Rules, Skills, & Critisism

Confused? Don't know what Improv is? Go here.

Rules, Skills, & Critisism

Acting in Improv is similar to acting in a play, specifically that you are not just waiting for your chance to speak, but you are physically and emotionally involved in a realistic interpretation of “normal” life. You may interpret that as you see fit, so long as you understand that you must live in the moment and be an involved listener. Improv is all about making choices, and being committed to those choices. Reading books gives you the knowledge, but improvisational theatre is an art of learning by doing. Practice makes perfect.


The Rules of Improv: As a series of exercises, I suggest that all new improvisers be forced (torture is usually unnecessary) to follow the rules of improv. The "Rules of Improv" are a set of guidelines to help facilitate the experience of sharing imagination. It is only when we understand the rules, do we understand how and when to break them.


Getting criticism: Not only is the skill of listening an important during improv, but it is necessary for proper instruction. Check your ego at the door, because there are going to be people telling you that the types of choices you are making are wrong. It’s not personal. No matter how it may sound, they are looking out for your best interests and the interests of the group; they want to make you look better during a performance. If you think that they are wrong, feel free to clarify exactly what your mistake was, and help them articulate how to avoid the problem in the future. If you can help them clarify the type of choice that they did not agree with, then you can gain more understanding of their point of view. If you still think that they are wrong, don’t argue. Encourage your fellow players to give you feedback, and if you need to, take their opinion as just that—opinion. Do your best to find something constructive from every piece of feedback that you receive.


Giving Criticism: When giving notes, make sure to focus on the types of choices that are being made, and not the choices themselves. Correcting specific choices can feel like a personal attack, and the benefit of these specific critiques is minimal, since the exact circumstances of the scene are unlikely to ever occur again. Focusing on the types of choices can give a long term benefit for all group members, and adding to the understanding of the improv skill set. Focusing on types of choices may also give you insight to strategies for short-form improv games that you may have otherwise not been able to discover. Some things to look for:


Negative Things:
Basic Stage Skills (cheating out, projection, etc.)
Driving a Scene or Passive Scene Work
Vague Offers or Gagging
Blocking & Denying
Breaking Character or Inconsistent Characters
Weak Pimping (like asking questions)


Positive Things:
Strong Offers
Weak Offers (not for beginners)
Accepting & Advancing
Justifying & Clarifying
Reincorporating
Rhythm, Pacing, & Timing
Focus & Listening

Promotions

When promoting an Improv show, there are lots of steps to take. One person should be in charge of making sure all of the steps get completed, but it doesn't mean that Promotions Director should try and do everything by themselves. Below is a very detailed list of many of the things that you can do to promote your show & season, without paying an outside company to do it for you. Having a website as a medium of communication can help get others involved, but it isn't necessary to promote a show.

Since we're dealing with the DMIL as a whole, with multiple groups doing promotions in multiple venues, it makes sense to standardize the message. The positive results of standardizing the message include brand recognition, information continuity, less preparation work, cost effectiveness, and professional appearance. The negative results of standardizing include redundancy, less creative options, information overload, disregarded repetition, and professional appearance (some people like the "punk rock" unprofessional promotions look). Though the negative results may seem really intense, it is far outweighed by the benifits of "less preparation work, cost effectiveness." That means if you put together one well-crafted and beautiful flyer, you will not only be able to make more of them, but you will also have more time to concentrate on other forms of promotion.

Confused? Don't know what Improv is? Click here.

Advance Preparation

(delegate most of these)

- Generic Season Flyer (see below), Season Schedule, massive amounts of push pins and packaging tape.

- Press Kit (see below)

- Radio Station, Newspaper, and Website contact list (name, title, e-mail, snail mail, and phone – plus extension)

- Generic mass e-mail regarding the show and season schedule, (include an “Unsubscribe button”

- Mailing list binder, patron questionnaire & ask-for sheet

- Promotional team phone list, mailing list, and phone tree (optional)

- Cash Box, Refreshments

- Posters explaining “Theater Etiquette”

2 Months Prior to Show/Season.

- Get permission from school to post fliers for the entire season. This is a good reason to have one standardized poster for the season. If you want to do individual posters for each performance, get permission for the first one, and tell them that the content will be almost exactly the same. (They’ll probably tell you it needs to be approved anyways – and you should, if you have the time. I hate to say it, but when you’re working towards a deadline, it’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is for permission.)

