Improv Wed., 7/29/20

Voices:  There is rhythm and tempo.  

RHYTHM   A regular pattern of movement or of sound.      
The arrangement of spoken words alternating with stressed and unstressed elements.

TEMPO:  Rate of speed, for example of motion, activity, music, speech

Tempos live on the rhythm   Is that analogous to a boat on the river?  The boat is the text and the river is the emotion?

In noticing a speaker's rhythm and tempo: note if it is smooth, raggedy or jagged.  

The musculature of voice:  tongue, lips, face:  by changing these, different sounds emerge.  For example, the Irish word, "I", meaning
first person singular is pronounced with the tongue far back in the mouth.   It almost sounds like "oy."  It was hard for me to do.

Mostly for fun, I am planning to get this from Amazon:  "Accents and Dialects for Stage and Screen (includes 12 CDs) 20th Edition by Paul Meier.

I didn't agree that my assignment was not carried out properly.  We were to observe a recognizable person while they talked.
And "do them" exactly for 30 to 40 seconds.
My person was giving a lesson in how to develop the craft of comedy.  In his lecture, he gave examples of the points he was making.
I did his presentation word for word.  Steve Martin on stage is still Steve Martin.  Just as tWitch Boss is himself whether he's dancing on TV
or giving an interview.  I am myself whether I'm talking over dinner with friends, or in an exam room in a white coat and with a stethoscope
around my neck talking a patient through the painful procedure I'm about to do on him--like a PROSTATE EXAM.  (evil laugh here)

What is the character's persona or prevailing nature:  soft, hard, fast, slow, energetic, chill.

Exercise for two:  Establish where you are, what you're doing and what's the relationship.  Each was to be preoccupied with one's own activity
and at the same time use an object.  Only one could speak, but the other was allowed to make sounds.    This was difficult.

(I recognize this exercise from "Sanford Meisner On Acting" by Sanford Meisner and Dennis Longwell.  )

The homework is for each of us to improvise doing a household task.  
First, establish where you are and the ambiance of that place.
Then improvise the task.
If there was more to this, I don't know.  I can't find the last page of my notes.

Sometimes being right can build a cage around yourself. Open yourself up to just being.