IMPROV ESL: DEVELOPING CHARACTER INTO A MONOLOGUE OR POEM AND BUILDING A SCENE FROM IT

IMPROV ESL is a class that moves second language learners ahead in their production in using English and in feeling confident as they communicate their intentions!

During the seventh week of an eight-week course of IMPROV ESL, Lesly Fredman (improv teacher) and I (Ruth Schowalter, English language instructor) had international students at the Georgia Tech Language Institute do the following homework assignment! Please read the following:

Improv Homework #3: DEVELOPING A CHARACTER

(PART 2)

PART #2: WATCH SOMEONE YOU DON’T KNOW FROM A DISTANCE and CREATE an INTENTION

STEP #A: Choose a person who you don’t know that interests you, one that you can watch and take notes on. Observes this person for a little while and see what you notice about his/her behaviors. Listen.

STEP #B: As you take notes, decide on an “intention” something you want to get from this person:

·         Time

·         Directions to some place

·         Curiosity question about GT

·         Etc.

Using the skills of improv, approach the person and ask them your question. Thank them for the information and leave. Use their response in the monologue or poem that you are making in STEP #C.

STEP #C: Imagine a fictional life about him/her, including how they talk. Write a poem/monologue (Taylor Mali style) from this person’s perspective. Send me an email copy of your writing. Be prepared to present the poem or monologue to our class.

RATIONALE: In order to build a scene with interesting characters, improv students need to "be" characters other than themselves. One way for students to develop different characters is through observation. This assignment asks them to watch a "stranger" and to take notes on that person's behavior and create a poem or monologue from that "stranger's" perspective. By having students do this assignment outside the classroom, we hoped that the students would be more "alive" and "awake" in their environments beyond the walls of the classroom. They would then "engage" in a polite but brief exchange with this "stranger." Their observations and exchange would then result in the invention of a character from this real-life situation. And a poem that they would perform for the class.

REAL-LIFE RESULTS: Wow! The students brought their poems/monologues to class and succeeded in RECREATING the MOOD of their interactions. In fact they were so evocative that I thought the authors of the poems/monologues would enjoy observing two classmates build a scene from their work.

IMPROV RESULTS FROM POEMS/MONOLOGUES: Since the students have been working together using the RULES OF IMRPOV for six weeks, they were able to begin a scene after we had given the author feedback on the mood and intention and made sure of who the characters were. The goal was to start with one of the lines from the poem/monologue and to create something new. In other words, the scene had to be MORE than the written work. The written work served as the launching pad for going deeper.

WE HAD SO MUCH FUN AND MANY SURPRISES!
You will see some of the IMPROV ESL students' work here on this blog! Just imagine what scenes we built with them!

Remember! Always make your partner look good!