UCB Improv 501 Class Notes

Instructor: Zach Woods
Date Taken: June 2009

I was fortunate to make it into 501 after my first 401 and immediately went into another class with Zach. : It felt like an extension of my 401 class and was nice to have the consistency of an instructor that already had a sense of how I played—logically.

Find out more about UCB’s training program: here.

Note: This class is now known as Advanced Study Harold.: 

Class #1 – Harold Ownership

• Focus of the class is support and taking group ownership of the Harold.
• You have to work as a group to create a collective reality. What decision you collectively agree on isn’t : as important as that you agree on it.
• Even if you don’t know what’s going, don’t show to the audience that you are confused or not sure of the rules of the scene
• Develop the ability to always stay focused on the scene on stage, not what you’re going to do later
• The level of craziness dictates inversely the level of straight person that you need. If the game is only slightly crazy, you don’t need a straight man. If it is super crazy you want to ground the scene with a straight man.
• The most rewarding moves are those that happen in the present.
• Organic opening – try to come back to the suggestion 3 times like a pattern game.
• Avoid going scenic in your opening. Never reply directly to each other with dialogue.
• You have to react to every new thing before you can add a new thing.
• Take your time to establish a reality up top, otherwise the unusual thing won’t be recognizable.
• In any scene, it is either the world that is unusual, or a character
• You’ll : get to the funny by committing. You’ll : never find it if you by playing it arms length away.

Class #2 – Playing Patiently

• Support from your teammates comes in the form of endowing
• Take your time, play patiently and have authority of your scenes
• Establish new information with every line
• The first 3 lines are so important. not in the sense of being funny, but in being present and listening to your scene partner.
• In the first 30 seconds, make choices, have reactions, and stay present
• Your feeling going into a Harold should be closer to what you feel when you are having a regular conversation than the anxiety of “I need to be funny”
• You don’t have to think about the unusual thing. just react to what you hear and you’ll find it.
• One way to heighten is your involvement with the other, the importance of them to you
• You can also raise the stakes by using your environment
• Play recognizable characters, not caricatures
• Playing a scene with authority and being patient relaxes the audience.
• Organic: break the crescent earlier. if you get stuck, keep heightening physcially or you can follow the words
• Don’t describe attributes of your character, exhibit them
• Backline shouldn’t inject the unusual thing. they should provide support to what the people in the scene establish
• When you find a good game, take your time playing it. don’t want to end it too soon.
• Most games are reacting to the unusual thing (straight man) or matching it (crazy town)
• If your game is mapping, you need to show specifics from both worlds

Class #3 – Support

• don’t play the game in your head, play it with your fellow players.
• focus on what’s odd about the other people, not yourself
• ask yourself what is the defining deal of each character?
• points of view are important but without information they are hard to heighten
• give yourself fuel for the fire of the game by adding information to your scene
• don’t be shy about playing game
• you can have mini games in your scene. you can use them to keep the scene diverse and keep it from getting stagnant
• the dust should never completely settle on a game in a scene
• if you’re going to be hostile in a scene, you have to know why before you even show hostility
• even if you aren’t the weirdest person in the scene, it doesn’t mean you can’t have specific characteristics
• justification involves giving context to the behavior not just explaining it away
• justification is providing the why
• the best thing you can do when something crazy happens is actively justify it. its not enough to just not deny it. add information and context.
• As backline, give the support that you have, don’t wait to think about the support you wish you had

Class #4 -Support and POV

• you wanna have variety in your first beats (in terms of premise-based scenes and more patient ones)
• once you establish the rules of your game, make sure you follow them by making it active
• once your characters have their pov, make active choices to blow open the game
• the simplest way to be supportive is to commit fully to the scene
• you shouldn’t be cautious in your opening, be fully committed
• consoling scenes can be tough to heighten or sustain
• don’t forget that even if you have game, you have to introduce and heighten the stakes
• with organic openings, a to c still applies
• don’t just respond, REACT
• its ok to describe or articulate your pov, but then you have to play it—that’s like building a bomb but not lighting the fuse
• object work will give you a screen on which to project your game
• show more,talk less
• avoid “presenting” game ideas. play them
• make moves as they are needed, not as they occur to you
• answer in your head “why is this scene important?”
• don’t be crazy before you establish the reality of the world

