Improvisation

A few tips on improvisation. Improvisation comes from the improvise, and is a valuable tool in any actors armor. It comes from the Latin, as most good words do. Vise, meaning see, Prov meaning prove you can do it and imp meaning a small dwarf like creature mainly listed in medieval mythology. It is important you understand, if you are to make any headway in theatre to understand words, their derivation and meanings. For instance, there's a word in theatre called 'workshop'. Most people think this word means a small space, maybe in a garage or basement, where one or other member of a relationship can hover around, piddling about with some frankly stupid idea which never comes to fruition while the responsible one, the one who spends his evenings not cuddled up on the settee, but in the very real battlefield of contemporary theatre. Ducking the shrapnel of reviewers, the bazookas of inattentive audience members and the enormous sherman tank of the interval where suspense builds to see if anyone actually comes back, and more importantly, did those who didn't return claim a refund. And that person does this because he loves his partner and loves his home and his partner is to lazy to get up and do something themselves, being so 'busy' making a motorised gnome or something in the basement.

IMPROVISATION AS A LIFE SKILL
It's not even like the house is kept tidy. The working one comes home and the house looks like someone has had a heavy metal convention. Bed unmade, half empty takeaway cartons, disguarded clothes. It simply isn't good enough. The working one gets very frustrated with this course of events and probably at some point the feckless basement dweller will be looking for other accomodation if they are not careful.

USING IMPROVISATION AS A CHARACER DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL EXERCISE IN PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
I mean it't the principle of the thing. If someone says they will clean the mayonaise off the bedsheet I more or less expect the bedsheet to be mayonaise free by the time I come in. I do not expect to get into bed and find I am impersonating a Caesar salad. Then there's all the expenses that go hand in hand with relationships, things everyone has to spend out on, apparently, to make life a little more scrummy. The three foot plasma screen, the games consoles, the workout area. All these things came from my hard work playing butlers, suspicious relatives or angry tennis coaches. Not one penny was contributed to these things by 'the other party', and now I come to think of it I pay for all the food as well. The emporer has no clothes! Seeing it written down like this has really brought it home to me that this is simply a relationship on a par with the Slave movement on the 1800s. Only instead of an evil mill owner owning, whipping and sexually molesting me I am in a theatre where the only sexual molestation I have had in years was when Francis De La Tour got the wrong dressing room while I was putting on my penguin suit. No more the Fool! Out damn spot!

IMPROVING YOUR IMPROVISATION SKILLS - VITAL CAREER ASSET ADVICE
I just had a word. Promises made, hugs exchanged, points made. sometimes you can build these things up in your head to a ridiculous proportion. Fortunately being a level headed sort, I reasoned it out, although I will have to call the window repair people. So all is good, and the Chi of the McPhereson household is restored.

Where was I? Improvisation, ah, yes. Just make some shit up.