Space Jump – a warm-up for memory and transformations

One Person Scene. Two Person Scene. Three Person Scene. Four Person Scene. Five Person Scene. Six Person Scene. Five Person Scene. Four Person Scene. Three Person Scene. Two Person Scene. One Person Scene.

Or…

One Person Scene. One Person Scene. One Person Scene. One Person Scene. One Person Scene. One Person Scene. One Person Scene. One Person Scene. One Person Scene. One Person Scene. One Person Scene.

Or…

One Person Scene. Two Person Scene. Two Person Scene. One Person Scene. Two Person Scene. One Person Scene. Two Person Scene. One Person Scene. Two Person Scene. Two Person Scene. One Person Scene.

Space Jump is a crowd pleasing short-form improv game and a great tool for learning memory, focus, pacing and transformation edits

Performers are: David Adams, Guy Chapman, Patrice Deveaux, Micah Head, Alan Hopkinson, Nick Lawton, Megan Lemay, Jillian MacDougall, Tim Magier, Curtis Nunnally

SPACE JUMP – One player engages a physical scene based on the audience’s suggestion of a “chore” like doing laundry, raking leaves, etc. Player Two enters, signifying a new scene.  Player Two sets up a new scene taking Player One – and the physical position s/he was in – to a new place (Ex: Player One was bending down to pick up a dollar, Player Two makes them both field hands with hoes).  Player Three enters and sets up a new scene based off the poses of Players One and Two.  Repeat with a fourth and fifth player.  Then have the fifth player leave stage to return the remaining players to the fourth scene.  Then the fourth player leaves, returning the scene to the third environment.  Repeat until the initial player is back in the initial environment.

Lessons:

  • Silence is fun – Whether as Player One engaging environment in the first scene or Player Four joining the chorus, put more focus on embodying your reactions than explaining them.
  • Again, enthusiastic acceptance of another player’s contribution is improv’s superpower. Immediately accept whatever world you’re brought to and the audience will love you for it.
  • More people on stage necessitates more agreement – You can’t have four or more people on stage all with different perspectives/characters; it just gets too messy. Encourage players to agree to each other’s perspectives and mirror each other’s physicality to minimize the amount of “stuff” on stage and to focus the scene.
  • MORE PHYSICAL THE BETTER – players having to justify their physical position/pose moving through and back through the scenes is part of the fun.
  • In the sequence’s assent, it’s fun to transpose players’ physical positions into new worlds. Ex: Cheerleaders become air traffic control people.
  • In transitioning back through the Sequence, a scene that had fallen into the doldrums is sparked back up when players leap to their previous stage positions as ninjas.
  • In the sequence’s assent, a scene of characters frantically preparing for a party transitioned into a scene of characters trapped in a fire. In transitioning back through the sequence, the scene of prone bodies burnt from the fire became hosts lying on the floor in the wake of an insane party.

 

One thought on “Space Jump – a warm-up for memory and transformations

  1. Pingback: Sounds & Atmosphere exercises | Improv As Improv Does Best

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