Truth in Comedy by Charna Halpern

Author:Charna Halpern
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The pace of editing each narrator varies according to the whim of the conductor, but the Conducted Story is most entertaining when the players have to finish each other's thoughts.

In building the story, the players should be conscious of all of the necessary components that make a story interesting — elements like action, characters, emotion, ambiance, a cohesive story line and a resolution. It's important to tell the story as coherently as possible. Trying to make it silly or crazy often makes it less effective — since it's being created by several minds working together, it's guaranteed to get silly enough on its own. As a group, the players know that a resolution to their story is needed; with the common goal in mind, they will [ And it.

Various writing styles or points of view can be used to add dimension to the Conducted Story. Each player may rate in the style of a different well-known author (often selected by an audience), while still committed to carrying the story forward.

One memorable narrated story was actually performed by an ImprovOlympic team comprised entirely of psychologists. Each of them assumed the point of view of a different mental illness! While telling the story together, they separately revealed the symptoms of a psychotic, a paranoid-schizophrenic, a manic-depressive, a hypochondriac, and several others.

There are other devices more experienced players can use for workshops or performance, involving similar techniques and principles which force players to stay in the moment, and not think ahead. Some practices have resulted in several people portraying one character in a scene, and the actors have to speak at a normal pace, completely in unison (it's actually easier than it may sound). Other workshops have devised oracles, which speak one word at a time to address (and answer!) great philosophical questions of the universe.

KEY POINTS FOR CHAPTER SIX

*Stay in the moment. What is happening now will be the key to discovery.

*Nothing is ignored. Follow the unexpected twist.

*There is no such thing as a mistake.

48

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.