Life Story By Michael Golding

In my college workshops with at-risk high school students, I try to utilize their life experiences as much as possible when exploring themes, situations and characters in scenes, games and formats. The emphasis is on realism, which is often not the case with this population who lean more towards outlandish, unrealistic, and violent scenarios.

An in-class written assignment I use to elicit those experiences is called Life Story.  The set-up is that a producer bought their life story to be turned into a play. The student has to come up with a title, genre, and a few sentences describing what the play is about.

As I read through the papers, scene ideas pop out at me as I gain insight into who these students are. I write down notes on each paper to get the student to think a little deeper about the story.  This semester’s batch is particularly intriguing;

Life of Color (drama) A student deals with stress and anger through painting. Color saves me. Art saves me. Art takes all the bad thoughts away when I paint. I consider myself art. I myself am art. Art is everything to me. (My note: Lovely. Let’s come up with a scene where you encounter stress and anger, then deal with it through the activity of painting.)

 

 Beautiful Tragedies (drama/horror) A girl who lives with her grandmother and an aunt who is a felon, learns to deal with police, prison and the will to try and overcome it all. (My note: I’d like to see more of the characters who inhabit this world of yours.)

Addicted (suspense/drama) A girl who is being raised by a single mother, who she rarely sees, falls for someone that she knows is an asshole but can’t seem to let go. (My note: Let’s see a scene where she first met and fell for this guy.)

Roller (drama/romance) Girl is involved with a boyfriend who is into serious drugs and becomes aggressive when using. (My note: Can we see a scene about what he’s like when he’s not using?)

Viewing Things Differently (drama) A close friend’s betrayal and the repercussions that follow. (My note: Let’s see a scene about what the friend was like before the betrayal.)

Records (drama) A young teenage girl’s life depends on records, gets hired to work in a record store. (My note: Let’s do a scene where you apply for the job).

Ricardo (drama) Argument with brother leads to a fight that goes too far. (My note: Do you and your brother fight often? Over what? Are the arguments ever resolved non- violently? If so, let’s see one.)

There are students who don’t exactly do the assignment as described,  but still offer something interesting to work with;

Game Day (drama) A teenage boy comes up with an idea for a million dollar game and releases it on the internet. (My note: Let’s see a scene where you are selling this game to someone.)

Run Away Fugitive (action) Teenage boy breaks out of prison, steals a car, changes his appearance and goes on the run. (My note: What crime did he commit to be incarcerated? How does he survive on the run?)

The 411 (drama) People are always asking a teenage boy how to do stuff, because they assume he knows everything. Turns out, he does. (My note: Let’s explore various moments where people assume this of you.)

Money Gang Bang (action) Gang member gets shot in the forehead by a rival gang drive by. (My note: Let’s explore what leads up to that act and the repercussions afterwards.)

Shippers Found Dead (horror) Tech company uses zombies as slave labor to ship out merchandise. (My note: Can we come up with a scene that explores how the shippers became zombies?)

Once I’ve handed back the papers with my notes, I then get the students to come up with a who/what/where scene based on their story that can be explored through improv on stage. The student doesn’t necessarily have to act in their own scene. He or she can cast and direct it. Additionally, the student has to design a set floor plan, based on floor-plan symbols from Viola Spolin’s Improvisation for the Theater, which is a recommended textbook in my class.  The floor-plan provides the student with a sense of staging, set design and focusing on the where.

When the scenes are up on their feet, I begin to side-coach as the students improvise to uncover the beats. My directions hone in on specific improv skills, which are also essential life skills.

Side coaching directions:

1.     Five Second Delay:  Players have to wait five seconds before responding to each other.

2.     Contact (Spolin):  Players have to touch each other in a different way whenever they say something.'

3.     Inner Monologue:  Thirty second monologue on what is going on inside player’s character’s head.

4.     Gibberish:  Speaking in an unknown language.

5.     Explore activity:  Players have to add substance and detail to what they are physically doing.

6.     Focus on emotion:  Players have to explore what they are feeling at that moment and find a way to express it physically.

