The World is Improvised

Robert Forget

September 24, 2009

Meredith was about 5’ 3” and you could tell she was a woman who enjoyed good food. Her hair was a wavy brown ocean with golden streaks swimming through it. Always with a smile on her face, she could make any situation turn into a better one. Meredith was always very personable and I was able to talk to her about almost anything. Her voice was lovely but if she had something important to say her voice could send shivers down your back. Considering her occupation, this was her best feature. See Meredith wasn't just my friend; she was my Acting teacher and director in high school.

I met Meredith, and yes we called her by her first name, on the first day of my junior year in high school. This day was also the first day of her new occupation. Meredith was a professional actress but she decided to give teaching a try. Unfortunately Meredith did not have a choice in where she taught and the classroom that we were in for our Acting I class was not really a classroom. Classes were taught here but they were not normal classes. The space that we called our own was full with electronic keyboards and a stand up piano. See we were in the Piano classroom. It was a square room with a shelf about four feet off the ground going around the entire room. On this shelf were the keyboards and a couple of computers. In front of every keyboard was a chair. In the middle of the room there was nothing and in one corner there was the stand up piano. On one wall was a whiteboard and next to this was the door to the band room. When we entered the classroom on the first day we had to use this space as our space. We didn’t have desks and we had to turn the chairs around to form a circle. We didn’t know it at the time but we had to improvise.

The first week went by just like any other class. We met Meredith, went over the syllabus, and introduced ourselves. We found out that not only was Meredith the new Acting teacher but she was also going to be the director for the upcoming fall play. After week one I decided that this could be a fun class and I kept it in my schedule. As the days went by the class had gotten into a usual routine. We would get to class, pull out the chairs, read a play, discuss what we thought, put the chairs back and leave. After every play we would act out a couple of scenes and then take a test on what the play was about and how we interpreted it. Even though the class was in a routine, this did not mean that it was boring. Meredith really wanted us to think in the characters shoes and not just read the play. She made every class extremely engaging.

Classes kept up like this for a couple of weeks until one day I came into class to find something a little different. We all sat down in our seats and when we were settled Meredith announced to the class “Today we are going to learn the art of improvisation!” Now I had heard of improvisation before by watching “Who’s Line Is It Anyway” on TV but I was always scarred of doing it myself. I was worried that I would not be able to think of anything to say and that I would just be standing up there like a bumbling idiot. So Meredith has us all face the same way in class and asks for three volunteers. For some reason, and I do not know why, my hand raised in the air even though my mind was saying “are you insane?” So I found myself in front of the class with two other people ready to do some improvisation. Meredith decided that it would be a good idea to pick an improv game to start with. She decides on the game “Alphabet”. Now let me quickly explain this game. There are three people in the space, a.k.a. the stage, then a place and conversation is chosen. For example it could be two straight men entering a gay bar and the conversation that takes place. The catch is that each sentence has to start with the next letter of the alphabet. So Meredith asked the rest of the class what the scene and conversation should be. They chose the husband walking in on his wife and another man. I was the husband. Meredith also decided that she wanted us to start with the letter “S” instead of “A”. “Begin,” she said. “So work was pretty shitty today but…” I sputtered while in the space. “Tom, I didn’t know you were coming home so early!” said Hallie. “Um, man I can explain this,” explained Kyle. The back in forth of the conversation continued on till we reached the letter “R”. When we finished, I realized that I actually did a pretty impressive job. For some reason the things I should say just came to me. I was never lost and the words just came out of my mouth. Meredith came over to me and told me that I did a fantastic job. She was surprised that I did so well on my first time. I told her I was also surprised. She asked me to come to class a little early the next day. So I did.

The next day I walked into the classroom and Meredith was sitting in a chair. She told me to grab one and pull it up next to her. We started to talk about yesterday’s exercise. She then told me that she wanted to do a Murder Mystery dinner and that she wanted me to be the lead role. I agreed but had some questions. When will I get a script? How does a murder mystery work? She told me that a Murder Mystery dinner ran just like a play, but it was all improv. I understood the concept but was confused on why she wanted me to be the lead. She told me that some people have a natural ability to improvise very quickly and that I was one of these people. Not only could I use this ability in acting but that I could use it in everyday life.

