Improv Challenge Day Seven

Seven posts ago I suggested improvising the next seven, and this is number seven.

Seven posts ago I received a few helpful and one unhelpful suggestion and I decided to tackle each of them.

There was not a seventh, unless I count Dave’s suggestion – improvise.

So, since the alternative is waiting for a possible seventh to fall and possibly not, I think I had better improvise and move on.

I’m not sure waiting is the same as improvising anyway.

In fact we all improvise everyday – sure there are certain constraints and we can be fairly certain things will happen – but most of us make it up as we go along, don’t we?

I’ve never met anyone who has a five or ten year plan for the future though I have read that they exist; I certainly seem to be improvising from one moment to the next.

Last night Antoine, the local sheep farmer turned up to check his flock, I was sitting outside wondering how I would know when to stop the task of Improv Challenge Day Six, writing into the dusk.

First Antoine needed a strimmer - the sheep had discovered where a particularly poisonous plant was growing and he wanted to eradicate it, even though it was quickly becoming night.

Then, when that failed he said goodnight and I replaced all the equipment.

Back to the writing but then Antoine returned – he had a flat tyre and needed a metal bar to help remove the wheel nuts.

I have one, buried somewhere at the back of the van so in the torchlight I located it and sent him on his way.
Back to writing.

A few moments later, Antoine returned with a now bent piece of metal, informed me that it hadn’t worked and asked for a lift home.

None of it was planned and it’s like this most of the time around here.

So it is pretty much how I write most of what goes in this blog – there is a vague idea that popped into the head and it goes from there – I hadn’t intended writing about Antoine for instance, and would probably edit it out – if this post wasn’t "improvise."

I never did a lot of pure improvisation in the theatre, much preferring a structure. There had to be a beginning, middle and end.

Yes, there was freedom to improvise within that but we always came back to the structure.

I’m an Aquarian, probably a control freak and thus I am uncomfortable in complete chaos.

The one time I studied in a workshop with improvisers, I coped but felt uncomfortable and didn’t return the following day.
Was that improvising or being blocked?

If I understand anything, and it’s not sure that I do, it is something to do with what Vicki mentioned in the comments to Down the Rabbit Hole – say yes.

This morning I woke up feeling disappointed with yesterday's effort, unsure when and where to give during the process and frustrated by the not knowing of the time frames of others.

Waking, feeling I had failed.

But thanks to everyone who joined in.

So I’m bringing down the curtain on this episode, maybe try again later….who knows?

Day 5 Day 3 Day 2 Day 1