[OSList] How to prepare to be surprised?

[Phelim McDermott]

Harold,

Lovely to see my Teacher and old friend name checked. I first worked with Keith around 1985. He changed my life.  I'd spent many years creating rather good very well prepared shows. But when we performed them people liked them but I realised I already knew what was going to happen in them!

I did an intensive workshop with Keith and it turned my world upside down. I went from taking a year and a half creating one show to creating a whole new show every night for years.  Not all were great but some were ones I have remembered for the rest of my life. One of the big learnings was that if we did a bad show you could guarantee an amazing one would be along soon... partly because we gave up the idea of being "good".  Of course we didn't know when but it was sure to be predictable in how it would surprise us by how good it was. Creativity didn't happen by the clock but it did have its own seasons. "When it rains.. remember that the sun comes out" as Arny Mindell says. 

Keith Johnstone has spent years opening space in theatres, workshops, and in people's minds and working with him was where I first experienced the opening of space as a practice.  

love 

Phelim 

________________________________

I generally pick up emails only at the beginning and end of the working day. I am currently aiming to respond the following day. If it is urgent please call me on 07956 187298. 
_____________________________________

www.improbable.co.uk
@openspacer


On 7 Apr 2012, at 01:56, Harold Shinsato <harold at shinsato.com> wrote:

> Thanks for so many wonderful responses and food for thought. It was very cool to see it inspired a video from Alex Iglecia. Clearly a lot of years went into getting to that level of understanding the mind/body elements that guide his recommendations about how to prepare to be surprised.
> 
> I especially enjoying the poster tip. It seems a very simple way to get people in the right mood. I was wondering if there were any good artwork for such a poster that I could do for my next Open Space - but Thomas' upside down seems elegantly simple.
> 
> Improv came up several times. I love improv! I think it's interesting that one of the leading improv gurus, Keith Johnstone, wrote a book called "Don't Be Prepared". He's more famous for "Impro", but I cracked open the book that seems to eschew preparation and came upon the beginning of a chapter titled "BEING THERE":
> 
> My first students seemed quite normal until I asked them to improvise; many of them would then become 'over-strong', banging violently on tables, or patting their partner's shoulders with flat hands that did not yield to the contours that they touched.
> 
> If I walked into a scene when they were 'acting' they often failed to observe me, and their muscles felt as hard as wood. A player who tried to join a scene in progress was always likely to be ignored. [...]
> 
> I began interrupting improvisors in mid-flight to ask them what they were doing (I'd never acted so I need to know). Always they'd use the past or the future tense. "I just came in the door," they'd say, or: "I'm about to sit on the sofa"; no one ever said: "I'm wondering where to sit!"
> 
> I realized that my own mind moved into the past or the future whenever I felt insecure (Should I do this? Should I have done that?), and that when I seemed to be 'listening' to someone I might actually be thinking up something clever to say. My students were showing an extreme version of this behaviour.
> 
> What's interesting to me is that it does not seem normal to be able to improvise well. It appears to take a lot of practice being flexible, limber - keeping the body and mind stretched. Keith Johnstone's book is filled with preparations to make it possible to not be prepared. Just one more quote from his book - under "Paradoxical Teaching":
> 
> ... if you want students to master the art of 'not-blocking' ideas, ask them to 'block' ideas (because then they'll recognize blocking when it occurs inadvertently); and if you want them to act well, let them have fun acting badly (this helps them shed a lot of fear).
> 
>     Harold
> 
> 
> On 4/6/12 3:27 PM, Thomas Herrmann wrote:
>> 
>> One way I do, that may be of assistance, is that I write those words at the entrence – and SURPRISED I write upside down – clear message J
>> Cheers
>> Thomas Herrmann
>>  
>> Från: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] För Harold Shinsato
>> Skickat: den 4 april 2012 18:39
>> Till: oslist at openspacetech.org
>> Ämne: [OSList] How to prepare to be surprised?
>>  
>> Searching through the archives there were many many postings about "be prepared to be surprised". But "How to be prepared to be surprised" returned 0.
>> 
>> Any tips on how to prepare? It came up as a question today for me in conversation with someone - and I can't believe I've never thought about it before. How do you prepare to be surprised? Any thoughts, tips?
>> 
>>     Thanks!
>>     Harold
>> 
>> 
> 
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