28th of September 2010

Today, we got into our groups and worked on our cheers. Our group did not really get it nailed, maybe because people found it hard to concentrate and to come up with a cheer. Then we worked on a handle: Three-way scene. This was a fun game, but it was hard to get into to the scene, as it is very short. This is something I will have to watch out for on Thursday, the handles don’t last very long, and it’s still important to be a part of it. On the whole though, this handle went really well. Perhaps because the scenes were so short it was easy to keep them contained.

Pre-evaluation for Theatre Sports

I feel that Theatre Sports on Thursday is going to be fun for the audience to watch. However, this depends on the acts being successful. I hope that they are, but I’m not sure how we will handle the pressure. Personally, I will probably be nervous, and it might affect my performance depending on how well I get it reigned in. However, I think that as a group, we will do pretty well since we have some confident people in our group. Still there will be pressure on us, and I hope that it will affect our performance positively. I will definitely try my best, and joining in scenes even though I might be afraid.  I’m sure that others will do the same, as it is important. I hope that this will result in scenes that are better developed than some of the ones we have done in class. Still, the handles will help give focus to the scenes. We are all familiar with the handles, which is going to be a big help on Thursday. I’m hoping for a successful and fun night.

Friday 24th of September 2010

Today we were divided into groups for Theatre Sports. Our group had some difficulty in deciding a name. We had ideas such as Johnny Wall, Pikies, My Nan rides the trolley in Netto, Chronic master babies, Grand Deaf Lama, Jerry and the pacemakers, Finland has nice lakes, General attack and eventually the one we settled on, No, I’m nuts. Most of these suggestions were random names thrown out be people. We seriously considered  “My Nan rides/nicked a trolley in Netto”, which we dismissed because it was long and just too weird, and “Finland has nice lakes” , not choosing it because it was random . The one we settled on, “No, I’m nuts” also went through a transformation. It started by me saying, “No, I’m not”.  The problem was that we could not think of a outfit to it. We almost changed it until Mr Sarstedt suggested that we turn it into “No, I’m nuts”. Then we decided that we would all be dressed as different nuts. Then the next challenge was to come up with a cheer. This proved hard as no one really had ideas. Someone thought of getting a bag of nuts and throwing them at the audience. The we just played around with different phrases, trying to come up with one that works. We came up with, “Those who like nuts, stand up”.  We did not really come up with much more before the end of the lesson. For the last ten minutes, we rehearsed handles. The handle we did was a game where the first letter of a word had to be the last letter of the previous word. This was hard because you concentrated on coming up with words that had the right letter, meaning that the scenes often did not advance far. Of course, if the people in the group were more willing to go up on stage to save the scene then it would have worked out better.

Reflection on workshop experiment

The mini workshop that I had designed was on the Harold, a long form improvisation game. In a group of five, we tested it out. First I talked about the Harold, and then we tried out some of the techniques. The group was given a word, and then they had to create three scenes based on the word. The word chosen was pencil in this case. This proved hard, as you had to think on the spot, forming a whole scene over a mundane object, a pencil. The scenes did not turn out to be very focused, and didn’t advance anywhere. The idea was that three different scenes are done based on the word. The first one was fine, about a pencil factory, but it too got a little out of hand. Then the group had to come up with another idea for a scene with the word pencil. This did not progress much further than the platform. The third scene got even more weird and unfocused. The feedback I got was that my group felt that it was quite challenging. I feel that it is important to get people to be serious about, as it does require some dedication and effort. If the scenes can be made to flow smoothly and to advance further, than it could work. Perhaps it would be good to try out assigning topics related to the word for each scene, at least until people get more comfortable with the technique.

Tuesday, 14th of September 2010

Today was a relatively short session of improvisation. We continued with the Theatre Sports. We played a game where everyone was assigned a certain number of words that they could say for each line. I got one. This proved difficult because it was hard to keep a conversation going. Not one of my best performances, as I had trouble thinking of how to advance the scene. However, the whole scene just kind of fell apart. The reason was that everyone was counting his or her words. This was what we concluded when we discussed it. The advice was to pretend that you are speaking the right amount of words. The main point is to advance the story.

Friday, 10th of September 2010

Today we did theatre sports as most of the class was missing. Theatre sports was a new thing for me, so I didn’t really know any of the games. However, they were fun and built up improvisational skills. When we played evil twin, I did fine when I was a good – partly because my evil “twin” didn’t intervene but also because it required less creativity and thinking on the spot. When I was the evil one it was harder to think of what to do. Also one of the scenes just fell apart because no one was working on advancing it, the one with the guys finding a wallet. It was also quiet hard when we played the commentator game because I didn’t always realize that I was refusing an offer, an example being the commentators taking about getting a ladder and me not doing so for a while. All in all it was good class, especially since we were so few.