- Send out e-mails to your contact list. In the e-mail, request assistance for help promoting the Show / Season. Ask volunteers to help hand out flyers at other high schools, colleges, churches, coffee shops, and other events. Ask people if they would be willing to e-mail their friends, contact list, or copy and post a MySpace blast. For those who need flyers mailed to them, request their address and mail flyers to them, along with instructions. If they need additional promotional materials such as press kits and/or CD’s, please have them contact you. Be sure to make a VIP list, including all of those who helped promote the show, and give them free admittance. Include press passes on VIP list.

- With the help of your contact list, hang fliers all over your city or town – schools, churches, colleges, music venues, coffee shops, community centers, restaurants, bookstores, etc. –anywhere indoors where they will allow it to remain posted for the entire season.

- Get someone to ask for approval to post one in each glass case you see around every school in the district. Mail a flyer along with a press kit to each school in the district (including middle schools), and send it again to the drama teachers directly. Who knows, maybe they want to help get a team together, or prepare their middle school students for high school improv.

- Contact media and send them season schedule. Call and follow up to make sure that they received it.

- Contact theaters in the area and see if they will promote you show/season in exchange for you promoting theirs. Mail them a few posters and a bunch of ¼ sheets, and place their fliers on the table at your show(s).

3 Weeks Prior to Show.

- This is the most crucial time period of street promotion. The performance is now close enough to fit into people’s mental time frame and schedule.

- Stay in communication with promotional team, and have them update you every step of the way (that’s why god invented text messaging)

- Do 1^st wave of handing out fliers. Do so extensively and aggressively. Get them to anyone you can and as many places as possible.

- Have the promotional team start talking about the show. Announcements in class are acceptable, but get the teachers’ permission first. Have one of the promotional members make announcements on Internet message boards. Visit websites where both locals and fans might frequent.

2 Weeks Prior to Show.

- Have the show announcement placed in the city paper, local magazines, and church bulletins.

- E-mail blast announcing the show.

1 week before show.

- Have the show announcement placed in the city paper, local magazines, and church bulletins.

- Continue to handout fliers at school. Only hand out ¼ sheets, and only one to each person unless you trust that they will hand them out to people who want them. No need to waste paper.

- Continue to pump up the show. Have it announced over the intercom at school. If you can, go in early to classrooms and write on the chalkboards. Many teachers who support the arts will leave it up all week if you put “Save until Friday.” Don’t forget to put the website up on the board too, and/or leave a small stack of ¼ sheets for people to take.

Day of the Show.

- Create an e-mailing list for people to sign at the show, informing them that you will provide them with information on upcoming shows for the future.

- Have a trustworthy promotional team member take money at the door.

- Have another trustworthy promotional team member get people to get on the mailing list, and use the questionnaire to get pre-show suggestion (like for party quirks) and also to ask each person how they found out about the show.

After the Show.

- Talk with the individual who took the money/tickets from the door. Sift through your list of contacts and see who was most helpful and who was least. Continue to develop an ongoing promotion relationship with those that were helpful. For those that were least helpful, either develop new ideas to facilitate assistance from them or “discard” them in search of new people to add to your list of aid.

Other Helpful Tips.

- Promotional Team: Always keep some small handout fliers on you. Pass them out as often as possible.

- Attend shows where other improv lovers might be, and give flyers to those interested in attending your show.

Things to Remember.

- Ongoing relationships are key. Think larger than a one time live performance. This is an opportunity to connect with other improv lovers and have contacts for future live performances.

- Creating a network and system of contact is important. It makes the workload less and less as time passes and creates a network of people that will continue to spread and grow. We suggest buying a small notebook to write down names, numbers and addresses in for future reference. Make sure there is always a returning student from each school on your list.

- Creating a relationship with local radio stations and people in the media (writers for local magazines, reporters on television, etc.) is also very helpful in reaching the masses with word about the artist you have booked. For improv especially, use the internet sources.

- Extend gratitude often. Letting people know that you are thankful for their help is extremely important. We all want to know that we are not taken for granted and our efforts are appreciated. On the opposite side, if anything bad happens, take the blame. If any mistake is counted as a leadership error, it makes things easier when you’re trying to recruit volunteers in the future.

