Intentionality Versus Flow
the new "game versus relationship"
More on intentionality. I wrote about it a few weeks ago but it’s still all I can think about in terms of improv recently.
Today’s thesis: The real revolution of UCB-style improv is not “game.” It’s “intentionality.”
When the UCB started their theatre in NYC in the late 1990s, they preached playing “game of the scene.” Put very simply, it meant finding the unusual thing, and heightening it.
That means as opposed to playing plot or stakes you play the unusual. If a character says “Honey, I want a divorce, this has been a real C+ marriage.” You focus more on how someone is using grades to express their feelings, rather than worrying about whether the marriage actually ends.
It was a comedy-focused approach to improv, and it was hugely successful as a training program and theater.
Secret Directive: Steer Your Improv
But along with this philosophy came an unspoken directive: steer your improv scene.
You play game by starting with a premise initiation (UCB term) - starting with a full comedy idea, pulled from a verbal opening.
You play game by gifting a comedic point of view onto someone else, basically saying “hey, play this game.”
You play game by tagging into a scene and heightening a small thing that maybe only you noticed, almost as a comment, saying “hey, you accidentally revealed this unusual thing, so play it.”
It was aggressive and sometimes bossy. In the right hands, it was fast and funny and electrifying. In the wrong hands, it resulted in scenes where uninvested actors pointed at each other and said “wow, you’re weird right now. Now you explain it and do that.”
Playing Relationship: Don’t Steer
As game exploded in the NYC improv scene in the early 2000s, folks from Chicago would visit and preach a “slower” brand of improv. “don’t play game, play the relationship.” They said “focus on playing truthfully, make it about the people in the scene - the comedy will come.”
But game versus relationship is a false choice and a dumb way to put it.
What they were really saying was “don’t steer the scene.”
Initiate with something small. React to what the other person says without thinking ahead. Say yes to everything put forward. The comedy will come. The scenes were more cooperative and grounded.
But the trouble with this approach is the comedy very often does not come. You either get boring scenes with false fights and tragic narratives. Or, even worse, everyone just puts on a wacky voice and does not explore any consequences.
Intentionality Versus Flow
I must admit I don’t know if what I’m saying here has any practical value. But it explains things I see all the time in improv.
I see folks with UCB training who simply do not commit at all. They initiate full sketch ideas, tag in to change other people’s ideas and will not bend at all to anything that surprises them.
And I see “relationship” style people who do wacky voices with zero grounding at all.
I want game. And I want flow, also.
Game Without Steering?
Is it possible to have game where no one steers?
Can you have a scene that starts with a small initiation, no tag-outs, excellent agreement and acceptance —- and yet still drifts toward unusual things, patterns and heightening?
Yes, of course. It simply requires the players to have internalized UNUSUAL THINGS. They must play themselves as the fool. They must accept “bad” behavior in themselves and others as part of the reality. They must make their foolish behavior grounded without explaining it away.
In a word, they must be funny.
Like it or not, we’ll be talking more about this topic!
Plugs
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Thank you so much for this! I have given up on improvising (except teaching children/teens) because of what you describe in "Intentionality vs. Flow". And I understand why you don't know how "practical" this advice is, because it's about feel and organic discovery and how do you choose those things, and/or what exercises can you use in practice to get there? That's why I like working with kids, they just do it because they're used to delving into the world of make believe without giving it a second thought. Isn't that where improv came from in the first place?
Really enjoyed the nuance comparison of game play vs playing the relationship. It’s something I’ve been wondering about for awhile and you put it very simply. Very helpful!