Honors Essay #5

Improvisation at The Bookstore

How improv was used in our script.

“Everything sounds better in a British accent, listen.” What started out as a simple joke from class was soon worked into the script for The Bookstore. This is just one example of how our class used improvisation to develop dialogue, characters, and even an overall plot for our scripted play.

The British joke wasn’t the only line and dialogue added to the script from improv. “It’s always so weird to see your professors in the real world,” (said by Natalie in Act 1 Scene 2) came from a late night editing session at school. Alexa and Natalie needed dialogue when they entered the bookstore as Professor Sampson left, but the playwrights and I stuggled to give them something to talk about. When we saw our teachers, Randy Scherer and Brandon Davidson, talking in the classroom across from the one we were working in at six o’clock at night, it occurred to us that our teachers are constantly at school–even after the sun goes down. We rarely ever see our teachers outside of school, and when we do it seems unnatural. And then it dawned on us, Alexa and Natalie wouldn’t be used to seeing their professor outside of college, and so we had them say what we all were thinking–don’t the teachers just live on campus?

We used our own experiences to create scenes within our play, one of which included our teacher, a student, and a pen. When Randy saw one of his students chewing on the pen that was borrowed from him, he couldn’t help but say something. Of course the student adamantly denied that the pen was in his mouth, despite it being witnessed by both Randy and the other students next to him. The back and forth banter on whether or not the pen was actually in his mouth was hilarious to watch–it had to be in our play. And so in Act 1 Scene 3 Alexa is caught chewing on Grant’s pen–which she denies of course. If this skit sounds familiar to some, you must be a fan of the HBO comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm, created and starred in by Larry David. He too has a pen problem. And like our own play, Curb Your Enthusiasm is largely based off of improv and has thirty-four Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe win under their belt.

Along with the creation of dialogue, improvisation helped us with characterization. We read our script aloud to hear the flow of conversations. When something sounded off we tried it in a different way. At times we would write a whole new line completely, while other timed we would give the line or joke to a different character altogether. It was the game of trial and error. Originally, Grant was going to yell Colby’s name at him for his shameless attempt at a pickup line on Alexa–but Grant wasn’t at the book club yet and chronologically it didn’t work. Rather than take the line out we gave it to Natalie–again it didn’t feel right. Finally we changed the line to, “is that the best you got?” and gave it to Alexa herself.

Working and reworking ideas was something we became experts at. In the final and completed version of our script the climax of the plot is when Vincent is caught between two conflicts. At the same time that Jane, the foreclosure worker, came to tell Vincent his bookstore was being reposed by the bank, Lily walks in and breaks up with him. But the scene did not start off this way. The actors and writers knew they wanted to force Vincent into two conflicts happening at the same time. They were sure they wanted Lily to break up with him, while the second conflict was still unknown. The first idea was to have Vincent receive a ticket from a police officer. After much discussion that turned into him somehow losing his bookstore, which in turn became a repossession worker who took away the bookstore due to the mortgage not being paid–that worker turned into Jane found on Act 2 Scene 4.   

From everything sounding better in a British accent; to pretending it’s your birthday; to a major plot development, they all came from improvisation in a matter of four weeks. And as the actors and writers continue to perfect this technique with more time and practice to develop scripts for TV, movies, and plays….I wonder what will happen next.