strength and something I truly gain jollification in playing with. The other option I had thought could have been fun was to challenge the other groups to name and set-up a game we had never played before. As improvisers we should be capable to improvise in any game. I started improvising because I wanted to get on-stage with nothing and find success. Frankly this is impossible, but I still search. The team you work with will know that 'I am going on stage to perform narrative' or 'music' or 'dance'... even simpler is 'I am improvising scenes'... whatever. In search of free-form I have found that it is impossible without all the team having the same experience of all uses of improv known. There still is unknown uses that can be found in the moment.
Working with some brave youth improvisers, I have taught them to go on stage with nothing not ‘pre-plan’. They know if they are doing scenic or improv games, but even then we have explored various other forms and uses of improv that can crop up. They have a long-form that is just telling a story in whatever way it happens. Although it is not free-form, the way it is done could be extremely fast-paced or long scenes. What this tells me is that if we sincerely use what's there then our strict need to adhere to a the format will vanish. For example, a monoscene format will not mean we cannot have 'cut to' moments. In one of the podcast 'improv nerding' sessions I have indulged in recently, the Americans spoke about this exact topic. Just because the monoscene is supposed to have no edits, if edits happen this shouldn't mean it’s no longer a monoscene. We 'yes and' on-stage, but do we then? Whatever happens can be accepted.
A recent production I created, desired no structure, but to get there we all needed the same base of what could happen. I used a puzzle structure in order to eventually get everyone on-board. Any of these 'puzzle pieces' could be placed anywhere as many times as occurred and be any length in the show. The reasoning was that if we can do everything, then everything can happen. Of course it is impossible to achieve this in all its glorious totality. We had discussion, singing, dancing, poetry, scenes, some games, some styles of scenes and puppetry; perhaps more too. Whatever happened was accepted most of the time. When I create this again, then I hope it will be easier to get to the right place (as I didn't complete it in time).

Starting my improv career in movement I discovered various elements I still love today, but are not quite fitting with others. However, the one that does easily cross art-forms is the 'tool-kit' metaphor. Keith Johnstone states do a lot of art forms and this will enhance your improvisation. Likewise Del Close stated as improvisers we have to do more than just improv. A team of scientists will create a great Harold team, as they have something to talk about. Personally proven when in a Cardiff competition I had a scientist and a digestion scene came up and it was greatly enhanced by the actual science of it. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzM7CoYGt54) The original hearing of the concept was from the improvisational movement practitioner, Al Wunder. Hearing all about his theories and practising them later on from the Cardiff Improvisation Symposium in 2007.
By this point the aims of when I step on-stage or a workshop as a facilitator will be clear. I want structureless play that will enhance the connections we have as people in life and in the theatre or stage area. I see what we do as more than what we have now or even what we are heading for. All forms of improvisation can be combined for great theatrical extravagance. Lets take the big leap of faith with our teams and really get into improvising freely and playfully. Play a game in front of your audience that you don't know. Why not? Second City would do their two acts and then have no idea what they would do in their third act. (Okay, they know it was going to be a run of scenes.) When being in a Jay Rhoderick's workshop we heard the great phrase of 'Yes the shit out of it.” The ability to support, no matter what, comes from in this phrase. Living and learning as we go. Fail with a smile. Find risk, play and free-form (at its most capable for your group[s]) and notice that it feels good and then entirely break it all. I speak as a hypocrite, as I search for this and try to live by this and clearly don't sometimes. This probably says a lot about me.

Images from: http://adssuck.blogspot.com/
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The British Improv Scene: a dedicated improv theatre

The United Kingdom having its very own improvisation theatre was not a lone thought. The voices heard at the start of these spoken thoughts about this very concept was very exciting. It probably is certain that every improviser had the idea of starting an actual building with the commitment to improvisation. I know I did and in a way still do. The excitements of hearing other people desire the same as myself meant that the likelihood that a place would appear and be totally dedicated to the common cause was more probable.

I cannot tell how many of those original voices are involved with The Miller becoming this very building, but with a multitude of resident groups performing in the venue we can be safe to say we have a step closer. I heard mentions from the likes of Jules Munn who runs many theatre projects including improvisation tasks, such as The Nursery and their festival and the Slapdash improv festival in London and no doubt a countless amount of other vast and impressive events and projects. And we all look forward to the next Slapdash that will join the history of improvisation festivals that the UK has: Assisting the growth of the variety of improv that exists in the country. With Bristol Jam entering its third year and Shifti that sadly hasn’t returned since its debut in 2007. I also heard Steve Roe talking about the possibilities. He is from Hoopla that had weekly shows in the venue (The Miller near London Bridge tube) and then joined Shotgun Impro that also then began performing in The Miller. With weekly drop-in sessions in The Bedlam in Balham and also Saturday sessions that are always something magnificent. This is along with many other names that you could have heard on the grapevine. Whispers have been around for longer than I was close enough to hear and now we cannot just hear but see! So to those people that are actually involved, I thank you and look forward to hearing more from over the border with the sheep. The sheep and I are looking at each step with glee and anticipation.
The main reason why this should excite most if not all improvisers in Britain is because we can become a tighter community of improvisers. We can easily see that many people desire this with the start of Crunchy Frog Collective that began about five or so years ago and the recent online request from Alex Fradera who has started a ning network for Community Improvisation. The load of times I have gone to other groups and played, from Wow Impro in Coventry to The Bourne ImprovAbles in Bournemouth.

Connecting up with others is more of a joy for me. Easily found when I got strangers together in last year’s show in London, ‘Catch Impro’, to perform in a duo against another pairing. A good network leads to better quality and this creates a wider audience. When my Nan is going to improv shows I know we have made a good network. A dedicated venue shall have a major impact on the network. Like the Improv Symposium in Edinburgh in August ’10, bringing people together is beautiful.

We can all aspire to have the nation-wide recognised improv theatres, events and productions. We have ‘Scenes from Communal Living’ that started in Australia and moved to us and ‘Fingers on Buzzards’ that is now being performed in Canada, so how come we cannot get shows to be national if we have international. Personally I am doing my part with beginning a youth group in Cardiff and will try and get them to compete in ‘Cagematch’ wherever possible. (So if you have a youth group, then let’s play!) There are a lot of shows that are like Theatresports or Maestro – depending on how you perceive the productions. I guess what I am trying to say is perhaps naming it one title and spread that around. Or is it important in the slightest? Is the one roof the tie of recognition? I know Fat Kitten have competed against Student Improv Nottingham and MissImp against BangorSoc from North Wales. These probably were not the same game. How about Britain Improv Games? With the likes of the fantastic David Shore we should get more and more long-form, perhaps Harolds. This may well lead to Harold competitions or even the afore mentioned Cagematch. The improvisation scene in Britain is getting highly interesting, exciting and thrilling. With new influences, new mediums being used like ‘Fast and Loose’ on telly and ‘Showstopper’ on radio. (Although this is more getting back onto those mediums) and also the best result an actual venue.
‘London Improv’ is the place to perform at the moment. They are booked up till the Edinburgh Fringe, which I have a show in and you can get more about that via searching ‘Ludus Ludius’. Further articles may well come about this too. Unfortunately we cannot bring it to the venue before the festival. However, if we want this to work then everyone needs to bombard them with requests to perform in The Miller and make sure we are seeing the true depth of what people are producing from all around the UK. Utilise what we have and let us see something magical.

Thank you,
Nathan Keates