An afternoon at the improv
July 11th, 2005 | by Tim Wilson |This caught me by surprise… We spent the first big block of time here at the ADE Summer Institute with “The Improv Lady” Rebecca Stockley learning some improvisation games and techniques. Among other clients, Rebecca works with Pixar animators to help them develop their stories and characters. She’s been a fixture at the ADE events for a couple years now helping the participants learn about the importance of listening carefully, going with the flow, and thinking creatively. In retrospect, it’s right up Apple’s alley.
There was one direct curriculum example in there. (Carlyn, this one’s for you.) Rebecca presented “The Story Spine,” an improv game in which each participant takes turns completing a sentence of the “spine” and creates the basis for a complete story in the process. If you teach the writing process then try having your students pair up and complete these sentences:
- Once upon a time…
- Every day…
- But one day…
- Because of that…
- Because of that…
- Because of that…
- Until finally…
- Ever since that day…
You don’t have to look too hard to see that these questions outline the development, conflict, and resolution of a story. It would be fun to have students work on these questions in improv style, out loud and anything goes. For more serious work teachers could create Inspiration templates that the students would complete as they work out a more complete narrative.
Tags: ade2005
2 Responses to “An afternoon at the improv”
By Carlyn Wilson on Jul 12, 2005 | Reply
Interesting. I have seen this idea before, but haven’t tried it yet. I like having a husband who has his antenna for up good ideas. Love you!