V - The purpose of the short form
This edition dives into the nuances of improv and Playback Theatre when it comes to short form.
Another newsletter and, so far, I made it to a handful! Thank you lovely subscribers. After a hectic weekend, last week was quite chill, I don’t have a remarkable update, so let’s jump into topic.
🧠 🪑 On improv and Playback Theatre (PT)
This week, I want to blend topics and reflect on the concept of short form in both improv and Playback Theatre, getting into similarities and differences.
In both disciplines, the main purpose of short form is to offer the audience a clear and immediate glimpse into the essence of each art form. In improv, short form typically refers to improv games that highlight the spontaneity and creativity characterising improv. In Playback Theatre, short form often involves the immediate enactment of an audience member's feelings or brief experience, capturing the emotional truth in the moment.
Sticking with common traits, both styles require being present, thinking fast, and also building upon what’s already on the stage. There’s also a prompt from the audience to quick-start both. A very important in any kind of short form is the fact that nothing is completely out of the blue. There is a structure to follow in both improv (like game rules) and PT short forms.
Then, the paths begin to split.
The final purpose of short from improv is to entertain the audience and get laughs from it. The ultimate purpose of PT is to honour the sharing of the teller, of course, being able to appeal to the audience, which sometimes can also please the actors with earnest laugh. Both have different challenges and rewards. By the way, it’s worth mentioning that PT forms are way shorter than any improv game.
Another thing that I’ve noticed, doing both, is a completely different interaction with the audience, translating to a different flow of empathy. Improv games work because the audience is empathetic towards the players, being supportive and celebrating their mistakes. That contrasts with PT short forms where the actors are the ones being empathetic to the tellers within the audience.
Each ways require a particular set of skills that I always encourage everyone to get. I was lucky enough to land into PT from improv, leaving me with a work of adjusting the ways of improv to PT, rather than beginning from ground level. Doing both has improved greatly my toolbox.
If you are practicing one and not the other, give it a go to the one you’re missing.
🎭 On Theatre
This week I turn my head towards American contemporary theatre through the lens of Larissa FastHorse and her piece The Thanksgiving Play. Being a Native American, Larissa wrote this comedy as a satire of white guilt.
In it, white characters with a strong sense of social justice get together to devise a school play about the role of the Native Americans in the events commemorated every year on Thanksgiving day… without the vision of a Native American.
It’s an entertaining and interesting reflection of white saviourism, and the concept of play within a play is cute, but the dialogues are quite ordinary. FastHorse relied heavily on clichés to write its characters resulting in a runway of caricatures impossible to be relatable. It’s quite possible that it was the intention, though, considering how white authors tend to write Native American characters.
I really liked the intention of this play, but the execution is a bit underwhelming. Not saying that is a bad play, though.
🗣️ Shout-out!
When I moved to London, during the pandemic, I got very close to the network of improvisers that, like me, didn’t have English as native language. That’s how I discovered ISL (Improv as a Second Language) founded by Claudia Novati in 2018 and, joined by Marie de Waal, she’s been running it ever since.
They create a safe space and run sessions for those improvisers who are self-conscious of their language barrier. If you live in London and you are in that situation, I highly recommend you to check what are they up to.
📆 What is coming up
This Saturday I’m playing with Shuffle at Hoopla at the Bell. I’m so looking forward to it! Get your tickets.
Next month, a new London Playback performance is due. Come the 8th of June to the Rosemary Branch Theatre for an afternoon of Playback Theatre. Get your tickets.
📚 🎮 🎥 📺 The geeky dessert
With access to so different kinds of media, I don’t read comic books as much as I did growing up. I used to read Marvel comics a lot, being Spider-Man my favourite hero (cliché, I know), and The Fantastic Four my favourite group. Of course, I follow the Marvel Cinematic Universe since it’s origin in 2008 with the introduction of Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man. Last week we watched Thunderbolts* (super enjoyable!) and the end credit scene teased The Fantastic Four spaceship.
I’m so looking forward to the release this Summer of The Fantastic Four: First Steps movie, hoping it finally makes justice to the portrayal of the extraordinary family on a film. I really liked John Krasinsky as Reed Richards in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and I was a bit disappointed when I found out he wouldn’t reprise that role, however I’m sure Pedro Pascal will be awesome in the part.
✨ That’s all folks ✨
Thanks for reading Playing Back an Improvised Life, a newsletter by Ferran Luengo.
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Ferran Luengo