"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called 'Life'."

I'm really looking forward to our get together next Thursday 10th July, Doors at 7 for a 7:30 start, and this week I have been thinking about how difficult it can be to just start...a game, a scene, anything really! But I might have an answer….

Purple Banana

I'm reading Impro by Keith Johnstone at the moment. Keith is perhaps known as the 'granddaddy' of British Improv. Johnstone developed a series of improv games and techniques whilst head of the script department at the Royal Court Theatre, London in the late 1950s. It is strange to know that Improv (British Improv that is), has strong connections to scripted works; especially that nowadays we improvisers are seen as, (and market our performances as) 'unscripted', 'spontaneous' and 'impromptu' performers.

In the chapter dedicated to spontaneity, Johnstone writes about the part psychotic thought has to play in life. 

Have you ever been in the situation where you are chatting with someone and, either yourself or the other person will come out with some phrase like:

"Well..I am a bit crazy I suppose…", or "How crazy is that?!"?

I suppose at one point or another in life we think - or like to think - of ourselves as "a bit mad. A bit crazy!".

'Let's look for the purple banana until they put us in the truck'

In the chapter Johnstone suggests that fundamentally we are, that we have, this 'creative craziness' within us. He goes on to say that our formative social and education systems manage quite effectively to squash/shame/beat, it out of us. School instructs us about the benefits of  conformity and hazards of looking out of place; that difference is dangerous and the shame of being laughed at for following our gut instincts is really not on. That the fun and spontaneity that we effortlessly embraced as children is no longer appropriate as we get older. We are taught to follow the rules, stay within boundaries and keep the status quo.

Years of conditioning squashes our creativity, but a change of mindset can open up avenues. In the book Johnstone tells of a study written up in the British Journal of Psychology:

"in which some business men who had showed up as very dull on work-association tests were asked to imagine themselves as happy-go-lucky hippy types, in which persona they were retested, and showed up far more imaginative." p75

When we are given permission, when the environment is supportive, we can go back to those early years and just take a leap of faith.

I like to build this safe environment for everyone that I work with. I always have. I always shut the door and say "This is a safe space. Whatever goes on in this room stays in this room. We all love and respect each other and each other's work. Those people outside that door are part of a different world." I think that it is so important to make that distinction. That normal rules do not apply.

The games that we play at the start of sessions are not only icebreakers but 'filterbreakers', 'shamebreakers', 'wingmakers', get-out-of-your-head-makers. Opportunities to jump in, both feet and splash about in the creative puddle. It takes a while to dilute years and years of conformity, fear of being different or saying the wrong thing. I'm still learning myself. But soon enough you wont even need keys to start your engine. You'll be there, centre stage, not knowing what the f@*k is going to happen next….

…and loving it.

Are we gonna let de-elevator bring us down?

Oh No! Let's Go!