7.     Switch time:  Scene is taken either ahead or back in time.

8.     Switch location:  Scene continues in a different location.

Looking over the life stories from this class, various themes begin to reveal themselves to me; betrayal, friendship, single parent households, social inadequacy, anger, stress, work, fear of future, substance abuse, gang-banging, sibling rivalry. This group has given me a lot to work with this semester and they discovered that they have a lot more in common with one another than originally thought. Shared stories bring students together. The bonding process has begun.

Michael Golding is a writer, director and improv teacher.  He can be contacted for workshops, festivals and private consultations at migaluch@yahoo.com. Michael participated in the evolution of the Improv Olympics & Canadian Improv Games. Artistic director of the Comic Strip Improv Group in N.Y. & created the Insight Theatre Company for Planned Parenthood, Ottawa.  He is a faculty member at El Camino College in Los Angeles, working with at-risk teens and traditional students. He wrote and co-produced the documentary "David Shepherd: A Lifetime of Improvisational Theatre" (available for free on YouTube).  His book, Listen Harder, a collection of essays, curriculum and memorabilia on improvisation and educational theatre, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and CreateSpace. Michael holds a BFA degree in Drama from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts & an MA degree in Educational Theatre from NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education & Human Development.  

Improv Mid-Life Crisis By Michael Golding

A little over two months ago I was struck by a car while cycling, resulting in surgery to repair a fractured collarbone. A titanium plate with ten screws has become a permanent fixture in my body. Now half man, half machine, I will be setting off metal detectors when I fly in the future. If a doctor’s note isn’t sufficient for security, believe me, I am prepared to show my scar. 

 

Unfortunately, I had to postpone a trip to David Shepherd’s home in Western Massachusetts to finish his improv archive project. David is the father of modern day improvisation and over sixty years of materials from his collection were going to be donated to an institution which will be accessible to the public. For now, the project is on the back burner. It will get done, hopefully within the next few months.

A major concern during recovery was whether I would be able to teach in the fall.  The college I work for has a high school outreach program, where I teach an after school theatre appreciation course for at-risk teens who receive college credit. I was offered only one course this semester, which meets two afternoons a week from 3:30pm – 5:40pm. The objectives of the course are explored primarily through theatre games.  I was uncertain that my stamina was up to the challenge and for the first time wondered if I was getting too old to work with this age group. Weeks of pain medication diminished my focus and passion. I simply wasn’t looking forward to the class. Was it possible that I was experiencing an improv mid-life crisis?

When I addressed that concern with my surgeon, he laughed and said “unless you’re teaching gym, you’ll be fine.” Obviously the man was unaware of the population I work with, or how physical I can be when conducting a workshop. Discussing the matter with my improv friends, Shepherd, Ed Asner, Nancy Fletcher (creator of Act Now, an improvised movie format for adolescent girls) and Howard Jerome (co-creator of the Improv Olympics and Canadian Improv Games) they were unanimous in their advice; pace yourself, sit down, and bark out orders.  Brave new world for me. Anticipating the round-trip commute to the high school in Compton on the notoriously congested highway filled me with anxiety and dread. The shoulder strap across my tender collarbone still causes discomfort, especially when I make sudden maneuvers or stops.

With improv consultant Ed Asner

It was a physical challenge conducting the first two sessions, lecturing more than I usually do, which only has a shelf life of a few minutes for the students. It may look like they’re nodding out as their heads slowly slump down, but I know they’re looking at their iPhones. I can see the glow from the screens on their faces. Maybe they’re Googling me or texting what am awesome teacher I am. Exhausted, I ended both sessions a half hour early.

I can’t sit still when teaching and my healing collarbone felt the strain. Many of my movements while instructing are reflexive, such as jumping on and off the auditorium stage, which I knew was ill advised.  As much as I wanted to phone the class in, I couldn’t. The students demand moment-to-moment attention. While I have conducted these type of workshops a gazillion times before, it was clear by the expressions on the students’ faces that it was their first time experiencing a learning-by-doing approach rather than listening to a long, boring lecture and it enthralled them. It certainly kept me focused.

By sharing that I was injured and showing them an x-ray of the titanium plate and screws on my cell phone the students perceived me as a badass. I wished my shoulder didn’t look like someone threw a pair of scissors at me to gain their admiration. In turn, the students were eager to share stories of family members who had hip and knee surgeries and what they were like before and after the procedures. All great ideas for future scenes.

