This week I wasn’t feeling 100% as I had a dreaded cold which made my voice go very croaky and made me feel pretty rough. For Punders rehearsal we were at a different location Final rehearsals and in some ways it is good to mix up locations as you get a new venue to really think about what you are doing as a show concept. This week we had most of the Punders together in a room for the first time in ages.

The aim of this week was to go through the games that we are playing in the show and choose who is playing what so we have an idea as to what the show is going to turn out as. It was a really fun rehearsal and it feels like the show is coming together. I look forward to playing this show in just over a weeks time.

Character Workshop

This week for Character Course, Sue was on tour with Showstoppers so we had Steve Roe as our teacher for the week. It was great to have Steve for one week because he is a very good character teacher as well and it is always nice to have a different perspective on the subject as there is so many different angles to take.

The first thing that we learnt was a very basic rule that means you can actually create characters with very simple movements and actions. Steve told us a few stories about his son and how he sees the world and that those simple actions a child can do can effect and create the simplest of characters.

The first exercise we did was to play the opposite of ourselves – we broke into pairs and then one of us would explain the sort of person that we are and then that person would tell us what our new character had to be like that was the complete opposite as to what we were in real life. We then had to go around as those characters and interact with others in the room.

There was some really interesting characters that came out of this and we will talk about Kal Squared later on. For me I found it weird, I didn’t like playing a reserved and moody person that didn’t care about anyone else – it was not me and it felt really weird to do.

The next game that we played was one where you are not in control of your character. There are two people at the side that act as sort of Directors that dictate what you do in the scene and it can be completely ridiculous and over the top what they tell you to do but it is really funny and creates hilarious scenes.

The final game that we played was based on the film When Harry met Sally, you enter the scene with two chairs and then improvise based on body language as to how you know each other – it works really well as an exercise as it works well at building characters.

It was a fun week for improv and I felt I learnt a lot and also had a lot of fun.

Case Study –  Kal Squared and Paper Mache Man

In character course this week there was one particular alter ego that stood out and that was by a fellow improviser called Kal. He created a character that was called Kal Squared that was to display the personality traits opposite to him and they worked so well that they actually created a really hilarious character.

Kal Squared proved that taking characteristics that paradox the truth can actually create really strong characters. Everyone including Steve was captivated by this character as he was very strong, optimistic about everything on life whilst also being a geezer. The exercise was really interesting to see what it can do to a person and Kal Squared is a perfect example of what this exercise can do.

The other example isn’t really a case study this week but it is how I felt with my croaky voice. Enjoy!