les_golden@yahoo.com

Les Golden
934 Forest Avenue
Oak Park, Illinois 60302
708-848-6677

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SHAKESPEARE ON IMPROVISATION

This fellow is wise enough to play the fool;
And to do that well craves a kind of wit:
He must observe their mood on whom he jests,
The quality of persons, and the time,
And, like the haggard, check at every feather
That comes before his eye. This is a practice
As full of labor as a wise man's art:
For folly that he wisely shows is fit;
But wise men, folly-fall'n, quite taint their wit.

-- Viola, Act III, Scene 1, Twelfth Night (Cambridge text)

In this brief speech, Shakespeare touches on many of the requirements of effective improvisation. The actors must listen and observe each other, "observing their mood." They must be aware of the status differentials between the characters, their "quality." An environment possesses many attributes, including the period or epoch, the "time." A haggard is a untrained hawk or falcon, and the term "to check" refers to a hawk which errs by forsaking the game she is following and follows another which happens to fly cross her path. So in the sense of improvisation, Shakespeare is saying that rather than following preconceived ideas and ignoring what happens on stage, even the errors, you must incorporate these events, be ecological in the use of what actually happens. Finally, the kind of comedy, or "folly," that emerges from respecting such concepts, being "wisely" shown, is "fit" in the sense of attractive or suitable. On the other hand, wise men who simply "go for the joke," that is, fall prey to folly, fail to produce attractive comedy.

The concepts which Del Close taught were in part known to Shakespeare, and indeed to the actors of the commedia d'el arte which preceded him. I regret that I cannot be as succinct as Shakespeare in presenting them.


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GALILEO GALILEI ON IMPROVISATION

"How, in order that we may harvest some fruit from the unexpected marvels that have remained hidden until this age of ours, it will be well if in the future we once again lend ear to those wise philosophers whose opinion of the celestial substance differed from Aristotle's. He himself would not have departed so far from their view if his knowledge had included our present sensory evidence, since he not only admitted manifest experience among the ways of forming conclusions about physical problems, but even gave it first place. So when he argued the immutability of the heavens from the fact that no alteration had been seen in them during all the ages, it may be believed that had his eyes shown him what is now evident to us, he would have adopted the very opinion to which we are led by these remarkable discoveries. I should even think that in making the celestial material alterable, I contradict the doctrine of Aristotle much less than do those people who still want to keep the sky inalterable; for I am sure that he never took its inalterability to be as certain as the fact that all human reasoning must be placed second to direct experience. Hence they will philosophize better who give assent to propositions that depend upon manifest observations, than they who persist in opinions repugnant to the senses and supported only by probable reasons."

From a letter to one of his patrons,
Galileo Galilei, Florence, 1612

The scientific method, first espoused by Galileo, has proven itself to be the most effective means devised by mankind to arrive at truth. The methodology of teaching the creative arts, however, follows in the authoritarian mode of Aristotle not the scientific method. The line of authority is clear: the director leads the principal actors and the supporting actors defer to the principle actors. The bases for this authority are "Aristotelian" -- age, experience, previous successes, awards presented by peers, physical stature, and so on. Just as the followers of Aristotle took his teachings on faith, so actors take their directions on faith.

A body released from a height above the ground will accelerate until it hits the ground. Why? The gravitational pull of the earth will accelerate it according to Newton's laws of motion. The explanation is given in terms of the laws of nature, discovered by the scientific method. An alternate explanation such as "the evil of the bowels of the earth have defeated the forces of good of the heavens" will be rejected no matter who the speaker because the theory within the context of the scientific method is untenable.

In the rehearsal period, discussion of how to play a line may occur, but rarely will an actor ask why a particular direction is given. When Biondello tells Vincentio that the Pedant is the father of Lucentio, and not he, the director might instruct the actor playing Vincentio to get angry and yell his line, "Is't so indeed?!" The actor will take that direction on faith, and will not ask why. He is accepting the authority of the director.

The goal of this book is to demonstrate that laws governing the performing arts exist. As discovered by Close, these laws should be a guideline to performance. If a direction is given, then if the actor asks for an explanation, the director should be expected to give one in terms of these laws, just as a physics instructor could answer the question of the falling ball.

This is a major undertaking. Not even the first step in applying the scientific method, the development of a technical language, or jargon, has occurred in the creative arts. Some terms do have an agreed-upon meaning. "Fourth wall" and "stage blocking" come to mind. What, however, is the meaning of "conflict"? Does it refer to the struggle between opposing wills of two antagonists, or does it refer to the more subtle opposed urges within an individual? What are the meanings of "subtext," "communication," "intensity," and all the various terms of emotion?

After the development of a jargon, observations must be made of the creative process, classifications of the observations, statement of theories, and testing of the theories. This is the contribution of Close. In this book, I will be reporting on his results.

Les Golden
Oak Park, Illinois

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TWO BROTHERS THE NIGHT BEFORE THE WEDDING
CLOTIUS AND PETRUCHIO

One suggestion often made as the basis of a scene is “two brothers the night before the wedding.” Here, as an example of employing the unlikely choice, is a scene based on that suggestion.


