Michelle Casten Magbanua

October 3 2018
Drama 4980
Dr. Shelley Scott
1

Lesson 2: Intro to Improv

Today I realized just how much work is put into having a course and

physically putting on a class. Going into today I wanted to make sure that I took care

of little missteps I hadn’t thought about from last class - some of the kids just

standing around and waiting both inside and outside of the space while I waited for

the rest of the class to arrive; students not being focused on the speaker and

fidgeting; lack of interest in the activity; and so on. I made a class list (which I didn’t

have finalized on the first day - this was one of the first steps I missed), I reviewed

some classroom management strategies, and I included a part in my lesson to go

over rules and expectations. For example, I said: “​I expect my students to come onto

the stage and sit down in a circle on the stage, and I will take attendance at 6:32

pm.”​ Of course, I won’t be able to see if any of this works until next class. I will also

have to take a few classes to drill this in sine we see each other so scarcely.

One thing I noticed about the students during the last class was that several

of them couldn’t keep still while I was instructing or when their peers were talking.

Many of them would fidget with their hands or even move around in their spot, lying

on the floor too. What I did to keep fidgeting to a minimum was to establish the idea

of “neutral position.” This is where students are expected to stand knees slightly

bent, feet shoulder-width apart, standing straight, and arms loosely at their side.

Every time I called it, students would focus their attention back to me. At various

times, I even physicalized “neutral position” by exaggerating standing tall and

wiggling my fingers to show that my arms were by my side, and most, if not all, the

students mimicked me. This will help students learn stage etiquette and respect for
Michelle Casten Magbanua
October 3 2018
Drama 4980
Dr. Shelley Scott
2
other performances, for the final class and for if/when they continue in Fine Arts. In

addition, I made sure to keep my instruction to a minimum, and I had my students up

and moving more or discussing more amongst themselves.

I started the class with a warm-up called “roll-down,” where I guide the

students to do a body roll/ stretch, the weight of their head sort of guiding their

bodies down towards their feet. I did this activity with them, and although I couldn’t

see the students who were(n’t) participating, I heard snickers or sighs from some of

them when there were long periods of silence. I did not know how to keep them in

the moment other than to talk continuously, to guide them. After the roll-down, I

asked them why they thought it was important enough for me to include it in the

warm-up. I was hoping the question would insight more of a serious tone to the

roll-down, so that next time students are able to know the importance and relevance

of it and participate fully. Some responses I got were: “to prepare our bodies for

acting,” “to wake us up,” and “to physically ground ourselves.” I told them that all of

those answers are very true and that the roll-down can have a lot of benefits to our

bodies, just by us giving attention to the little parts of our bodies.

I then moved into more improv, because the students were getting angsty by

standing in the same spot for a long period of time. I had the class recall what improv

meant (10 out of the 13 students put up their hands to answer), and then I introduced

the class to some basic improv rules, which are

1. Yes, and ...

2. Make your partner look good

I taught these two terms with a brief explanation, and then followed up with a

skill-based activity called ​Yes, Let’s! I​ was the leader, and I called out things that the
Michelle Casten Magbanua
October 3 2018
Drama 4980
Dr. Shelley Scott
3
class had to do with me, after enthusiastically saying “yes, let’s!” We started out with

me calling all the suggestions, but I wanted to incorporate more of the students. I

then improvised the game, asking students to help me tell a story by asking for

prompts such as “when I opened the chest, what did I see?” and I would call out a

student. This invited students to run with their imagination, some of them even

prompting me “let’s do this too Ms. Casten!” Although this was not my intention of the

game, I realized that students were in a way practicing their storytelling. We even

physicalized the activity, acting out every activity we agreed to do, and taking some

time to act out reactions to the game. For example, we had said, “yes, let’s!” To

approaching a lion and petting it, and the students (with me leading) went to pet the

lion and then ran away with me. This guidance with their physicalization I think was

key in getting the students to participate - it’s as if the teacher joining in makes it

more fun and desirable to play :)

Because I was having such a good time connecting with the class, and there

wasn’t much connecting last class, I decided to change the second part of my

lesson. I had originally planned to have students (in groups) write a platform

breakdown (see attached page) of a fable. At the moment, I decided that the

students would be and were more responsive to straight improv storytelling through

this skill-based activity, as opposed to analyzing a fable and having students

methodically break down parts of a story. Although this is important, I think that

analysis can come after learning basic improv skills. As a result, I divided the

students into groups, assigned them a fairytale, and had the groups do a “Yes,

Let’s!” style of storytelling. The students assigned themselves roles and took turns

piping up suggestions for what they could do to help further the story. One of the
Michelle Casten Magbanua
October 3 2018
Drama 4980
Dr. Shelley Scott
4
groups was assigned Cinderella, and I heard a student (playing an animal) offer:

“let’s help Cinderelly make this dress!” I think this is amazing! The student was able

to take what they learned from the activity (giving an offer - in this case, a good offer

- which helped to actually tell the story). This is what I was hoping our final

performance would look like - a series of short-form improv games in the style of

Fantastic Fables. This is how this lesson of basic improv relates to my project of the

final performance. The environment which I set up allowed these students to explore

within the activity, starting with me guiding them, and then eventually them taking

over and advancing the activity. I hope that throughout our semester together,

students will develop their skills in the activities we do each day, and then for the

final performance, they will be confident in themselves to perform without me

on-stage, and actually leading themselves throughout.

I am now what I consider “behind” in my lessons - but I really wanted to have

the students thrive in this activity. It was a way for me to get to know my students

better, and now I can tailor more of my lessons each day to their needs and

interests. I think for the next class I want to focus on activities that have them up on

their feet and interacting with each other - to build confident social skills. This is a

skill in Drama that I’m attempting to achieve through my lessons, and I know it will

help them in the final performance and in life. I had originally planned to have

students write scripts out - but maybe I should rethink this part, seeing as I already

can tell that students are able to tell basic fables in the form of short-improv. I just

need to guide them into bringing it to life.