Auditions (13) - Improvisation

This lesson was split into three sections (apart from the physical warm up at the beginning): character profiles, improvising situations and improvising with a chair.

Character profiles: 
Name: Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme
Age: 27
Upbringing: Middle-class
Setting: Los Angeles, 1970s.
What's happened: Been arrested. Talking to councillor
Situation: High on drugs. Been kicked out by father. Feels alone unless with Charlie.

Improvising situations:
As our characters, we were given a scenario and had to improvise. Ollie and I were paired up. Ollie was Eddie from "Blood Brothers" - so was a seven year old from Liverpool. Our scenario was that we were the last ones at the baggage claim at an airport. However, our bag contained illegal drugs and it still hasn't turned up. Have we been caught? I think that we worked quite well together as we didn't block each other, and went with what the other person was saying. Our feedback was that we both clearly understood our characters and our dialogue was good - I was complimented for my line "you go talk to him, you're... smart" as I acted this specifically well. Although we didn't pause too much, I could have done more with his age - for example, tell him that we can't tell anybody about what's in the suitcase and make him promise he wouldn't.

Improvising with a chair:
For this, I was paired with James. He was playing a soldier from "Private Peaceful". James' intention in this scenario was to get me to leave instantly as there was a terrorist attack. My scenario was that I was waiting for my drug dealer, but if I left my chair I would never have drugs ever again. For this exercise, we were told that we clearly understood our characters and remained in role the whole time. However, I could have been more defensive or threatening as my character is dependent on drugs. Also, we possibly could have played on the fact that he is British and I was American.

Review:
I have never been a fan of improvising as I find it really difficult, but I actually really enjoyed it today. I enjoyed the challenge and am starting to get the hang of it. I found it really useful as it makes you forget about set dialogue, allowing you to think more about your character in terms of movement, voice and how they would act in different scenarios.