Hey look I'm Writing!!!! Who wrote this? -Rebecca

CIG Dates to note

The Saltspring Island Invitational - Jan 8th on at Artspring Theatre

South Island Cup - Jan 14-16 at Vic High (6:00 call, 7:30 showtime) Tickets $5/$8 The Juniors - Thu Jan 14th Ladysmith Esquimalt PCS GISS SIMS (Top 3 advance to Junior Finals)

The Seniors - Fri Jan 15th-Sat Jan 16th Friday: Ladysmith GISS Woodlands Vic High Oak Bay (If they can find a teacher sponsor)

Semi-finals and Open Workshops - Feb 5-6 at Vic High (6:00 call, 7:30 showtime) Tickets $5/$8 The top teams from both zones will advance compete over two nights. On Saturday, the 6th during the day we will offer focused workshops with our instructors that will be open to ALL of the registered teams, even those who do not advance to Semi's or Junior Finals.

Junior Finals - Fen 7th at Vic High (1:00 call, 2:30 showtime) Tickets $5/$8 The top Junior teams compete for top in the region.

Senior Finals - Feb 7th at Vic High (6:00 call, 7:30 showtime) Tickets $8/$10 Top five teams from Semi's compete for a spot in the National Tournament. -Rebecca

Character:

A note to seniors… What CIG has to say about an animal ask for:

A great game to explore non-human habitual movement. Rules: Improvisers ask for an animal or animals to inspire their characters. The team then plays the scene as a human with that animal’s characteristics. Objectives: To use the Animals inherent talents and well known traits to solve problems (or create them) and create the elements of scene work. It is also important to find the similarities between animal and human. Comments: How does this animal character walk? Talk? Sit? Eat? How do they react to danger? Happiness? The more detail your animal character has, the more interesting you will be and the better you honour the suggestion. If you have a well rounded animal character, the scene will organically evolve from that character’s specific traits. If you do some animal character exploration with your group before you play the game, you’ll find more detail and more levels to play on. The animals that you get from the audience will (and should) be different but a familiarity with the exploration will help you create well-rounded characters. -Rebecca

Character:

Here is a CIG character game that might be fun to try. Need to watch the ask for so it is a positive trait or perhaps find a different ask for.

A character game that’s all about agreement and heightening.

Rules: They are given the suggestion of a “” family (the Ecstatic Family, the Polite Family).They are also given the suggestion of a reason a family would come together (Thanksgiving, a marriage, etc.) Students play a scene, where every character incorporates the character trait of the family name while at the family gathering.They are also given the suggestion of a reason a family would come together (Thanksgiving, a marriage, etc.)Students play a scene, where every character incorporates the character trait of the family name while at the family gathering.Objectives:To accept and forward offers; to hone character work; to listen; to agree and heighten suggestions. Comments:The scene is best played positively (the Boring Family tends not to be the best suggestion). Students should focus both on the suggestions and creating a story and relationships to fellow characters. This is a good opportunity to find creative ways to use the same suggestion. Doing a Family Portrait (see Exercises) of the family before the scene can help to create interesting characters within the world. Commitment and agreement are big here. -RF

Hello LSS Improvisers! Games/Structures??? – T.

Happy holidays everyone! I was thinking of structures and styles and I tbought maybe melodrama for a style? it could be in the traditional sense where music is used with archetypal characters or in the modern sense as seen in soap-operas and such. I was thinking this because we sometimes have a problem with over commitment and this would be a good excuse to over commit:)

Just thought I'd toss an idea out there to get some wheels turning! -Emily

Hooray! A post, a real post from an improviser. It would be great for you to give some conventions of this style etc. Good work on the thinking. Keep tossing stuff out there. -Rebecca

hey Emily, can you explain what you mean a bit more because I don't watch soap operas so I don't know what you mean. Thanks –Hilary

Oh yeah, well basically I was thinking there would be conventions such as being overdramatic and emotional, musical effects perhapse, certain types of speech and actions that you'd really have to see to understand what i was meaning. anywho did that make any sense Hil? - Emily

So I was also thinking of story and what about having the suggest for the story event be a sound? like mowing the lawn, or a the rustling of wind through trees ect. That way we could start of recreating the setting where the sound would take place, and maybe use sounds more throughtout the story. for example we could keep the sound sort of constant throughout the whole seen but when a problem was needed it could be brought in by a sound! I just get tired of the same old suggestions i guess. I think that way we could easily make a setting and a cool character and focus more on the actual story. We want to make things as easy as possible for us right? let me know what you think.

