imprology, improvisation based training

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Pecking orders are the stabilised ranking of individuals in social groups according to their status. They allow members to avoid wasting time and energy in endless conflict over position and privilege - until an environmental change reshuffles the cards.

The place individuals occupy in pecking orders is subject to circumstances, i.e. after a shipwreck, the most respected individual in a group of survivors would probably be the one who knows how to fish. Keith Johnstone first spotted the importance of status in improvisation. The notion is relevant to impovisers on many levels:

As a person. What is our favourite place in the pecking order? Would we rather be leading or following? Are we being supportive or forever competing for attention? Status games allow us to explore our inner-self and the relation we have with others in both a concrete and lighthearted manner.

As a player. Improvisation is a team game and players' status within the team will constantly change. According to circumstances, players have to support others or take the lead, sometime both at once! And a player's understanding of what a scene should be about will not necessarily be shared by other players, hence the need for everyone to constantly re-adjust.

As a character. A character's status can be high or low compaired to other characters, but status games can also be played with places, objects, ideas and feelings, and status swings offers endless reservoir of scenes that will "write themselves".

As a storyteller. Most stories establish some form of pecking order in the opening scenes and proceed to upset it. Closing scenes generally feature the restoration of the original order or the foundation of a new one, along with the triumph or destruction of the main protagonist.

© Remy Bertrand - Imprology 2005/2009
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