Class Show #1 (with Chelsea Clarke):

• justifications have to come earlier
• avoid repeating the beats that happened in the first scene
• second beats should be shorter than the first
• don’t be afraid to go off on mini games

Class #5 – Listening & Game

• you can have a macro game that lasts the entire harold (such as doing a harold as only us presidents). you still do different game beats but have the macro theme
• establish the why and your game moves will hit even stronger
• you don’t want the game moves to feel like a laundry list. exist in your world and explore the beats
• yes and in the same direction to find a game
• play environment work / backline support so it doesn’t distract from the scene but enhances it
• your characters have to affect each other
• you can say no as long as you allow yes to happen
• if someone makes a specific or bold choice, don’t just ignore it but make use of it

Class #6 – The Movie

• The Movie Form:
• opening:: 
• scene paint 3 scenes that introduce genre, hero, and villain.
• these 3 will be the first 3 scenes of your movie
• when a character is named someone should step out to be that character and get painted
• characters shouldn’t be repeated for the opening
• should be fast paced painting
• should have at least 2 people per scene
• be very specific and try to make it clear your genre as soon as possible
• scenes:
• in your scene, you don’t worry about plot. try to have really strong behaviorial patterns or characters and game.
• after the first 3 scenes, each subsequent scene is setup by the backline while editing
• the plot just provides a platform for game
• you can continue your characters games from scene to scene but remember to also heighten them

Class #7 – Group Support

• you can ride out an emotion in a scene longer than a clever premise
• commit harder to the individual beats of your organic opening
• organic opening movements should be specific
• you’ll make things simpler and more fun if you define your world earlier
• make it active! especially for second beats
• beware of the ground in openings, its hard to get up from them
• if you’re premise is abstract, you have to immediately ground the rest of the world
• your second beats have to trim the fat of the first beats
• you have to be a lot better at editing scenes
• you can’t give into lethargy even if your show doesn’t start well
• don’t be a passive participant in a harold. if something is moving slow, take the initiative to energize it
• the best improviser is the one who recognizes what the harold needs and provides it
• organic opening – always be looking at your fellow players
• we need the why

Class 8 – Harold, Harold Harold

• remember to connect back to the beginning when in an organic opening
• if you’re in a scene and you feel like its not going anywhere, go back to your who what where
• the unusual thing isn’t your game. your reaction to it can be
• knowing what motivates your character will help give you additional moves
• avoid ironic detachment by committing to your scene
• play with the toys you’ve created
• you can be ballsy in a harold. a gibberish scene could be very funny if you commit
• support moves should be simple and in the same direction as the scene is going
• make sure your moves are responses to someone elses moves, not force fitting your own idea into the scene
• be more generous with your support but less ambitious
• be supportive of any spoken moves in organic openings
• don’t waste time with deception
• when in doubt in the organic opening, literally mirror each other
• a premise isn’t good enough, but you can use that to figure out what the deal is between the two characters
• if you start a premise, yes and your way to behavior or game
• to think of what to pull from openings, think of moments that emotionally affected people

Class Show #2

• organic—let one moment build to the next. commit yourself into new beats instead of starting and stopping them
• you can take your time early to establish what’s going on
• its hard work if you start your scene being unhappy
• drew: REACT!
• if you haven’t established your justification for your game in the first beat, solidify it or create it in the second one
• avoid starting out with hostility
• providing justification will help you heighten
• for third beats, don’t feel like you need to initiate with a connection; just heighten your game and you may find connections