Does this x-ray make me look fat?

By the third session, I had more of a grasp on who the students were. There are over thirty in the class, which is not unusual. All Hispanic. Normally, there is larger ratio of girls to boys in my classes. This time out, the ratio was reversed.

The boys ooze machismo. The themes they love to explore are hooking up, going to strip clubs, scoring weed, getting high and gunplay.  Because many are hustlers and have to live by their wits on the street, they’re natural improvisers. They don’t like to stick to the rules of the games and elicit laughs from the class by mocking them. None of this is unusual. They just need a lesson in the difference between play and game. With play, you can do whatever you want. With game, well, there is a structure with rules.

It quickly became a high wire act for me. You don’t want the side-coaching to come off as a reprimand, which either diminishes their enthusiasm or in their eyes a betrayal of trust. “Hey, I was just trying to shake things up,” one student moaned when I corrected him.  Sometimes, I wait until after the session, where I start my notes off with “You’re a natural at this. However…….”

An early observation with the boys was if they don’t realize we’re engaging in a game, they organically play by the rules; listening, agreement, teamwork. For them, we’re not playing a game until we are actually on the auditorium stage. If I warm them up while they’re sitting in the audience, it becomes more personal and conversational. I discovered that with the group story game “So What You’re Saying Is.” In the game, a player starts with a simple statement (“I went outside my house for a walk.”).  Another player would begin by saying “So what you’re saying is,” repeat the sentence he or she heard, and then add onto the story. The goal is to create a story with as many players as possible, chiming in when they have the impulse.

Example:

Player 1: I went outside for a walk.

Player 2: So what you’re saying is, you went outside for a walk, so you could get away from your parents.

Player 3: So what you’re saying is, you went outside for a walk, so you could away from your parents, because they think you’re spending too much time with your boyfriend.

And so on. There are other variations of this game, but this version resonates with the students.

I was amazed by how large and extravagant the stories became. Of course, all dealt with drugs, strip clubs, hooking up and getting high. My inner monologue suggests that in future sessions I should try to steer them towards exploring other themes that might motivate the girls to jump in. Or, I may have to break them up into groups of five, rather than letting thirty students fight for control and observe how the stories develop that way. My brain was percolating with possibilities.

The girls are shy, hesitant and rarely volunteer. Yet, there is thoughtfulness in the way they play, and when partnered up with some of the boys, diminishes their overactive testosterone a tad.  My sense is the boys don’t interact much with the girls outside of class or during the regular school day, so this is new to them – working with a girl as a collaborative partner, rather than viewing them as an object.

When I introduced Blind Walk, a trust game that is fraught with dangerous possibilities, the boys were surprisingly respectful and protective of the girls. In the game the group is in a circle and a blindfolded player walks back and forth across the circle. A student in the circle has to gently stop the blindfolded player from walking into him or her, then slowly turns the blindfolded player around, makes eye contact with another student in the circle, and gently launches the blindfolded player on his or her way towards that student. The blindfolded player has to be as relaxed as possible while walking, knowing that that the circle will protect him or her from getting hurt.

I was impressed. Normally first time out with this game, players are spun around furiously before being sent on their way, students in the circle are making jokes or yelling “watch out!” or someone in the circle might start backing up, or ever worse, step aside, as a blindfolded player walks towards them. Unfortunately, that admiration was shattered when a boy was sent across the circle. Lots of ass grabbing, head thumping, and crotch smacking. It’s early in the semester.

Now, as I bravely tackle the hellish round-trip commute, my brain is on fire running over my workshop plan and the results of it afterwards. It seems like my improv mid-life crisis was premature.  I have a lot of work to do with this group, and surprisingly, I appear to be into it.

Michael Golding is a writer, director and improv teacher.  He can be contacted for workshops, festivals and private consultations at migaluch@yahoo.com. Michael participated in the evolution of the Improv Olympics & Canadian Improv Games. Artistic director of the Comic Strip Improv Group in N.Y. & created the Insight Theatre Company for Planned Parenthood, Ottawa.  He is a faculty member at El Camino College in Los Angeles, working with at-risk teens and traditional students. He wrote and co-produced the documentary "David Shepherd: A Lifetime of Improvisational Theatre" (available for free on YouTube).  His book, Listen Harder, a collection of essays, curriculum and memorabilia on improvisation and educational theatre, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and CreateSpace. Michael holds a BFA degree in Drama from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts & an MA degree in Educational Theatre from NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education & Human Development. 