We held the Murder Mystery dinner and it was a huge success. I continued to work with Meredith on my improv skills for the rest of the school year. Over the summer I sold cars for my dad and was very successful. If it was not for Meredith helping me discover my talent, I do not think that I would have done as well as I did selling. See when you sell cars you are always put up against new challenges that seem to come out of nowhere. Learning to improvise helps you stay on your feet and think on your toes and overcome these challenges. What I learned about myself with the help from Meredith will help me for the rest of my life.

Memoir Draft

Robert Forget

September 16, 2009

Meredith is about 5’ 3” and a little pudgy. She has wavy blond hair with brown streaks in it. She was a lovely person who always had a smile on her face. Meredith was always very personable and I was able to talk to her about almost anything. She was a strong woman though, she was never afraid to tell you what she thought. This was a good characteristic considering her occupation. See Meredith wasn’t just my friend; she was my Acting teacher and director in high school.

I met Meredith, and yes we called her by her first name, on the first day of my junior year in high school. This day was also the first day of her new occupation. Meredith was a professional actress but decided to give teaching a try. The classroom that we were in for our Acting I class was not really a classroom. Classes were taught here but they were not normal classes. The space that we called our own was full with electronic keyboards and a stand up piano. See we were in the Piano classroom. The room itself was pretty basic. It was square with a shelf about four feet off the ground going around the entire room. On this shelf were the keyboards and a couple of computers. In front of every keyboard was a chair. In the middle of the room there was nothing and in one corner there was the stand up piano. On one wall was a whiteboard and next to this was the door to the band room. When we entered the classroom on the first day we had to use this space as our space. We didn’t have desks and we had to turn the chairs around to form a circle. We didn’t know it at the time but we had to improvise.

The first week went by just like any other class. We met Meredith, went over the syllabus, and introduced ourselves. We found out that not only was Meredith the new Acting teacher but she was also going to be the director for the upcoming fall play. After week one I decided that this could be a fun class and decided to keep it in my schedule. As the days went by the class had gotten into a usual routine. We would get to class, pull out the chairs, read a play, discuss what we thought, put the chairs back and leave. After every play we would act out a couple of scenes and then take a test on what the play was about and how we interpreted it. Even though the class was in a routine, this did not mean that it was boring. Meredith really wanted us to think in the characters shoes and not just read the play. She made every class extremely engaging.

Classes kept up like this for a couple of weeks until one day I came into class to find something a little different. We all sat down in our seats and when we were settled Meredith announced to the class “Today we are going to learn the art of improvisation!” Now I had heard of improvisation before by watching “Who’s Line Is It Anyway” on TV but I was always scarred of doing it myself. I was worried that I would not be able to think of anything to say and that I would just be standing up there like a bumbling idiot. So Meredith has us all face the same way in class and asks for three volunteers. For some reason, and I do not know why, my hand raised in the air even though my mind was saying “are you insane??” So I found myself in front of the class with two other people ready to do some improvisation. Meredith decided that it would be a good idea to pick an improv game to start with. She decides on the game “Alphabet”. Now let me quickly explain this game. There are three people in the space, a.k.a. the stage, then a place and conversation is chosen. For example it could be two straight men entering a gay bar and the conversation that takes place. The catch is that each sentence has to start with the next letter of the alphabet. So Meredith asked the rest of the class what the scene and conversation should be. They chose the husband walking in on his wife and another man. I was the husband. Meredith also decided that she wanted us to start with the letter “S” instead of “A”. “Begin,” she said.

“So work was pretty shitty today but…” I sputtered while in the space. “Tom, I didn’t know you were coming home so early!” said Hallie. “Um, man I can explain this,” explained Kyle. The back in forth of the conversation continued on till we reached the letter “R”. When we finished, I realized that I actually did a pretty impressive job. For some reason the things I should say just came to me. I was never lost and the words just came out of my mouth. Meredith came over to me and told me that I did a fantastic job. She was surprised that for someone who had never done it before it came so naturally. I told her I was also surprised. She told me that she wanted me to come to class a little early the next day. So I did.

The next day I walked into the classroom and Meredith was sitting in a chair. She told me to grab one and pull it up next to her. We started to talk about yesterday’s exercise that we did. She then told me that she wanted to do a Murder Mystery dinner and that she wanted me to be the lead role. I agreed but asked her how this was going to work. She told me the entire dinner was going to be improv. I was confused on why she wanted me to be the lead. She told me that some people have a natural ability to improvise very quickly and that I can use this not only in the Acting world but my everyday life. She told me that I would be very good in a business situation because I can think on my feet and find solutions. I told her I would try it out.

