Post written by the wonderful Florith.
Are you finding yourself in seemingly aimless scenes? Don’t know where to take your character? A useful tool to help you here can be goal setting!
What do you mean by goal setting?
Great question! In the context of improv, I take goal setting to mean ‘having a clear objective’ for the scene. This can be for either your character, yourself as a player, or a mix of both.
Goal setting for your character
Most people have a general goal when they interact with others. This can range from very broad (‘I want to be liked’ or ‘I want to be left alone’ etc) to much more specific (‘I need my nephew to do his homework before his parents come home’ or ‘I want my boyfriend to break up with me so I don’t have to be the bad guy’).
Having a goal for your character helps you go through a scene with purpose and consistency.
Goal setting for yourself as a player
Outside of setting goals for your character, it can be useful (and fun!) to set a goal for you as a player. Do you want to convince another player to stand on one leg? Are you going to make sure a character ends the scene in love with your character? Now you have a game you can play on a meta level: how are you going to achieve this while staying in character and in the shared reality you’ve built with the players.
How does this help you?
If you have a goal in mind, this will help frame the interactions you have with other players. If your goal is ‘I want my boyfriend to break up with me so I don’t have to be the bad guy’, this will give you a direction for the entire interaction. A simple “How was work?” can now have a strong reaction, because we have a clear context to place this in.
Having this at the start of a scene can help kickstart a scene. This is easier to set on that ‘player level’, as you might not immediately know who you will be playing. But it’s never too late to add motivation and a goal in a scene. Try and play with it and see where it takes you!
Want to practice?
Ask your audience to help the players define a goal (in secret from the others) and see who can/cannot achieve it!
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