Tetra improvisation is a relatively recent art form, and is practiced in many theaters, theater workshops and festivals.
Improvisation, in both its long and short form, conveys the message that the actors and the audience make up a family. How do you improvise? Just treat people like family.
Steps
Step 1. Find an improvising partner
You can also do it yourself. It is possible to act off the cuff, but improvisation is an art form that must necessarily be created by a group thought and mind.
Step 2. Perform
The only way to practice creating a scene in front of an audience's gaze is to create it in front of an audience's gaze. The extra injection of adrenaline your body gives off, generally mistaken for "stage fright", is a powerful chemical released from your body. In this situation your senses are amplified, and you can take advantage of the power of your perception.
Step 3. Accept
The first thing to do when improvising is to say "Yes, and …". You are not only accepting what your partner just said, but you are also adding more information. This can mean entering details about the topic or situation you are in, or reacting to your partner's response to what you just did. If your partner says something completely absurd, at least reluctantly agrees. "Okay, I'll do it. Stabbing us in the thighs seems silly, but to be in Sigma Nu, it's a small price to pay."
Step 4. Justify
When you improvise, mistakes happen and the information becomes confusing and illogical. So make absurd or contradictory information meaningful. If something defies logic, explain why. "Uncle Jess is in the dining room, lying in the X-ray machine." "I know it's dangerous, but it makes me feel a tingle all over."
Step 5. Make great offers
Be generous and helpful. If someone makes you an offer on stage, accept it as if it's the best idea you've ever had. Give her your energy, your excitement, your fear, your hope. Don't do it superficially.
Step 6. Take your time
After discovering that abundance of energy and innovation, you realize that there is also an abundance of time and that you can improvise by acting fast or slow. Speaking of speed, you should find that a "fast scene" is usually one that is played very slowly, but is accepted very quickly. An offer is made and immediately accepted, and that is what is fast. Detailing and creation are as slow as necessary. Sometimes, when there is no synergy between two improvisers, you have to be very leeenti.
Step 7. Commit
If you pretend it's real, if you rely on the scene and create a believable and solid world, you will reward the audience. An ironic detachment is the worst, and making fun of the scene is a quick way to get the audience to hate you. If you rely on the character, your choices and your scene mate, the fun will emerge more easily and in a more organic way.
Advice
- Try not to be too clear or have something in mind. The first idea is the one that commands; if you have something planned, you may miss out on a good idea your partner provides you. Keep an open mind.
- To help you find ideas, check out Whose Line Is It Anyway?
- Move. You can't do good improvisation just standing there. Use the stage: If you move, the audience gets the feeling that you are really talking to them, not that you are ignoring them. Remember: who, what, where.
- Make sure you dress in the same color as your playmate. This lets the public know that you are part of the same team. A good color to wear is green, because science has shown that it is a reassuring color that will make the audience more open to laughter.
- Use voice modulation and social behaviorism. Everyone has a relative to ape - do your best to imitate him (of course, not when he's around).
- The Thrillionaires is a great bunch of improvisers to watch for suggestions. Online you can find some videos about them.
- Avoid racist jokes, stereotypes and vulgarity as much as possible. The gay jokes are old and worn. A lot of people have been educated to disapprove of this kind of thing, so don't do anything like that unless you know for sure that the public is okay with it.
- Watch a lot of theatrical improvisation. You can learn a lot by watching both good and bad improvisation.
- When doing Theatresports, the keywords to remember are "accept", "extend" and "advance".
- Take a free course with a friend. Some (not many) theaters offer free classes to help promote their future courses.
- Do not think too much.
- Don't talk to your stage mate too often. It could make you lose your audience and make them think you are having a private conversation. Instead, you and your partner turn to the audience and stand side by side. This way the audience will feel involved and will be able to see the funny faces that are the key to good improvisation!
- Never expect the audience to see your eyes. Improvisation is all in the gestures of the hands and the shapes of the mouth
Warnings
- Try to avoid using a handheld microphone. Although it may seem strange, in reality, sometimes you need to use both hands when improvising. Since the development of the scene is random, you never know what will happen and what you will end up doing. Holding a microphone could make things a lot more difficult than they should be.
- Don't say "no". Accept what other people offer you. If you reject an actor's offer, there is no choice but to decide who is right and who is wrong, and the scene doesn't progress and becomes boring.
- Never turn your back on an acting partner. Use eye contact to communicate. Eye contact is the grammars of language we use to establish agreement.
- Never dismiss what the audience says. It is the audience who can give you suggestions and who must help you shape your play.
- Avoid the questions. Turning a question into a statement is easy. Instead of asking "Do you think we should go to the park?" Say it. In real life we do this often. Not only does it help you avoid questions, it also sounds like a more natural way of speaking, and reminds the audience that the scene hasn't been rehearsed, but is completely human.
