Reddit reviews Improvise: Scene from the Inside Out
We found 7 Reddit comments about Improvise: Scene from the Inside Out. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
We found 7 Reddit comments about Improvise: Scene from the Inside Out. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Aerodynamics of Yes by Christian Capozzoli
Improvise (Scenes from the inside out) by Mick Napier
Directing Improv by Asaf Ronen
Interestingly, this one blog post “How to Be a Better Improviser” is actually a brilliant distillation of the most important concepts.
It goes without saying that without practice reading alone will have limited utility.
Improvise Scene from the Inside Out by Mick Napier
Behind the Scenes: Improvising Longform by Mick Napier
Improvising Now Rob Norman’s Book, coupled with the podcast the backline is a great resource. I have taken workshops from Rob and Adam and they know their stuff. They are masters of the craft.
How to be the greatest improviser on earth by Will Hines, coupled with his blog “improv nonsense” is also great. Will Hines is one of the most clear articulate thinkers in the improv world. He has the ability to distill the most complex ideas into simple bite sized packets.
Improvise by Mick Napier is a classic. Great for an intermediate player because his ideas and concepts come up all the time.
Podcasts worth checking out: Beat by beat, the backline, improv nerd, and the ask the UCB episodes of I4H.
I’ve read a lot of improv books, but those are the ones I love. Their usefulness never ceases.
*edit*
Links:
First book: https://www.amazon.com/Improvise-Scene-Inside-Mick-Napier/dp/156608198X ISBN: 156608198X
Second book: https://www.amazon.ca/Behind-Scenes-Improvising-Long-Form/dp/1566081998 ISBN: 1566081998
Improv is a skill that can be studied, learned, and practiced, and I absolutely 100% promise you that whoever it is you idolize on CritRole has, in fact, studied and learned it, and practices regularly.
The best way is to take a class in it. Anywhere with a theater program should offer improv classes.
If you can't do that, books are a good fallback (and companion to classes), whether that's industry heavyweights or books targeted specifically at gamers. Of course, there's also the usual selection of websites, youtube videos and reddit that you can tap as resources too; google around a bit.
In the meantime, the thing that might help you the fastest is to stop focusing on scripting what the character can say, and instead put your attention to how the character thinks and what they feel. If you know how they're likely to react to situations, you'll find you can use that as a guide to steer your dialogue. There are innumerable methods for developing that; again, look around a bit and try a few out.
Lately I've been liking Fate Aspects as a rough guide for characters, even if I'm not playing Fate. It's a simple structure without a lot of rules to creating them, light and flexible, while still retaining enough meat to give me a general direction to guide my interactions during gameplay.
Take the following character as an example:
K.G.
So, with just those five lines, I've got a fairly good snapshot of the character--enough to guide me in most circumstances. She's whip-smart and snappy, good at handling people, well-connected and worldly, a bit of a troublemaker, willing to chatter "aimlessly" to gather info but avoids personal topics. That's not a bad slice of character to start building from.
You'll make your lives a lot easier if you get a coach ASAP (even if it's just a temporary guest coach).
Player's attempting to direct each other (even for very experienced troupes) can lead to all sorts of drama down the line. I've been a part of teams where each week (or month) we rotated who was leading rehearsals. Some worked out great (the two where we all had at least a decade of performing/teaching experience and went into it with that plan) and others quickly became a dumpster fire.
My best advice while you're waiting for a coach is probably to pick up a book on improv theory or a book on on acting:
Mick Napier's - Improvise: Scene from the inside out, Bill Arnett's - The Complete Improviser, Viola Spolin's - Improvisation for the Theater, or something like Marina Caldarone's - Action: The Actor's Thesaurus are good places to start.
Then read it together outside of rehearsal and discuss the ideas in various chapters when you meet up - maybe try out a few exercises, but be wary of trying to direct each other: that's not your job, your job is to support each other on stage.
Heck, just reading a few acting books and really discussing them will put you guys leaps and bounds ahead of most improvisers.