Improvising

Paris, May 2003.

The improvs come alive when we let go, stop wanting to show or be something and are simply as we are, here and now. Étre – the ‘to be’ that we all struggle to find in these improv exercises.

If we reject ‘story’ (narrative?) and the need for things to ‘happen’ in corporeal mime AND our expressions are neutral and an-emotional (not un-emotional) – What are we giving the audience?

When it works it seems like we are giving the audience ourselves, our real selves – frail, weak, stupid, afraid, and alone. But we are not giving by baring our souls for all to see, or by showing and indulging in every weakness we have. We give it clothed in struggle. We do what we do in spite of ourselves. The improvs teach us how to let the weakness show through. This is how we can connect, because we reflect the audience, because the audience recognize themselves.

The connection must be clean and clear. The moment we interject, even the tiniest nuance, the pathway is lost, the audience wakes up to where they are and fall back into their habitual skins and thoughts and attitudes. Then it’s as if a glass wall were thrown up between us.

It almost doesn’t matter what the subject matter is as long as it can be arranged to form a solid stage for the struggle:

• It must have space, be ‘poor’ enough to allow the audience in.
• It must satisfy the audience’s intellectual curiosity in order to put their minds at ease and draw them on.
• It must have strong limitations for the actor to struggle against otherwise the struggle is fake.

People find corporeal mime difficult to take. It takes a long time and a great deal of patience for the connection to be made, like meeting someone for the first time. It isn’t common anymore to look for great strength in weakness, emotion in restraint. Usually we get signs showing us where to look or how to look for these qualities. How much richer would it be if we could uncover and discover this light for ourselves, looking out from behind our own eyes.

Our work is about frailty, mortality and fear – our own.