Disrupting a routine is a way to get a story going. An activity is started, of a sort that could be completed. You then disrupt the activity by throwing in something that derails it from reaching completion.
It can be an amazing Closer, after several disruptions, to Reincorporate something about the original activity, just after the audience has forgotten about it. This creates the feeling that everything in the scene happened for a purpose.
People will think that you had to have scripted that, because there is no way such a coherent story could have been made spontaneously. But you know better.
Mommy begins washing the dishes.
What could derail Mommy?
| • | Daddy could call on the phone, needing money to pay off his bookie. |
| • | Her son Milton could show up with a recording contract, that he needs her to co-sign because he's not yet 18 years old. |
| • | Her daughter Margot could show up with a high-priority dish, that she needs washed before the others. "Mommy, I'm cooking Rack of Lamb a la Bastille. I need my big baking pan cleaned immediately. Surely the cat dishes can wait!" |
How can Mommy respond?
| • | To Daddy, she can offer to go into the bedroom and break open the piggy bank. It would be great if another player dives into the game and makes the "shhhhh"ing sounds of the water in the kitchen sink, which will soon threaten to overflow. |
| • | To Milton, she can ask him to take over washing the dishes while she reads the contract. |
| • | She can take the big baking pan from Margot, find that there's not enough room in the sink, and ask Margot's help unloading the sink to make room. My goodness, there are a lot of cat dishes in there. |
All of these new activities can proceed a bit and then be disrupted by something else.
Sometimes you can find a way to derail the activity by messing up something from within the activity, but this is terribly inside-the-box and usually just leads to the scene getting bogged down. (It's certainly worth experimenting with, though.)
Usually it's better to bring in something from outside the activity. This adds Context to the activity. It opens up new possibilities for connections and continuations. To find Context, you can ask yourself, "Where is this happening?" "Who does this person know?" "What is this person's history?" "What is this person's stake in this activity?"
When another player derails an activity that you're in, resist the temptation to put the scene "back on course" by immediately solving the problem and getting back to the activity. Allow yourself to be derailed. This is terrible time management in everyday life, but it's basic to improv.
When you are doing the activity, throw in as many concrete details as possible. For example, if you are Mommy washing the dishes, you can say, "Here's daddy's fork. And here's daddy's steak knife. And here's Milton's charger plate. Milton is so neat." Concrete details that emerge during the activity can suggest a lot about the Context, giving you lots to work with when you look for a way to derail. What sort of family do those details suggest to you? What social class do they belong to? What did they eat?
Note that disrupting a routine is very different from making an inactive choice, where you block action from even getting started. See Active Choice.
See also: Advance the Scene, Tips And Techniques.
Version 8 2003-Dec-21 16:28 UTC
Last edit by Ben Kovitz
