It has been 3 decades since I last took a local improv class at a community college. The instructor there didn't teach any of these principals. Probably because she was completely unaware of them. I don't think UCB had even premiered on Comedy Central yet, let alone its teaching reach the suburbs of Tacoma, WA. It was a lot of 'Story, Story, Die' and slow motion food fights.
I start a lot of my writing time in a stream of conscious way and my main driving principal in that is always "If this is true, what else is true." Finding the game in the moment as I write keeps it fun and present and also usually ensures that I never end up writing anything that I planned on getting done.
Myself trying to teach game but coming from a small city, I can say with first hand experience that training in macro-only doesn't work without a good, steady stream of examples that people can watch (and subconsciously create their own internal portfolio of micro). A la Los Angeles, New York. I suspect it also requires plenty of reps, since more trial and error is involved. I think this is because without the examples of micro, macro leaves a lot of room for non-conducive interpretations as well.
Teaching micro has yielded better results in most cases for me, and as someone working under scene constraints, it's been the way to go.
That said, I do try to acknowledge that it can be overly prescriptive and arbitrary, and probably starts to have diminishing returns, so I try to mix it with the macro too.
TL;DR: some people/improv scenes do better with micro, others better with macro
I really appreciate your pub and always work on finding (trying to find) that right “micro” without it being too much or not enough. Quite a challenge to “get” that bainwork…. Probably like the slow learning to be a zen swordmaker! Thanks.
It has been 3 decades since I last took a local improv class at a community college. The instructor there didn't teach any of these principals. Probably because she was completely unaware of them. I don't think UCB had even premiered on Comedy Central yet, let alone its teaching reach the suburbs of Tacoma, WA. It was a lot of 'Story, Story, Die' and slow motion food fights.
I start a lot of my writing time in a stream of conscious way and my main driving principal in that is always "If this is true, what else is true." Finding the game in the moment as I write keeps it fun and present and also usually ensures that I never end up writing anything that I planned on getting done.
Myself trying to teach game but coming from a small city, I can say with first hand experience that training in macro-only doesn't work without a good, steady stream of examples that people can watch (and subconsciously create their own internal portfolio of micro). A la Los Angeles, New York. I suspect it also requires plenty of reps, since more trial and error is involved. I think this is because without the examples of micro, macro leaves a lot of room for non-conducive interpretations as well.
Teaching micro has yielded better results in most cases for me, and as someone working under scene constraints, it's been the way to go.
That said, I do try to acknowledge that it can be overly prescriptive and arbitrary, and probably starts to have diminishing returns, so I try to mix it with the macro too.
TL;DR: some people/improv scenes do better with micro, others better with macro
What do you mean by "Play to the top of your intelligence"?
I really appreciate your pub and always work on finding (trying to find) that right “micro” without it being too much or not enough. Quite a challenge to “get” that bainwork…. Probably like the slow learning to be a zen swordmaker! Thanks.