Tip & Exercise: Do the impossible

I believe that we can have more different types of people as improv teachers. To encourage you to start, or to improve your teaching, every month I will share with you a tip and an exercise.

Tip: Lean into the limitation

When faced with limitations, there are 2 things you can do. One is to think about how to work within these limitations. Let’s take as an example going from offline to online improv: suddenly we are limited to the screen. Many (awesome) improvisers have started working within the limitations and possibilities of going online.

But working within limitations is not the only scenario possible. Today I want you to consider a second option: going full-on in the direction of what is not possible. Because if improvisers can do one thing really well, it is to pretend a thing that is not there.

Imagine a scene with me drinking coffee. Look how I pretend to hold a cup. Everyone around knows there is NO actual cup in my hand. But we are all on board with me pretending. Actually, that is part of the fun.

For our students it is an important lesson to learn: that what doesn’t seem possible is actually still possible.

So how about next time when -as a teacher- you are faced with a limitation, lean into it. Play intimate love scenes at 2 meter distance. Set up a silent church scene while there are noisy constructions outside the workshop room. Climb onto each other in an online workshop.

Exercise: Impossible set-ups

This exercise is basically a sequence of scene setups. It helps if the players are in a positive, courageous state of mind so I will focus on fun, no judgment games beforehand.

Then I will introduce this part as: today we will play scenes with impossible set-ups. I will ask for 2 volunteers who will play a scene while simultaneously figure out how to do the ‘impossible’. There is no right way to do this, so enjoy the figuring-it-out together. Who wants to give it a shot?

The scene setups I would use are based on what I think is ‘impossible’ given the setting. Here are a few examples of ‘impossible’ scene set-ups for online workshops:

You are helping each other in and out of fancy dresses / costumes.
You are acrobats practicing a new stunt.
You are a scientist making your assistant shrink and grow.

Here are a few examples of ‘impossible’ scene set-ups for classes at a distance:

You are having a first kiss.
You are in a bar fight.
You are at the dentist.

Afterwards I let the audience share what worked. It is not the aim to do it perfectly, but to applaud the moments where they figured out how to do the impossible while also playing a scene. Be careful with evaluating how it could have worked: that is not the aim.

I use this exercise to train adapting to new situations, for using physicality and to encourage jumping in with both feet.