Specificity

Specificity is one of the most effective tools in improvisation and eas­iest to do. Specificity is bringing detail to your scenes. If you watch enough improvisation, you begin to notice that many of the reac­tions from your audience are a consequence of an improviser being specific about something.

Not being specific is another result of fear. When we're in a state of self-judgment, we tend to be vague. I've seen many a scene start with something like, "Thanks, now just put that over there," or "They will be there soon." It's a lot safer, subconsciously, to not take the chance in naming something in detail. A scared improviser will keep it vague so as not to impose too much, or risk that a specific refer­ence will not get a laugh. That improviser will be nondescript and feel as if they can catch up later with detail.

A mark of experienced improvisers is the amount of specifics that they weave into the scene. "Thanks, now just put that red vase over there next to the porcupine statue," or "The legislators will be at Sonny's Deli soon." Specifics color the scene for the audience, pro­vide more valuable information to your scene partner, expedite the scene greatly so you don't have to go fishing for the substance, and garner quicker and more substantial laughter or other positive reac­tion from your audience.

A lot of people confuse these thoughts about being specific with my earlier rants against thinking about exposition and justification. They feel that on one hand, I'm telling improvisers not to use a lot of words at the top of the scene or you will cripple the scene with too much exposition, but on the other hand I'm saying add as much detail to the dialogue as possible. This is confusing; let's take a stab at clearing it up.

The exposition I speak of is usually there because either an improviser has been told to find the who, what, where at the top of the scene, or as a result of not knowing what is happening in the begin­ning/middle of the scene. Out of fear an improviser may blurt out a string of words to explain what and why something is happening. My advice regarding specificity assumes that the improvisers are at the point where they will make a strong dialogue choice at the top out of emotion or character, and then, starting in the middle, fill that dialogue with character-embodied detail.

The top of the scene exposition dialogue sounds like, "Tom, being my brother it's important that you and I clean this garage before Dad gets home or we won't be able to go to the party." It's often without strong character or emotional investment and played nearer to the cadence of the improviser. The exposition within the scene as a result of fear is something like, "Every time we go any­where together you start acting crazy like this. Why don't you stop acting crazy and let's get this raking done."

Specificity in improvisation is different. It's like this:

The lights come up and an improviser, slightly hunched, walking downstage with a limp, says in a raspy voice, "Yeah, that was 1957, the last time I saw Ellen in that old red barn." This isn't an improviser confining and describing the circumstance of the scene, nor is it someone who is assessing another improviser's behavior or his own. No, this is an improviser who has made a strong character choice, is starting in the middle of the scene, and then applying specificity to his character's voice and words. The physical also becomes part of the detail, in the hunch and the limp.

Going to the environment and discovering objects that the char­acter would use is also a means of bringing in more color and detail. How does the character put on glasses? How heavy is a cane? How big is a book and how quickly or slowly does a character open it? Specificity will bring more layers to your scene with more fully dimensional characters, and if it's important to you, more laughs.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-08