Physical props in improv? Would you? Should you? Could you? To begin with, let’s look at why improv and physical props are not usually a match made in heaven.
To begin with, the nature of improvised theatre is that the performers do not know in advance what the story, setting or characters of a scene or show are going to be. So, very basically, how could you know what props you might need to successfully tell your story?
As such it is usually the case that rather than putting together a big box of random props that might be useful, or become relevant to the story you are trying to create, it is preferred to have no props whatsoever. This way, the performers can effectively have every prop imaginable, with the only drawback, being that they are completely invisible as they are mimed.
But what’s the harm in having a selection of common props that could be useful? Things such as telephones, or hats or pens or a book, or bowl of fruit? I guess if you have these, the temptation would be to use them. That sounds ok on the face of it, but before you know it, you’d be the company that has the show where every month there is a scene about a telephone call, and everyone picks up a plastic piece of fruit to eat.
The props may be a handy visual aid, but they’d quickly become a limitation of sorts.
And then there is the issue that you’d inevitably need some props which you don’t actually have access to. One moment you’re speaking on a physical real life telephone and then immediately getting into a mimed car to arrive at the mimed hospital where the actor playing the doctor listens to your heart with a mimed stethoscope.
By this point you may as well have mimed the telephone as well.
There is a risk that if you use a mix of physical and mimed props that the audience will struggle with the two rules being applied. Some things are physical, which they can see, and other things require them to picture in their mind’s eye. Would it not be better for things to be all one way or all another?
That isn’t a rhetorical question intended to make a point. It is a genuine question, which I’d be interested to hear the thoughts of others on, and a question to which I’m not sure there is a best answer.
I know that I’ve seen plays and musicals in the West End where there has been a mix of physical props and mimed ones. In the Back to the Future Musical, the time travelling car is a physical prop, but then you have a regular car that two characters sit in during one scene and it was entirely mimed and mapped out with light. For me this was jarring as it was the only thing mimed in the entire show.
Likewise in The Woman in Black, most props were physical and real, but then the inclusion of a horse and cart, and a dog running around were both mimed. Both were effective.
But maybe the recurring theme of these examples is that they were large, forms of transportation or mimed animals. Perhaps those are acceptable because the audience intuitively understand that these wouldn’t be very feasible to realise on stage physically.
I think there could be certain types of shows where some prop use may work well compared to others, and that you’d more easily get away with a mix of props without it being jarring when some are physical and others aren’t.
For example, if you had a show that was centred around police officers, and the cast had physical handcuffs, prop guns, notepads, nightsticks. Or a show set in a hospital and you did have a physical hospital bed, stethoscope, prop syringe, bed pan etc.
In these cases, people would probably get that these are common things to fit the scenario, and that you’d have to mime other things.
Another common approach in improv is to have a few nonspecific props that aren’t really anything and can be interpreted by the cast and audience in creative ways.
For example, if you have a long stretch of fabric, it could be used from scene to scene as different things. A scarf, a finish line for a race, wrapped around wrists to be the set of handcuffs. A foam stick could be an oversized pencil, or a sword or syringe.
With nonspecific props used in this way, performers usually need to support any physical action with dialogue that helps clarify to the audience what any props are supposed to be. This of course, is very much the same as you’d have to do with entirely mimed props.
If I were to pick a real flower from the ground and hold it up, you’d instantly be able to see what it was I were holding. If you have a mimed flower, it takes a little more work to convey what you have to the audience. Picking it up alone isn’t usually enough. Smelling it or plucking petals off of it will do a lot more to demonstrate to the audience that it was a flower you have just picked up and not just a coin or a pebble or some other small item.
Size and weight are the other factors in helping the audience understand. If you mime picking up a heavy weight in a gym, you should demonstrate that it is heavy and has the same weight, size and shape as a real weight would.
The use of real props vs mimed ones in improv is something that is fun to experiment with, and all approaches will have their uses and place. Actual props can be used literally or interpreted like I mentioned with nonspecific props. Doing the latter may lead to confusion though.
Using nonspecific props can inspire creativity, but in most cases you are likely to need to mime something sooner rather than later that cannot be expressed with simple shapes or fabric.
Ultimately, working on your object work and mime skills will always be useful as it’s something that you’d always be able to rely upon to make sure any props you need are accounted for. The good news is that mimed props are all free and don’t require CGI or a budget.
And of course, everything I’m saying applies to performance on stage and not on film. That is a whole other conversation where you’d almost never see the use of mimed props, outside of very specific circumstances.
What are your thoughts on the use of physical props in improv? Are they a good idea? Or do you find them limiting?
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