.

Practicing What I Preach by Michael Golding

Over the past three years, I’ve experienced a series of abrupt personal losses.  The latest one has torn a hole in my heart, smashed my view of the future and has me raking over the coals of my past searching for some clue as to how the hell I got there. To be honest, I’ve had better summers.

I am blessed to have a wonderful support group of diverse friends, and they have certainly risen to the challenge of being consistently there for me.  My immediate improv family has been relentless in guiding me as I forge through uncharted water, with advice that mirrors the principals of improvisation.  David Shepherd, the father of improvisation, has often said that improv skills are essential life skills.  

Submerged in grief, I find myself practicing denial, not agreement. I should be handling this life crisis with a moment-to-moment approach. But, I’m frequently playwriting in my head, trying to predict, manipulate and control the unknown. While I should be accepting helpful suggestions with a “yes, and” mindset, my first thought is “yes, but.”

Constant activity is the key to maintaining my stress levels. Yet I find myself physically paralyzed, refusing to move, explore and discover something within my space that leads to a more productive kinetic energy.  I’m aware of the powerful connection between body and soul – however I resist making the effort. My listening skills are unpredictable, easily offended and will file away any recommendations it simply does not want to hear. 

This is surprising behavior for one who has been immersed in improv for forty-three years now. 

Fortunately, some improv skills die harder than others. While it is a monumental effort to be in the moment, build on ideas, embrace the unknown and listen – I find that there are other skills that are deeply imbedded in my damaged id and are in fact, second nature to who I am.

Whenever I engage in conversation about my situation with a friend, I automatically lapse into playing characters.  The act of role-playing as people who are key principals in my situation has provided me with insight and empathy. I’ve rediscovered the power of pauses and silence to take in a moment, thus allowing sincere emotion to rise. As the result of that revelation, I’ve realized that very little was said in my more potent conversations. Whether on stage, in a workshop or in real life, it takes courage not to be constantly chattering.

I have a long journey ahead of me. As in life, improv is replete with mistakes and bad habits. Occasionally, a magnificent moment occurs which makes the effort worthwhile. There are no guarantees in life or improv.  All you can do is be real and embrace the unknown – which improv provides the tools for.

For people like me who have been in this improv game for a long time, when you stop practicing what you preach, you lose the core of who you are. I almost forgot that. Thankfully, my improv family had no intention of allowing that to happen.

  

Michael Golding is a writer, director and improv teacher.  He can be contacted for workshops, festivals and private consultations at migaluch@yahoo.com. Michael participated in the evolution of the Improv Olympics & Canadian Improv Games. Artistic director of the Comic Strip Improv Group in N.Y. & created the Insight Theatre Company for Planned Parenthood, Ottawa.  He is a faculty member at El Camino College in Los Angeles, working with at-risk teens and traditional students. He wrote and co-produced the documentary "David Shepherd: A Lifetime of Improvisational Theatre" (available for free on YouTube).  His book, Listen Harder, a collection of essays, curriculum and memorabilia on improvisation and educational theatre, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and CreateSpace. Michael holds a BFA degree in Drama from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts & an MA degree in Educational Theatre from NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education & Human Development. 

From David Shepherd's Collection - The Rolling Stage

The Rolling Stage was David Shepherd’s first attempt at theatre after returning from India where he taught English at the University of Bombay. A bus and truck company with a portable stage that rolled out on wheels, The Rolling Stage toured resorts in the Catskills performing Moliere’s The Mock Doctor and experimented with improvisation. The failure of the company is what led David to Chicago, where he first encountered the repertory group Tonight at 8:30, followed by his two year stint as a producer, writer, director and performer with the Playwrights Theatre Club.  After Playwrights folded, David and the company went on to realize his vision of a popular theatre - Compass.

A few years ago, David drafted this outline for an article about The Rolling Stage, which incorporated his journal entries. As with many of David’s projects, he abandoned it and moved on to something else. I recently discovered the outline in his collection and decided to share it with the community.

