Tuesday 20 September 2011

Bunny, Bunny!



It's all about the experience. Taking as much understanding or knowledge from the exercise or game that you can. If you ran 500 miles and made it all the way to the end, you would feel so great for making it and for accomplishing that goal. But really it's at the 250 mark that you are truly going to learn the most about yourself and your body. It's about the journey not the out come. It's exactly the same with warm up games and exercises.

Why do we do warm up games? I’ve asked this question multiple times to groups of improvisers and usually get the answers: “To get our minds ready. “To relax and loosen up.” Or my favorite “I don’t need to warm up.” Something that doesn’t get the weight it deserves is the actual exercise itself. The people who slaved away coming up with these silly games did so out of necessity. They saw something people weren’t doing or struggling with and created a game to help solve the problem. They all have very valuable lessons in them. All of them are improv stripped down to its very basic form. Even the most silly and weird game, has things to be taken and applied to our scene work. Bunny, Bunny for example is a super silly zany game. (I have wanted to use the word zany for awhile.) This game has a whole lot of potential to look stupid. If the group is playing and a couple people in the group aren’t playing it like it’s the best game ever they end up making the whole group look and feel uncomfortable. Anyone who says improv is a way to look cool in front of people is doing it for the wrong reason. If the entire group is having fun, being present, ready and enjoying themselves then it stops looking silly and actually looks like a well orchestrated exercise in rhythm and movement. This is the same as unsupportive improvisers in a group.  If they are trying to look cool while doing improv they will only hurt the group around them by half assing everything they do. If they are reserved and holding back (creating rules) they end up hurting the whole group dynamic putting others in their heads. You are only as strong as your weakest link. If you feel that everyone is as invested as you then you will push yourself farther.

There are a million reasons we play games like Bunny, Bunny. Another reason is making good offers. This goes way further in its simplifying of an offer then just saying who, where, and what. It’s takes it to its core of how to make a good offer to your partner. Being clear to whom you are making the offer to. The surer of yourself you are the more clear your offer will be. By also taking the time to ensure your partner across the circle is ready for the offer and the more patient and calm you are in letting this happen the easier a great offer can be passed. Breathing, focus, connection, relaxation, trust and willingness to go all in makes this game work. These are also the things that make for great improv scenes. So not only are you doing this to get into this state of being or trance, you are also familiarizing yourself with how that state of being feels in practicing it. All of this work translates to how you will improvise. If you have a bad habits in these games and are aware of them, you can start to work on them and hopefully then improve your improv. You’ll start to catch yourself hesitating or not trusting people in your group. If you do then bang that stuff out in the warm up exercises. That’s what they are there for.

One more thing I’ll touch on is having fun. We as adults are not aloud to play. This is instilled in us as we grow up, get jobs and buy houses. Well this is something we improvisers get to do. We get to play and have fun. It takes a lot to shake off the rules we follow in our daily lives but if we feel safe and are surrounded by fun, positive caring people we will be able to play freely and have fun. It’s the same at any job you do. Time flies when you are having fun. You also actually get more work done when the mood is light. So if you find yourself about to do a warm up game or exercise and you say to yourself “I don’t wanna play that game.” Ask yourself why? What if you just said yes? Who knows what awesomeness will come out of saying yes and challenging yourself. Jumping in head first and trusting that it is for a reason. Then really watching and evaluating yourself to see where your bad habits lie. Just start saying yes and going in with everything you got and your scene work will drastically improve.