Every Player Should be a Coach

In honor of two blog contributers and soon-to-be-ex-Presidents of Mock Turtle Soup:

One of the biggest changes in my life over the last couple of years is my transition from a follower to a leader. Not in that vague interpersonal kind of way, but in real and tangible ways. Just a couple of years ago I was the student sitting in classes. Now I'm the teacher planning and executing lesson plans. Not too long ago I was still a part of my college improv team, taking direction from the leadership there. Now I'm teaching and coaching old and new improvisers.

I can say, without a doubt in my mind, that I've learned more being a leader than a follower. I've learned more about US History in three years as a teacher (see my series on learning by teaching) than in four years as a student. I learned more about economics in three years as a blogger than in four years as a student. I learned more about comedy in my years at the Dirty South Improv Theater than I did in my four years at Mock Turtle Soup. But this is not just the experience of one person, it's supported by research.

Author Dan Pink points to three experiments where "subjects were more likely to come up with the answer on behalf of another person than for themselves; the farther away the other person was imagined to be, the more likely the participants were to come up with the correct answer." But here's the catch, I couldn't have done one without the other. My years of history and economics classes were vital to my current teaching. My years of improv workshops were vital to my current coaching. The transition between a player and a coach is tough, but let me assure you, it you want to be great, it's worth it.

This was cross-posted at my personal blog.

Directing on the fly!

As a college performer/director I have been able to watch my troupe grow over the years. When I start off a comedy season I like to have a general flow of what I would like to accomplish directing wise over the course of a semester. I think the best thing to do as a director is to have an ultimate goal for the end of the semester, and then construct a plan to achieve (that naturally leads to) that goal.

For example my goal for the Fall 2010 season was to perform a rich "Organic" Harold by December. Here was my general approach:

• Aug. Work on rich character development and perform the Henry

• Sept. Work on strong relationships within a scene
  

• Oct. Work on recognizing and continuing themes throughout a set of scenes and introduce the Harold

• Nov. Introduce and work an organic group game format and ultimately perform an "Organic" Harold

Semper Gumby

In improv, we are taught to be flexible. To allow the choices and actions of others to help guide the scene in the way 13-year-olds at a slumber party guide a weejee board.

I personally believe directing is no different. There may be some who believe that you should have a strict list of games and workshops to do and never deviate from that, but the reason we practice/workshop/rehearse, whatever you call it, is to discover.

Improvisers are exploring strange new worlds and civilizations, boldly creating what no man has created before. In directing this exploration it's important to be "Always Flexible" (semper gumby).

For example, you've had a lot of cowboy scenes during one rehearsal and the scene that kind of wakes everyone back up is one where the player comes in with this great posture. Take the time to explore that then go back to whatever you were teaching. Or do both, add the challenge of coming in with something out of VAPAPO on top of whatever exercise is going on.

Don't feel constrained to do whatever you've planned to do. At the same time, don't go in without a plan. Like the cheesy last words of "Dan in Real Life," make plans, then plan to be surprised.

Talk to People

If you are the director of an improv troupe, I would say it is crucially important to talk to people outside of practice.

Practice, workshops, rehearsal, whatever you call it is (mainly) a time for the troupe to grow together and grow closer as a team. It's a place to have everyone focus on one thing or one aspect or one style and try it out.

Practicing with New and Old Members

In our troupe, and some of the others I've talked to, one of the hardest things is dealing with rolling membership. You've got new people coming in every year (or in some cases every semester) and its hard to get the new people up to performance level while also making sure that your current members are growing and learning.

We've tried 2 things each with their own pros and cons, so it's at least something to think about if you're starting your own troupe or you're noticing some issues with the way you're currently solving the problem.

The first solution was to hit the stuff that "newbies" need, yes-and, don't deny, starting scenes, vapapo (jill bernard), how to play a game, how to express a relationship, bring a brick, etc. Seems like a good idea, and you've got all those oldies to help you teach it, right? Well here's the problem: everyone else already knows this and knows it well. And for us it really wasn't doing that much for our new people because they were playing with people who were plateauing. Once all the oldies were bored it messed up all kinds of stuff. Newbies weren't learning, nor were they becoming part of the group because the elephant in the room was that the newbies were the reason we were doing these "newbie workshops." (This solution could still work if you made sure to vary it up and not do EVERY practice geared toward new members).

