#2 Think Inside The Box

A tribute to Keith Johnstone

Just over a month ago a hero of mine, the improv teacher Keith Johnstone, passed away. His book, Impro, is a standard drama school text. Less well known but equally valuable is his second book, Impro For Storytellers, which is a practical guide to making improvised theatre but is also useful to us in shaping how we think about storytelling itself. In both books he offers what appears to be some odd advice for scenes such as ‘Don’t be original’ and to ‘think inside the box’. This advice isn’t about limiting creativity but, rather, releasing it.

One way we can look at storytelling is to think in terms of patterns. Genres, such as horror or thriller have a set of patterns. We expect certain things to happen in a ghost story that wouldn’t necessarily occur in a romantic comedy. The art of a good story or drama is not in negating such patterns but in fulfilling them in surprising ways. In this way audiences can be satisfied (instead of confused) as well as delighted at the method in which a storyteller can meet expectations in ingenious ways.

Note: there’s a spoiler here for Agatha Christie’s ‘Murder On The Orient Express’ - so skip to the next paragraph if you want to avoid knowing whodunnit. In this murder mystery there are 12 suspects on the train. We know the pattern of a whodunnit which is that: 1) at least one murder will occur. 2) It will be committed by someone present. 3) Many of the people present have reason, means and motive to have committed the murder. 4) the detective will interrogate the suspects and look for clues. 4) They will solve the murder. Agatha Christie, in this book, absolutely fulfils the pattern of a whodunnit. She thinks inside the box. She also, brilliantly, puts her creative energy into creating an original work within the restrictions of the genre in which she is working. In Murder On The Orient Express everyone is the murderer. She even goes so far as to ‘seed’ the idea early on by revealing there are 12 stab wounds on the victim; one for each suspect. She fulfils the pattern of audience expectation and subverts it at the same time.

Now if Agatha Christie were think ‘outside the box’ she might have the murderer escape by spaceship or have the detective give up and move to Hawaii. The problem with these ‘original’ ideas is that they will fail to satisfy the expectations of the audience. If a storyteller moves too far ‘out of the box’ then the audience is left feeling cheated. One of the core tenants of Keith Johnstone’s philosophy was to respect and value audiences. The work, ultimately, is not for the artist but for its audience. In Impro For Storytellers he talks about ‘Circles of Expectation’. Once a written or improvised scene is established the audience are already making a judgment about what genre or pattern the scene is working within. They then have a set of expectations as to what will occur and judge the enjoyment of the drama or comedy based on whether these expectations are met. A comedy should make us laugh, a tragedy should make us weep, a thriller should keep us on the edge of our seat and a romantic comedy make us feel warm and fuzzy inside. Thinking outside the box is all very well but we risk failing to serve our audience. It’s far harder (and therefore an exciting challenge) to be imaginative and innovative inside the box.

For God’s sake think inside the box

Keith Johnstone

Making A Scene: Circles of Expectation

Time: 10 - 20 minutes

Tools: A timer. Something to write with. Pen, Pencil, Phone, Typewriter, anything…

Instructions: For each of the following suggestions and using your own ‘circle of expectation’ write a 5 sentence plot. Aim to fulfil the pattern and subvert it at the same time. For example:

Suggestion: He opened the door to the haunted room.

Example:

1. He opened the door to the haunted room.

2. There was no-one there but he felt a sharp chill.

3. Turning around he saw an old woman sitting in a rocking chair

4. The old woman cried out in horror - ‘But Michael, I thought you were dead!’

5. He reached out to his mother, as she died of fear, comforted by the knowledge that he would no longer be alone.

Suggestions:

a. He opened the door to the haunted room

b. She showed the policeman the body.

c. Keri handed back the engagement ring

d. He took the gun and made sure it was fully loaded.

e. The party was going horribly wrong. No one was drinking and Stephen had got out the Scrabble.

This Week’s Useful Thing

Last week Neil Gaiman had some brilliant advice about making mistakes. Here a rather ill Keith Johnstone, with typical good humour, has some advice of his own - ‘Don’t Do Your Best.’

Paul’s Plugs

Here are some links to stuff I have made or am making:

If Walls Could Talk

I was commissioned to write some filmed and audio monologues for Fairfax House in York as part of the brilliant If Walls Could Talk exhibition. The mini-dramas explore how Lady Ann Fairfax was demonised for her faith, her gender and her struggles with mental health; much to everyone’s surprise she was far less fragile and far more capable than people imagined. It runs until November and you can book tickets here.

Theatre Lab

Myself and actor-teacher, Niall Costigan, are running a joint workshop on improvisation and Meisner technique at York Theatre Royal on the 29th April. Open to professional creatives you can book a place here.

Farewell

I have a brilliant writer friend, Hannah Davies, who talks about ‘writing out of your scars and not your wounds’. In other words, making drama is essentially cathartic but if we use it as therapy we may cause ourselves more harm than good. The suggestion here is that we should wait until things have healed a little before making a scene out of them.

I’m also rewatching the sitcom Frasier again. I love the skill of the comedic writing and its comfort telly at its best. We all could use a little more comfort telly…

Hoping that this week you too farewell.