{"id":1217,"date":"2015-03-16T19:46:23","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T19:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tedb-wp.byu.edu\/?page_id=1217"},"modified":"2015-05-15T19:53:37","modified_gmt":"2015-05-15T19:53:37","slug":"improvisation-keep-the-scene-going","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/?p=1217","title":{"rendered":"Improvisation: Keep the Scene Going"},"content":{"rendered":"

Objective<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Students will apply their understanding of action progression (moving the scene forward) by participating in improvisation activities and reflecting on the experience.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Materials Needed<\/strong><\/h4>\n

several slips of paper<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lesson Directions<\/strong><\/h4>\n

(3 minutes): Choose a student to be your partner and tell the students that you are going to perform for them an improv scene. Ask them to be the director and to give you feedback on what you did wrong and what you could have done better. You may or may not want to let your partner know where you are going with this. As you perform an improv scene continuously use 1) negative responses and 2) contradictions. For example, if your partner says \u201cHey, let\u2019s see if we can outrun Mrs. Johnson\u2019s dog\u201d you say no. If you partner says that it is the meanest dog on the block, contradict your partner and say that it isn\u2019t a dog, but a bunny etc.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Step 1 (5 minutes): Ask the \u201cdirectors\u201d to give you feedback. Ask the students to give you details on what you could do better. As students give suggestions, continually ask \u201cWhy or How\u201d. If the students say, \u201cIt was boring to watch\u201d ask the students, \u201cWhy was it boring to watch?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Step 2 (2 minutes): Inform the students that one of the best things they can do in improvisation is to\u00a0accept the action<\/strong>. It is important to think \u201cyes\u201d instead of \u201cno\u201d. You accept what your scene partner says and help to further the action. If your scene partner says a straw is a rocket ship, accept it and take it further! Don\u2019t negate. Explain that denial becomes a problem when players have a preconceived notion about where the scene should go and try to force it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Step 3 (20 minutes):\u00a0\u00a0Explain that we are going to try to say yes to everything in this next activity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Freeze\u00a0\u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Based on a suggestion from the group, two people start a mini-scene with a lot of movement. After a few exchanges of dialogue, a player who is not in the scene shouts, \u201cFreeze.\u201d The players must immediately freeze in their current positions. The player who shouted, \u201cFreeze\u201d replaces one of the players and assumes that player\u2019s exact position. The replacement player then initiates an entirely new scene starting in that position. This scene continues until another player says \u201cFreeze\u201d and replaces a player. *note \u2013 it is important that the players change positions often during the scene and make large movements so that the scenes do not begin from similar positions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Encourage to use the principles of acceptance and to avoid denial in these mini scenes. As the teacher, you may choose to say Freeze, but for instruction if students are continuing to deny or stop stories. You may choose to have them rewind the scene a bit and accept the choice and\/or reality of the scene.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Step 4 (2 minutes): Once the students have completed the activity, ask them to evaluate how well they accepted the action. Ask, \u201cWhat could you do differently next time in accepting the action?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Step 5 (20 minutes): Limited lines \u2013 Hand out strips of paper to the students. Ask them to write down a quote, line from a movie, something their mother always says, etc. Collect the papers and ask for two volunteers. Explain that you will split the papers up and set them on the edge of the stage as players begin a scene. Explain that throughout the scene players should create a set-up such as \u201cand when I finally made it in to see the Wizard of Oz he said to me _______\u201d at which point the player takes a piece of paper and reads what is said. The scene continues. Ask the audience to give the players a situation or scene. Once the scene is determined, begin the game. Encourage the players to accept whatever the slip of paper says and move the story forward. You can play this multiple times and ask for new quotes from the class.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Step 6 (3 minutes): Ask the students, what it was like accepting something that didn\u2019t make a lot of sense? Or accepting something you didn\u2019t expect?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Step 7 (2 minutes): Explain that along with keeping the action going, it is also important to wrap up the scene. It is important to find a suitable ending, otherwise, the scene could last for hours and its appeal gets lost. It is important to tell a story with improv.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Step 8 (15 minutes): Write on \u2013 Ask for 4 volunteers. Explain that one player sits facing the audience and dictates or writes a novel. Ask the audience for an idea for a story.\u00a0\u00a0The writer can pretend to type at a computer or write by hand as he voices aloud what he is writing. While writing their story, other players act out what is being \u201cwritten\u201d The novelist can stop and rewrite parts of the scene. He can \u201cerase\u201d those lines and \u201ctype\u201d new ones in which the actors must rewind and start from the point where the deleting began. The idea is to always be advancing the story. If the story isn\u2019t advancing, back up and try again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Step 9 (3 minutes): After all students have participated, ask the students, \u201cHow well did you accept the action?\u201d \u201cWhat could you do better?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Ask the writer, \u201cWas it difficult finding an ending?\u201d \u201cWhat helped you in ending the story?\u201d \u201cWhat could you have done better?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Step 10 (5 minutes): Ask the students to get out a sheet of paper and reflect on the activities they participated in today. \u201cWhat was the hardest thing for you to do today?\u201d \u201cWhat might have made it easier?\u201d \u201cHow well did I accept the action?\u201d \u201cWhat can I do better next time?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Assessment<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Students will participate in a variety of activities and turn in a written reflection of their performance today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students will apply their understanding of action progression (moving the scene forward) by participating in improvisation activities and reflecting on the experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,51],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1217"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3547,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions\/3547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedb-old.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}