Laid-backed tell stories with meaning

Length: 3 hours
Punctuality: Due to the nature of the topic, every participant must do exercises to be in the moment, I recommend to close the door after 20 minutes.

We all want to fill our stories and scenes with meaning. But do you we understand that our acting and directing skills as improvisers aren't enough for this lovely task? The key is to be a dramaturge and furnish those stories with a structure, characters with deep experiences and conflicts. We will focus on that dramaturge in us and how he/she enriches our storytelling.

At the end you will aknowledge that as improviser you not only have to have acting and directing skills, but also narrrative ones. You will build with confidence simple stores with complex characters and wnjoy the creation of those characters as much as setting the plot.

The key skills to learn are:

• Three roles of an improviser
• Importance of the dramaturge
• Basic structure of a story
• Building characters with experiences
• Developing the plot, finding a triggering event and resolutions

• Ask the students to explain their expectations before starting the workshop. This helps you understand what they are looking for
• Ask for feedback after each games to see if the students grasp the goals of them
• A short break of 5 minutes after 90 minutes gives smokers the opportunity to go outside and reloads the energy of the group

• Circle Up
• Hi-Ha-Ho
• Bunny:

This goal of this game is that students get into the mood of thinking more about others than themselves.

• Cross_Circle with Names, then eye contact
• 3 Different Sequences with a cities, fruits and cloths (movements, drinks, food, animals)
• I am a tree
• I, you, we

• Tell a simple story (game): 3 players tell a story. The first on gives an introduction describing a nomal day and a character. The second one introduces a problem or conflict. And the last player resolves the conflict and the plot goes back to normality
  • On the second round the players focus on making the characters more complex keeping the plot simple

A story has:

• An introduction where characters and relationships are described
• A triggering event which changes the normality
• A description of how our characters are affected by the triggering even
• One or many resolutions of the conflict(s)

When we are on stage, we represent characters and interact with other players inside the scene (actor role) and we all determine when to start or stop scenes and when to leave or enter the stage (director role). To feel our stories with meaning we need to lay out a basic structure for the story, with its characters, normality, triggering events and work on the conflicts between the roles (dramaturge role). This last role is often ignore leading to difficulties to tell stories. When we tell a story we liked we don't know what we did right because I are unaware of the importance of dramaturgie¹⁾.

We usually rush to the triggering event and to the end of the story. Only if we stay in the story we can fill it with meaning!

• Tell a story describing CROW²⁾) (game). Many players tell a story one sentence at a time with two characters. They can't use actions.
  • This will be the ingredients of our plot
  • Play the two characters of our story. Introduce everyday scenes, no conflicts, no triggering event

There are three types of conflicts:

• Exterior: A natural force, an event coming from the enviroment affects the characters of the story
• Relationship related: Between characters of the story
• Internal: Between the characters and themselves

These conflicts open the plot possibilities. After the triggering event, we have to expose the conflicts present in the story.

• Unfortunately / Fortunately
  • Expose the conflicts present on the introduction from the last game
  • “Fortunately” will show “help”, while “unfortunately” will introduce obstacules
  • Don't overload the story with conflicts
• Play conflict scenes: 2-3 players scenes showing the conflicts of the last game. New characters may be introduced

Remember to close every conflict if it is possible. Don't expect to have an answer for every problem: Some things won't be fixed.

Go back to normality: The last scene must show the normality of the introduction.

• Play resolution scenes: 2-3 players scenes resolving the conflicts of the last game. The last scene goes back to normality.

Take some minutes as a group to think if there was a methaphoric meaning behind the plot. Once you understood the mechanics. You can repeat all games with new characters and conflicts.

• Stagecoach
• 2-3 players with a talking stick: During the scene one player, holding a pen, can talk or mandate silence for everyone. When doing it online, all players have a pen nearby and the one holding it in front of the camera can talking or just wait (this generates silence)
  • There is not need to be polite: The time holding the pen can be divided unequally between the players
• Voices from heaven
• Late for work
• Countdown - Replay
• Ding/New offer/New choice: Two players are playing a scene with a place and a relationship. Then the moderators makes an applause the last sentence has to be changed: “I don't like this place” for “This place is wonderful”. It may be the opposite or something completely different
• Fast forward
• Vor oder danach
• Hesitation
• Last line

The group enjoyed these games