In preparation of a practice group I was leading this weekend, focusing on character work, I wanted to be able to define the differences in creating characters. Although I hadn’t thought about it before, improv characters can come in many different flavors. I realized that knowing what character type you typically play, can make a huge difference in your work.
Here are 5 general classifications of characters as interpreted from The Second City Almanac of Improvisation and my own experience. There are many more shades of grey, but this is a good place to start.
Read on…
Thanks for all the e-mails recently asking where I’ve been on the site. It’s been a busy few weeks at UCB as I ready for my 201 class show. I’ve also been scheduling up improv classes and sketch writing classes at UCB and Magnet respectively. Combine that with a pretty aggressive practice group schedule and busy month at work… you get my point. Luckily today is my class show and I hope to get more time to relate my thoughts about UCB 201.
I won’t get into the specifics right now, but we had a teacher change more than half way through the class to Neil Casey, who blew our minds. It not only changed my perception of scene-work, but also changed my perception of game playing.
I’ve also signed up for my first sketch writing class, with the illustrious Chicago improvisor Armando Diaz, at Magnet Theater which starts Wednesday. I’ve never taken any sketch before, but after acting in a sketch, at UCB’s Liquid Courage for a friend, I was inspired to start writing. I, of course, hit a few road blocks and decided that perhaps some tutelage would be useful.
All right, I’ll be back in the saddle shortly. Thanks again for the concern. I am not dead.