I guess I just got into the thinking mood so also for character i was thinking about having an ability be the ask for. For example: counting change out quickly (i can do that one because I'm a chashier:D), licking envelopes shut securely, eating any meal with only a spoon etc. I think it could be fun because from that the character could be seen in there natural environment exploring other traits that relate to that ability. We would have an easy setting I think, and say if it were sealing evelopes the scene could be set in a study or an office or a mailroom or anywhere related. from that setting endowments could be made to the character like: that they always leave a conversation with the last word because they have to seal off the conversation, or they keep there family too close to them or they make sure everything is done perfectly well with no stone unturned if they are doing a task. Just another idea, I'd love feedback on that one as well!

Thanks for listening to my ideas you guys:)– Emily

Awesome Emily. These are the ideas we are hoping that you improvisers will generate. I also bought a binder to write ideas into. I am going to add your posts into the binder as well. -Rebecca

I like the Ideas Emily. I was thinking of a game for Life event, It goes little something like this: We could start off in a therapeutic like session and for an ask for, just something like a pivotal moment in someones life, eg. birth of a child. And then we could have the therapist start off by asking what has brought him or her there. And then the patient could respond by saying something like, well my wife just had a child (for example) and I am already starting to doubt my skills as a parent. Therapist: Has anything perhaps in your childhood triggered your doubt as a parental figure? and then I was thinking, as a trigger for a flashback something like “well I guess it all started when.. blah blah” and then the rest of the team could rein act a short flashback showing that moment that the person has previously mentioned. anyways, then the therapist would lead on to another moment. after the moments have been explored, the session would finish and perhaps show the patient return to his home with the new born child, and realizing that he doesn't have to be as bad as a parent his father was (example) and showing the character growing from the therapy session.

and for the character, its not a game but I was thinking everyone could take a weird or silly thing they do like a habbit or what not and try and develop that into a character. I took one of my own odd things I do and made it into a character and gave myself a setting and ran a scene through in my head. It turned out well. I think people should try it! -Rachelle

Oh wonderfuls!

Story Sound Suggestion

Life Therapy Session

Style Melodrama

Character Weird Habit, Ability

-Organizer Amy!

Hey Em. Thanks, now I get it! All of those idea's sound sweet!! Can't wait to try them when we get back!!!!!!!-Hilary

Story Event Narration in story event is the highlighted skill.

Mechanics

• 3rd Person
• 1st Person
• Perspective (2nd Person)
• Ghost Narration (all seeing/knowing)

Omg! What if for a character game, we ask for an audience member… they could come onstage we get their name, job, favourite colour and such and create a character based on that. We could go through their job using their language/accent/voice walk the way they walk( to the stage). If its not to much like narration, we could ask our person questions part way through which our improv character could then answer with.

for example. Improviser: What do you enjoy? Audience Person: Long walks on the beach. Character: Well, I'd love to stand and chat but I have to finish cutting the carrots for my picnic on the beach tonight.

That might take us away from the setting or it could become a problem. Asking the ask for more question in the middle would also re incorperate the ask for again.

-Amy

Hey I was just looking at some warm-up games and I found this one it's good for theme. Rules:

Students form a backline.

First you get a theme half of the group to steps forward.

Simultaneously, the players perform an action and a line of dialogue that corresponds with the given theme.

The first group steps back and the remaining players step forward and do the same thing until the theme has been exhausted, at which point he or she gives them something new to explore.

I also found this one for getting some good interesting characters-

First you get a suggestion related to genre (sci-fi or shipmates)or a character trait (silly family or secret family) as someone counts down from 10 the players create a family portrait with unique characters using the suggestion at the end freezing in a tableau.