CLOTIUS: Oh, Petruchio, brother, mine, morrow sees thee breach thy bloodly bind to me.
PETRUCHIO: With no small grief, my dear most loyal Clotius.
CLOTIUS: Thou and Kate by morrow's eve shall walk upon the moon-washed sands of Venice.
PETRUCHIO: And joyful shall I be upon the consummation thus.
CLOTIUS: When walk is done, to thy blissful bridal chamber thou shall retire, thou and Kate.
PETRUCHIO: How joyful to my ears to hear thee speak of my impending pleasure, thee, oh Clotius, with whom these score and three years have I sojourned.
CLOTIUS: More than mine own, your happiness is my fulfillment.
PETRUCHIO: Oh sweet, oh loyal Clotius.
CLOTIUS: And know I well how many years since thy pubescence have thou earned Kate's female pleasures.
PETRUCHIO: Kate the fair, Kate the bounteous, Kate the virginal.
CLOTIUS: How many years, thy maleness hast thou chosen not to waste on any other, though many chance from village wide approached.
PETRUCHIO: Though many chance from village wide approached.
CLOTIUS: But morrow brings a life of passion and felicity.
PETRUCHIO: And upon my Kate these bounteous blessings shall I bestow.
CLOTIUS: Petruchio, what wilst thou if the glories thou first shall know with she, she knowest not first with thee?
PETRUCHIO: What say ye, Clotius?
CLOTIUS: Kate, as fair and dowered as all from far and near, how numerous must be her suitors past.
PETRUCHIO: But to me alone is she betrothed.
CLOTIUS: And none so well as I this circumstance do know.
PETRUCHIO: Then speak thou not of "not known first with thee"!
CLOTIUS: Petruchio. My heart dost carry burden great within its veins.
PETRUCHIO: Of what, dear brother, my loyal bro?
CLOTIUS: Of messages that sear the ear as sunlight focused.
PETRUCHIO: Speak then, dear loyal brother, my father's son.
CLOTIUS: Village heralds speak of Kate.
PETRUCHIO: My own?
CLOTIUS: How difficult it is of matters such to speak!
PETRUCHIO: How so?
CLOTIUS: Oh, damned heavens, to burden me with knowledge this.
PETRUCHIO: Clotius!
CLOTIUS: Thus must I speak. Two days past in village square, at station Greyhound . . .
PETRUCHIO: And so?
CLOTIUS: Oh cursed heavens, doest I now the devil's selfsame labours.
PETRUCHIO: Yea. To be so froward with thy brother.
CLOTIUS: Petruchio, desiring to relieve myself of luncheon's pressures, entered I the men's compartment there.
PETRUCHIO: Of station Greyhound?
CLOTIUS: Of the same.
PETRUCHIO: And?
CLOTIUS: Standing there, in stall, I read upon the bathroom wall. . .
PETRUCHIO: You read upon the bathroom wall . . .
CLOTIUS: Oh strike me down, I now beseech thee. Strike me now before the flesh I love shall crumble here before your messenger.
PETRUCHIO: What speak thou now of crumbling flesh? What speaks thou now of Kate and station Greyhound?
CLOTIUS: Petruchio.
CLOTIUS: A jest. A jest thou speaks before my nuptial day. 'Tis no more than a brother's jest. And so I laugh with thee, Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
CLOTIUS: Petruchio.
PETRUCHIO: I tell thee, brother, loyal brother, I tire of this jest and wish to bed.
CLOTIUS: Upon the wall I read, "Kissing Kate's the one, 973-0452."
PETRUCHIO: That is the same, whose number know I well.
CLOTIUS: "Kissing Kate's the one, 973-0452."
PETRUCHIO: And come we now to end of jest, me thinks.
CLOTIUS: "973-0452. For pleasures sweet, Kissing Kate's the one."
PETRUCHIO: No, you are mistaken surely.
CLOTIUS: And signatures there seen, the Oak Park Football team.
PETRUCHIO: No!
CLOTIUS: Junior Varsity.
PETRUCHIO: Junior Varsity! A cruel jest.
CLOTIUS: No jest, Petruchio.
PETRUCHIO: To such a wench I cannot give myself. Not in the state that now I find.
CLOTIUS: This well I know.
PETRUCHIO: And so?
CLOTIUS: And so, to make thy Kate, who loves thee well, and thee, who looks upon her countenance with great affection, once more of equal footing.
PETRUCHIO: How?
CLOTIUS: Do I present the tender flesh, the thund'rous thighs of . . .
PETRUCHIO: Yes, my brother, how thy guile does justice to our family lines!
CLOTIUS: Seka!
PETRUCHIO: None so fair. And justly practice for my Kate.
CLOTIUS: Pleasure thee now. That thoughts of Kate shall fill thy head, of morrow's joy.
PETRUCHIO: And thoughts of thee, Clotius, my loyal brother.
CLOTIUS: And thee. So now to bed.
PETRUCHIO: With gladness.

-- Les Golden

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