Chicago - Jeff Wirth workshop (Improv with an Audience member)

I'm finally to the blog entry about Chicago. As of right now, I'm only going to do this which are the notes that I got in the workshop that I took. While the Roving Imp group (John, Nifer, Julie, Jen, Justin, Keith, Aron, Ashley) were doing their Saturday afternoon workshop from 12 to 6, I took a workshop from 2:30 - 5:30. This was a workshop for the training of long form improvasation with an audience member, or a Spect-actor as Jeff Worth calls them. This won't exactly look like the neatest notes ever taken. But I just wanted to share the notes I got from that workshop.
Before I begin, let me just say that there are things in here that can work just in improv with only actors on stage.
*Let the scene build.
*Don't be afraid of stuff. Stuff can always come back around to being about the two of you (you and your scene partner-spectactor or actor).
*Let the audience member choose to be chosen. Don't pick them on your own unless you have too. (By the way, let me just say that at the Roving Imp, no one gets pick who don't volunteere themselves. When I saw StitchTactics last month, their rule was, if you volunteere someone, then you are the one who goes).
*Story can be built without following. The negating of something (something offered) can add to the reality. If you're the one being told "no," let that affect you. (Generally not good to say "no" in improv. But this was for working with an audience member).
*Don't be affraid to touch the person in a push the envelope kind of way. (The scene will be more interesting with the reaction...and some people actually do have smaller bubbles)... Not touching can also be affective depending on the type of spect-actor.
*When a third charicter comes in, it's easy for the spect-actor to "watch a tennis game" by watching the 2 others on stage talk. Keep the spect-actor a part of the scene (also good with regular actors).
*Make the spect-actor able to build trust with you. This is called being "The buddy." You shouldn't scare the audience member. They should feel comfortable being on stage with you. (Likewise, there should be trust between your fellow actors as well...even if for different reasons).
*Ask questions of the spect to buld a scene but not in a way that makes them feel they don't need an Associates degree to answer (ask where they were the night before, not about how to use Einstein's theory of Reletivity to propperly park their car). Then ask the follow up question. (Where were you last night? (1st question). I was at the pool. (Answer). You were at the pool? (Follow-up question). Yeah, I was having a skinny dipping party. (Answer)).
*Get a "want" early on. As soon as the "want" is established, make them change so that they are different without it and they have to fight for that "want" to get it back. (Find out early on what the protagonist wants. Then, make them fight for that so that they change in the show).
*Seats can be used for emotional reasons (as well as relationships...sitting down with someone suggest something different than standing with them).
*The spect-actor IS the protagonist. Someone on stage needs to be the antagonist. This is the one who makes it hard for them to get what they want. A good antagonist is unreasonable, unfair, and unreasonably cruel. The antagonist needs to challenge the protagonist (spect-actor in this case) to win. You can't JUST give them what they want.
*The scene ends on the spect-actor's line.

The last part that I've got notes over are the different types of Spect-actors.
*The Caregiver - They want to care for others in the scene. This is something they naturally lead to do off stage and it becomes part of their charicter.
*The Judge - This for that. They will try to reason and will probably be more logical.
*The Game Player - They try to map out solutions. This is usually plot and should be avoided in improv. However, someone from the audience who is leading the story won't know the usual rules.

When you as a regular performer find their weakness, you need to utalize that weakness so they get into the story.
Some people may drive the scene. You want to play to their charicteristic. When they have power, make them us it by giving them the ability to use it rather than just show off their power.
OR
Give them something to have to fight against.
(Why are super heroes cool? Because not just do they have their super powers, but they also use it for good and/or stop the villian from doing harm...just saying).

Anyway, those were the notes that I was able to get from the workshop in Chicago. I may give an update about the trip itself. But most of the people who might come across this were either there, already heard it from me, or not really interested in reading about a trip to Chicago...