Here is a physical exercise you can do solo. You can use an empty door frame or just imagine a doorway. Stand in front of the door then mime opening and walking through it. See how many different ways you can walk through the door. The secret to this exercise, Status and Tempo. Once you have experimented with those, check out the shift section.
Status
Go through the door, but imagine you are high status to the door. What does that mean as you walk through? How many different ways are there to show a high status as you come through? Then do the same with low status, see what that feels like as you go through. Experiment with going up to the doorway, picking a status and then finding a new way to go through.
Tempo
Fast or slow my friend, pick one and then do the same thing as above. Go through as fast as you can, go through slower than you ever move. Go through slightly faster than you walk to work. Open the door slower than you get out of bed.
How many different tempos can you find and how does that affect going through a door?
Shifts
A status shift in improv is like a see-saw, one character goes down as another one goes up. You can do the same with the door, pick a status, then as you come through shift to the other one. For example you might stand confidently, throw open the door then trip over something on the floor and end up on your face. That’s going from high to low. Do the same with tempo. Use coming across the door as a signal to shift speeds. Race up to the door and then come through really slowly, or whatever.
Tips
Think also about emotion. Sometimes we act really happy when we are high status, and really afraid and fearful as low status. Mix up your emotions, come through as the undeniable Top Dog who is also terrified of something. Come through as the happiest and lowliest servant you can imagine.
Surprise yourself. Use combinations of speeds, status and emotions that you never use in everyday life, and keep changing them.
Experiment with shifts. Slice up the action into discrete moments and give them different tempos. Walk to the door with a speed, turn the handle with another speed, walk through with another one and close it with yet another shift in your speed. Be high status to the door but low status to the handle. Are some combinations even possible?
Feel it. Don’t just think low status, feel it in your whole body. Make your knees low status, make your toes low status, make your goddamned hair low status.
Ask yourself questions afterward. Do this after you are done playing, because analysing and creating use two different areas in the brain. Try not to analyse as you go, it sends a signal for your creative areas to be quiet so you can focus on something else. You’ve done this during a show/workshop and wondered where all the ideas went, yes? I know I have.
There will be ones you enjoyed doing more than others, ones that really struck you. Ask yourself why that may be. Was it because you suddenly found a character in it, and wanted to do some more with him or her? Was it because you enjoyed doing something really different? Was it because you enjoyed doing a status you feel really comfortable with? Is it because it seemed to tell a story, or the opposite, you loved doing something which didn’t have to make sense. Or was it because you enjoyed tiptoeing up to an imaginary door and then hurling yourself through like a maniac? How do you recognise yourself in doing this?
Using it in Improv
Doing physical stuff can help you find character but it is also a catalyst for thought. Status and tempo are things you can use in scenes if you ever feel like you don’t know what to do. Whenever the other actor does something, react to it like you’ve gone through that door. Let them shift your speeds with their words, then start talking and justify why that has happened. Always move then think. If you found hidden ideas through doing this exercise then imagine how you can use that with other people in scenes.
If you give up on trying to be funny or clever and instead let the scene or your partners play you like an instrument then you will start finding yourself in scenes that are beautiful and engrossing for the audience. Plus it’s fucking funny seeing somebody walk through a door and trip over an imaginary draught-excluder. Get through that door!
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