I know, weird, right?
In improv, you have 3 minutes to tell a complete story with a beginning, middle, end, relationships, the whole friggin' nine yards. And you have to come up with all that based on some random suggestion like pineapple.
There isn't time for the story to build slowly, like in a novel. So if you just start with some spacework and no emotion, the audience and your scene partner have to wait until you speak to have any idea of what your character's state of mind is. That's precious seconds wasted. On the other hand, if you start with some spacework and some anger, we don't have to wait for your words to tell us what you're feeling, and your partner can make an immediate choice - either she is the reason you're angry, or she's angry along with you. Any emotion works, as long as it's big and clear and you're committed to it.
Here's an easy way to remember why emotion is important: emotion = motion. You can't move the scene forward if you're neutral, just like your car can't move if it's in neutral. It's, like, science and stuff.
Anyway, as much as I want to believe that my strengths (information/justification) are the most important skills in improv, the truth is, without emotion and commitment there's no reason for any of the rest of it. So I'll just say it: Darren's right.
Wow. That was even more painful than I thought it would be.
By Sonnjea Blackwell