Mr Taylor was talking about using what we worked on today and putting it in our scenes and i think we could use that in our scenes. Having a main character and someone copying everything they do give the clear picture of a main character and side character. We could do this in open event or story even. -Hilary

Hi, I was thinking and for character event we could get an audience member to come up and put an improviser into a position and base the character off of that position, and for the first half to a minute ask questions developing the character. - Kingsley

i like that structure but think it might be alittle to difficult for juniors we will have to try it out i personaly think that a good game is just lots of passenger charactors maybe we can take that one and adapt it to the team

Hey guys, I have an idea for character, what if the main character/possible passenger characters speak completely in gibberish, that way they would have the chance to show their physicalization and facial expressions more with their characters…Or if the person wants, they could even just make sounds which will work with what they're doing??? - Lizzie

Hey! I have been trying hard to think of an idea for a game, but I am drawing a blank. I will look for games online and in the handbook, but for now: BRAINSTORM.

Character: our teams seem to prefer just getting to yell out specific situations or places that we could put the character in. Then, we bring in passenger characters who present problems or just bring in offers for them to feed off of, in order to show how that character would react. If we get a setting, we tend to either forget about it, lose it along the way, or it's there… but useless.

Story: we tend to go towards traditional stories, like fairy-tales or quests, and we are usually pretty good at them. the one thing is… we always get carried away and go over the time limit. If someone could think of or find a game that has a structure that prevents us from doing so, or helps us move along faster, it would be better.

Life: we ALWAYS do a realistic human being (because it is easiest, I guess) and we always show a very sad, emotional time. We could stick with this, because it's what we are good at, or we could try to break out into something new. We could do a crazy character in a sincere moment, or at least just try to make the situation a HAPPY one for your character- positive energy is much more workable and fun (for us and the audience)

Theme: just… do a theme from the hat and the vinettes (spelling?) I like it just the way it is

Style: i think that just a simple style where we outline the main points of what usually happens would be good, and just ask for a setting ( + something else to base characters off of?)

Well.. I being forced to go watch “The Boy In the Striped Pyjamas,” so I hope that helped someone think of an idea or two See y'all tomorrow! Ciaran

Well, I've been thinking about story structures.. just kind of studying them as they are, and I think the key is (as always) simplicity. I think our main focus should be nailing those five elements really well, and leaving out all the unimportant parts… Anyways, structure wise we should go with something easy to get and simple to perform, maybe a variation of Grandpa's Story, or a spin on the fairytale genre. As for narrating, I was thinking alot about what T told me about the purpose of narration. We really need to be relying on our team forward the scene, and leave the coloring and guidance for the narrator. Anyways, that's my two cents worth. I hope we come up with a really solid game once we're a group -Jacob

Alright, i have a couple of different styles..

The Style event. A Style is based around different conventions. A convention includes the things that a person is to expect from a particular Genre/Style (setting, characters, events). The more the suggestion is tied in with the conventions, the better. 

  I assume everyone agrees with that, now here are some style ideas, and stuff...

Western - a shoot-out, there will be the typical good guy (who wears the white hat), who is generally a the well spoken sheriff protecting his home/people, or some form of cowboy. The bad guy (who wears a black hat) will attempt to throw things out of order, by taking over the town for oil/golf, and attempting to steal the hero's girl in the process. There are different forms of people in westerns, community minded people (townspeople) and loners (mountain people/ranchers/miners). In western's there will be tumble weeds, shoot outs, stage coaches, and the good guy will generally win.

steampunk! - rebellion (generally the main character is involved in this somehow). Fantastical steam-powered objects and creatures. The main character has the ability to create/fix steam-powered machinery. i'm not quite sure how a steampunk scene would be done relating the conventions to a suggestion, but a scene i might have could go something like this.. Ask for, object: rat trap. Miguel the mouse lives in the warehouse, he steals from the workers in the warehouse (using super rat devices). One day his mom gets caught in a rat trap, he uses his super abilities to create a human trap. he wins. I guess that the main character would be someone/something that can be beaten down upon so as to give reason for rebellion…

space opera - adventure through space, upon a spaceship, encountering other life forms, having battles with other life forms that sometimes have crazy weapons/technology. Romance, sometimes… The ask for could be a location, and an object. I think it would be pretty simple to have a person travel around through the location (searching for something), i'm not sure what the spaceship would be (inspired by one of the ask fors), but it could be anything (a machete to travel through the rain forest). After enough traveling, the main character would find something that he wasn't looking for, like EVIL MOULD IN A FRIDGE. He would then destroy it with his “space ship” and continue on to another location to search for the object. That is my basic idea of a space opera scene. the conventions being a spaceship, traveling, and bad guys…

