The Ratings Game!

In our continuing effort to make our line of work look more like an exact science than something we just do, we have designated five self-proclaimed Pillars of Improv and judged each of our games on a scale from 1 to 5 in each of the five categories. That makes 25 total possible units of improv (we shall call them "Idiot Heads") that each game can recieve, if you're in to that whole "multiplication" thing. The ratings should be used to determine what skills, if any, are necessary, and what skills, if any, are actually improved by repeated playings of the game... if you're into that whole "practice" thing, anyway. The five categories are, as follows:

Character
One of the important things to remember about improv is that you are actually acting, as much as anyone would tell you otherwise. And when one acts, one does not portray oneself. Therefore, it arises that coming up with and accurately portraying other characters becomes important. A low rating in this category means that the improver can usually get away with portraying himself, while a high rating in this category means that not only will a unique and different character be required for the scene, but the improver will probably have to beef that character up with backstory and experiment with that character in lots of different situations, making him "round" instead of "flat," in the terminology that all of our 6th grade reading teachers taught us.

Plot
"Plot" can be defined as anything from "making up stuff on the spur of the moment" to "intricately crafting a winding and epic storyline that has all the major elements of a regular plot: exposition, conflict, climax, etc." It does NOT, in the context of our ratings, mean the ability to come up with song lyrics on the spot. That is another skill entirely and is designated, along with the actual ability to, you know, sing, by the following sigil:

Plot, to get back to what we were originally talking about, will be necessary when a scene has to actually get somewhere. A low rating means that the game is more about following the rules and not really where the scene goes, and a high rating means that you better damn well think up a Tarantino script in the next five seconds.

Timing
As any good comedian will tell you, it's all about the timing. It seems that things are funnier if they are presented in the right way, and that what timing is all about. A low rating means that you could probably sacrifice replying to a person in a timely fashion for thinking about what the reply is, and a high rating means the game is heavily dependant on when things are done and/or in what order they are done and/or the ability to do them faster or slower or something along those lines.

Mime
If no one has realized this thus far, improv is not one of those "planned" activities like vacations or other types of acting. Therefore, we don't have the exact props we would need throughout the course of our attempts at "regular" acting. Our solution to this quandry is simple: we pretend that the objects are there, even though they are not. Drinking from an invisible glass or being a giraffe are skills that a good improver must pick up, and this is the category for that. A low rating means that the game is mostly sitting around and talking. A high rating means that the game's rules involve the words "act it out" or there is a lot of implied "acting it out."

Group Mind
This is, by far, the most elisive and also most important facet to the art of improv. Or the science of improv, or whatever it is those kids are calling it these days. Improv is not a solo activity, and it always works much better when the people on stage have this mysterious ability to communicate without really talking. Or maybe it's just to know how the other person thinks, so that you can emulate his brain patterns in your own head in a safe test environment so you can predict what will be done on stage by the other actors. Regardless, words cannot describe this category, you just feel it. A low rating is when the game truly is a solo activity, and a high rating means lots of people having to work with each other towards a common goal or, in the very least, comprehensibility of a scene.

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