On Saturday, August, 7, 2010, I had the pleasure of taking a coaching workshop taught by Jeff Griggs. It had a great deal of information, lots of pointers on how to format a coaching session and what a coach’s role is. I think as an improviser foremost, it’s nice to keep in mind what people are looking for and how it all comes together! These are my notes from the class.

Coaching Workshop with Jeff Griggs

-created brief bio for us to use during the first class.

Reasons the bio is important to have and to state in the beginning for the team:
As the coach it’s always a good idea to introduce yourself and give a background of who you are and why you are there. Letting the class in on what your perspective may be will benefit you in the long run.
It’s good for you and the people you’re coaching to know, but it’s also good for you to remember and remind yourself of.
(So be confident and relax, you have a perspective that is important. You are the expert and you are here to give them your perspective.)

Rehearsing – Teaching/Coaching:
Know what you are going to do before you go in. Have an agenda.

Warm-ups should be tailored for the exercises that you’ll be doing. You should be flexible and be able to change to fit the immediate needs but don’t count on your flexibility, come in with something to do.
Don’t come in with the idea that they’ll just do scenes – have a focus. Give them a direction and purpose. The group needs to know what they are doing and why they are doing it.

Plan your warm ups (for a 3hr class 20-30 mins/for a 2hr reh 10-15)
Warm ups get the group focused on what they’ll be doing for the next few hours and gets them ready to improvise.

Plan your exercises (majority of the class time). This is usually where the most time is spent and it is the main focus of the class or rehearsal. Where do you get exercises? Reuse and tryout what you like from classes you’ve taken and people you’ve been coached by or worked with. You can vary the exercises to fit but if you borrow an exercise it is good to give credit to the person that introduced it to you.
Repeat the exercises as needed. Create your own as necessary and utilize new ideas.

Before you go in finish this statement – “Today, my focus is on -fill in blank-.”
Everything you do should fit this statement. It’s better to over-plan, over-prepare, and not get to the end.

On average you’ll get through 4 exercises at most. Make the beginning exercises the most important because those are what you’ll want to make sure they do. Be prepared to have 30 minutes at the end.

Always emphasize focus of class. Over-plan and be prepared to do only a portion of what you planned.

Things to remember:
Remember why they’re there.
Everyone deserves your attention and training.
Try not to get mad.
You can’t treat everyone the same. Talk to them differently because they are different.
Don’t talk too much. Stories do help on occasion but remember the purpose and focus of the days rehearsal.
Don’t be afraid to reuse and repeat (exercises) to refocus.

Exercises fall into categories of fundamentals. Exercises will overlap.
Those fundamentals are:
1) Yes And
2) Characters
3) Relationships (emotions and heightening)
4) Environment/spacework
5) Listening
6) Group work

Reuse and Repeat to Refocus. Take exercises from workshops and create the need to do them in your sessions, (make sure there is a need versus it’s a cool exercise that you really want to do). Coaching is infinite and it’s important to plot out what to do.

Giving notes: (should center around comments, thoughts, and advice)
Most people would rather have you stop them, give the note and let them continue the scene. Let them decide what would be best.

Every scene is a good scene. Some scenes can be better. How can I, as the coach, make them better?

Griggs teaches (doesn’t correct as much). For him it’s more about finessing and teaching the improvisers how to do something.

Important for improvisers:
Get them on stage don’t talk too much. Explain if you have to but make it simple.

The mechanics of getting them on stage are just as important in a larger group when dealing with a big class. Let them feel their stage time and if you have to sit a group down so another group has equal time, divide the group and bounce back and forth. It’s important to keep them moving and working. Make sure you get them all up and know the mechanics of how that is going to work.

Jeannie’s advice: Take a breath when someone asks you a question. Answer correctly instead of immediately.

Do more than just scenes (plan exercises that have a specific focus.)

Questions:
You will get questions. Embrace it. They’re confused and want to get it.
Don’t be afraid of them. Don’t argue notes, just say, “that may be, but from out here it looks like this . . .” – “Why don’t we try something else.” “This is what I see.”
Don’t lie. But don’t be mean. Just say it wasn’t the strongest, it didn’t work the way it should have. If you can reference your struggles with something do so.

Notes:
After show notes shouldn’t take longer than the show. 8 minutes max. and put it back on them. “How’s that, how do you feel about it?”
Don’t point out what was wrong, be more helpful.
Ex. There was a lot of denial going on – not specific notes will make the group do an individual retrospective.
Don’t be a task master. Give challenges to work towards making it better.

Money and Time:
Tell them to be on time. Decide how long the rehearsal will be and stick to it.

Money is a hard issue, but being paid for your time is as important. The recommended amounts are $5 or $10 per person. They should also still pay even if they don’t show up.

As a coach you should be thinking long term and short term. Be goal focused on the individual needs and the group needs.

