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 VAPAPO:Voice/ Attitude/ Posture/ Animal/ Prop/ Obsession by Jill Bernard I've created a little character toolkit called VAPAPO! It's a mongrel of Marx Brothers, Commedia Del'Arte and Eric Morris. It's: VOICE/ ATTITUDE/ POSTURE/ ANIMAL/ PROP/ OBSESSION! But let's start at the beginning, just VAP -- pick one at the start of the scene, a voice, attitude or posture. Then you hang onto it and voila! You have a solid character. What's nice is if you lose it in the middle of the scene, you can just restore that voice, attitude or posture and you're back on track. What's also nice is that no one can ever steam-roll you. If I start a scene with a VAP choice and you say "Hi Mom," you haven't derailed anything for me, I can be an angry mom, or a car-fixing mom or a slow-talking mom, no problem, and so much more interesting than the normal bland mom choice. You'll find also that when you pick one, you get the others for free. Bonus! Let me explain a little more what I mean about each one. VOICE - Not just the accent (accents are so easy to lose they're not really helpful), it's also the pace, pitch, volume, inflection with which you speak. Copy people's voices on the radio or TV. Try having a lisp or a southern accent, or speaking in a really low or high voice - not by forcing it, just by opening the back of your throat. ATTITUDE - This really means emotion. If you come into a scene with a strong emotion then nothing can shake you. And really play it. If you're SAD, cry, be miserable, struggle your way through the scene. It doesn't matter *at all* why you're sad. We'll figure that out later if it's important, or not. The big four are sad, glad, mad, scared - explore those and the variations on them. POSTURE/PHYSICALITY - Not just the way you stand, although that's important and might be a key for you, but also finding a physical activity. Try coming into a scene by doing an activity. You're frying an egg or grooming a dog or anything. Then attach an emotion to that, *how do you feel* about frying that egg? Joe Bill from the Annoyance Theater says "How you do what you do is who you are." And he's right. ANIMAL - Someday we'll get into neat Grotowski stuff with tigers and whatnot, but for now what I'm talking about is, pick an animal, and be someone with the traits of that animal. A bird-like woman, a weasely guy, a bear of a man, that sort of thing. PROP - Think of Groucho and his cigar, any Frenchman and his tiny cigarette, any Bond villain and his fill-in-the-blank. For improv purposes, naturally, mime these things. And don't drop them! OBSESSION - This is related to WANT as well - if you want something, if you're fixated on something, you never have a dull moment in the scene. It's not a guessing game, we don't have to ever know that you think the chairs love you or that you want to take over Egypt - it just puts an interesting look on your face and a purpose to your action. Oh that's fun stuff, huh? All this and more is available in my book (well, really a pamphlet) entitled "Jill Bernard's Small Cute Book of Improv." No, seriously. Just send $1 plus estimated postage (hint: it weighs as much as one sheet of paper) to Jill Bernard, PO Box 2376, Minneapolis, MN 55402 USA. |
phone: 626.200.6993 - email: contact@paulbellos.com |
