Improvoker

From Del Close’s Notes

GENERAL PRINCIPLES

1. You are all supporting actors
2. Always check your impulses
3. Never enter a scene unless you are needed
4. Save your fellow actor, don’t worry about the piece
5. Your prime responsibility is to support
6. Work at the top of your brains at all times
7. Never underestimate or condescend to your audience
8. No jokes (unless it is tipped in front that it is a joke.)
9. Trust…trust your fellow actors to support you; trust them to come through if you lay something heavy on them; trust yourself
10. Avoid judging what is going down in terms of whether it needs help (either by entering or cutting), what can best follow, or how you can support it imaginatively if your support is called for
11. LISTEN

• IF THE WHOLE IS TO BE ART, THE PARTS MUST NOT TRY TO BE
• HAROLD IS LIKE A DOCUMENTARY FILM- PART AUTOBIOGRAPHY, PART BIOGRAPHY, PART SIMPLE FACT
• THE TOTAL MAY RESEMBLE A “PLAY” (a dramatic work of fiction) BUT IT ISN’T FICTION ANY MORE THAN A THEORETICAL SCIENCE PAPER IS FICTION
• NOTICE HOW “YOU” ARE A PART OF A HAROLD. HOW YOU FIT. THEN SIMPLY ENTER-JOIN
• HAROLD IS GREATER THAN ALL OF YOUR ABILITIES-OR YOUR INTELLIGENCE
• HAROLD NEEDS ALL OF YOU-YOUR BEHAVIOR, NOT YOUR DESCRIPTION OF YOUR BEHAVIOR