General For You For Them:
Don’t have bad habits, set the example and the tone. Be prepared for bad shows. Notes and praise, it’s important to know when to do each. Break it up. Think about how to get them from point A to point B without making them. Is there another way to do what you want to see?

Keep on your toes. Coach to help. Don’t abuse others or be abused. Play and know when to work. Constantly work to be a better teacher and coach.

We created a list of warm-up exercises and a few fundamental exercise samples for us to keep in our back pockets. For those, I put on my other blog at improvhobby.org (improv musings). They’re straight lists but the idea (for me) is to keep adding to them.

Taken from the “5 Rules for Life” by tinybuddha.com blog. Here is my improv take, paraphrased and hopefully serving one well on-stage and off.

1. Be honest with yourself. 

As a performer when you can honestly see the strengths and weaknesses of yourself you can move forward and take the next steps and when you’re in the scene daring to be boring can be as honest as it gets.

2. Let yourself be vulnerable. 

You can’t control what others will take from what you offer, but offer it anyway and be ready to let go of it. You may be surprised with the end result.

3. Live in accordance with your values. 

Don’t compromise your characters values. Figure out what your character wants and say yes to your partner.

4. See as much as you can of what’s right in front of you. 

Don’t worry about things you can’t control and about what might happen in the future. Live in the moment. Use all your five senses to create your reality of now while noticing and living the details. Hear the sounds. It may seem weird but I have the feeling that your scenes will be fun to watch.

5. Treat yourself like you want other people to treat you. 

(This is taken directly from the tinybuddha.com blog) We make mistakes, and we always will. As long as you acknowledge them, make amends as best you can, and learn from them there’s no reason to stop treating yourself with kindness. Other people will take their cue from you. You decide how you deserve to be treated.

It shouldn’t happen but it does.

And the truth is everyone’s fallible and because of that there is no use complaining. I think critical thinking is very important and can be confused with criticism in a judgmental way which should be avoided, but analyzing a performance to discover how you can better your own is worth it’s weight in gold and needs to be the general course of action.

So don’t be fooled because when people complain their views are usually subjective and could lead them to say something that one day could actually be said back to them as well.

The Art of the Two-Person Scene – Saturday, August 14

Class Description
The two-person scene is the basis for all of long-form improv, and yet it can sometimes seem like the hardest to get right. Learn to sustain a powerful two-person scene with compelling, realistic characters and by finding what the scene is about right away. This workshop will provide lots of personal feedback so that you can find out how you as an individual can succeed in improv.

BIO
JOHN HARTMAN’S has been performing improv across the country for over ten years. After performing on the mainstage of the Improv Inferno in Ann Arbor, MI for several years, John now performs around Chicago at the iO Theater, at the Apollo Theater with the musical improv powerhouse Baby Wants Candy, and at The Annoyance Theatre, where he recently mounted his solo show, Your Friends and Enemies (Time Out Chicago Critic’s Pick). He also performs with ImprovAcadia in Bar Harbor, ME and on the NCL Pride of America with The Second City. has been performing improv across the country for over ten years. After performing on the mainstage of the Improv Inferno in Ann Arbor, MI for several years, John now performs around Chicago at the iO Theater, at the Apollo Theater with the musical improv powerhouse Baby Wants Candy, and at The Annoyance Theatre, where he recently mounted his solo show, Your Friends and Enemies (Time Out Chicago Critic’s Pick). He also performs with ImprovAcadia in Bar Harbor, ME and on the NCL Pride of America with The Second City.

Notes for Posterity
We talked about what makes a good two person scene and what we like that other improvisors do?

The VAPAPO (Acronym)
V-Voice
A-Attitude
P-Posture
A-Animal
P-Picture
O-Object

Warm ups-
Protector/Enemy
Where the F@#! is the Celery

Two person scene warm ups
one minute scene
30 second ”
15 second ”
5 second ”

Sense of urgency in your scenes – Approach a 5 minute scene like it will last 5 seconds and you have to get out as much information as you can in the beginning. (Start in the middle of the scene) Every scene should have a rise and fall.

Second half – VAPAPO
Game of the scene – finding it and participating in it should feel effortless if you’re responding as the character, which is where VAPAPO comes in.

– two characters, talking and relating – let the character inform the relationship.
– animal walk to character – character interview – let the character be influenced by the animal.

three ways to respond in a scene is with vulnerability, honesty, confidence.

My thought to explore, inspired by class – For me I think it’s always an interesting journey to play a scene with heightened emotion and awareness while STILL being connected to the other person you are on stage with. I feel if you go that route, i.e. play big and extremely at the top (which I’m not opposed to) you must be even more connected to the other person you are on stage with. Because the connection is always the most important to me but it’s even harder to hold on to when you’re in a heightened frame of mind.
I think naturally (in real life) when someone is playing a heightened emotion they are normally not thinking of the other people that are around them, but what they want and need. It’s not about connecting to the other person that’s there but about them connecting to you. BUT in improv it’s both people on stage that need to maintain a connection (if not in the scene, in the meta-improvisor way). Hmmm . . . I do wonder if it can be done with those components in mind though . . . .

