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Click here to get info about THE WIT DOCTORS!, a resource for guidance and entertainment elements to enhance and liven up your next corporate or group event! |
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The Wit Doctors |
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About The Wit Doctors |
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THE WIT DOCTORS! Description of Structures Following is a partial list of improvisational structures that can be utilized for your show. They can be combined to create a show of just about any length. They use differing numbers of performers, some requiring a keyboardist, some not, although most are enhanced by keyboard accompaniment. These structures also can be adapted to serve as transitional pieces between your group’s presentations and speeches. THE WIT DOCTORS! Scenic Structures These structures usually (except where noted) begin with two actors as the main characters in an improvised scene. The scene is based on a suggestion or two solicited from the audience. Often there is also a “caller” who facilitates the running of the structure and the solicitations of suggestions from the audience. Performers who are on the sidelines (not the main characters or a caller) are available to enter the scene as other characters, depending on the needs of the scene and the suggestions of the audience. Fill in the Blank: This is a scenic structure that begins with two performers getting an initial suggestion or two to begin the scene. They instruct the audience that periodically the performers in the scene will pause in mid-sentence and ask the audience to “fill in the blank” by shouting out whatever word or phrase comes to mind. The performers must then justify the word or phrase by incorporating it into the scene and making sense out of it. The scene often ends with a line of dialogue that was solicited as one of the opening suggestions. Columns: Much like “Fill in the Blank” except that rather than the whole audience filling in the blanks, two or three audience members are brought up from the audience, seated on stools and they “fill in the Blank” whenever they are tapped by one of the improvising performers. Caller’s Option: One of the performers acts as a “caller” for this two-person scene. After getting a suggestion or two to start the two performers, the caller periodically stops the action in the scene and has the audience suggest something the performers will then have to incorporate the scene. Moving Bodies: Two audience members are solicited to join the performers on stage. In the scene, the performers cannot move their own bodies. The audience members brought up on stage will move them (as if one were moving a flexible mannequin). The performers will get one or two suggestions and will then improvise a scene with the audience members moving their bodies. Emotions: One of the performers gets a list of emotions from the audience (happy, sad, etc.). One or two other performers are writing down the emotions as they are solicited. Two performers will begin a scene, based on audience suggestions solicited by the set-up person. Periodically, emotions are called out by the caller(s). When the performer hears the emotion that has been called for him or her, that performer continues the scene in that emotional state until another different emotion is called. Styles: One of the performers, who will act as the caller, gets a list of entertainment styles from the audience (TV, film, theater, music styles, etc.). Two performers then begin an improvised scene. Periodically, the caller calls out a style and the performers then have to continue the scene in that style, until a new and different style is called. Shoulda Said: This structure has one performer who has a bell. During the scene that follows, every time the bell is rung, the performer who has spoken or done something has to go back a moment or two in time and change what they just said or did into something different. The bell can be rung once or many times in a row. Only the last thing said or done without the bell ringing after it actually becomes part of the scene. Translated scene: This two-person scene is done in foreign languages solicited from the audience. The scenes will be performed in versions of the foreign language that sound right, but aren’t the actual foreign languages. Translators on the side then “translate” these lines into English. Another variation of this scene involves the actors speaking not in a version of a particular foreign language, but in gibberish. Freeze: One improviser gets a suggestion from the audience. The entire cast then begins improvising a scene based on this suggestion. The audience is instructed to shout, “Freeze” whenever they see the performers in interesting positions or feel that the scene is ready to move on. Each time the audience does this; the performers freeze and begin a brand new scene based on the frozen positions they are in, each performer justifying and making sense of the physical positions they have found themselves in. Scene Freeze: One performer acts as the caller, getting a list of suggestions from the audience (one for each performer who will be involved). The action starts with one performer improvising a scene based on one of the suggestions. Throughout the structure, the