From stage to life, from life to stage
By adopting an ethos of working together and letting your companions shine, improvisational performance has a special side benefit: You learn how to communicate better.
Wang cites an example: She once used improvisational methods to resolve disputes she was having with her family. When they got into fights, she suggested that each person should only be allowed to say one word at a time, letting one’s antagonist finish one’s thoughts. This forced them to think about the other’s point of view and helped them to overcome disagreements amicably.
In improvisational theater, one’s on-stage performance often draws from one’s own life experiences to some degree. And audiences find those sorts of performances the most realistic and moving.
Improvisation is often labeled as being crude and shallow, nothing more than a kind of game. But consider the basic nature of theater, suggests Wu: “Theater is simply about getting people to suspend disbelief and have real emotional responses to fabricated scenes. So why is scripted theater a truer form of the art?”
Improvisational actors are extremely busy on stage. They’ve got to remember what has happened before them, so that the storyline doesn’t fall apart. Meanwhile, they’ve got to be constantly attentive to their fellow actors, readying themselves to play the “ball” when it is thrown into their court. Only with that awareness can they know how to act next.
Together for ten years
In 2004 the company formed and began holding classes. They started out accepting invitations to perform wherever they could. Now, a decade later, Guts Improv Theatre has its own exclusive performance and rehearsal space. Currently, Guts has ten members who are full-time professional actors, and holds rehearsals two to four days a week. These are impressive and rare achievements for a theater group in Taiwan.
“It’s not that I’ve done such a great job,” Wu says. “It’s that improvisational theater is just so awesome.” Wu says that she has come to be known as the founder of improv in Taiwan only because she had the courage to get into it a little earlier than others. “A few years ago I worried that I wasn’t doing a good job,” she recalls. “It was only after going back to the US to take some more classes that I realized I was indeed teaching the art correctly.”
No form of theater better demonstrates the idea that “life is like a play.”
Guts’ actors bring their own life experiences, personalities, and worldviews up on stage and then seek inspiration from the audience before launching their performances. The company has created one work of improv after another that is deeply rooted in real-life situations.
Improvisational theater is indeed a lot like life: It changes unpredictably, and it provides nothing to hold on to but the moment. So why not go to Guts Improv Theatre and take in one of its one-of-a-kind performances?