Ira Glass, host of the PRI show This American Life, is known for telling great stories. This video is the first of a four part series in which Glass discusses storytelling, the creative process, and the difficulties facing those who create stories for any medium.
I’m a proponent of story in improvisation. After the video I’ll write about how this all fits together for me.
Glass mentions two elements of story – the ‘anecdote,’ or the action, and the ‘moment of reflection,’ which ties the action together and gives it meaning. Thinking in these terms invites comparisons between short-form and long-form improv.
In short-form improv or “theatre games,” the scenes usually consist of a series of (frequently exaggerated) actions that are designed to be fast-paced and entertaining. In this format, little attention tends to be paid to character motivations, emotions, or why certain actions might be meaningful. The result is often light entertainment that doesn’t have much emotional depth and seems to lack perspective or “point.”
In long-form improv, scenes tend to be longer and may attempt to explore characters in a significant way. The pitfall here is that scenes can become overly verbose; words begin to replace action. Reflecting upon action that does not take place in front of the audience gets boring very quickly (but that doesn’t stop it from happening all the time).
This is just a general assessment. The point here is that almost any type of improvisation could benefit from including elements of both action and reflection in each scene.
Action gives your characters a reason to reflect, while reflection gives the action itself meaning. Good stories and scenes have both.
In theatre games, ensure that the action occurring within the scene is meaningful to your characters. Allow yourself to be moved and influenced by the action of the scene and allow space to demonstrate the “point” of the story. Games needn’t be rip-roaring hilarious all the time!
In long-form, ensure that your scenes maintain forward momentum with action. Pausing to reflect is fine as long as it leads to new discoveries and actions which further progress the scene. If you find yourself standing still for too long (literally or metaphorically), simply act — do something — and trust that what you do will fit into the scene’s story so long as you allow for another moment of reflection later on.
Action gives your characters a reason to reflect, while reflection gives the action itself meaning. Good stories and scenes have both. The beautiful (and scary) thing about improvisation is you don’t have to know the significance of your actions when you perform them — they create questions which can be answered later, often providing satisfying and logical ways to end your scene at the same time.
What do you think? Do your scenes tend to tell stories, or do you often find yourself leaving stage wondering what in the world you were doing for the past three minutes?
Tomorrow we’ll come back with part 2 and discuss the process of finding and creating great stories.
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