- Assess what needs to get done, and what should get done. Delegate everything – and I mean everything that doesn’t need to get done. You’ll have a lot on your plate trying to manage people and tasks. Your top priority should be organizing and communicating. Being in charge is hard work, so don’t underestimate it. Plus, there’s a lot of things on this list that aren’t requirements in order to do a high school show, especially the first show. So relax. Its okay.

Flyers

WATCH THE MOVIE, EH?

Things to Remember When Designing Fliers, and Mass e-mail

- For the Generic season flyer, make it 11 x 17, and include a full season schedule on the front. For the individual shows, make it 8 ½ x 11. Each design should be black and white, on bright colored paper, like this:

Or see the full sized image

- There are 4 key things to always have in bold, large text on a promotion flyer:

· The League’s name

· The performers (slightly smaller font size)

· The date of the show(s)

· The venue’s name

- In addition, in a smaller font size, include on the flier:

· venue’s address

· Official website

· your contact info (official league e-mail – used only for league business. No phone number-- you don’t want to get prank called)

· either “Family Show” or “This is not a family show”, “PG-13” etc.

- Additional info (on the back for ¼ sheets)

· if needed, directions to the venue on the back side

· full league schedule

- Also, if you are not someone who is a graphically inclined person, please either ask a friend to design it or go extremely basic with the design. We would like to avoid unprofessional designs. As the flier that is being designed is going to get posted all over your city or town where you live, we HIGHLY suggest you find someone who can design an appealing, high quality black and white flier for you that will copy nicely at Kinko’s.

- If you are unable to complete the above flier yourself, some places have a professional graphic designer you can hire for $20 a flier. Contact us about this if interested.

- Also, you may want to include a brief description of what improv is. For example:

· “Think musicals suck? So do we.”

· “Theater for non-theater people,”

· “Unscripted Theater” or

· “A family show without a script” or

· “Who’s line is it anyway? Only not bald.”

· Etc. You can come up with a better one for sure.

- ¼ sheets should include small amount of self-explanatory fool-proof instructions in addition to all the show information. It can be in smaller print – and might have to be in order to fit. These instructions should include:

· Please do not litter. These are not trash.

· Take only as many as you need, or would like to hand out to friends.

· Any misuse of these fliers is not the responsibility of the DMIL or any of its’ affiliates. Thank you.

- If you are really really want to have a killer design, set the sights for next season. Open up a competition for the art students to create a black and white logo for the posters, and have the first place prize be a pair of tickets to every show during the season...then just put their name on the VIP list. Second place can be a single pair of tickets to one show, and all the forks collected from the "Bring a fork, get $2 off" promotion. Once you have a really nice design, reuse it all the time.

Pre-Show questionnaire example questions:

- Have you ever been to a DMIL show before? Y / N

- How did you find out about this show? (check all that apply)

o Big Red Flyer (Generic Season Flyer)

o 8 ½ x 11 Blue Flyer (Show Flyer)

o Green ¼ sheet Flyer (Handout)

o You announced it last show, remember?

o You e-mailed me

o Someone e-mailed me

o A friend told me.

o Other:

- Would you like to help promote our shows, and get in for free? Y / N

- Would you like to be on our mailing list? Y / N

- Can we have your name and e-mail address? (optional)

- What is your favorite possession?

- Name a Celebrity:

- What will you do on your 80^th birthday?

- What is your “safe place?”

- What is something that is red?

- Etc.

The Press Kit

- Use the contact information of a Faculty Member. This will make it easier for companies to continue contact for year after year, and make it easier for you to do so without continuously updating press release contact information. Make sure that the Faculty Member has your contact information, and knows the best method to forward the information to you. A Faculty Member may also be able to create a FAQ and help develop a more thorough Press release.

- Find an example of a theater press release that you like, and use it for inspiration. This is probably the first time you’re writing one of these, and it’s important to do research on how it’s done. Hopefully, someone in the DMIL will develop a format that can be easily copied and followed by each individual school.

- List show prices with the schedule, and avoid leaving any information out. That means most show information should be decided early in the season. If you are going to have special promotions for each show, such as "bring a fork and get $2 off," then this info should be included. You may decide to put "Bring the item-of-the-week and receive $2 off, see website for details"

- I've always wanted to create an 800-Number that you can easily record a message with all of the upcoming show information. Maybe I'm just dreaming. It might not be as easy as I think it is.