The second solution was to just carry on as usual, outside a few sessions of breaking-it-down for the newbs, and just teach the workshops that were relevant and that the whole troupe needed work on. It was amazing how much faster the new members learned when they weren't focused on the lesson, but on the fun. And everyone pretty quickly got used to new people being in the practices, which helped because the newbies had people to ask questions if they had any. The downside of this was of course the steep learning curve for the new members, but I don't think any of them would say they haven't caught on.

Your team is full of D-bags, but they don't hate YOU

Congratulations new director of your college improv troupe. You're probably in over your head, even if you've been in the troupe for a while and have some teaching experience. Whether it was by election, selection, you read the most books, or a pie-eating contest you're in charge now and you've got to lead your friends to comedy victory.

The battlefield is set, usually some auditorium on campus, and the sides have been chosen, an audience primarily full of 18-24 year olds sits with funnybones primed to snicker and laugh, but also to silently judge the funniest and come up with "what would have been really funny" and "What I was hoping you'd do" and all those other things that you hear in a compliment that makes you kind of tune out a little bit.

And then you and your troupe. A rag tag team of misfits, usually people who "like to make people laugh" and "gets told I'm funny a lot" according to their membership applications. You have your shows, and sometimes they're good and you party after, and sometimes they're bad and you party after, and sometimes their okay and you go to bed (Parallelogramophonograph).

The Victory Lapse

The Victory Lapse is a force of nature that I recently stumbled upon. Last year I was a player-director for Mock Turtle Soup, so for a year I balanced school work and going to practice with running those very same practices. Pouring my free time into 15 other people, seeing to it that they were getting better at improv, learning, finding their style, growing. Immersing myself in theory and spouting it out like the maternal advice we so often ask for as a suggestion.

For a year I grew so much in my understanding of the things I knew because I was teaching them, and so I am left with this feeling that the things I knew are things I know. Like the back of my hand, internalized, all that jazz. Like most director-performers I got really burnt out, but still churned out workshops and practices because I thought that if I just worked harder at it I would get them better and we would be the best we could be and then I would be able to rest. Went a little crazy, given, but the fact of the matter is that we did grow as a troupe and we've started some really cool things that have carried over, and thank God, somebody else stepped up to direct this year.

I say all that not to toot my own horn, but to give a sufficient backdrop for this year. This is my senior year, I've been doing improv with Mock Turtle Soup for more than 3 years, for between 4 and 8 hours every week (depending on how many practices/shows were that week), last year I probably spent an average of 10-12 hours in any given week doing, talking about, planning, or teaching improv. This year, since I'm not in charge and have a lot of other things on my plate, I do probably a max of 6 hours a week, and usually 4 or so.

I'm in the Victory Lapse, there's a voice in my head that says "Well, you are on the down hill," "You've already beaten college improv," "You've got nothing else to do but be funny," and a little bit of that pride which says "YOU'RE THE FUNNIEST THING EVER." If you're in the same boat, the only thing I can tell you is this: Tell that voice to shut up.

The College Improv Resource

Welcome to the College Improv Resource. The goal is for this to be a place where college improvisers and former college improvisers can come together and give advice, describe forms, describe workshops, share ideas, rant, and just educate and be educated about the art-form they've decided or are thinking about doing.

My hope is that other improvisers from troupes all across the Southeast and across the nation will not only be helped by the wisdom shared here, but themselves become contributors.

Contributors will be by invitation, but all you've got to do is email collegeimprovresource@gmail.com and we'll add you.

Some ground rules:

-This is not a place for bashing other improvisers, but I'm not going to have a 0 criticism rule. If you hate something, say it in a way that proves that you're an educated being capable of righteous hate, not an ignorant lump who gets his jollies from upsetting other people.

-I would prefer this not just be a place where people plead and spam for festivals, shows, tours, or whatever. If you do a lot of it, you might get dropped, just for the sake of the whole. If you want to start a blog for spamming other improvisers about your improv, I will join you, but I don't want it here.

-Please categorize your posts with labels, like who it's for (Directors, Players, Player-Directors), what it's about (Workshop, General Directing, Basic Improv, The Rules, Starting Scenes), whether or not it's a rant, just a game, or just a funny story (Rant, Warm-up Game, Long-form, Short-form Game, Anecdote). Don't feel constricted to just these labels, but the more common labels we use, the easier it is to search through, the more your post will get read.

-Other issues will be addressed as they come up and this welcome-post may change accordingly

I'm going to try to set up a links page so if you want in on some of that sweet stuff let me know as well.

Welcome to the blog.