Acting up

I’ve mentioned a couple of times on here that I’m not particularly a fan of New Year’s resolutions. It’s not because of some bad experience in the past or anything traumatic like that. I just believe that making resolutions should be a year-round thing. Why should a resolution made in January mean much more than a resolution in July? Ah, but this has all been said before. So, anyway, despite all of this fuss, I’ve made it a point over the next little while to do something that takes me outside of my comfort zone. The comfort zone sure is nice and cozy, isn’t it? However, if you don’t challenge your boundaries once in a while you will never grow outwards.

So. For a while now I’ve been toying with the idea of taking improv classes. Why improv? Well, long ago I remember seeing the British version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and thinking that it was a laugh riot. All of the participants seemed to be having a great time. I think part of me wanted to play those same games. Unfortunately, no one around me was really into that sort of thing, so I tucked it away in the back of my mind. So, flash forward to some point maybe two years ago. A colleague of mine mentioned that he was actively participating in an improv troupe. I was in awe. I mean, here was this technical guy who was still able to make time to do something in that realm. That piqued my curiosity. So, I guess I must have mentioned improv in passing to one of my friends. She ended up going online to find out where in the city it was possible to take classes. The list she provided stuck with me since then, but once again I put it on the back burner. Living with my parents at the edges of the city meant that logistically it was just tough to do anything like that. And now here I am in my own place with easy access to the subway lines. I really had no excuse to not dive in. So, I finally got around to signing up for something that I wanted to try out for what seems like forever. I decided to take the Level 100 Beginner’s class at Bad Dog Theatre.

The class itself was fascinating. Just like it was advertised, the class composition had people from all walks of life. Some people had acting experience, while others were looking to improve their public speaking skills. Some got the class as a Christmas gift, and some were doing it for research. Go figure. Immediately, we were getting into activities that tried to get us out of our heads. I completely enjoyed the opportunity to act out and be silly. I mean, being a noisemaker at work is generally frowned upon, right?

Concepts like giving and accepting offers were introduced. It was interesting to find out and realize that you have to strike a balance between going for the obvious and being creative. You want to pick up on what makes sense in the context of the situation all while being creative. At the same time, you don’t want to go off on a complete tangent and “go to the moon” because that’s just confusing and doesn’t make for a good narrative. Whatever idea is brought forth, it seems to be important to just take it and run with it. Fascinating, really. It seems to be important to really commit to whatever direction the narrative is taken. For example, for one activity we’re supposed to non-verbally act out an action while another person would announce the action obliquely (say it without actually saying it). So, I decided to act out like I was pulling on some rope that was lifting some object. I was really physically going for it, grunting and jumping and pulling down like nobody’s business. The other person was watching me, trying to figure out what to say. I was still grunting and pulling but still there was no response. Instead of stopping, I just pulled, jumped, and grunted harder like a madman. That’s how I was committed.

At the end, our final activity was something of a continuous rage-off. We got up, five at a time, and were each given a topic to be angry about. The teacher would then point to each of us for a few seconds, at which point where just supposed to talk about why the said topic makes us angry. When I got up, I was given the topic of the film industry. Whenever the teacher pointed to me I started spewing all this talk about high budgets ($500 million for a movie? Why don’t they send that money to an impoverished country?), overpaid actors (They’re paid to just be there and look pretty? Fuck that!), and ridiculous critics (Don’t tell me what I want to fucking watch!). With each topic I could really feel the anger rising. I was kind of getting lost in it all. The teacher started jumping around faster and faster. Finally I got the last word in and all I could blurt was “AND DAMN THE PG RATING!!!” And that’s when the activity ended. Brilliant! I actually had a few people tell me that they were feeling my rage and were getting angry with me. Yay! Compliments!

All in all, it was a very enjoyable situation. Those 2.5 hrs flew by really quickly. It seems that I’m pretty good at noisemaking, physical stuff, and rage. To anyone that knows me: is it really that surprising? I’m entirely excited to see what else I can learn. This seems to be an activity that I love. These next few weeks are going to be completely awesome!

Possibly related posts:

1. What acting is like
2. Annoy
3. Just acting strange