Reddit reviews Impro (Performance Books): Improvisation and the Theatre (Performance Books)

I'm a big fan of status - characters raising and lowering each others' status in the things they do and say. This is nothing to do with their social status, job, money etc. The best example is Chandler and Joey in Friends - Chandler is most likely to lower someone else's status with a wisecrack, or lower his own status with some pathetic remark about himself; whereas Joey is most like to lower his own status with a comment that is dumb but that he doesn't realise is dumb. Very rarely would Joey be able to lower Chandler's status, and if he did, Chandler would probably realise it and make a self-deprecating comment thus raising his own status at least a little because people know he realises what is going on. Watch some Friends and see if you can track who's up and who's down, it can change line by line.

Here is a bit of text from Keith Johnstone's book Impro - if this makes sense to you then buy the book, it's one of the seminal books on improvisation and is great for character interactions.

When I began teaching at the Royal Court Theatre Studio (1963), I noticed that the actors couldn't reproduce 'ordinary' conversation. They said 'Talky scenes are dull', but the conversations they acted out were nothing like those I overheard in life. For some weeks I experimented with scenes in which two 'strangers' met and interacted, and I tried saying 'No jokes', and 'Don't try to be clever', but the work remained unconvincing. They had no way to mark time and allow situations to develop, they were forever striving to latch on to 'interesting' ideas. If casual conversations really were motiveless, and operated by chance, why was it impossible to reproduce them at the studio?

I was preoccupied with this problem when I saw the Moscow Art's production of The Cherry Orchard. Everyone on stage seemed to have chosen the strongest possible motives for each action—no doubt the production had been 'unproved' in the decades since Stanislavsky directed it. The effect was 'theatrical' but not like life as I knew it. I asked myself for the first time what were the weakest possible motives, the motives that the characters I was watching might really have had. When I returned to the studio I set the first of my status exercises.

"Try to get your status just a little above or below your partner's," I said, and I insisted that the gap should be minimal. The actors seemed to know exactly what I meant and the work was transformed. The scenes became 'authentic', and actors seemed marvellously observant. Suddenly we understood that every inflection and movement implies a status, and that no action is due to chance, or really 'motiveless'. It was hysterically funny, but at the same time very alarming. All our secret manoeuvrings were exposed. If someone asked a question we didn't bother to answer it, we concentrated on why it had been asked. No one could make an 'innocuous' remark without everyone instantly grasping what lay behind it. Normally we are 'forbidden' to see status transactions except when there's a conflict. In reality status transactions continue all the time. In the park we'll notice the ducks squabbling, but not how carefully they keep their distances when they are not.

Interesting read. I still find that sometimes in conversation I don't know where to go. I'm not really aware of these ideas and randoms feels/sounds/images/experiences/questions floating around in my head, so I need to try and identify and bring them out more in conversation I guess. It's weird: some people I fall into rapport naturally with, others I feel like I have to make a conscious effort otherwise there are too many long silences. I really want to work on building rapport with the latter because otherwise I feel that I'm putting myself at a disadvantage.

On a somewhat related note, I was recommended this book: "Impro" by Keith Johnstone. but I haven't got around to reading it yet. I'll feed back to the sub when I do, it might have some useful stuff in it.

Impro by Keith Johnstone is invaluable, and gets across what it needs to without veering into technical or academic language very much. Also, just a good read in general.