You approach the stage, you are heading on to start the scene as a police officer but the player also on stage doesn’t realise what you are, so says to the audience you are something entirely different. Whilst this isn’t a bad thing and is often how improv happens today we are going to look at the question – how do you be obvious with what you are trying to be?

If you are going onto the stage and you are focussed on being a specific thing, object or profession, remember to make it clear to the other players. Now, it is easy to forget to do it but here are a few things you can do to help it out for you, the audience and the other players:

Verbalize what you are! – This is the easiest solution – go on stage and make it apparent what you are. However, think about how you say it. Let’s think about the idea of if you want to approach the stage as a Police Officer. Coming onto stage and saying ‘I’m a Police Officer’ is a very obvious approach but it is also not a great way of doing improv and can effect the flow of a scene. However, try and think about it, there are sayings that allow people to automatically understand what you are. For example, for a Police Officer going on stage and saying the classic ‘ello ‘ello ‘ello what’s going on ‘ere’ allows the players to understand what you are trying to do.

Actions – The way that you move and present yourself as you enter the stage can also be a great way for both the players and the audience to understand what you are going into the scene as. Even if they do not get it, at least you tried and it will be super fun to do and watch!

Object work – You already heighten a character if you put or act, create an object as you enter the scene. So why not try and enter a scene interacting with an object that may help define who you are.

Well there you have it a few tips, I hope they help out!