citizen of the planet

I spoke about committing to a narrative in the last post I wrote about improv.  Your mind can wander in many directions, but if you blurt out X and it happens that X is in the realm of possibility then you need to stick with it.  If you don’t, it almost seems kind of indecisive and accidental.

At the end of today’s class, we played a game of hitchhiker.  There were three people seated in a row with one person acting as the driver and the other two as passengers.  The driver would act out a particular character trait and the passengers would pick up that trait as well and work out the scene with it.  This would continue until a hitchhiker came along and got in.  That person would become the new driver and everyone would shift down.  Anyway, my turn came up and as soon as I got in the car I said I was going to turn on the radio.  I did, and started scanning my head for something ridiculous and overwrought.  In a split second I picked something and started belting out a song.

Unbreak my heart! Say you love me again! Undo this hurt that you caused when you walked out the door and walked out of my life…

Oh LORD.  I went there.  I was wondering what the passengers would do.  I was half expecting them to sing with me, but instead they started to cry.  At that moment, I picked up on that and continued to sing while starting to sob.  It got ridiculous!  No one was coming up so I just continued to sob uncontrollably.  The passenger next to me proceeded to pat me on the back.  That’s when I knew everyone clicked into the scene.  I eventually forgot the lyrics (or at least my place in the song) so I just did those breathy sobs.  I suppose I could have started laughing or singing another song, but no, I just stuck with the song and the mood and I laid it on thick.  I think that took balls. :-p

Like I said last week, I’m really loving this activity.  I think it’s helping me out in so many ways.  Apart from bringing me out of my shell, it’s also causing me to be a more active listener.  I found this to be true during the week at work and at Running Room.  As I spoke to people I picked up on “offers” and let my mind wander in terms of directions I can take the conversation.  If the situation allowed (like it would among friends) I actually tested out those spontaneous bits of related but unrelated conversation.  It’s an interesting experience.

Can’t wait for next weekend.

Possibly related posts:

1. Better than drugs
2. And he liked eating cheese
3. “Plays well with others”

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 at 11:17 pm and is filed under acting up. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.