Today, I led an improv workshop for Savage Tree at the Decatur Arts Festival on the old town square. The workshops and performances were set up at the Literary Arts Festival tent. It was 85 degrees outside. But inside the tent, it had to be 100+.
Because it was a literary arts festival and Jerry, the organizer, was interested most in our doing an improv rather than a writer’s workshop, I concentrated on putting together some games that could be done with large or small groups, could work with people who didn’t know each other, and were simple enough to share with a mixed group of adults and children.
We lost a few people, when they realized that they couldn’t just sit in chairs and be passive, but we ended up with a great group of three adult women, one man and two little girls. There were some bystanders, and so I involved them by getting the subject of the stories we would improvise.
Here was our “set list”:
- Creative handshakes: To introduce strangers to each other, they shook hands, high-fived and made up unique ways of greeting each other.
- Screamers: In a circle, when “heads up” is called, people look up; if they catch each other’s eyes, they point, scream and leave the circle. One little girl was so shy/polite, she had to close her eyes before she felt comfortable screaming. Just a silly game to break the ice.
- Tossing the ball: Tossing an imaginary ball to each other, loosening up the imagination, getting the group to agree and communicate nonverbally.
- Follow the follower: Basically, this is a mirror exercise — you copycat what you see going on in the group and take turns leading and following.
- Sound and movement: Each person had a gesture and a sound and passed it on to someone else, who let it evolve and passed it on … and so on …
- Love & hate: Everyone secretly chose a #1 and #2 person. On “go” they tried to get as close as possible to #1 and as far away as possible to #2. It was so hot under the tent, everyone was ready for a more intellectual, less physical activity, so I scrapped the next exercise I was going to do and went right on to group story creation.
- Conducted story: We took a suggestion “dog” and I pointed at people to let them know when it was their turn to speak. It was a lovely story about a dog who lived in a castle and dressed up like Cinderella. We did a couple of conducted stories to work on listening and agreement.
- Word at a time story: We told a couple of stories one word at a time. There was a family that came in late and so didn’t get to participate (well, was too shy to participate, but stayed to watch) and they suggested “a dog who found a bone somewhere he didn’t expect.” Our group came up with a wonderful story about a dog, a magic kitchen, swaying staircases and ladders.
- American Idol: We finished up with a group number; a song they had never rehearsed, but knew perfectly. Each person contributed. Even the shy/polite little girl eventually turned her change purse into a tamborine. Everyone else picked an instrument to “play”, the man sang about the wonderful place called Decatur, and we even had some back-up singers and a near-definable chorus.
All in all, a fun bit of time and an interesting way to spend part of Memorial Day Weekend. I really loved seeing how willing people are to just play when given the opportunity. And how, even when people don’t want to play, they still find it fascinating to watch.
