Improvisation for Noobs

The laughter, the people cheering for the teams playing, the intense energy that players release, the joy of sharing a special moment with your team, that’s what improvisation feels like for me. Improvisation consists of acting spontaneously without any preparation and it is opposing two teams. Afterwards, the public votes for the improvisation they preferred.

In fifth grade I was first introduced to improvisation and I immediately fell in love with it, I couldn’t stop myself from practicing it. I was part of the Grippe, which is the league for younger people and now I am part of the LIS, the one for adults. Not only do I do it with the city, but I am also a part of the improv team at the cegep. You can say I am hooked and that’s because of one class I attended in fifth grade. Let me explain. It was at the beginning of the year, my peers and I were excited about this new class that was included in our program which was drama, and I was already filled with joy. I expected the teacher to give us scripts and that we would put in place a play and present it at the end of the year. Surprised, was my reaction, when she told us that this year, it was all about spontaneity and improvisation. As the year advanced, I became fond of this activity and looked for new ways to practice it. I was already attending the LIS matches dreaming to be one of them one day. Well, my younger self would be proud of me.

There are two types of improvisation which are either friendly or competitive. In fact, in the friendly one, at the end of the match, the points accumulated are not really taken into consideration which is different for the competitive one. As a matter of fact, when we are not in a competition, it is just to have the pleasure to play with your peers without any pressure and the only goal is to have fun. Meanwhile, the competitive one has a ranking and the winning team usually wins a reward. In an improv match, the referee will start by stating the theme, the category and the length of the play you will present. In a regular match we meet various types of different categories like: dramatic, in the way of a movie, a singing one, a rhymed one and many others. For instance, if the category imposed is the singing one, the player has to show off their singing talents because all their lines must have a certain melody to it. After, the players have thirty seconds to shoot some ideas and as soon as the sound of a whistle comes to our ears, we’ve got to improvise respecting the restrictions stated by the referee. Finally the public votes for its favourite team.

To improve ourselves and get better at this activity the teams usually all meet together and do a weekly practice. The usual format is to start with a quick physical warm up and then we do the activities the coach has planned. For example, last week, we started by a game that challenged our hearing capacity, because that’s one of the most important aspects during a match. Afterwards, we had to walk around, invent a character and present it to everybody. The purpose of that activity is to be able to stay in the mindset of the person you are demonstrating without changing their personality or the posture they adopt. This exercise is really effective because during a game it is common to start with a character and after a few minutes to switch to your own manners and not really continue acting anymore. We usually finish the practice with our thinking of the practice and how it would help us in the future. Even if it seems childish, at the end of the year, every player can notice some major improvements in their playing style.

To conclude, improvisation improves your social skills. In fact, at the beginning of the year, you don’t know many people who are part of your team, but as you spend time together, your circle of friends grows larger and now you have more people to talk to if you are going through some issues. Also, when I first started, my self-esteem was very low and I was always nervous when it came to oral presentations at school. Only, with this activity, it forces you to act in front of a large amount of people. That is a good exercise since oral presentations are often in front of a small crowd. Since improvisation is all about spontaneity, I am not anxious anymore if I forget something during a presentation, because I can improvise and say my main idea in other words without panicking. On a final note, when you hear people laughing at your jokes or when people in the audience come to congratulate you, you really feel good about yourself and this helps your confidence to grow. With all these benefits in mind, why don’t you try this activity some time?

Sarra