Building a scene one brick at a time – Saturday, August 14

Class Description
Simplify, simplify, simplify. We will take this opportunity to look at the art of creating a scene by adding and building on one piece of information at a time. This will include condensing your words and ideas in order to increase the effectiveness of your scenes. Learn to lay down one brick, and then to let your scene partner(s) add a little mortar and then one brick of their own. We will use exercises that promote simplification and support.

BIO
Megan Hovde Wilkins has been performing and teaching improv for over 10 years. She has worked around Chicago at the Second City, Improv Olympic, the Annoyance and the Playground. At Second City she teaches in the beginning program and the conservatory, and has been a member of the National Touring Company, on the Mainstage in Detroit and understudies the stages in Chicago. Recent film credits include ALL MY FRIENDS ARE FUNERAL SINGERS which was featured at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Notes for Posterity
Building Blocks are where we start
Exercises to begin – Warm ups
Name-Yes-When you say someone’s name, they must say “yes” to invite you to move into their spot. They must in turn say someone else’s name, and the new named person has to say “yes” to invite you to move and so on and on.
Name-Any Word – Instead of saying “yes” when your name is called, say any random word as the invitation to move.
-Unusual Categories
Everyone stands in a line and someone points out people in turn to give suggestions of the “odd” category that has been called out (fish you’ll never see). Until the main person directing the suggestions is tagged out by another, enters the line, and the new leader calls out a new category and the line blurts out suggestions of the new category.
Build a room – with no living characters (groups of three went up and created a space in turns). The rule of this game was that we were supposed to build on what the person before us had created and between the three of us create a space. The audience was then asked who lived there.
Group character monologue –
Turkey Maker (bowler)
Swan Lake (ballerina)

Samurai – three separate hiee-ya’s (1-middle person up, 2-two sides slash, 3-center person back down).

“What you said is important because . . . ”

Two circles – with a piece of paper the separate groups create a story by building it one line at a time. After you finish your sentence, you give it to the next person and hide the line before yours, so this person only has the last line to make inferences from.

After we read the stories, Megan cut up the lines of dialogue and we each grabbed one of the pieces of the dialogue and that was the only piece of information that we could take into our next scenes and work off and the people that are in the scene with you can only use their lines of dialogue as their motivation. The caveat was that we can react to other people’s information but not add more than what we had in hand. Use our information and react to their information without adding anything new.

Highlight – I really liked that this class was based on simplifying and not adding and inventing on top of inventing. It almost felt like a bigger risk to not keep creating but continue to go back to the piece of information that I had already established.

Don’t sweat it, just edit – Saturday August 7th

Class Description
Feel like your scenes are going on and on. Afraid you are editing too late or to soon? Tired of just doing the sweep edit across the stage. In this workshop we’ll learn different techniques to edit out scenes and get you to stop doing the edit dance on the side of the stage.

BIO
You can find BRETT LYONS performing at Chicago’s I.O. Theater in The Armando Diaz and with Deep Schwa. Brett is also a member of The Second City National Touring Company. Performing all over the world aboard NCL Cruise ships. Also, he can be seen around the country performing with Aphasia and heard on their weekly podcast. (www.aphasiapresentssomething.com)

Notes for Posterity
First instinct is the best for edits.

Warm ups
Pass the Clap
Elimination

La Ronde (ab-bc-cd) using tag out edits

Transformation edits – more scene painting than you think
Using it as
– a base for the scenes, character, or environment
– Set-up (information is great, give a lot of details)
– give information – details
Don’t limit yourself
Take what was done previously to some place completely brand new
“We see” not necessary, don’t need to start scene painting with those two words.
Listen/watch scene
Try to grab information from the front of the characters versus in back of them (or what is established versus inventing something in back of them). Use what was introduced on stage instead of making up information that is not there.

One line of dialogue edit
Take the last line of dialogue and make that the first line of dialogue for the next scene.

Created new edits in three separate groups.
Death Edit – Killing people in between scenes (no one comes back)
Electric Company edit – say two words with two people yelling from off stage as they enter, when they reach the center say the words together.
Elevator edit – Two people enter from behind and on-stage people (or people playing the scene) split off

Don’t sweep loudly
No blank stage
Go with the first instinct
Edit so you can save some for later
Edit to give something different

Exercise Highlight
I really liked the idea of creating a new edit for us to try out. It made me look at the use of the edits as a different mechanism in the scene and made it apparent that the edits really do color the show that is produced in its totality.

