What I Learned from Improv: So Emotional.

Well, another Improv filled Sunday afternoon has come to pass, and I learned some more stuff. This weekend was quite timely for me... After a particularly emo Saturday, I marched on to Go Comedy! in Ferndale planning to start/end my week with some good, old fashioned, self-humiliation. (It is actually quite cathartic.)

We were focusing this week on emotion. Honestly, this is a class that lets just say, I haven't been looking forward to. I typically don't like to bring a lot of emotion to things. It's not that I don't have it... I think it's just some sort of self protective cloak of invisibility. Well, I left my effing cloak in the car, and did the damn thing.

Bring emotion to your scenes. I realize how basic this sounds, but when your brain is just trying to keep up, things like bringing emotion to a pretend situation are really some of the first things to go. So be present. Bring emotion.

As I was acting REALLY angry, (and trust me, I had the rage... re: emo Saturday) I realized what a gift it is to be able to march around like Mr. MadPants as much as you want. As grown ups we end up sucking it up the majority of the time. Something pisses us off, we only really have a grace period of about 15 minutes to feel what we feel before we have to pick and be "fine".

I found out the thing that I feared (being emotionally present) felt great. Don't interpret that as me being good at it quite yet, but it felt good. I felt like I was allowed. Like I gave myself permission to be that thing completely... angry, happy, scared, whatever. Now that I realize my emotions have a pulse. I need to learn how to connect that emotion in real time with my scene. I think it'll come right about the time my brain stops freaking out.

I've also realized what a powerful insight scenes are to your own natural emotional tendencies. I learned I was slightly skiddish in scenes. I ended up acting scared a lot.

Recognizing that tendency in myself in class, I started to see how I might be doing that in my 'real' life. So, you know, STOP IT!

A couple of less emotional things we learned about scene work was to say things within the scene that establish relationship and setting. Be descriptive when initiating or acting out a scene.

Stay tuned until next week for another riveting rendition what I learned from Improv... Next week we're working with objects. I know you'll be waiting like this until next Monday.