Great quote about Improvisation by Tina Fey

"When I started, improv had the biggest impact on my acting. I studied the usual acting methods at college—Stanislavsky and whatnot. But none of it really clicked for me. My problem with the traditional acting method was that I never understood what you were supposed to be thinking about when you’re onstage. But at Second City, I learned that your focus should be entirely on your partner. You take what they’re giving you and use it to build a scene. That opened it up for me. Suddenly it all made sense. It’s about your partner. Not what you’re going to say, not finding the perfect mannerisms or tics for your character, not what you’re going to eat later. Improv helped to distract me from my usual stage bullshit and put my focus somewhere else so that I could stop acting. I guess that’s what method acting is supposed to accomplish anyway. It distracts you so that your body and emotions can work freely. Improv is just a version of method acting that works for me."(Wikipedia, "Tina Fey", 2008)


Really clarifies the connection between improv and getting a deeper resonance with your acting. Take that, everyone who thinks improv is just a bunch of silly games where you "make stuff up" like in Whose Line Is It Anyway (a great show, by the way).

Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 1 year ago

0 comments

Leave a comment...

 
To leave a comment on this posterous, please login by clicking one of the following.
Posterous-login     Connect     twitter