Notes from Keith Johnstone Impro Workshop 2019 Day 3.
Keith Johnstone Impro Workshop 2019 in Vancouver
Day 3 The Final day
Spolin guessing who
– Hat game
– Matching status
– Fastfood Stanislavsky
Wise Improvisers are very fast. But great clowns are very slow.
In 1928, sound came in movies.
“Passion of Joan of Arc”. She doesn’t blink.
Blinks make you submissive.
I saw “Living” many times and finally I found he is not blinking.
If I take some people away from group, different message comes. They look negative. When I say “Relax”, they smile. It’s just demonstration of how you arrange yourself unconsciously. Why look negative? Because you share yourself with your group.
Then I understood theatre is a big toy.
Obama finally becomes presidential and shows bottom teeth. He was a community organizer.
Kinetic dance. Kinesiology is science of movement. It’s threads. When you act, kinetic dance disappeared. If you have it, which is called ensemble, threads back.
Dominant hemisphere wants to controls whole of body.
I don’t like Method. It’s just a method.
Method people don’t use masks.
Stanislavsky wants to be truthful, simple and clear.
“Great Actors” is 15 interviews of English actors.
If it doesn’t work, find another teacher. Don’t blame yourself.
If you want a good idea, angels are panicked in heaven.
Does it have to be a good idea? No! Otherwise fears come back.
If you are a good improviser, why you come to the course?
Fuck off, Keith!
If you guess wrong, you can be creative.
Nobody used old idea. They want to be creative. It’s communication game. Oh, it’s God fault. Not your fault.
You can’t learn without failure. Enjoy failure. If you fail and stay happy, we can laugh at you.
In martial art, they know how to fail.
It’s anti-school activity.
I don’t care you screw up if you stay happy.
Hat game is really important. Some people try to ban because it’s risky.
It’s Zen Buddhist game. I taught them Hat game. I heard local improviser taught them the point is being funny as much as possible. It’s not. You never come to stage to be funny.
Sit closer. Butts should touch. I need 50-50.
Avoid to take hat from front. Always look.
Zen monks should play at 5am everyday.
Muhammad Ali watched decision of hitting and hit. Reaction speed is faster than thought speed.
Your school should play this game everyday.
Hat game teaches you amazing things.
Hat game is not my game. It’s William Gaskill’s.
Best improvisers are best Hat game players.
I wrote 14 pages for this game.
Some traditional actors were blind.
If you are trapped by fear, anyone catch your hat because you are not here.
Lots of ways showing stress.
We like positive people. Then get interaction.
Bruce Lee “Enter the Dragon”. Killing people but he enjoyed. In slow motion. You can do negative things positively.
We want the performers look naughty. Squeezing nipple or something.
In life, being controlled by other people looks miserable.
Come on stage to enjoy what others do.
We like happy low status people.
In life, low status people look miserable.
You can balance status.
Make it truthful. Make us believe.
I’ve never seen improvisers eating on stage.
Is matching status see-saw?
You can practice it rest of your life.
Do they do well? I don’t care!
Why we laugh? We hope there is a strong change.
Studying theatre is a branch of studying human behavior.
You never stop learning it.
You can see synchronize. Kinetic dance.
We have genetic rules and cultural rules.
Universal flirting human behavior. 1) Hold eye contact little longer than usual. 2) Eyes look down without moving head. 3) Move the eyes to side. Power comes when eyes going side. It’s slight feeling. Genetically programmed.
If eyes move but head doesn’t move, something happened.
Fastfood Stanislavsky. It’s a character.
If you work on text, you need long list because you can’t do something on text.
When in comedy, you trying to achieve but fail. When in tragedy, you trying to achieve but fail. Same.
In comedy, happy ending but suffer first.
List gives you permission to be altered.
If you have permission, how far you can go?
Life Game. Honor the guest. Scenes are not copy.
Wonderful to play scenes in Gibberish.
Use each syllables in Gibberish.
I wrote my second book because I wanted to correct Theatresports.
We are taught to look for the best.
Do anything you can make truthful. If it is truthful, do it. You get permission.
Characters are really based on what you do.
The more truthful, the more you can transform into something else.
You can have two lists.
Peter Coyote is also like the list.
Purpose is not in the scene in my opinion.
I want to improvisers to try blank verse.
Shhh sound is used in millions of years because it affects us.
When if you make it truthful, Wonderful!
Purpose for the actors. That means having purpose put actors on.
Make children love to go to school. It’s my policy.
