Fulbright

Friends I will be visiting India as a Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Scholar in performance (art) 2012-13...see you all there!

May the pulse be with you!

Abhay

Images: Senator Fulbright (and LBJ) look at art. Sat Paul Sahni's brilliant portrait of Pandit Nehru. Thanks to them Krista and I get to go to India!

Improv class

Just today I got a note from my friend Bethany who was once my improv student. She had a dream and my wife and I were in it and were living in her neighborhood and it got her thinking about the great time we all had in my improv class.

Just the other day I was thinking about what happens when a person takes improv to be a philosophy of life. You suddenly let go of all your worries. All you think of is the now, the moment. And when you really allow yourself to do that you see that within each moment is a choice. What do we think, what do we do not later, not tomorrow, not next year, but right now in this red hot moment.

When you sense that there is an amazing opening up of the world of unlimited horizons. That my friends is improv, a philosophy of theater and life, both of which when you come to think of it are one and the same thing.



May the pulse be with you!

Abhay

Image: Philosopher J. Krishnamurti who in his last Bombay talk told the massive crowd gathered to her him for the last time: "All time, past present and future is contained in the now."

Yes!

We stand in a circle. I start the game off by pointing to A somewhere in my line of vision. As soon as I point at A, she says YES! and I start moving towards her. She has just given me permission to take her spot. And I intend to take her spot! So as soon as she says yes! to me she finds someone, say B to point to. B says yes! And A starts moving towards B's spot to take it. B must point to C and get a yes! before A gets to B's spot. Now two things: You can't take a single step unless you've asked for permission (by pointing) and received permission (a yes!). Once you have these two things you swiftly move to your new spot. If the person whose spot you are going to has not managed to point and get a yes! and start moving, you have full permission to tickle the hell out of them!

Yes! is an amazing improv game to train the subconscious to accept. In improv theater teachers are always saying accept, accept, accept! Instead of talking about accepting why not play a game? Let the subconscious do the job of learning!

'Accept' does not mean you should do what you are being told to in a scene. All it means is that you acknowledge what the other player is saying and doing. If A says to B, pick that chair up, B does not have to pick up the chair! That does not make the scene interesting. But B must acknowledge that that's what A wants of B. B may or may not do it.

That's what creates dramatic tension. Simplistic following of the 'accept' and other improv 'rules' leads to insipid, forgettable, characters doing insipid, forgettable things.

Let us free ourselves of rules and create. Say YES!

May the pulse be with you!

Abhay

Image: Yoko Ono's masterpiece. There is a light. Under it is a ladder. You look up and see a magnifying glass hanging by the light. You are curious. You climb all the way to the top of the ladder. You see a squiggle but can't make out what it is with the naked eye. You take the magnifying lens in your hand and look through it. The squiggle comes into focus. It says, 'yes!'.