The Harold research

Improv theatre:
The Harold
This is long form if improvisation, started by Del Close in the 60’s.
It can take anywhere between 10 and 45 minutes, and follows a certain structure.
1.    the “moderator “(about.com), a person selected to run the Harold, asks someone in the audience a question with a one word answer like: “What is you favourite activity?” or “Name one thing that you are wearing.” The whole Harold will be based on this. Then there are several options for the opener:
-a speech by the moderator
- the actors talking about their experience with the word
- play a word association game
- the actors perform a dance based on the word

2.    Three short improvs based on the word
3.    An improv game
4.    Three more short improvs either sticking to the same word or making it more specific
5.    Another improv game
6.    Some more improv scenes to wrap up and tie together the several themes and characters

Bradford, Wade. "Long Form Improv Game - The Harold Improv Game." Plays / Drama. Web. 12 Sept. 2010. <http://plays.about.com/od/improvgames/a/harold.htm>.

Summary of source: This source was very informative and detailed; outline the structure of the Harold. It is a valid source as it is owned by a major newspaper company, New York Times.

Each scene has 2-4 actors in it but about 12 people, not all of them in the scene, could play the Harold. It is also not important if you stick to three rounds, as long as all of the scenes are loosely tied together. 
"Harold." Improv Encyclopedia. Web. 12 Sept. 2010. <http://improvencyclopedia.org/games//Harold.html>.
Summary: This was a more concise account of the Harold. It explained the main rules of the Harold and briefly the structure. It was also a very valid source, as it’s an encyclopedia of improvisation.

The Harold was invented by a improv actor, Del Close in Chicago working at the “Improv Olympic” theatre in the early 1980’s. It’s an alternative for Theatre sports and short form “Who’s line is it?”
"Who Is Harold...or Rather What Is Harold?" NYU NYUHome Homepages. NYU. Web. 12 Sept. 2010. <http://homepages.nyu.edu/~bvc202/tools.html>.
Summary: This source was rather brief but very clear on the structure of the Harold and it’s origins. It’s a valid source because it is the site is by the NYU.

Evaluation of people in our drama class

Helen: Helen was always ready to jump in and take part in the improvisation scene. She stayed in character and moved the scene along, without making it go all over the place.
Bea: Bea had good ideas for moving the scene forward, and was able to do this.
Kento: Kento was very creative with his characters, especially the one that he was assigned. He was a little unrealistic when he sent his lama to Russia and pulled things of it’s back, however, was able to keep the scene within boundaries.
Erland: Erland was active and often ready with an offer. Occasionally a little random, but this happens in improvisation easily.
Rasmus: He was always a part of the scene, and ready to move the story forward. During freeze tag his positions were often very neutral however.
Nicolai: He did a good job when he was assigned a character, however occasionally was laughing out of character.
Markus: Markus was often moving and not just talking. He came up with ideas that made the scene get a little random however.
Iain: Iain is able to come into a scene and move it along with believable characters.
Himanshu: Himanshu is creative with his characters, choosing for instance to be a pet herring. He was able to make the scene move forward as well, with though perhaps random ideas, like escaping as the pet herring.
Johannes: He was always ready to advance the scene, but his ideas often were not the most realistic and made the scene take a different turn.
Anders: Anders can be funny on stage, and still remain in character. He is also comfortable playing any type of character.
Sebastian: He was willing to take on any character, which helped advance the scene.
Christian: He was ready to be part of a scene and was able to help advance the scene in a constructive way, keeping it together.
Caleb: Caleb helped in developing the scene, often constructively. He stayed in character.

September 6th 2010

Today we worked more on improvisation, playing several games. I was more active today, participating in several scenes. I did stay in character, but am still a little stiff on stage, meaning that I’m not necessary very creative. It gets better though once I get into a scene, then I’m more comfortable on stage. During the game “Freeze tag”, my postures were often quite neutral, meaning that I have to learn to use posture and body movement more while improvising. This would mean that the game “Freeze tag” was probably good for practice. My characters were often believable however, advancing the scene. Others did well as well, though there was still a bit of the problem that the scene got a little bizarre. 

Tuesday 31st of August 2010

This was my very first drama lesson at CIS. We worked on improvising, which I gather is the current unit. We focused first on establishing a platform. This is the first few seconds of a scene where the actor establishes the who, where, when and what of the improve. We all practiced establishing a platform. This is surprisingly hard to do, as you have to mention aspects of where you are and what you are doing that you wouldn’t ordinarily mention.  Afterwards we were divided into half and in turns the group worked in an improve scene. There were different types of scenes; there was trouble keeping the scene going and not losing the plot by going all over the place. One of the improvisations went from desert to waking up to a person having mental issues. After this, we did an exercise singing by the piano, something I didn’t entirely understand. Through out this lesson I was rather quite, but I will try to be more active in the future.