Improvazation

I have had a fair amount of experience with improv and it is my favorite exercise to do when practicing acting. And yet, I still find it to be a challenging form of acting to conquer. There will always be something to improve upon, whether it be your reaction pace, your ability to think outside the box, or your ability to push yourself out of your comfort zone. Each of these factors are not easy to do, but are extremely crucial to having a great improv scene. However, in order to achieve this, you need to be acting with people that you get along with well and that you know before hand.

I think that it is important to know who you are doing a scene with as well, because on stage chemistry, I have learned, is helpful to keeping the audience’s attention, maintaining a scene (example: if someone should forget their line, another actor may help them by guiding them to where the scene is supposed to go), or by adding comedic or dramatic elements. Improv really allows actors to have fun on stage by making them use their instinct in a fast pace, while at the same time, it can be extremely helpful. For example, if an audience member shouted out into the audience a line that they knew was about to be said, there is pressure on the actor to either say their line, or improv a funny response. If a mistake happens on stage, actors can recover by going along with the line and fooling the audience that it was part of script.

Improv is one of my favorite activities to do when acting. I think that it allows you to recognize what you're naturally good at, and what you need to improve upon. For me, I think I need to work on being more energetic in improv scenes and being able to take my scenes to new heights. On the other hand, I think that one of my strengths is that I am willing to go along with anything that might be thrown into my path. I love finding out what my scene will go and how to constantly change it. That being said, I think it is important to reflect on your scene and acknowledge what you did well, what you could have done differently, and how you can improve in your next improv scene. This will better your abilities as an actor. If you think of improv as a game, it can be truly fun and exciting.

What I love most about improv is that when doing comedic scenes, I can act as ridiculous as I want. Levels of emotions are really limitless because you, as an actor, are developing your character and what they want to achieve. I think that this is something special because it forces you to think on spot and at the same time, it teaches you to just have fun and go along with whatever you might encounter with your fellow actors.