When a scene is sucking, what do you do?
Of course this doesn't mean "when a scene isn't getting laughs, what do you do?" Sometimes the audience's attention is held rapt just from development or from the discovery of amazing connections.
The natural temptation, when a scene is sucking, is Gagging: going for an instant laugh by saying something crude, turning up one's energy and just being goofy, breaking the reality of the scene, etc.
What are some scene-building ways to deal with a scene that is sucking?
| 1 | Add some new piece of reality. The new piece shouldn't oppose the reality that's been built up so far, it should just be far away. This is just like at the beginning of a lot of improv scenes, where the technique is to lay down some unrelated things to create the potential of connecting them. For example, if you're in a kitchen scene that's not going anywhere, you could: hear something moving around in the air-conditioning duct; mention that your wife is about to go back to college; mention those classic white shoes you've been wanting to buy; a trillion other things. None of these are terribly kitchen-related, but they don't break the kitchen reality, either. They immediately create audience interest because they now expect that this new thing will ultimately connect, and they want to see the connection. |
| 2 | If you're stuck in a narrow zone, look outside the box. |
| 3 | Change something. If it's a strongly formatted scene (the opposite kind of game from Open Scene), violate the parameters of the game. If you're off-stage, enter as a new, unplanned character. If it's a game show, the electricity could go out. Or you could cut to a commercial even if that wasn't planned. These actions shake things up without destroying them. |
| 4 | Alter your relationship with the other character. If you've been fighting, suddenly give in and go along. If you've been going along, suddenly stand up for yourself. If you've been giving orders, suddenly have indecision and need help. Etc. These will all give you an interesting action that you need to justify. Don't bother having a justification in mind before you take the action. |
| 5 | If you find yourself standing still, try moving a bit. If you are moving around, try standing still. Perhaps you are too much in the foreground and other players could help out if your character will let them. |
| 6 | Corollary: "What would my character be feeling right now and what would he/she do in response?" |
...more?...
Carol Hazenfield dedicates an entire chapter to adding life to stagnating scenes in her book Acting On Impulse (ISBN 0-9719112-3-1) Some of her suggestions (paraphrasing) are:
| 1 | Clarify relationships. |
| 2 | Clarify the setting. |
| 3 | Find a protagonist. |
| 4 | Pursue the strongest offer and kill or ignore the rest. |
| 5 | When nobody is affected by the offers they receive, give them an offer they can't refuse. |
| 6 | If you're not achieving your objective, try a new tactic. If you don't have an objective, get one. |
| 7 | If the players have equal status, upset the balance. |
| 8 | Find your ending. |
| 9 | Answer the central question. |
End the scene. Just put it out of its misery.
If it's a Harold, run off-stage and trust your teammates to start a new scene. If it's not a Harold, run off-stage and trust whoever's on lights to turn them off.
Never be afraid to do this, you WILL fail often but as long as you can shrug off your failure and not punish yourself then the audience will be happy to give you more chances to fail.
Another thing you can do is kill your character, make them faint, put them out of action somehow. Just make sure the death, fainting, etc. is related to the scene.
But don’t end it too quickly. The tension of a scene sucking can lead to some brilliant improv. It takes real skill to recognize when the scene has the potential to be saved by talented actors, and when it should be killed out of respect for the audience.
Turn your focus immediately on the other character/s and feel a certain way about them. Commit to this emotion and the scene will breathe again. If not... then, as was said above, kill it. <<<<>>>>> See also: Accepting Weak Offers, Outside the Box.
Version 15 2007-Feb-17 00:59 UTC
Last edit by Alex
