Always be working toward something

Last Thursday we all had the chance to perform our interpretation of gender bending our icon. I realized that I could have chosen a better icon who has more distinct vocal characteristics. I thought about changing my icon but decided against it because I’ve been practicing it and wanted to challenge myself. I’ve been feeling a bit down on myself about my performances lately but watching others do really well has inspired me to kick it up a notch. I’ll be the first to admit that I have let myself become complacent as a result of my unhappiness with my abilities. Now is the time that I get that fire burning again. Anyway… this class was difficult because we finally got to start playing with improv. Jon gave us rules for improv:
-Where are you- establish with no words
-maintain character
-establish specific relationship
-succeed in essential psycho emotional state
-conflict has to develop
-create an obstacle
One thing that Jon said that I find useful is, “everything that is said that doesn’t lead to conflict is a waste of time”. What this says to me is that with improv, one must be extremely careful that even though you have flexibility with the contents of the scene, everything that is said has to have a purpose and that there is no room for anything else because it would convolute the scene or drag it out into boring-land. I haven’t really tried improv too much in my life so naturally in Evelyn and I’s scene, I flopped big time. It is also finally clocking with me that conflict is essential in every scene to drive it into the next, also because conflict is interesting… meant to capture the viewers attention and maintain that attention. I think the hardest part of improv for me so far is getting into the scene and not losing my character. Trying to do all of the rules and being able to juggle them all is not second nature to me yet but I am hoping that it will come easier the more I practice. I’m looking forward to the next class. Thank you for reading!