SPONTANEITY AND IMPROVISATION
This concept in acting refers to unplanned, moment-to-moment choices that arise from training, rehearsal, and intuition.
What is Spontaneity?
This artist’s painting Guernica demonstrates how mastery over technique allows freedom from realism.
Who is Pablo Picasso?
These are the fictional behavioral parameters dictated to the actors by the author.
What are the given circumstances?
This term, derived from the Greek “teche,” is a means to an end in the creation of art and involves precision and tools for actors to improve their craft.
What is technique?
This is the only country in the world which is also a continent.
What is Australia?
According to the tennis analogy, this is the equivalent of the court’s boundaries in acting.
What is form?
Picasso’s later work may appear chaotic, but is actually this—showing control, intention, and structure beneath the surface.
What is precise?
According to the text, interpretation in acting means turning words on a page into this.
What is a living, embodied fiction?
When an actor begins a role, this question is vital in understanding the character’s background, personality and what shapes their point of view, from likes and dislikes to their social class and environment.
What is ”Who am I”?
This African river is often considered the longest in the world.
What is the Nile river?
This is the most important thing an actor should focus on to decide how to play their action.
What is ‘scene partner’?
According to this person, repetition builds “growing power” in an artist.
Who is Michael Chekov?
These two factors determine our “social masks,” or how we behave in different situations.
What are the circumstances and our relationship to the people in them?
Actors are encouraged to answer this question by imagining the environment and surroundings of a scene, asking if the location is familiar, public or private, or whether it feels like home or away.
What is “Where am I”?
This city, known as the “City Of Lights,” is home to the Seine river.
What is Paris?
This is what actors must always say in improv, to accept and build on what others bring.
What is “yes…and”?
According to the text, young actors may give one or two inspired performances, but only those with this can do so consistently over time.
What is training?
This key quality in an actor—described as “available, facile, and potent”—makes audiences want to watch them.
What is imagination?
In every scene, the character must have one primary goal or need that drives their actions. This question helps the actor pinpoint the character’s objective in a scene.
What is "What do I need?"
This US state has the most active volcanoes.
What is Alaska?
In improvisation, this is what actors must “let go of” to truly respond in the moment with authenticity and openness.
What are preconceived notions or plans?
This principle, implied in Picasso’s approach to Guernica, suggests that the less literal or realistic a piece of art is, the more the audience must engage imaginatively—contrasting the "passive viewing" often associated with photorealism.
What is interpretive engagement?
The intangible quality in an actor that makes us prefer one performance to another.
What is the individual actor’s intuitive, idiosyncratic, and creative interpretation of the given circumstances that shape audience satisfaction?
This question deals with the character’s response if their goal is achieved or thwarted in a scene, requiring the actor to adapt their objective and action accordingly.
What is "What do I do if I get or don’t get what I need?"
This is the Viking God Thor’s Hammer.
What is Mjolnir?