<aside> 💡 This April, I’m answering questions from other improvisers (send your questions to [email protected] please).
This week, Zozi writes: I am not entirely sure how to phrase the question, but it’s basically - how can an improviser deal with another improviser who doesn’t recognise their own privilege and its effects on others? Specifically someone, usually but not always a white male, who assume they ‘go first’ whether in a scene, or in an exercise, and who doesn’t wait to see if their partner has an idea they may want to use. Who steps forward confidently with their idea on stage, assuming they can hold the space and that it’s theirs, and it never occurs to them to leave space for people who may have ideas but who aren’t as assertive or feel more powerless. Who doesn’t do a mental check of if other people haven’t had a chance yet to speak on stage or in rehearsal, and just keeps going forward with their ideas without regard for others. You know what I am talking about, it’s not restricted to white men but it’s an aspect of people who feel they have power and it affects people who don’t feel they have power. I want to make it clear that I don’t impute bad intentions to them, just a lack of awareness, which probably arises precisely because they have never had to think about other people’s behaviour towards them in this way.
It’s certainly not an attitude by anyone in any of the teams I am in, and I think it’s rarer in the UK than when I started, or perhaps it’s because I tend to work with more experienced Improvisers, I don’t know. But I know it was one of the main reasons I gave up going to jams when I was starting out. It’s just so discouraging.
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This is an excellent and important question. As an aforementioned white man myself, I took it upon myself to source answers from other improvisers who have different experiences to me dealing with these power imbalances on stage.
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How we deal with 'that guy' depends on where/when you meet him. If you're a teacher or coach, a chat can go a long way- there's every chance he has no idea he's stepping on toes and genuinely wants everyone else to be just as front footed. If it's not a lack of awareness, firmer words and/or rules (eg be in one out of every four scenes) might be needed. If folks are just excitedly front-footed but otherwise lovely it can also be helpful to give them an active role in getting others onstage- eg initiating group scenes, or bringing two other actors on, delivering them a line, then walking off (my favourite is always 'when are you two going to get together? I've got today in the office poll' or similar- give them some gossip).
If you're in the same group, an honest chat can still help, but it might also be that you need a stronger collective idea of pacing. Sometimes in a group some people favour longer scenes and others favour short and sweet, and without a system you won't find balance. Try doing some two person scenes in front of the group, with everyone watching putting up their hand when they think the scene has had 3 'beats'; then discuss- did those scenes feel long, short, or just right? If you're stuck in a jam with this guy, tell the person running it you're not happy- it's their job to manage stage time. You can also choose to make more physical and emotional offers if verbal things are getting spoken over, or find a better run jam :)
I had a big think about the privilege question and rather than unpicking it in fine detail as a white, straight-passing* cis woman with middle-class parents, I have an exercise that I think helps to see where the imbalances are on stage in terms of those who feel they could and should be leading edits and initiations.
Assuming this is a long form team (or it would work in a jam) give every person the same amount of 'tickets', physical bits of paper or tokens of some kind that they have to 'spend' in order to make a move. A simple version would be to give everyone one ticket that is for editing and then you play scenes until everyone has discarded their tokens. That way, the fastest to editing will probably go first and the one wanting the scenes to go on longer will likely go last. The point of this is that it stops one person editing the whole time which is beneficial for them because they get to see other editing options and beneficial to others who are given the opportunity to edit, even if they're normally reticent or just prefer later edits.
You can expand this idea with tokens especially for initiations (or walk-ons or tag-outs etc.). Once you've done one initiation, the rest of the show is you rocking up to support others. For the front-footed, they must really wait and see how support can be offered rather than driving the scenes. For the slow burn players or emotional and physical players who might take longer to express an idea, or express it in abstract; they aren't so worried that they will be interrupted, edited too quickly, upstaged or spend the show on the sidelines trying to figure out what the steamrollers 'want'.
I am of course being flippant and there aren't just two types of improviser. We should all be checking our privilege, but it really helps to introduce an element of balance to give everyone the chance to cover the bases they are intimidated by or haven't built the muscles for.
*Bi and married to a man. Neurodivergent over here too, so that can sometimes mean I'm one of the interrupters and scene drivers that can be so annoying.
This is an idea I've been exploring within the context of improv and also without.
I'm going to share some general thoughts around the idea and then attempt to condense my thoughts into a 'position'.
A key thing for me is reflecting on how reliant upon personal experience (e.g. reference points, cultural awareness) improv and stand-up can be, and the contrast you have in delivering a pre-scripted piece to an audience. If you were to retrospectively transcribe and note any given improv show into a scripted piece, how comfortable might you be playing the roles you did? Speaking the dialogue you did?
If you knew it might impact a larger number of people in a theatre or as televised/streamed content, would you stand by it?