There’s also Detours (don’t know the origin but probably on IRC wiki) which is just replaying the same scene and exploring new games/sub-games each time. Michele Guido and I did it a handful of times at Comedy Cafe Berlin. It’s a bit gimmicky but has never failed to be really dumb fun.
-The Eventé: starts at a defined event, then travels back in time some distance with one character and explores their life leading up to that event, then you return to the event, either from a different perspective (ala Rashomon) or the next part of the event. Repeat.
- Silent soundtrack. Variation on the soundtrack with no dialogue.
Hmm I can only think of Documentary (Billy's) and I don't know if JTS Brown actually exists as a defined form or if it's just a Mandela effect we're all hallucinating
Shotgun is a fun one for smaller groups. Starts with four in a car, conversations in the car then inspire someone to stand up out of the car and start a scene. Scene ends by setting up the car again and then you repeat until lights. The stuff in the car is great for object work and playing within the boundaries of how the scene is set up.
You missed my bread and butter, narrative longform, ie. any improvised play that tells a single uninterrupted story. (I'm editing a Shana Merlin book about it as we speak, actually!) You can call that either a single form or a category of forms, since there are infinite possible variations—I'd call The Movie one of those variations.
There's the ever popular improvisers and actors form (Gravid Water).
There's the montagey form where each scene begins with lines written down by the audience beforehand on slips of paper (not sure the title for it). A great form for newer teams as their first line is often a stumbling point. Lets them focus on object work and physical communication as the scene starts.
We've been doing a modified Bruise which we call a Round Trip because it is like a long car or train trip - we'll see scenes on the way to our destination and then the same ones on the way back. The original Bruise, or so I've heard, had 8 suggestions and you see just a glimpse of each one, then working backwards you see the rest of the scene. We've made the following changes, or at least what I think are changes: We write the suggestions on the board to decrease our own cognitive load and to honor our commitment to those suggestions with the audience. Each suggestion inspires an initial 2 person scene, except the last one which is usually a group scene with all or nearly all players. Then we see the scenes again in reverse order. We sometimes see the same characters, situations, or relationships again in the second version of other scenes as appropriate, and end with the scene inspired by the first suggestion. It's worked really well for newer players and the written suggestion list lets them focus on good scenes rather than remembering what type of scene needs to come next.
Catching up with my inbox this New Year's Day and thought I'd throw in my belated two cents. Here are various openers inspired by the audience suggestion that I've done into montages:
- Living Room: The team chats amongst each other for a few minutes and pulls from each other's real life anecdotes.
- Audience Interview: A team member takes lead on interviewing an audience volunteer. Other team members ask a couple supplementary questions to wrap the interview.
- Character Cascade: The team does a tag run to deliver a monologue as a singular character.
- Character Confessions: Each team member steps out from the backline as a character to deliver a brief confession.
- Abstract Mirroring: My duo partner and I would mirror each other for about the first 30 seconds and have that movement lead into our initiating dialogue.
- 3-Lines Scene Flurry: Currently, my duo partner and I are playing around with a handful of 3-line scenes to start, then a montage to explore as many of the scenes that we can recall.
I would second the inclusion of a general narrative form.
I did something a few times called "Screw Puppies," which was named after the team in Chicago which used it. All scenes would be blacked out by the coach/director. People could enter/exit the stage in darkness. Lights up and you started a new scene. It was fun.
I coached a monoscene that did the road trip, but we also did family dinner and were working on a monoscene set in a jurt deliberation, but we never nailed it before the team's run ended.
There’s also Detours (don’t know the origin but probably on IRC wiki) which is just replaying the same scene and exploring new games/sub-games each time. Michele Guido and I did it a handful of times at Comedy Cafe Berlin. It’s a bit gimmicky but has never failed to be really dumb fun.
Great list, I like lists.
-The Eventé: starts at a defined event, then travels back in time some distance with one character and explores their life leading up to that event, then you return to the event, either from a different perspective (ala Rashomon) or the next part of the event. Repeat.
- Silent soundtrack. Variation on the soundtrack with no dialogue.
Hmm I can only think of Documentary (Billy's) and I don't know if JTS Brown actually exists as a defined form or if it's just a Mandela effect we're all hallucinating
Shotgun is a fun one for smaller groups. Starts with four in a car, conversations in the car then inspire someone to stand up out of the car and start a scene. Scene ends by setting up the car again and then you repeat until lights. The stuff in the car is great for object work and playing within the boundaries of how the scene is set up.
What about Theatresports, Gorilla Theatre, and Maestro Impro by Keith Johnstone? :)
A student team I was on last year created our own form called "Cruise ship"
It's a comcombination of townhall, slacker and tag runs.
Great list, thanks! You left out the Henry, a variation of La Ronde, where each pair gets a different location from the audience.
JTS Brown, Community Theater 3000(improvised play where there are some hecklers in the audience), short form, and genre prov.
You missed my bread and butter, narrative longform, ie. any improvised play that tells a single uninterrupted story. (I'm editing a Shana Merlin book about it as we speak, actually!) You can call that either a single form or a category of forms, since there are infinite possible variations—I'd call The Movie one of those variations.
A few off the top of my head:
There's the ever popular improvisers and actors form (Gravid Water).
There's the montagey form where each scene begins with lines written down by the audience beforehand on slips of paper (not sure the title for it). A great form for newer teams as their first line is often a stumbling point. Lets them focus on object work and physical communication as the scene starts.
We've been doing a modified Bruise which we call a Round Trip because it is like a long car or train trip - we'll see scenes on the way to our destination and then the same ones on the way back. The original Bruise, or so I've heard, had 8 suggestions and you see just a glimpse of each one, then working backwards you see the rest of the scene. We've made the following changes, or at least what I think are changes: We write the suggestions on the board to decrease our own cognitive load and to honor our commitment to those suggestions with the audience. Each suggestion inspires an initial 2 person scene, except the last one which is usually a group scene with all or nearly all players. Then we see the scenes again in reverse order. We sometimes see the same characters, situations, or relationships again in the second version of other scenes as appropriate, and end with the scene inspired by the first suggestion. It's worked really well for newer players and the written suggestion list lets them focus on good scenes rather than remembering what type of scene needs to come next.
Does the improvised [known-genre/show/story] "narrative" show, where its powered by tropes and expected story structure, warrant inclusion?
Also never done it, but there's The Documentary. And surely there must be some kind of reality TV parallel, nowadays?
Catching up with my inbox this New Year's Day and thought I'd throw in my belated two cents. Here are various openers inspired by the audience suggestion that I've done into montages:
- Living Room: The team chats amongst each other for a few minutes and pulls from each other's real life anecdotes.
- Audience Interview: A team member takes lead on interviewing an audience volunteer. Other team members ask a couple supplementary questions to wrap the interview.
- Character Cascade: The team does a tag run to deliver a monologue as a singular character.
- Character Confessions: Each team member steps out from the backline as a character to deliver a brief confession.
- Abstract Mirroring: My duo partner and I would mirror each other for about the first 30 seconds and have that movement lead into our initiating dialogue.
- 3-Lines Scene Flurry: Currently, my duo partner and I are playing around with a handful of 3-line scenes to start, then a montage to explore as many of the scenes that we can recall.
Happy New Year!
I would second the inclusion of a general narrative form.
I did something a few times called "Screw Puppies," which was named after the team in Chicago which used it. All scenes would be blacked out by the coach/director. People could enter/exit the stage in darkness. Lights up and you started a new scene. It was fun.
I coached a monoscene that did the road trip, but we also did family dinner and were working on a monoscene set in a jurt deliberation, but we never nailed it before the team's run ended.