The PAAAF workshop programme is under way! We began with a session on improvisation, playing games designed to get imaginations into top gear and making up new material on the spot. It was a session that tested our ways with words; we played the ‘Yes, and…’ game, where a pair of players build up a narrative between them, starting each line after the first with ‘Yes, and…’. So the first player might say: ‘I went to Morrisons yesterday’. Player 2 might respond: ‘Yes, and there was a two for one offer on Valentine cards’. Player one: ‘Yes, and so of course I bought a couple.’ Player two: ‘Yes, and my girlfriend found them.’ Player two: ‘Yes, and now I’m tired because I couldn’t sleep very well on the sofa’, and so on until someone hesitates, goes off-topic or forgets to start with ‘Yes, and…’. (I hear that Morrisons really do have that offer, by the way. But don’t blame me if it gets you into trouble!) We played another game in which everyone gets in a circle, one player strikes a pose and then another joins them and starts to improvise a scene. At any point, another player from the circle can take over from one of the current players in the scene, by tapping them on the shoulder and striking the same pose. However, they must then invent a new story to fit the positions that they and the other player is in. Anything can happen. I’m not sure how Douglas ended up playing a deadly mermaid, but it was pretty amazing!
For the last part of the session, we split into groups and mostly started to create new stories between us. I got together with Waleed and Adam to act out a draft radio script that Adam has written, and we got feedback from the rest of the group. Some really constructive criticisms were aired. Alex and Max acted out an outrageously un-PC but pretty funny improv about a gay police officer, which caused a lot of sometimes slightly guilty laughter. It was a well-attended and fun session, and a good start to the PAAAF workshop programme.
This Thursday’s session is billed as being on ‘animalism and animal metaphors’, which sounded worryingly energetic for a creaking old fellow like me. However, Doug promises that we will not be spending the whole session running around pretending to be monkeys. In fact, the session is going to focus more on improvisations based on the pictures that we’ve all been asked to bring in. paintings are Reproductions of paintings are especially welcome. However, don’t panic if you don’t have a picture, because Doug will be bringing in some art books that you can pick something from. The main thing you need to bring is your imagination!
Dave Jennings
