By golly, I think I’m getting the hang of it!

At Improv 101 today, we warmed up by tossing an imaginary ball around, karate-chopped our way to more energy, acted out scenes using only food words for dialogue, and then practiced doing monologue-inspired scenes following the Armando style.

I’m getting better at relaxing and creating characters with their own points of view. I spent some time thinking about and “trying on” different kinds of roles, and that made it easier to mix some of those characteristics with the suggestions that the audience gave. Getting the relationship as a suggestion helped, too.

I still sometimes get stuck in repetitive arguments, but I’m getting better at consciously breaking out of them by introducing new elements. I also had fun figuring out some quick games to play with my scene partner.

Next steps: practice my initiations, get better at listening and responding, avoid simple repetition (build a game of complex repetition), collect more characters.

One more class to go! I’ve signed up for the next course in the sequence, and I’m sure this will all be fun. More practice would be good, too. More listening.

Perhaps I should be like Mr. Collins, writing down and arranging such little initiations as may be adapted to ordinary occasions, and trying to give them with as unstudied an air as possible. ;)