apocalyptic/post apocalyptic sci fi - nuclear war/plague, holocaust of some form, the world is wiped of most civilization, and generally technology. The survival of a person (or people) in a world that can't fully support them. Humanitarianism V.S. Survival. The choices that a person has to face when the world that they know crumbles around them. i.e share food with a stranger and possibly starve? or save the food and let the stranger potentially die… (I think The Road [an amazing book] is an awesome example of a post apocalyptic plot) This might be more like the Life event, and i'm not quite sure how this could a style scene… but it's here…

Horror Bunch of people, stranded. Evil person/monster kills them one, by one. There is sometimes a chase scene. Lot's of gore. Evil Dies.

Mockumentary… i'm not sure, but i think Rebecca was talking about a team that had done this, gotten a suggestion, and then documented things based on the suggestion. The Office worker, in their natural environment… it would be cool to show the different ways that this could be used. Showing what happens when an office worker doesn't have his coffee and is given too much work.

Crime Fiction based on a crime, this could be played out much like clue… an object and a location… although somehow the suggestions would have to both tie into the death of the murdered victim, and the lives of the remaining suspects… this one might be hard to due, but cool if we could create a murder mystery and solve it within three minutes.

Genre game… Freeze with a twist… when freeze is called a person steps up on stage, someone then calls a genre, and the two people up front must act out that genre. It would be a good way to learn all genres, and practice for games such as Roller-coaster.

WEll, that's all i got. I hope most of this made sense to you guys, and that perhaps it sparked some interest -Erik

well i was suposed to do style…im sorry i couldn't find any good websites!! if anyone could give the name of one…well i know it's wednesday and we were suposed to get them up by today…the wiki wasn't working or my computer was being dumb…or i was just being dumb! anyways im sorry i didn't get anything and im really really sorry i can't come to the tournament!!! i didn't know untill christmas!! -Mackenzie

i have a great idea for structure for either seniors or juniors if it has not yet been decided. I said i would help out with the manga one but i thought of another one too. Since jacob krauza mitchel erik…well lots of us are into metal and the recently once again populer show metalacolypse (spelling may be incorect) i think we should do a metal theme. Which would include…very intense focused charecters a very intense villian and or problem so basicly the style is really really intense by taking ordinary things and making them extreme not complicated but just really…metal -Ian C.

i really hope that this is where we are supposed to post all of our research/info about improv… i just wanted to share some knowledge that aleisha and i talked a bit about.. energies. She was reading in this book about how you can still hold attention and entertain even while you are improvising slowly by maintaining power by having really high energy inside of you. that way whatever you are doing slowly will have lots of energy because the inside shines through.. it always does, doesn't it? and also you are supposed to try and slow down your inner energy when you're character gets excited and fast.. that way you maintain a calm manner in which the audience is able to follow what you are doing. i have actually been practicing that when i am talking to people.. because when i get excited my whole body rushes with fast energy so ive been trying to slow down my inner energy so i can still pay attention to what is going on around me. another good tip that i practiced with aleisha is when you come into a scene, bear an emotion. just pick one off the top of your head. it's really easy to create a scene by finding out why you are feeling that emotion. as an example: Alyx and I stood at opposite ends of the room for a scene.. we both chose an emotion and when we were ready we both came in. Our suggestion was a stereo. I came in with an excited happy aura about me, while alyx came in with a worried nervous aura. just from using our emotions we had chosen we created a really beautiful scene about a couple going into a music store to buy a big purchase together. i was happy and excited about going to the store to buy it with him… while alyx was nervous about the purchase because he didn't feel it was really an “us” purchase. He enjoyed the camera that we bought together the year before because we were able to take pictures ourselves to express our emotions and love and he was able to pull them out in his wallet and show me how special that was to him. he wasn't afraid to buy a purchase with me, he just wanted it to be meaningful. i felt really awesome being in that scene with him… so perhaps just try choosing an emotion before entering a scene. and a final word of advice!!! always ask yourself “How do you feel in this scene?” instead of “What should I do next?”

hugs to you all!!! -Theresa :) :)