To Get Through The Tensions Of Change, Think Like An Improviser

“Creativity isn’t about guessing the future correctly. It’s about making yourself open to imagining radically different possibilities.” Angus Fletcher, Ohio State University’s Project Narrative

My improv team AURA, which recently wrapped up a 6-month season of shows at Magnet Theater in NYC, experimented with a largely non-verbal, abstract group interaction to open our sets that gave rise to grounded scenes. As an example, one night the suggestion was “Boggle.” A person on the team started shaking the imaginary cup. The rest of us became the letter-bearing cubes, going left, right up or down as a group, taking cues from our teammate’s movement, on the alert to take advantage of a pose, movement or accompanying sound that lent itself to the opening of a scene. An opening for a scene might be two players noticing they both have their arms straight up over their heads. One starts waving, the other one joins. The first player says “I don’t think they see us, that plane is just too high and this island is so tiny.” The other player takes the idea further. “I don’t think anyone is really looking for us. I mean, the boat came back without us 2 days ago and that’s the first plane we’ve seen.” And the pair becomes a stranded couple after a weird snorkeling incident.