Spreading the Transforming Power of Improvisation

Improvisational chats

Hi, anyone ever tried practicing improv by chat (like online roleplay)? Anyone interested?

Tags: chat, interactive, online, roleplay, text-based, writing

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Permalink Reply by Shachar Perlman on February 14, 2009 at 1:19am: why not?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tania on February 4, 2009 at 2:37am: Thank you both for your replies, that's cool.

Ok, I have created an interest group (in Groups) and I'll invite you to be members in a minute.
I'd be nice to have a little community for chat improv.

In the meantime, let's carry on discussing the possible approaches, because this is a sketchy idea of mine in its blueprint stage lol

1) where?
there's a chat functionality on this site but it looks very limited (narrow, no font, only one smiley), perhaps we would need to switch to msn or another chatroom but I lack ideas here... Any suggestions?...

2) when?
how do roleplayers do it? agree on a time for people to connect? We also have to bear in mind time zones. I'm CET+1 (France) myself.

3) who?
do we need someone acting as the moderator and/or referee like in impro matches? I've seen the professional impro matches but I don't know the rules very well. In my (amateur) drama company, it's just our director giving constraints and organising improv shows in a rather free, non-competitive, creative way...
MSN allows multiparticipants (with fonts, colours etc.) I think it would work...

4) how?
Which format do we want to give the improv chats, would people jump in etc. Let's just brainstorm... So what do we have?

- 100% free chat starting with any topic (like what already exists on the web)...

- professional impro matches format re-using the same rules except on chat (i.e. type, title, number of players, category, length), we need at least 3 participants to try that, but the more the better...
cf.http://phillips.personal.nccu.edu.tw/improv/what-itl.html for more details on rules.

- online text-based roleplaying: how does that work?? Alex, could you tell us more about it? Give us examples or recommend a site where we can see how it works?

- a mix of the above...

- other, please suggest...

Maybe the best is to try things, see what works and what doesn't. And who knows perhaps the concept will grow and attract more and more participants...

But I think the "mindset" of improvisational theatre (listening, accepting, constructing...) is essential.

Thanks, speak soon
Tania; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Alex Fradera on February 3, 2009 at 6:07am: Hey Tania

Sure, I would. Nice idea.

I think it would be worth figuring out how to approach it.

Would we want to follow classic in-person improv conventions: Bulding on each others contributions, attributing qualities to each other?

Alterantively, we could use online roleplay conventions - which, if we mean online text based roleplaying, are totally not combat oriented - as the basis for creation: these includes total power over "your" own thoughts, feelings, actions, and even welfare; sometimes a 'warden'-type figure to determine things extraneous to the characters, etc.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Raffi Feghali on February 3, 2009 at 5:09am: This looks like a good idea... I'd like to try it :); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Alan Montague on January 27, 2009 at 4:49pm: I once tried doing some simple games to warm up some people for a brainstorming session where most of the people were in one room but others were out in a number of other locations and dialed in on a phone conference and sharing a webex.
I found that some games worked better than others. One word at a time didn't work too well as I had hoped as the voice conferencing clipped the start of a sentence. That's a biggie when it's only one word!
I found that using the webex to record the words spoken it made it easier....
Alan; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tania on January 30, 2009 at 5:46am: Thanks very much for your reply.
I want to experiement written improvisations using msn or on a chat room.
Being a regular "chatter" on the web (as well as an amateur improv actress), I think that Instant Messaging (with all its jargon, humour etc.) has a lot in common with improv.
Unfortunately chatting online is not specifically creative, but I see a potential (with results that can be saved too).
In my organisation, we use IM for distant collaboration, on a daily basis (but nothing to do with improv techniques unfortunately, just standard work)
Online roleplayers do something similar, I think, but mainly on forums and mainly relating to fantasy combats...
Of course there would be no body language, facial expressions, physical action... That's why technology invented emoticons...
So let's experiment!
Anyone interested?; ▶ Reply to This