Action theater day 1 of 5

Day 1

What I learned in improv today?

Always say yes. 

The eyes are so important to communication and understanding. The eyes will convey that information through intention.

It’s harder to gauge what your partner is experiencing, feeling when you can’t see their eyes.

The movement will tell you who you are.

The difference between attitude and feeling:
 Attitude is an idea placed on action. It’s a mental assignment.

Feelings are a direct manifestation of the sensory system. An expression of that particular sensory experience.

It’s important to honestly respond from moment, to moment, to moment to fully experience life.

The vast possibility of mind states of the body induces a “self aware being”.

States of mind are like mercury - we don’t exist in a flat, static plane.

Language:


Look at how we do what we do, what we say the way we say it. Volume, pitch, phrasing - deconstruct the way we “normally speak”. 

Examine the way we create and flow with a narrative.

Climb into the sound - that voice will determine the narrative.

The more you follow the sound, the more you become the ‘character’ of the sound

.

Step out of yourself when you speak to others.

Go into somebody’s mouth as much as you can. Get intimate with the possibilities. Pitch, sound, breath.

Engage your partner in a “live pause”.

How willing are we to inhabit our voice? 

The formation of sound creates us - the voice itself reconfigures the whole DNA system.

Abstraction of words/language that follow the voice:

There is tension between desire and cultural compulsion to articulate our words so that we can be understood. 

There is a disintegration of how we hold on to our prescribed way of behaving. In improv, its all about release, obliteration and freedom.

Its easy for us to fall back on what worked for us in the past - the fear of disintegration is what keeps us from exploring new possibilities.