"Yes, and..." is not the point: what I learned about improv in a corn field retreat

🌽 An improv about wedding planning escalates to absurdity; what to do instead of thinking what to say; learning life skills in a corn field theater

I’m spending this week in an intensive retreat of theatrical improvisation (Improv) in a small French town in Isère. I knew very little about improv before coming here, and it turns out that the things that I did know weren’t exactly right.

Improv actors in Bojack Horeseman

The “Yes, and …” rule

The first thing everyone learns about improv is the “Yes, and …” rule. It means that whatever happens on the scene, your role is always to accept it and build upon it.

An example improvisation with two actors we’ll call Alice and Bob looks something like this:

Alice: (Scratches her arm nervously.)
Bob: (Makes up a line to open the play.) Don’t worry, they’ll arrive
(…)

At this point Alice maybe had some other opening in mind, but it doesn’t matter. She needs to accept what Bob said, and build upon it. For example, Alice could develop the scene like this:

Alice: (Scratches her arm nervously.)
Bob: Don’t worry, they’ll arrive
Alice: I hope so, it’s out first time as wedding planners
(…)

“I hope so” is the acceptance part, “It’s our first time as wedding planners” is building upon what was said before.

The problem with “Yes, and …”

The problem with the “yes, and” formula is that it makes it too easy to just keep adding layers and layers of complications:

Alice: (Scratches her arm nervously.)
Bob: Don’t worry, they’ll arrive
Alice: I hope so, it’s out first time as wedding planners
Bob: Yes, and for some reason they really wanted to hire a circus to entertain the guests
Charlie: (Joins the scene, entering the stage pretending to be a circus horse.)
Alice: Oh no, they forgot to close the door. The animals are escaping and I think they’re hungry!
(…)

In a few exchanges the play escalates to absurdity. There is no point to the story, we don’t know anything about the relationship between the characters; the only people having fun are the actors goofing out pretending to be elephants cut loose.

The scene ends in a cacophony.

What you actually practice in an improv retreat

We’ve been doing improv exercises for the last 7 days. We improvise lots of scenes and the teachers are there to guide us. Here are three things they keep telling us over and over again:

• Talk less. I thought the hard part was coming up with that to say. But actually, once you give up on the inner pressure to be smart and funny, it’s not hard to come up with the text. What’s harder is to keep a connection with the other actors, so that the play is coherent and we’re in it together. So what to do when you don’t know what to say?

• Look at the other person. The natural tendency is to be stuck in your head, thinking what to say next. Resist this, look at the other person and be with them. Read the emotions. Breathe.

• Slow down. The actors are on different time that the audience. The adrenaline rush makes us go fast and miss opportunities to connect with what’s actually happening in the scene.

Here’s a shot of a scene where the actors are connecting well:

Everyone is doing their thing, but we see that they’re in it together.

A better opening

Let’s rewrite the scene we saw before:

Alice: (Scratches her arm nervously.)
Bob: Don’t worry, they’ll arrive
Alice: I hope so, it’s out first time as wedding planners
Teacher: Take your time Bob. Look at her, how both of you feel right now?
Bob: (Hesitates… looks at Alice… then…) What if it’s a disaster?
Alice: You think we shouldn’t have quit our cosy jobs after all?
(…)

Now we have a storyline! The play is about two people who took risks and are about to see the consequences. Will their wedding planning debut go well? The audience is hooked and wants to see what’s next. The play is on.

Conclusion

The “Yes, and” rule is a great mindset to adopt in creative brainstorming. Accept the ideas that come and try to build upon them. But to make good theater, you need to first and foremost connect with others. Improv is about constructing the play with the other actors, not about taking turns making jokes.

Throughout the retreat, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that what I’m actually practicing is not so much theater in particular, but interacting with people in general. What I was learning was first and foremost getting out of my own head and being there with others.

People say improv is a cult and those who get into it want to make everyone else try it. It’s true. Try it :).

More on this

The retreat was organized by a theater troupe from Lyon called Les Ecorcés. I stumbled upon them back in Avignon. They played an improvised theater show about things that change our lives. They audience gave opening anecdotes, and the actors improvised an hour-long play based on these anecdotes. It hooked me hard, and I wanted to know how they do it.

Postcard from Saint-Sorlin-de-Morestel

The retreat took place in a small guest house surrounded by a corn field. If there was a Guiness world record in the number of theater scenes referencing corn in some way or using the field as a prop I think we just beat it :).

Remember to breathe,
 – Przemek