Old Notes

Ever since Holly Laurent told her class to take notes I've carried around a notebook. So far I've gone through about four of them. They're usually little 4x6in books. I just finished the fourth one and the life of these binded pages saw Pat O'briens level 4B class, a 4 week Barry Hite workshop, an Improvised Shakespeare 4 week workshop, and an assortment of improv shows that I watched and recorded thoughts. I always go back through and see if I've applied the notes, sometimes I have and sometimes I haven't. Here are some notes I've taken;

Barry Hite-
Feel something about everyone. Make those feelings known.
When doing object work, try for every character to have something small. Just a touch of object work is enough.
No one is ever just angry. Anger comes from something else. If you find yourself angry on stage use is to reveal something about your character and why you're feeling that way.
Make changes in your characters emotion. We played this game where we would get two emotions. Let's say I had "joy" and "jealousy." We would start a scene with our first emotion and then at sometime in the scene you would switch to the other one. This gave your character a fuller personality and kept the scene moving.

Pat O'brien's class
Stylize your scenes. Give them a feel, an emotion or a "vibe" that can be felt in the audience.
Spend a few seconds at the top of the scene reading your partner. That way you can get a great feel for what's gonna go on between you two.
Every emotion you want to feel on stage is because of the other person. A lot of improvisers feel something that has nothing to do with their partners.

Blaine's Improvised Shakespeare workshop
Have a strong want immediately.
Pick a focal point. Something that is influential to your character. Anything to feel something about.
Emotional changes. You don't want to be a stone on stage. Give in. Give yourself up. No man is an island. Be vulnerable.
Watch focus between scene partners and split scenes. The audience's heads should all be moving together like one. From right to left- from left to right. During a show watch the heads of the audience and see if they move together. If the don't than focus isn't properly being traded on stage. Even while on the sidelines try to give nothing to the crowd because it can affect them and their focus.

Those were some of the major notes I'd taken. There's more but I'll probably rewrite them in this new notebook, so perhaps they'll make it into another blog.
Josh