caller adds performers and suggestions to the mix, until all the performers are involved. As in “Freeze,” all the performers must justify their frozen positions each time. The caller then has the performers jump back and forth from one established scene to another. THE WIT DOCTORS! Musical Structures These structures all have music as a primary focus Song Cue: This is also a scenic structure. A caller gets the suggestion of three differing musical styles from the audience, as well as a suggestion or two to get the scene started. Three times during the scene, the caller freezes the action on a line of dialogue and cues the actors in the scene to improvise a song in one of the three styles solicited at the beginning, with that line of dialogue as the title. Musical: Like song cue, but broader. It can have as many songs as necessary and is like a shortened version of a Broadway musical. It may have a caller or may be fully improvised based on the instincts of the performers and the keyboardist. Forgotten Songs: One performer asks the audience for made up song titles. The performers and keyboardist then improvise songs with the titles the audience has suggested. Make-a-Songs: The performers get suggestions from the audience, then make up words to genre songs with pre-written tunes (rock ‘ roll, blues, country, samba, etc.). THE WIT DOCTORS! Endowment Scenes These structures have as their focus the imparting or “endowing” of information by some of the performers to other performers who do not know that information at the outset of the structure. Torture the Actor: One of the performers is sent out of the room. While they are gone, the audience is asked for an obscure cliché or saying. When the performer returns, the other performers get them to guess the cliché or saying by giving them clues in the context of a scene. Murder Endowment: Like “torture the Actor” except the information to be conveyed is an unusual location, murder weapon and motive, solicited from the audience while performer(s) are out of the room. This has a variation called a chain endowment in which after the first performer figures out the correct information, they have to convey it to other performer(s) outside the room. Word on the Back: Three performers are sent out of the room and three unusual words are solicited from the audience and written on large pieces of paper. When they return, the words are taped to their backs. Thus, each performer knows the other two performers’ words, but not their own. In the context of a scene, the performers try to get each other to correctly guess the word each has on his/her back. Reactions: One or more performers are sent from the room. The audience is then asked to assign each performer remaining in the room an action and something the performers outside the room might do to trigger it. Then the returning performers have to figure out what action they are doing that triggers the reactions. THE WIT DOCTORS! Panel/Game Structures Experts: This is set up like a talk show, with a host and two or three “experts” on a subject that has been solicited from the audience. One of the experts can be an audience member who really does know about the subject. The audience then gets to ask questions of the experts. Jeopardy: This is a parody of the game show of the same name. Three occupations or attitudes are solicited from the audience, which determine the characters of the three contestants. The host has a prepared list of categories. During the course of the game, the audience is asked to shout out “answers” that would fit in the categories. The contestants then have to come up with “questions” to the “answers.” Meeting of the Minds: Like the Steve Allen show of the same name, the audience is asked for three or four well-known characters from history, which then interact and answer questions from the audience. Dating Game: This also parallels the TV show of the same name, but in this “Dating Game,” the three bachelors/bachelorettes are famous characters from history, alive or dead, which are solicited from the audience. Poets’ Corner: A topic is solicited from the audience. Three performers then introduce them selves as poets with disparate styles and each makes up a poem on the topic. THE WIT DOCTORS! Story Structures The following are structures that usually involve all the performers and are built around telling a made-up story. One Word Story: The performers ask for a title from the audience and line up. They then make up a story, each in turn adding one word at a time to the story. The story usually concludes with the title. Conducted Story: One performer acts as a conductor and solicits a title from the audience. The performers tell a story with the conductor moving the storytelling from one actor to another. One Word/Conducted Story with Deaths: This is a variation in which whenever one of the storytellers makes a mistake, the audience eliminates them by yelling, “Die!” That performer then solicits a suggestion or two from the audience and, with the help of the other performers, improvises a theatrical “death.” The performer left standing at the end then finishes the story. Poem: The performers ask for a title from the audience and line up. They then make up a poem, each in turn taking a line. The poem often ends with the title. | ||||
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