Some original notes on Improv from Del Close

For anyone interested in improv theory, specifically as developed by Del Close – one of Stephen’s influences while a student in Chicago. There’s also a mention of the difference in philosophy between IO and Second City.

Comedy blog CC Insider provided this link to Chicago’s Improv Olympic and other links as IO Chicago celebrates one year on the nets.

NOTES FROM DEL
Posted by Charna Halpern

I was cleaning out my book shelf last night and came upon some notes from Del. Its pretty cool stuff-some thoughts on The Harold and some thoughts about improvisation in general. Chew on this for a while.

DEL’S NOTES ON THE HAROLD
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
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“Im not just interested in churning out more improvisational theater groups; I’m curious to know what improvisation tells us in terms of man and the language. Can a group of people improvise together and what’s the most efficient way of going about it, breaking down barriers so you get good results almost immediately. Improvisation is not just cleverness-it’s an actor living his life onstage. Second City downpedals the fact that they’re improvising. The important thing is how good the show is onstage. That’s still our point-not that we get the material through improvisation, but that we get a certain kind of material you don’t get any other way. Those odd lines- no playwright writes like that; Neil Simon crammed together with Paddy Chayefsky with Arthur Miller and you’d never get lines like that. What I’m most interested in is a full length scenario in free improvisation-plays on the spot in front of an audience, a one-time phenomenon, never to be repeated. I have a grandiose idea of what free improvisation would look like. You go out in the beginning of the evening, get a series of suggestions from the audience, go on through the evening and at the end perform something like the equivalent of a play that doesn’t look like a play-it’s sort of like designing a 707 in flight. You’re out there and you have a few simple rules to follow. The idea is that each of these improvised plays develop a form and structure that is particularly suited to the subject matter.”

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