New Blogsite for Improv Related Posts

From here on, all my improv related posts are going to be posted to http://www.whyimprov.tumblr.com/ so that I can have a url to send people to that doesn't conflict with any personal blogging that I want to do.

I know you are crushed... just click the link.

And by all means, pass it on!

-Matt
mypatchworkpants.blogspot.com

Intuition

sometimes
in the labyrinth of thought
you trip over a cord
and you realize
that you're on the outside
and have to find your way
back in
there's a minotaur
and it's sleeping
waiting to be killed
by you
and the cord
is tied
to its big toe
you know this
you can feel the gentle pull
and it isn't until
it's set
that you find
that the hook
was on your end

-matt
http://www.mypatchworkpants.blogspot.com

Improv: Series Introduction

Let me start by saying
that this is in no means an attempt to construct a formal paper. This is a blog. This is my (rather weak) attempt to dump everything in this little skull of mine into a place where I can find it later. So there's no need to critique it in formal terms. I'm not going to go out of my way to drop references or qualify anything that I say with quotations from experts. Consider this a "popular essay," where I will try to present what I feel is important in hopes that you will, upon reading it, find it important, too.

Secondly,
I don't know if this has been done before. I've spent a good amount of time researching improv comedy and haven't found anything similar... perhaps I'm simply a terrible researcher. But if there's something else out there that you could say I'm deriving a lot of this from, let me know! I'd love to find someone else out there that feels the same way that I do! Alas, if there is, I haven't found him. Or her. If it's a her, most definitely let me know. Post-haste.

What am I going to attempt?
This is an open letter to the church-at-large. I believe that improv comedy has stumbled over a method by which a community can strengthen itself in very productive and surprisingly painless ways. I believe that it has been overlooked as "silly" for far too long. In so many words, I believe that improv comedy can revolutionize the way that the church deals with personal growth, in-house conflicts, creative stagnation, community outreach, team-building, and many other facets of church life that have heretofore been dealt with in too many disparate ways. This is an attempt to synthesize all previous attempts into a single, encompassing formula.

This may sound a bit naive,
but I plan on laying it on thick. I have a million things to say. This is simply the introduction. I pray that I'll have the wherewithal to stick with it until the end.

Full Disclosure

have you ever thought
that everyone has one thing
inside
that defines their purpose
for living
and once they say it
or write it
or do it
or whatever
that they are tied down
to the spot
where it happens
and are forced to relive it
for the rest of their lives
in conversation or repetition
to satisfy the people
that need it

sometimes i think
i could find
what my something is
if i just wrote and wrote
and did and did
but
sometimes
i think
i don't want to be tied

so sometimes
i don't say everything
when it's my turn
and other times
i don't write anything
when i feel the pull
and i clutch my something
close to my chest
and stay small

Improvisation and Kids

Today I finished the ARTS camp at Easley First Baptist Church. I had two classes to which I taught improv for four days. The first class consisted of eleven 1-3 graders, the second of six 4-6 graders.

I learned something very valuable. Kids don't need improv.

Keith Johnstone said it right (as usual) ((by the way, the following quote is paraphrased because I'm too lazy to go grab my copy of "Impro" even though it's mere feet away. So go buy the book yourself and read it in context. You won't regret it.)):

"Kids are not under-developed adults. Adults are atrophied children."

It takes a certain amount of life to paralyze the creative impulse, or at least bury it deep enough to require excavation. Typically, improv is that excavation.

But kids are already kids. They don't need excavation. They need discipline and structure.

Improv then becomes a different monster... one of training on a very basic level, not error correction. I think that traditional theatre training is a preferable method for developing a child's artistic temperament, with improv used primarily as a tool in the theatrical creation process, instead of my usual ideal of using theatrical devices as tools in an improvisational creation process.

I think that I now understand why Peter Brook used an eclectic mix of fully trained, experienced actors from different backgrounds in his troupes. He used improv to "untrain" these actors, who could then use the reverse-engineered techniques of their previous crafts to re-assemble themselves into a super-creative entity. But they had to have something to untrain.

Improv seeks to return "adults" into a child-like state of freedom, creativity and security, but with the confidence, awareness and capability that only time can instill.

Kids need something different.

Hopefully more experience in this arena will show me different techniques to deal with the needs of such budding little geniuses, but as of now... if you're a teacher of elementary students, stick to theatre.

Improv will fix anything you screw up... but later on.