Rolling Stage '53 to Chicago (find fit with other material)

8 x 11 notebook, Red binding, Red corner-- proofed 7/09 by David Shepherd

May 20, 1952

Met Jim Kerans at docks on return from India; decided to go ahead with theatre:

-It should be a traveling theatre (to avoid space rental and repairs and to play to audiences in different towns..

-It should play from Washington to Boston to 2 audiences:

            1) At private estates/ country clubs to assure profit

            2.) On beaches and vacant lots to assure a popular response

-Its first play should be a classic (to give us a chance to find a strong style) and its second an improvisation performed by us (to get something workable written and tested under these circumstances).

Brochure

Dear Sir,

            The first of our three summer shows is now open for bookings in the last two weeks of July. In case you are interested, we can offer you any of the following arrangements.

1. You can take our package for one night at the fixed rate of $200. In this you benefit both by the entire receipts from ticket sales and by the entertainment afforded by your guests

2. You can help us publicize the show in return for forty percent of the ticket sales.

Our business manager would be glad to give you full information, either by correspondence, interviewing, or through our New York agent.

Very truly yours,

            The Rolling Stage

June 22, 1952

Dear Mr. Keith,

            We would be glad to take you as business manager-press agent for the Rolling Stage at the following terms:

You will receive a weekly salary of $80 for your personal expenses and for the use of your car. In addition you will receive 5% of the first $2000 ticket sales per month, 10% of the second $2000, and 15% of anything above that. The ceiling of your total salary will be $1000/mo.     David G Shepherd

July 4, 1952: Possibilities

1) We close. I lose $3500. I gain equipment to start again.

2) We brainstorm for one week using ground as stage, car battery for lights, and stage to support poles for backdrop.

If we close, I give weeks’ notice and hope not everybody asks for his salary. If most ask, we rehearse Moliere more, do improvisation.

Decision of cast:

To rough it on $500 Budget.

Poster

A Gay Farce by the Rolling Stage

Saturday July 12, 8:30

At the Fountain Manor,  Ellenville

The Mock Doctor by Moliere

In the Open Air.

Paris 1942  insert earlier

Manifesto:  Blueprint for the New Free Theatre

The NFT should be small at first. The connection between actor and audience has been lost in the coy hypocrisy of the realistic theatre but can be found again by testing effects at close range. To counteract the sloppy diffusions of the modern sensibility, the NFT will be, if nothing else, vigorous and self disciplined.

The vigorous roots of drama are song and dance, which must be brought back, if not outright, then in precise and suggestive speech and movement.

List begun in 1948 of 'Pure Plays'.

Jarry: Ubu Roi

Early French

Le Viol de Lucrece--Obey

The Boor--Chekhov

India 1951--insert earlier

IMPLICATIONS: Divorce from the middle class, which now monopolizes theatre in almost every nation, and from its pretentions. Divorce from large cities, outside of which very little theatre is found in any nation, and from distractions. Divorce from theatrical convention from the past 300 years, in which only a small handful of popular plays have been written, and from its assumptions.

Statement for Rolling Stage--Not used '52

We are going to play without any lighting or scenery because we want to work up two or three styles of acting that are more effective than the ones found on stage today.

In other words, we are trying to erect a good popular theatre in this country. We cannot do it unless actors and playwrights put down less important things to help us.

We need new manuscripts on which to practice. At the beginning we don't expect they'll be any good since ours is in a century of poor drama, but we do expect that they'll be written in intense language around the important themes.

Washington, August 1952

We believe the easiest way to get the good plays we need is by attending to style; you will find exercises in this book which show what we mean by style. We believe that plays can be written on any subject, in any style, and to any length; in this book you will find copies of the styles of some major dramatists today.  In other words, we believe plays are logical statements; not bursts of inspiration,

October 6, 1952

It may be that all our conventions (little scenery or lighting, many  verse forms, musical accompaniment, etc.) will have to be tested first in a cabaret type theatre which will have the added attraction of also being a club where we can easily meet success or failures.

October 7, 1952

 Mirror Theatre will present and judge the members of the audience on stage, a theatre that will, say: "Look, this is the stage of your life, better than you yourself see it."

July 22, 1952 sequence?

What can be good about a play?

