Improvisation In Drama

That is it. That was Drama 10. The four unit “fundamentals of movement, speech, theatre games, and improvisation” course, has come to an end. I must say that this class truly flew by at the speed of light. One day we are learning about improvisation and the next day we are performing our final scripted scenes. Although this may be true, I have been, through my time in this class, thrown into a pool full of theatre knowledge; including the terms, phrases, and an opportunity to witness a full theatre production.This plethora of new information and skills have been developed from reading the Drama 10 reader, the process of writing a script, the rehearsal time spent getting ready for the final, and seeing an actual theatre performance. The Drama
This piece of literature essentially outlines what acting is, it’s history, how one can become a decent actor, and helpful tips and tricks to better an actor’s craft. A special section in the reader that really resonates with me, discusses improvisation “necessities.” This part of the reading urges the actor to
Imagine a definite setting in which you have to improvise;the the location of the audience; then decide whether your improvisation is tragedy, drama, comedy, or farce. Also try to improvise as though you were performing a period play, and in this case ress yourself in an imaginary costume of the chosen period. (“Improvisation and Ensemble”)
This short and straightforward statement was the foundation in which I based my improvisation performances on. This is due to the fact that prior to reading this passage, I believed that improvisation was one-hundred percent off the top of the actor’s head and neither required nor allowed prior preparation. However, the statement above opened my eyes to the truth of improvisation and guided me on my path to becoming better with improvisational scenes. The passage written by Bella Merlin also discusses improvisation by speaking about how “you can not really go on stage or in front of the camera unless you know what it is you are doing” (“The Complete Stanislavski Toolkit”). This comment prompted me to ask myself
Right after the class midterm, where we improvised a scene with a random partner, we jumped right into script work. This was actually a relief, because I felt as though improvisation caused me too much stress and anxiety, whereas performing a planned performance, was much less stressful. On October 27th, 2015, the true transition began. This was the day where everyone in the class was given a script and were expected to make a story, conflict, and resolution for it. This was due to the fact that the script only contained lines of one or two words and could apply to any situation. Soon after this session, we were then given another script, where we were expected to do the same; however once this task was complete, we were to write our own scripts. Coming up with an overall story was the hardest part. One reason for this, was because I was in a trio, which meant developing a story where all three characters have a relationship to one another, while also making sure that everyone had dialogue. Not to mention, making a conflict and finding a resolution. Nevertheless, my group and I came together and laid our ideas out on the table, and put a story together. Although at first it was hard to think of dialogue for the characters, knowing who the characters are, their status, and the relationship that the three characters had, made it easier to write. Once the script was written, it was time to rehearse and to go off book. It was not clear before,