Warm ups –

Stretching
Paper Ball (real paper ball – needed to reach 15 as a group – can’t double hit)
Word association
Phrase association
Phrase association w/once removed (you say the second thing that comes to mind)
Body hoohas

“Every day, one day, as a result of this . . .”

Postive/Negative Space straight into . . .
Freeze tag

Scene work –

-One set of scenes where you are just generating characters.
-Second set of scenes where you are generating three characters and the third character created will be your scenes character.
Set-up for the previous two scene exercises is that one person will create three characters on the spot given the same exact line of dialogue and you will be given four body parts to influence the character you create. You can use the body parts at your discretion.
-Two-person scenes – going from platform to exploring the tilt (every day reality scenes where something changes and pair explores “change”).

Helpful hints: When the tilt/change happens make it readable to the audience and to the person that you are on stage with. Tilt doesn’t always have to be an argument, explore positive tilts. There is a difference between exploring a change and inventing more changes. The best way to explore a change is to use the information that has come before versus “inventing” new information that further tilts the scene.

Overall points –
Talked about physical trust of the other players and the use of “improv” clothes to do scenes for the players. There is a good touch and a bad touch, though.

I’ve been doing this for a while now, I’ve also critiqued quite a bit of performances and performers because I do believe that is how I can get better at improv; I watch others to see the things they do that I like and want to mimic or that which I don’t and try to conscientiously avoid.

I like to look at improv in two ways. First as a discerning audience member to whom improv is just another form of theatrical entertainment and with no improv background. The other as a technical performer. Most times though, my “audience member” will win.

That being said, I’ve started to watch improv people in the audience as well. I see where they are in the watching process and am usually surprised to find a correlation with where they are as an improviser.

It is interesting watching people watch a show and critique certain aspects of it that I don’t find as irritating because I see more than that one problem that, that one performer has. Don’t get me wrong, everyone has problems when it comes to improv (me included) but that is when it becomes more important for group cohesiveness. Because if you like the people it makes it easier to accept both the good and bad.

Warm ups –

Stretching

5 shakes w/a “Huzzah!”

Word association

Phrase association

Phrase association w/once removed (you say the second thing that comes to mind)

Passing a tone

Horse lips

Hot Spot

Every day, one day, as a result of this . . .

Freeze tag

Scene work –

Two-person scenes – living in the platform (every day reality scenes where nothing changes)

Two-person scenes – going from platform to exploring the tilt (every day reality scenes where something changes and pair explores “change”).

Helpful hints: When the tilt/change happens make it big. Tilt doesn’t always have to be an argument, explore positive tilts. There is a difference between exploring a change and inventing more changes. The best way to explore a change is to use the information that has come before versus “inventing” new information that further tilts the scene.

Drills-(Playing woman characters)

-Play five different female characters w/the same line of dialogue given (Jeannie’s second exercise from Sat.)

-Derivative of above, involved all three up and creating the five characters through focus on a specific body part (given by extra person) and then being given the line of dialogue.

Edits-

Talked about the edits in this form; cross edits, push and pull, directed edits and self edits.

Overall points –
In rehearsals, we’ll be working on specific platform, tilt, resolution skills, drill relationship and character exercises to help develop and enhance the relationship scenes, and then (with the skills down) begin to work them into the “Maude” form.

Don’t be afraid to try different characters that you may not have played before. Rehearsal is time to explore things and figure them out. If you get into a habit of doing things here, it’ll be easier to do them on stage and have fun as well.

So we’ll work a bit of review into next weeks rehearsal and hopefully explore the platform, tilt and get to resolution so we can try on some edits.

Warm ups –

Stretching

Boink boink

Word association

Phrase Association

Hot Spot

Every day, one day, as a result of this . . .

Scene work –

Two-person scenes – living in the platform (every day reality scenes where nothing changes)

Two-person scenes – going from platform to exploring the tilt (every day reality scenes where something changes and pair explores “change”). Helpful hints: when the tilt/change happens make it big.

Form stuff discussed –

The form is called “Maude”

Format:

· Monologue –“Armando” style

· Three 2-person scenes (one character comes back

· Group scene

· Three 2-person scenes

· Group scene

· Three two-person scenes (run)*

· Revisit Monologue from beginning of form or new monologue/monologist*

*These two parts are filler in case the tech time is not fulfilled.

Overall points –

– We shared our individual experiences that we’ve had with improv and other performance mediums.

– I talked a bit about the form that we’re doing having a very specific skill set (platform, tilt, resolution, tag-based scenes) which is not being taught extensively in Hawaii and because of that we’ll be learning the skill set, first, and then adding on the form as we gain the skills to do the pieces.

– My improv philosophy “dare to be boring” – working on strong character and relationship scenes (in my experience, the rest falls into place) – full buy-in by the group on what we’re doing as a whole.

– My hopes for rehearsal; coming in ready to rehearse, to start on time, everyone getting something out of this for themselves.