The situations that work best have three qualities: they have inherent conflicts; they are within the range of experiences of the participants; and they offer the
possibility that each participant might conceivably fulfill his essential want. In this example and those that follow I will propose situations for possible im- provisations to illustrate my points.
Situation
A single father has promised his teenage son that he can use the car to take his date to the senior prom. The son is in his rented tux and is preparing to leave when the father receives a call from the nursing home where his aging mother lives. The father is told that she has taken a turn for the worse. The nursing home is fifty miles away, and there is no public transportation. (Clearly you could also improvise this with a single mother and her daughter.)
The more clearly you delineate the situation the more easily you will get in- volved in it. (How well do the father and son get along? What are the usual arrangements about using the car? What kind of car is it? How do the father and the son feel about the “date”? How does each of them feel about the aging mother?) It is important to agree on the facts, but you do not need to agree on their interpretation. (The father loves his ten-year-old car; the son thinks it’s barely okay.) In improvising, just as in real life, you should interpret reality through the filter of your characters’ particular point of view.
It is perfectly possible to use situations within your range of experiences to conjure up both feelings about situations you have never experienced and feel- ings that you have not had a chance to explore deeply. For instance, you could explore the feeling of dying in a rocket in outer space by imagining yourself trapped in your car after it is badly damaged spinning off a deserted road. You could explore a character who lusts for her mother using a situation in which you lust for an object.
As you create the situation, all the participants should discuss in detail the when, where, and who. When you define your who, be sure to decide how your character feels about the other characters as the improvisation begins.
Situation
You are setting up an improvisation in which a boy is eating dinner with his fiancée and his future in-laws at their house. There is a knock on the door. Astonishingly, it is the boy’s old girlfriend, who is bringing important and unexpected news about the boy’s parents. The boy and the old girlfriend step out onto the porch to talk alone.
You will serve yourself well if, as you discuss your who, you agree on a lot of details that the two of you as former sweethearts would be bound to know: how long you have known each other, how you met, when, where, and how you spent most of your time together, how old you are, whether you were lovers, how long it has been since you have seen each other, and what your last meeting was like.
You will also want to agree on some details about the boy’s parents: how old they are, whether they are together or divorced, where they live, what they do for a living, and what each of your relationships to them is like.
I repeat, that although you want to define and agree on the facts, you do not have to discuss or agree on how your characters feel about them.
Situation
You may decide that you broke up by mutual agreement. However, privately you could choose to have some serious regrets about it.
Naturally, your character’s feelings toward the other participants may change as the improvisation proceeds.
Situation
As you converse, you may find you like your old boy/girlfriend less and less, or more and more.
• Although it is essential that you are clear about what you as your charac- ter want and why you want it, often it is better not to share this information with your partners, as it can defeat the purpose of the improvisation.
• Always make your why so compelling that if your want is not fulfilled, you, as your character, experience a crisis.
“If I can’t get my old girlfriend out of here, my very jealous fiancée may cancel the wedding.”
• Invent a secret agenda. Your secret agenda is something you want but do not wish to reveal.
As the old girlfriend, your secret agenda could be to get the boy back. As the boy, you could secretly want your fiancée’s money. To that end you might find it useful to have your character represent himself as coming
from a higher social stratum than he really does. (In which case, when your old girlfriend arrives, you could be worried that she will reveal the truth.) • As you develop your Given Circumstances and your secret agenda, make bold choices.
“I sort-of like this person,” “I kind-of have to talk to you,” “I sort-of need the money” will not motivate you into action. “I am madly in love,”“I desperately need to talk to you,”“I’ve got to have the money” will drive you through the scene and greatly increase the chances that appropriate feel- ings will arise.
• Don’t decide the ending in advance. It is usually more fruitful to let the ending evolve out of the interactions between you and your partners. Let the teacher, director, or some other designated person decide when it is over.
• Use your real name and your normal speaking voice. Fake names and vocal distortions, whether they are accents or unusual vocal colors, can easily become barriers between you and your feelings.
• Avoid going out of character by making background sounds that your character would not make. It is more useful to stamp your foot when knocking on an imaginary door than to say “Knock, knock.” It is more useful to say “Do you hear the phone ringing?” than to say “Ring, ring.”