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Improv Intermediate Course Lesson 7

This document provides instructions for warm-up games and exercises from a drama lesson focused on slowing things down. The warm-up games include "George" where players pass names in a circle clapping rhythm and "Diamond Dance" where players form a diamond and follow a leader's dance moves. Exercises to artificially slow things down include repeating the last line of dialogue, two-player scenes where each line starts with repeating the previous, and three-player scenes with five seconds between each line. Additional games include substituting players' arms during a scene and having scenes played in different emotional zones on stage.

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StevenMorgan
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21 views2 pages

Improv Intermediate Course Lesson 7

This document provides instructions for warm-up games and exercises from a drama lesson focused on slowing things down. The warm-up games include "George" where players pass names in a circle clapping rhythm and "Diamond Dance" where players form a diamond and follow a leader's dance moves. Exercises to artificially slow things down include repeating the last line of dialogue, two-player scenes where each line starts with repeating the previous, and three-player scenes with five seconds between each line. Additional games include substituting players' arms during a scene and having scenes played in different emotional zones on stage.

Uploaded by

StevenMorgan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lesson 7 - Slow it Down

Introduction and safety check


Get the group to tell you what they covered in Burgert’s lessons

Warm-up

Zoom / Boing / Pow

George
Players stand in a circle. One person is "George". Everyone else will go by their own name.
Their arms are bent at the elbow, and their hands are in front of them, so that their left hand
is facing up and their right hand is facing down. Each person's left hand should be under
their neighbor's right right hand. Then they begin a 3 beat clapping rhythm:

DOWN BEAT: The first beat, they clap their neighbors hands: up with their left hand and
down with their right hand.
OUT BEAT: The second beat, they bring their hands up closer to eye level and clap out to
the sides, again striking their neighbor's hands.
THIRD BEAT: For the third beat, people just clap their own hands in front of them.
Go slow at first, it takes a while for people to get this rhythm. Remember, it's three beats, not
four.

After everyone is on the beat, George will begin by saying his or her name on the DOWN
beat and then saying someone else's name on the OUT BEAT. On the very next down beat,
that person will say their first name and then someone else's first name on the next out beat.
This continues until someone messes up.

If someone makes a mistake, they must go to George's right. Everyone in the circle who
must move to fill in the vacant spot. Everyone then takes the name of the spot they are
replacing.

George begins the clapping rhythm again and starts the name pattern.

Diamond Dance
All people make a diamond formation and dance. At any given time, all people are facing in
one of 4 directions. And in each direction, one player is in front. The player in front leads the
dance and the others follow – copying the leader exactly. When they turn, the new leader
(person at the front) takes over. Players change positions to allow other people to take the
front position after they have led themselves.
Lesson
When there are so many things happening at once, it can be easy to get overwhelmed. In
this lesson, we’re going to find ways to artificially slow things down to give us a chance to
focus on the things that we’re doing.

Exercises

Repeat the last line


Two-player scene with offer. Every line that a player says needs to start with an adapted
repetition of the previous line, e.g.

“Father, you’re here early, we haven’t finished preparing dinner yet!”


“You haven’t finished preparing dinner yet? I’m so sorry, is there anything I can do to help?”
“Is there anything you can do to help? Well, now you mention it, you could see if you can find
the cake knife in the haunted pantry.”
“Find the cake knife in the haunted pantry? Not a problem at all, I’ll get right on it!”
etc. etc.

Started with three line scenes, then did five line scenes in pairs.

Five-second gap
Three player scene. There has to be five seconds between each line of dialogue for a player.

Games

New Choice
Players perform a scene based on an audience suggestion. At any point during the scene,
the Host may blow a whistle and call for a “New Choice,” at which point the previous line of
dialogue and/or action is replaced with a new line of dialogue and/or action.

Arms
One or more players in the scene have their arms substituted by another player’s arms. This
exercise works best when the players try to make their actions easy and obvious

Emotional Zones
In this scene the stage will be divided into three different emotional zones. The performers
must adopt the emotion of the zone that they are in.

Finishing
The Cauldron

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