My friend and troupe-y Paul broke it down for me like this: acting = playing pretend. Believe it or not, that helped. I know; lends credence to the "natural blonde" theory, right?
Having characters in improv actually goes a little beyond, "Hey! I'ma pretend I'm a hoity-toity English woman and talk with an unidentifiable but snooty accent!" First of all, accents in and of themselves do not a character make. What really makes a character a character is a strong point of view and a specific want in this scene.
It's tricky! Being a kindergarten teacher is not really a character by itself. But if you approach life with the point of view of a kindergarten teacher - relentlessly cheery, über-encouraging, explain everything to people in mind-numbing detail, suggest cranky people need a time-out - now we're getting somewhere. What this character wants in any given scene could vary, but how he/she goes about attempting to get it will come from this kindergarten-teacher-point-of-view, and it won't be the same as how a jaded former beauty queen or a lying politician would go about it.
A physical trait like a limp or a nervous cough or hair-twirling helps define the character, and using different voices and postures is also important. But if I stand on stage and nervously cough and speak in a deep voice, but everything I say is my personal point of view, that's not a character. That's just Sonnjea with a cold.
And guess what? If I have a strong egomaniacal, delusions of grandeur point of view, but I stand and speak and gesture like myself (Sonnjea hands!), that's not a character either. Not only that, but it makes it hard for the audience to know who I am from scene to scene - if I always appear the same, they have to wait for me to speak to know which character I am this time. So you have to pretend physical traits and point of view to create a complete character.
The good news is, playing pretend is totally fun, and improv class is about the only place grown-ups can play pretend without being looked at askance. Come take a class with us! I'll be the character who uses askance in a sentence.
By Sonnjea Blackwell
