Improvising is inventing and creating content spontaneously. It's a great way to generate new ideas and for creating and developing characters, using a variety of useful techniques.
In this exercise, each actor is given a slip of paper with a random line or two on it. They must use these lines somewhere in the improvised scene, in a context that makes sense. This forces the actors to steer content towards a situation where they can make their line work. Each actor has a different line to include, which makes for some strange conversations:
This is the moment I’ve been waiting for all of my life.
I think I can see a chicken.
Oh my God, we’re all going to die!
The lines can be as serious or as silly as you like.
Secret subtexts
The subtext is what is going on beneath the words. Adding a subtext gives the actor another level to play in a scene and generates content.
Each character’s subtext should be kept a secret from the others. Here are some examples of secret subtexts:
you’re on a top secret spy mission for the government and anxious to gather as much information as possible
you’re desperate to kill yourself
you’ve just escaped from prison
you’re terrified of anything made of glass
you’re in love with one of the other characters in the scene
If you pick a location for your improvisation and want to create comedy, it’s a good idea to choose subtexts which correspond with this. A hairdresser might have a phobia of scissors or a doctor might be terrified of catching any illness or disease.
Of course, if you want to create serious drama, you must make sure that you choose serious subtexts. In this clip of a scene from the BBC’s drama, True Love, a series which was completely improvised, the subtext suggests subtly that the characters are attracted to each other. On the surface, the conversation is about how the woman misses her daughter but the deeper meaning, which is the growing attraction between them, is also communicated to the audience.
