This is another installment of my column “Improvisationally Speaking” for Actorsphere.com
 

Improvisation:  Ten Good Reasons to Take the Leap By Tommy Housworth YIKES!  So, your agent told you to take an improv class.  Or maybe your acting teacher encouraged you to develop your improv skills. It happens a lot to actors these days, and a reawakening to the necessity of improvisational skills has definitely taken root within the acting community. Trust me, it’s not because these industry insiders are trying to breed the next Wayne Brady.  Quite simply, they are just trying to lead you toward adding a considerably valuable tool to your acting arsenal. As I mentioned in my last article, improvisation is not intrinsically about being funny.  Sure, you’re not likely to make the starting rotation at Dad’s Garage if you aren’t comically gifted, but if that’s not your goal anyway, how can improv help you? Here are ten reasons I recommend actors study improvisation. ################## 10)  Discover the Interdependence of Acting -   As a whole, we actors can be real ‘me monkeys’.  Improvisation encourages you to focus all your energy on making your scene partner look good, and on listening to what they are saying, instead of spending your time onstage taking a vacuous swim in Lake Me. Soon, you’ll rediscover that scenes where actors are really engaged and connecting are not only the most interesting to watch, but also the most exhilarating in which to perform. 9) Learn to Live In the Moment – Onstage and off, we are constantly thinking about what we just did, what we have to do next, or ‘what could happen if’. Improv has a Zen-like quality in that it requires complete attention to the ‘now’.  Eventually, improv wears down that Type-A personality a bit and allows you to just be present, and stop controlling and obsessing. For actors, this is a healthy benefit in life as well as on the set.   8) Build Your Confidence – Insecurity must be hard-wired in the actor’s psyche.  We’re always putting ourselves out there for others to accept or reject.  It’s bound to eat at you a little, if not a lot.  Improv isn’t a cure-all for this malady, but it goes a long way in helping you realize you can handle more than you ever imagined. Once you’ve had to create spontaneous characters and scenes, and found some success in trusting your intuition, your imagination, and those you work with, you’re bound to feel more at ease with whatever is thrown at you. Ask any casting director – an actor who is appropriately confident usually radiates that sense of capability, and it is often one of the intangibles that helps that actor land the role. 7) Working Without a Net – This goes hand in hand with building your confidence, but it’s worth noting as a separate benefit. Onstage, on the set, and in auditions, life doesn’t always go as scripted.  It’s your sense of self-awareness and confidence that allows you to save a scene gone astray, or take a risk that raises the stakes of that scene. Improv helps actors know they can handle being tossed into that abyss.  If there’s a net at the bottom, so be it.  If not, you know you can land on your feet because you’ve experienced similar situations before.  Either way, you know you won’t end up splattered on the pavement like Wile E. Coyote.   6) Learn How to Fail – And what happens when you DON’T land on your feet?  What happens when your performance ends in a deafening thud that draws about as much sympathy as an atonal performance on “American Idol”? You won’t go home, shred your headshots, and go seek work as a satellite dish salesman.  That’s because, with improv under your belt, you’ve learned how to deal with the inevitable:  just absolutely sucking. Even the best improvisers – the cats at Laughing Matters, the Dad’s Garage gang, the Comedy Response Unit folks – have scenes now and then that, quite simply, don’t work.  But what do they do to rise above it?  They’ve learned that if they dwell on it, it will kill the rest of their show.  So, they dust off and start fresh.  And they take note of what happened in the scene so they won’t repeat their error. As an actor, you have to learn to do the same.  There are many ways to do this – improv is most likely the most fun and rewarding way. 5) Developing Characters -  Even if you’re making the bulk of your living as a trade show spokesperson, and are rarely called upon to be anyone but yourself, having some characters at your beck and call is a great way to deepen your performance and add great brush strokes to your work. In commercial and industrial work, I am usually seen as a young dad or guy next door type. And as much as I’d love to play Tom Joad, I don’t think I look like people imagine him. Yet, in improv, I’ve gotten to play a tough talking Italian gangster, a 75 year old health nut, and Kathie Lee Gifford’s delinquent teenage son. So, improv has been my outlet for inventing people, and developing attitudes, voices, and traits that, hopefully, have given me more range as a performer.  Every now and then, I get to audition for something that falls outside of my ‘category’.  It’s usually improv that allows for that opportunity. 4) Sharpen Your Wits -  Ok, I know we’ve said that improvisation isn’t about being funny, per se.  But, what a wonderful perk it is to get to train your mind to think in a different way. Inevitably, this leads to your true sense of humor coming out in your work and, more often than not, you’ll find you’re getting some welcomed laughs.  Improvisation encourages you to look at the world from a slightly off-kilter perspective, and this can lead to some hilarious results. You may find that funny insights start bubbling to the top more quickly, and you can play off other actors with more finesse because you have developed wit as a weapon.   3) Learn How To Do -  So often, we get too caught up in our heads – especially at auditions.  One thing improv really helps actors focus on is the act of doing. There’s a great book by Paul Sills called “Something Wonderful Right Away”.  The title is kind of an improv mantra, which means, ‘create something for us…now!” Improv scenes that start off with two people talking are fighting an uphill battle.  They have to rely on the actors to be playwrights, creating fresh dialogue with no real impetus.  However, improv scenes that start off with physical activity feature actors acting upon something.  They can build the scene based on what they are doing, not what they are forced to come up with verbally. How does this translate into work for the everyday actor?  Think of the impact you’ll have on the casting director and client when you audition by creating believable action that matches your text, rather than just standing there with the script in your hands.  When the material calls for you to be active, you do yourself a big favor by doing so.   2) Get More Auditions -  Hey, any agent will tell you these days, you’re bound to get a few more auditions every year if you’ve got some improv training.  So many commercials today call for the actor to utilize improv skills, whether it be playing with the language in the script, or merely being able to create the kind of characters we talked about earlier. Bottom line is, improv is being recognized as a beneficial skill for the actor that will help everyone involved in the project.  A seasoned improv actor is (hopefully) easy to direct, able to handle changes and curveballs, able to give the director some different choices in his/her performance, and even capable of cleaning up an awkward line or two in a bogged down script. And of course, more auditions hopefully means…   1)  You’ll Get More Work!     If you are doing a good job integrating your improv skills into your performance, there’s no reason it shouldn’t pay off down the line.  Success breeds success, and if you go from two auditions a month to two or three a week, then you’ve already experienced the benefits of improv training.  First refusals and bookings can’t be too far behind.   Improvisation is a way of life for some actors, a mere helpful tool for others.  But ask anyone who has studied improvisation, and I’m willing to bet that they’ll tell you that a few of the benefits we’ve just discussed have come to fruition for them. Classes and workshops are available all over the Southeast, especially here in Atlanta. So…what are you waiting for? Take the leap.