Ezra Pound-- "Drama is a dam’d form, tending nearly always toward work of secondary intensity, though the tendency doesn’t always set in strong enough to wreck the work."

August 14

As soon as the manifesto is printed and distributed, seeing that theatrical prospects open to the west and that my classless position is no longer useful,

take off with a $100 bill toward Chicago

Find my level, what I can do, what I am good for as a member of a multifaceted economy. An observer passing through America as a knife through butter.  A poet.

I mean a poet of actuality, of what I see and do, of the simple fact--no fantasies, no distortions, no symbolic interpretations--writing nothing that has not been memorized and recited before people, my people, whoever they prove to be.

Many Writers: Few plays

By Arthur Miller, August 10, 1953, NY Times

(Author of ‘Death of a Salesman’ and ‘All my Sons‘)

"Even optimists confess that our theatre has a struck an endless low by any standard. I cannot hope to explain the reasons for this, but certain clues keep recurring to me when thinking on the manner.

Is Everybody Happy?

We always had with us the “showman,” but we also had a group of rebels insisting on thrusting their private view of the world on others. Where are they? Or is everybody really happy now? Do Americans really believe they have solved the problems of living for all time? If not, where are plays that reflect the soul wracking, deeply unseating questions that are being asked on the street, in the living room, on the subways?"

September 17, 1953

Here’s the situation: The first act of the third draft of my Foreman of Malfi looks solid, almost interesting, almost a candidate for graduation onto the stage.

Chicago: October 21, 1953

The Sunbeam Corp turned me down for a job because I have too much education.  It fears that mechanical and repetitive assembly lines would not please me, and that I would only stay a day, or a week.

1953

Paul Sills anxious to override Bourgeois “crap” but also chooses to stand above class, speak to no one class, although has joined a group at University of Chicago, which is made up of middle class. Finds meaning in Cocteau’s Typewriter - or at least an adequate picture of middle class. Praises Brecht for going beyond the proletarian play.  Speaks of new script writers.  Some promising.  Will see again about writing a “1953.”

Roommate Jacobs contemplates three productions this school year (Typewriter, a second Buchner and Caucasian Chalk Circle), next summer a series of four or five plays from the German theatre (“the second greatest theatre in the world”). (Everything he says is exaggerated with determination.} University of Chicago has given up fighting incursion of Negroes to Hyde Park (where it owns vast tracts of property), has decided instead to welcome middle class Negroes.

Jack Higgins says he could use me for an instructor for kids, young adults, or adults, either in connection with schools, or at park field houses. Six hour day. Four day week. $2.11/ hour, Jan 1- May 1.

Playwrights Theatre Club summer season.

Cleveland: December 19

Playhouse: Mrs. Stewer (?) says Cleveland is a sleepy town after 9:00. Can account for success of Playhouse only in terms of age (35+). Most principal actors paid.  Admission $2.   Three Houses+School.

"Finian’s Rainbow" looked all amateur.  Not well directed.

Karamu Theatre  Dargan Burns (P R) sited unique character of Karamu, which still growing. All actors Amateur. White and Negro mix in cast and audience.

I954: Chicago Playbill: Playwrights Theatre Club presents:

“The Three Penny Opera” - (“Die Dreigroschenoper”)

by Berthold Brecht

Music by Kurt Weill

Translated by Desmond Vesey and Eric Bentley

 Playwrights Theatre Club fall program, which includes David Shepherd's play The Fields of Malfi.

Michael Golding is a writer, director and improv teacher.  He can be contacted for workshops, festivals and private consultations at migaluch@yahoo.com. Michael participated in the evolution of the Improv Olympics & Canadian Improv Games. Artistic director of the Comic Strip Improv Group in N.Y. & created the Insight Theatre Company for Planned Parenthood, Ottawa.  He is a faculty member at El Camino College in Los Angeles, working with at-risk teens and traditional students. He wrote and co-produced the documentary "David Shepherd: A Lifetime of Improvisational Theatre" (available for free on YouTube).  His book, Listen Harder, a collection of essays, curriculum and memorabilia on improvisation and educational theatre, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and CreateSpace. Michael holds a BFA degree in Drama from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts & an MA degree in Educational Theatre from NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education & Human Development.