The Show May Just Go [February 2011]

Past Articles were written for Ludus Ludius Improv.

#3: Improvisation (youth)

The Show May Just Go [February 2011]

Certain change is in the air. Ludus Ludius has an update. What is the news to tell? Theatre funding cuts are forcing many long-time survivors to now struggle. The air is thin and so will peoples hair line. Soon enough the high rocking musical, Hair will have to be called Bald. Still nonetheless after the cast causing audiences lung cancer from smoking onstage I think baldness is the least of the issues there.

Really now, change is most certainly about. We are focusing on less community or theatrical endeavours (if we can let some projects go) and more on youth and applied improvisation. However this means gathering improvisers together for a tighter network and community for performers. Ludus Ludius looks at what we can really do to overcome the depressive period of financial struggle to achieve the most. What I think is to combine minds and utilise everyones skill. If someone can juggle, can we improvise with it? If someone tap dances, of course we can improvise with it. If someone can milk a cow, we can definitely improvise with it. Any route into improvisation is said, a lot, to work better when you are not just a performer. I have once heard a group of scientists that started a group and there was a magnificent quality to the production that occurred. Ludus Ludius are on the search for more youngsters between the ages of eleven and eighteen years of age. In order to make this possible what the youth groups need is appropriate workshopping spaces for training young improvisers. Anyone who is able to help or wants to learn to improvise can get in touch in the usual manner, nathan@ludusludius.co.uk.
However, the show may just go. For most in the industry of culture or entertainment it has been and doubtlessly will be the show must go on. However, with cuts this is mighty troublesome and I think we should change the statement. For sure we can when it comes to the lovely art form of improvisation. We start a show and who knows what can happen. The format may alter as we go along, such as freeing the format that I have workshopped last year with some experienced players. For example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWBA-AsgNYI. In this clip we see the freedom of the players to improvise with whatever happens. Every poster I try to design for a new show turns out as this at the moment. (But that is the whole reason I began improvising). The show may just go also, because we may have one show, or it could take flight and we have struck the lucky bell of Tokyo and here we come. Either way after funding cuts and sad looks of vast amount of faces we turn to our youth society to seek the improvements. Get the opportunity for spontaneous workings to work and the future can look bright.

To see the bright light of the future that is on display ask your local youth centre to get Ludus Ludius Youth to perform their TV-style improvised comedy production, Shock The Geek. (We are yet to pilot it and test out the games that the humorous blighters play).

Thank you for your attention and don't forget to email anything to nathan@ludusludius.co.uk.

Young Spontaneity [October 2010]

Past Articles were written for Ludus Ludius Improv.

#1: Improvisation (Youth)
Young Spontaneity [October 2010]

It is human nature to be spontaneous. When we are young toddlers we are intrigued by a lot. This state of being is useful. We learn we discover and we dont hold any prejudice over what we discover or see. As adults it is remarkably the opposite. However we still have no choice to be spontaneous.
What changes the inquisitive nature of the child as we grow up? Keith Johnstone blames the education system. This could well be true, but what I see is more than that. Its the social implications of being seen as a bit too risky, a bit too wild. A person that can and will do anything at any point is too much to comprehend. In a romantic relationship its a common request that, I want my partner to be more spontaneous. Why is this a request? You play too safe and we get bored. What life can be when we are more spontaneous is therefore not boring.

Even as an audience in watching an improv show, if the players keep doing the safe games in the same roles in a classic format, then it does become more tedious and too safe. (Short-form improvisational comedy shows are classically formatted by various games played which have players in certain roles in the game  the scenes that are created are never the same; however the format can be).

We do not like feeling safe: What is a mid-life crisis? Is it someone who has lived their life without risk and change? If this is an agreeable statement, then perhaps our young community needs more spontaneity to allow this to continue through their lives. If its not an agreeable statement, then we can further the connection, but lets leave that to another time.

The reason that this article is written is due to Ludus Ludius Youth having been run for awhile now and the experience of the young improvisational players having sporadic imaginations or the polar opposite. We are in fact aiming for the more difficult task  not because of a personal choice, but as its the more suitable option for the players. Tight, restrictive rules are seemingly always too much. Freer scene work is preferable. Personally, every time that we explore something new, be it a new group or age range then we all learn and discover something new.

Young spontaneity in these days is highly interesting. Do you want to watch? Do you want to participate? Do you think we should keep spontaneity flowing through all our life, not just the very young?

Its easy to share your thoughts and get involved with this, email nathan@ludusludius.co.uk and join our mailing list or share thoughts and ask to part-take.