Contemporary Improvised Theatre and the Audience Jonas Mclean
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Can I Get a Volunteer: Contemporary Improvised Theatre and the Audience Jonas McLean Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree in Theatre Theory & Dramaturgy © Jonas McLean, Ottawa, Canada, 2019 ii Abstract In this thesis I present a new dramaturgical model for understand improvised theatre. Improvised theatre is a field full of experimentation, and the art form has recently been evolving faster than the theories used to understand it. Rather than relying on colloqiual terms such as “short form” and “long form”, I propose a new terminilogy based on Chris Johnston’s notion of “Restrictions”. I explain the use of the Restrictions: Location, Role, Narrative, Game, and Materials, and how to meassure the “Scope” of Restrictions by the Number of affected performers and Duration. I explain how Restrictions affect four elements of improvised performance: Space, Time, Speech, and Physicality. By creating a rubric to illustrate the interaction between Restrictions and these elements, I move towards a new foundation for understanding improvised theatre. In addition, I propose four metrics to meassure audience participation: Number of participants, Method of participation, Agency of the participat, and Duration of the participation. Using my Restriction rubric and audience participation metrics, I analyse four case studies. Each case study is a recent piece of improvised theatre. I attended each piece multiple times and interviewed the artists behind eacch production with a questionnaire. These are Blind Date and Undercover by Spontaneous Theatre, Quest Friends Forever, and GRIMprov’s Guided Roleplay. Each production features audience participation, the effects of which I explain using Erika Fischer-Lichte’s notion of the autopoietic feedback loop.By analysing these contemporary productions I demostrate the efficacy of my new rubrics and terminilogy. iii Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge all my professors at Brock University and the Univeristy of Ottawa for helping me every step of the way. I would like to thank my supervisor Daniel Mroz, for letting my ambitions stay high but keeping my focus down to earth. I want to acknowledge the amazinng work of my fellow students, in particualr Ryan Borochovitz for always being willing to swap ideas, books, and office chairs. I want to thak my mother, Lis Smidt, for keeping me motivated and for the time spent finding every misplaced comma. Finally, to all the artists behind these shows, thank you. Were it not for your work, I would never have started this project, let alone finished it. iv Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iii Statement of Ethics Approval ....................................................................................................... vii List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. viii INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1 –TOWARDS A NEW DRAMATURGY OF IMPROVISATION .......................... 6 1.1 Can I get a Definition? – Important Terminology ................................................................ 6 1.2 What the Audience Wants –Theatre Explicitly Open to Amendment .................................. 8 1.3 An Overview of Sources ..................................................................................................... 11 1.4 Keith Johnstone’s Impro ..................................................................................................... 13 1.5 Jeanne Leep’s Theatrical Improvisation ............................................................................. 16 1.6 Chris Johnston’s The Improvisation Game ......................................................................... 23 1.7 Building a Rubric for Restrictions ...................................................................................... 24 1.8 The Audience and the Autopoietic-Feedback-Loop ........................................................... 29 CHAPTER 2: BLIND DATE ....................................................................................................... 38 2.1 From Stood Up to Stand Out, the Origin of Blind Date ..................................................... 38 2.2 What Do You Call This? –Planning Versus Scripting........................................................ 40 2.3 All’s Fair in Love and Improv – The Structure of Blind Date ............................................ 41 2.4 The Autopoietic-Love-Triangle – Blind Date and the Audience ........................................ 47 v 2.5 And They Lived Happily Ever After – Concluding Thoughts ........................................... 52 CHAPTER 3: UNDERCOVER .................................................................................................... 53 3.1 Making a Murder: First Impressions of Undercover .......................................................... 53 3.2 Solving the Mystery: The Structure of Undercover ........................................................... 54 3.3 Under the Covers: What Makes Undercover Work ............................................................ 63 3.4 Turn in Your Clown Nose and Gun – Concluding Thoughts ............................................. 65 CHAPTER 4 – QUEST FRIENDS FOREVER............................................................................ 67 4.1 Every Hero Has an Origin Story: The Background of Quest Friends Forever .................. 67 4.2 Epic Quests 101: The Structure of Quest Friends Forever ................................................ 70 4.3 Pawns or Players: Quest Friends Forever and the Audience ............................................. 78 4.4 Levelling Up, Looking Forward – Concluding Thoughts .................................................. 83 CHAPTER 5: GRIMPROV’S GUIDED ROLEPLAY ................................................................ 84 5.1 You Find Yourself in an Improv Scene, What Do You Do? .............................................. 84 5.2 Checkpoint Reached – The Structures of Guided Roleplay ................................................ 90 5.3 Be the Audience-Performer of Your Own Story ................................................................ 94 5.4 All the Room’s a Stage and All the Audience Potential Performers .................................. 97 5.5 One of Many Possible Endings – Concluding Thoughts .................................................. 101 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 102 APPENDIX: ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONNAIRE ........................................................... 106 REBECCA NORTHAN.......................................................................................................... 107 vi CHRIS HANNAY .................................................................................................................. 114 MIKE KOSOWAN ................................................................................................................. 117 JORDAN MOFFAT................................................................................................................ 120 Works Cited ................................................................................................................................ 124 Print Sources ........................................................................................................................... 124 Web Articles, Reviews, etc. with Known Authors ................................................................. 126 Other Web Sources ................................................................................................................. 127 vii Statement of Ethics Approval viii List of Figures Figure 1.1: Long Form Rubric from Theatrical Improvisation …………………...…………….21 Figure 1.2: Restrictions and Elements …………………………………………………………..25 Figure 1.3: Restriction Rubric for Bassprov .……………………………………………………25 Figure 1.4: Restrictions Rubric with Scope and Audience Awareness …………………………26 Figure 1.5: Restriction Rubric Final Version ……………………………………………………27 Figure 1.6: Rubric Showing Audience Participation Metrics …………………………………...35 Figure 2.1: Restriction Rubric for Blind Date June 2017 ……………………………………….42 Figure 2.2: Restriction rubric for Blind Date December 16 2017 ………………………………44 Figure 2.3: Audience Participation Metrics for Blind Date ……………………………………..47 Figure 2.4: Autopoietic Feedback Loop with Audience-Performer ……………………………47 Figure 2.5: Stunt Double Moment in Blind Date ……………………………………………….49 Figure 3.1: Restriction Rubric for Undercover September 2017 ………………………………..54 Figure 3.2: Audience Involvement in Undercover ……………………………………………...63 Figure 4.1: Restrictions for Quest Friends Forever Post-Fringe ………………………………..70 Figure 4.2: Restrictions for a Typical Playing of World's Worst ……………………………….75 Figure 4.3: Audience Participation in Quest Friends Forever Character Creation……………...77 ix Figure 4.4: Audience Participation when Rolling the Dice ……………………………………..81 Figure 5.1 Restriction Rubric