Today when working with Sharon, and most of our course we have been taught this, and that is the art of improvisation. It is a plot that devised from the very moment that it is created in. We were told as part of the lesson to , still playing our characters - in this instance from the seagull, create a piece improved on the spot. But because we know the story and our characters well then we will be able to tell the story back to the class in our own words.
The whole idea of improvisation is to show that you know your character like they are your best mate, like a silent companion. If you know your character well enough you can play them in spontaneous moments and play them like you are playing yourself. Improv also helps with making your character seem more natural, and more everyday like. It makes your character feel like someone you know. When you get to the point where you know your character inside out then, you will adopt the mannerisms or accent far more naturally than starting out at the beginning of the rehearsal journey. When you get to the stage of rehearsal that you know your character well, then you can come up with a scene that never was , with other cast members and that way the other actors playing the audience members will still know your character is as good as it is in the scripted scenes.
Another point of improvisation is that , some plays aren't well known and people will only know your character through what they are seeing on stage without any contextual knowledge of it. So if it be that you forget the lines, you can use improv to , using context of the scene and the knowledge of your character, come up with the gist of what is happening in the scene. Also, say another actor forgot their cue to be on stage, using your initiative you could improvise the scene to make it seem like it was meant to happen and the audience will know no better.
It is also useful to use to explore your character. improvisation can help you discover the dos and don'ts of your part. An example being that an actor whose played the role for quite a while will automatically know, that if something different is in the script that the characters never done before or, the actor may feel that it doesn't fit because they know their character inside out what's been added in the new script is out of character or just something that don't fit the characters personality.
drawing back to our lesson, when we were told to devise a scene that weren't part of the script, but this will be used to convey the story in our own words playing the same characters though, it was quite easy because we all knew the script because we've been working on it for a few weeks now, so the actions displayed by the character and the personality seemed to come naturally .
A few examples of improvisation in movies we know are as follows;
- Silence of the lambs - Hiss
when discussing his cannibalistic venture, with one of the famous lines from the movie, " I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti", ending the line with a scary hiss. Hopkins had been doing this as a joke in rehearsal to scare fellow actress Jodie Foster but decided to add it into the scene for a terrifying effect because it delivered a skin-crawling moment.
- Good will hunting - late wife's flatulence.
Whiz kid played by Matt Damon , with help from therapist played by late Robin Williams told a story to try and get him to open up about his emotions. When he decides to share the memory, hunting starts laughing hysterically. The entire scene was improvised by Williams mid scene, and matt Damon's laugh was actually a genuine fit of laughter. If you watch the scene closely, the camera is quite jumpy most likely because the cameraman himself is laughing too.
- The dark knight- slow clapping
As the joker (Heath Ledger) is arrested and waits quietly alone in jail, the mayor of Gotham comes to find the latest capture. He promotes Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) to commissioner.
all the officers applaud the good news, an unscripted, ledger begins to slowly clap without changing the expression on his face, it was a darkly great improv from the late Heath ledger.
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