They say silence is golden, but in the world of improv I’d say silence is even rarer than gold. Most improv shows are big, loud, bold and hectic…generally speaking of course. This applies more to short form improv than long form, but for the most part, I’d say the majority of improv shows are unlikely to be called quiet, introspective and subtle first and foremost.
And it is because most improv shows aren’t quiet, I’d say this offers improvisers an opportunity that most don’t play with. Silence. Quiet.
When performing in a show where none of the cast knows what will happen next, and the story can go in any direction, it’s most often tempting to be explicit with where you are thinking the scene, story and character development should go next. The easiest way to do this is to speak out loud. “I’m so mad right now.” Or “Let’s head to see Grandmother.” makes it clear what your intention is as an actor, and also helps clue in both the audience and any other performers.
If you were to stand there in silent rage, and think to yourself ‘the grandmother character should be the next scene’, there is no way just thinking this will help guide the other performers to know that the next scene needs someone to play Grandmother.
This I suppose is a difference between improv and scripted storytelling. If the performers are all fully scripted, they wouldn’t need to mention the grandmother before we see her. One scene could end, and the next could begin with Grandmother present.
Announcing ideas out loud is perhaps therefore needed as a form of communication and shared storytelling between performers in improv. This alone wouldn’t mean there couldn’t be silence in improv, but is just one way where improv does need to be louder and fuller in verbal cues.
Another area is that I’d say a lot of improvisers feel the need to fill silence. I suppose from a psychology perspective, improvisers may feel that the promise they have made to the audience is that they are going to make up a show on the spot in front of them. In a sense, being silent doesn’t overtly suggest you are making something up. It’s the absence of doing something, where are talking is more clearly proactively doing something.
Certainly though, you don’t have to talk to act, and your acting choice may therefore be to be silent, or mostly silent, quiet, subtle, and perhaps not even be doing much physically.
This comes back to the idea that I’ve heard my whole career as an actor; the hardest thing to do on stage is nothing.
I think a lot of people misinterpret that simple sentence, and thing it means literally doing nothing at all on stage. It may mean that to some, and to some degree, but I don’t think the idea of doing nothing on stage means being completely blank. I think it means to avoid the temptation to be physically busy miming, or doing unneeded things with your hands, or even talking for the sake of it. Actions or words without any real value or story building involved. Just filling the time, and demonstrating actions on stage with the fear that being still is perhaps boring in some respect.
All of this would lack any context to why the character or characters are still and silent. Maybe a character is stricken by grief. Perhaps they’re awaiting an important phone call that will change their lives. Or maybe they’re just resting, satisfied after a successful event of some kind.
If you’re saying nothing, and seemingly doing nothing, then any little thing you do do suddenly means more. And look, doing nothing, in silence doesn’t mean that they character can’t blink, or breath or adjust their position. If as a performer, you know what your character is going through, what they are thinking, and what the context of their circumstances are, there is a whole heck of a lot for the audience to watch and be engaged with. Your character is silent. Now the audience will wonder what you are thinking.
You have two characters together and one or both are silent. Your audience will now start to fill in the blanks in their own imagination of why the characters aren’t interacting more. Are they strangers? Are they upset at one another? What’s going to happen?
If you talk and do a lot of stuff, you’re telling the audience the audience the story. If you use moments of silence and stillness, you’re giving the audience an opportunity to process anything that has happened so far, and are inviting them to create some of the story for themselves in their own mind and use their own imagination.
Certainly, too much silence and too much stillness may lose your audience, but this is where contrast is such a useful part of storytelling. A use of silence can be the calm before a storm, which will make heightened moments seem even bigger. Likewise, if there has been a big scene or a character has an outburst, using silence or quiet can really draw the audience’s focus back in.
Silences are certainly something worth exploring in your rehearsals. How can they be used? When can they be used? How often can or should they be used? What affect does using them have on the audience, on the characters and on the performers?
You can get loads more improv articles in the improv section of the site, and don’t forget to check out all our Extreme Improv videos on the Extreme Improv Xstreamed YouTube Channel and see Extreme Improv live on stage with all details on the Tickets page
Want to learn improv skills? You should check out the range of improv books from David Pustansky, who is the author of the popular Extreme Improv Big Book of Improv Games series of books. Available worldwide on Amazon and Kindle, you can find links to the books here
