I want to make strong initiations (the kind that naturally carry the rest of the scene) and hold onto them. It’s so easy to make an initiation, forget it, and move onto something else, when ideally everything you need to do the rest of the scene is already right there. Unfortunately, I, like many others, have faults and easily get distracted from my initiation. Then, I fumble around at the top of the scene chucking ideas left and right and fishing for something to relate to my scene partner about. I think it’s drilled into every improviser’s head that you need to be on the same page as your scene partner; however, what I struggle with at times is drawing that common ground from the initiation without sacrificing my character’s perspective and/or integrity.
I thought about ending my blog here because I really don’t know the best answer to the question I’ve posed. However, as per my usual, I will share my “five years improv experience” personal thoughts on the issue…
Recently, I did a scene where I initiated as someone who lives cautiously. My scene partner asked my character to jump off a roof. Not wanting to halt the scene and argue, I just went ahead and had my character make the jump. While that was happening, my little improv conscience was saying, “No, don’t do it – it’s not true to the character.” So, I experienced the internal debate between my inner improv voice and what I have accepted to be a rule of improv.
What followed the jump was a congealed mess of inorganic and uncommitted sorry excuse for scene work. Oh dear. Time for the mercy kill edit. And that’s what happened – my party bus was towed off stage. And there are always fees to be paid when reclaiming your party bus from the impound lot – i.e. audience faith and trust. What I should have done (without over analyzing in the moment*) was ask myself how would my character really respond in this situation (simple in theory, but difficult in execution). In retrospect (and of course everything is always crystal clear in retrospect), my character would have prudently looked for the fire escape to cautiously climb down the side of the building.
Going forward my goal is to commit to my original initiation and trust that I’ve come far enough as an improviser to let the rules go… That, or maybe I’ll just embody some crazy physicality ;-)
*After the scene (and preferably after the show) you can over-analyze all you want, as I always do… I justify this as artistic growth.