Later in the year we did the Murder Mystery Dinner and it was a huge success. I continued to try different improvisation situations and to try to improve at it. In the summer I sold cars and I could tell that the improvisational skills that I had discovered with the help from Meredith greatly helped in my success.

Memo Assignment

To: Professor Moody



From: Bob Forget



Date: 9/15/09



RE: Implementing feedback into my Memoir





Hello Professor,



I received a lot of positive feedback from Hilarion about my introduction to my memoir. There are a lot of different ideas that I am looking forward to using in my introduction as well as my entire memoir. A couple of these ideas include: More descriptive words, use of dialogue, and more engaging sentences for the reader of the memoir. With all of these different ideas I believe that I will be able to really transform my introduction and memoir into something I am really proud of!

The first way I will implement some of the feedback I received from Hilarion is using more descriptive adjectives to really describe my teacher as well as the classroom and the process of improv. I want to be able to have the reader feel like they are actually in the classroom with me and not just reading a paper. I will definitely be going to my thesaurus for some serious help because this is not something that is new to me. I seem to always find myself using non-exciting and normal words to describe situations and people.

The second way I will use some feedback is in the use of dialogue. I have had some very interesting conversations with my acting teacher. I am hoping that I can remember some of these so that I can use them in my memoir. I believe that they will severely increase the excitingness of my memoir and also give the reader some actual conversations for them to base the other writing on.

The third way I will use the feedback is using more engaging sentences for the reader to get caught in. I want this memoir to pop out at you and a way to do this is using very well written sentences. The one area I really want to focus this on is on the opening sentences of my paragraphs. I want these sentences to catch the reader and force them to want to read more.

Introduction

Mrs. Caple was not your average high school teacher. She wasn't even a teacher by trade. She originally was an actress who had stared in many different theatrical productions. She was about 5' 4" and a little overweight. She had blond hair with brown streaks in it, but this would eventually change. She always had a smile on her face although she was not afraid to call you out on a mistake. She was very easy to talk to and this made her teaching that more exciting. Her teaching is what made her unique. It was not the usual lecture and notes, but more engaging. She wanted us to be able to almost teach ourselves and this went over really well with the rest of the class.

Brainstorming

I have decided to write about my acting class during my sophomore year in high school. I was going to write about moving a lot but I feel like I would not be able to fit that into 1,250 words or less.



I know I definitely want to describe the first time I met my teacher and then how it was every day class until we started working on improv.



Teacher Description:

Her name is Meredith Freeman-Caple or otherwise known as Mrs. Caple or Meredith. She always wore very stylish casual clothes and was a very loud person. She wasn't annoying loud but she was not afraid to tell you how she wanted things done. Which she needed to do because she was a professional actress and now she would be directing the school plays. She was very kind and almost always had a smile on her face, but if you did something that she did not like, you could definitely see it in her eyes.



Classroom Description:

The classroom that she had to use was the keyboard classroom. So there were a lot of electric keyboards lying around which did distract some students...including myself. It was a square room and the middle of the room was wide open, this is where a lot of the actual "acting" took place. Other than that it was your basic class room.

Ideas and Answers

Three Ideas:



1. When I moved from Milford, NH to Dover, NH to Madbury, NH all in 2 years when I was 10-11 and how this affected my social life and the way I interact with other people.



2. When I went to the Civic Leadership Academy and how this changed my reaction to public speaking and problem solving.



3. When I took acting class my sophmore year in HS and the way it introduced me to improvisation.





What are they about:



1. This is about when I moved twice in a matter of two years to two completely different towns and how I reacted to moving and meeting new people.



2. I went to the CLA and learned a lot about public speaking and realized that I am actually a really good public speaker. I also learned a lot about prolem solving and how to go about getting my ideas out in the open.

3. I took Acting class my sophmore year of HS. The teacher was new to the school and she was actually a professional actress. She introduced me to improv and how it doesn't just relate to acting but also to other things in my life.

Significance:

1. These moves completely changed my perspective on people. I was forced from my friends and forced to make new ones and this changed the way I am.

2. The two weeks I was at the CLA I matured a great amount. I found out things about me that I had never known before. I realized that I was a pretty decent public speaker and that I could solve problems better than I had thought I could.

3. This class showed me that I could improvise very well and think on my feet. At first I thought it was just for acting purposes but then I realized I could use it in my everyday life.