Last year, I spent eight months acting in an interactive play called Grandma Sylvia’s Funeral. The premise of the play was that the audience members were actually mourners at the funeral of Sylvia Schildner Grossman, an elderly woman who died after having been hit by a garbage truck. The play took place in a chapel, a Rabbi presided, bagels and lox were served, and each family member eulogized the deceased. It was, to say the least, an irreverent comedy. What was most interesting about this play, however, is that it was interactive. Audience participation was encouraged, and many jocular "mourners" took the opportunity to joke with, harass and yell at the actors during their monologues. Often the comments of the audience were as funny as the scripted lines in the play. When an audience member made a comment during an actor’s "eulogy," it was the actor’s responsibility to respond to them. These comments were not simply to be ignored. Part of the fun was the interaction between the actors and the audience. In order for the play to succeed, however, the actors’ responses to the audience’s continents had to be quick and clever which was not an easy task. Through such improvisational acting, I learned that interactive theater must be approached using the positional style, the combinational style would be totally inadequate.

As in chess, the goal of a combinational approach to acting is material. In chess, a player attempts to checkmate his opponent’s king; in acting, an actor tries to do his job satisfactorily so that he is paid for his work. In order to arrive at the point where he might be paid, an actor must set narrow, short term goals, and elaborate a program for their achievement. He must first research his character to discover its motives; next, he must memorize his lines; after this, he must rehearse with other actors, etc. Each of these steps should be based on a system which will help the actor best achieve them. So, for example, if the goal is to memorize lines, an actor might find that this is best done by reading them aloud with another person; or by writing them out by hand; or by means of some other method. If the goal is to discover a character’s motives, an actor must also develop a program to achieve this.

Intermediate goals and programs for their elaboration are one aspect of the combinational style. It is important to note that using the combinational style involves utilizing previously elaborated actions (as in chess, "The French Defense," etc.). In an interactive play, while audience participation is important, a bona-fide script exists which must be followed relatively strictly. If an actor in such a play was to approach his role using the combinational style, he would do an adequate job of reciting his scripted lines, but would be utterly unprepared for any unexpected outcomes ( the reactions of a particular audience). The combinational style does not allow for unexpected outcomes in this case, which is fatal to an improvisational actor. Additionally, the combinational style focuses so much attention on material issues , i.e., the script, that developing a position at the same time as one uses this style would be far too much for a person to think about at once. The combinational style is not altogether inadequate, however; it is important to note that a good position will eventually lead to the use of a combination. Unless the actors return to the script, the play will never end!

The combinational style alone is inappropriate for improvisational acting; the positional style, would lead to a more desirable outcome. The objective or the development direction of the actor using the positional style is to move the audience in some way: to make them laugh, cry, or think. He does not, however, have any idea how he is going to achieve this objective, as he has never come in contact with that night’s audience. He therefore sets an intermediate objective which allows for potential success. This intermediate objective is the attainment of good position, which will eventually enable him to use the combinational style.

The positional style allows for an actor’s ignorance as to how he will achieve his objective. This is absolutely essential in an interactive play as every audience is different than the last, and one has no idea how a particular audience will react to the play. Due to these factors, the best position for an actor to take in an interactive play is an extremely flexible one. He must be able to absorb the unexpected reactions of an audience, and to use these reactions to his advantage. It is interesting to note that unexpected outcomes can be prepared for by developing a position which is flexible enough to prepare for future circumstances. Additionally, a good improvisational actor must be able to avoid the negative consequences of unexpected reactions.

Perhaps this point can best be illustrated by examples: At one point during the play, my character tells the audience that he has been receiving psychotherapy for some time. Saying this line was usually not a problem, but one particular night a man in the audience responded oddly to this comment (I cannot recall exactly what he said). So I said to the audience that it was clear that this man also needed to seek psychiatric help. The audience broke up laughing. This was an improvised line based on an unexpected reaction from an audience member, which I was able to use to my advantage. During another performance, a woman sitting in the front row began laughing uncontrollably at one point in an hysterical cackle. Her distinctive laugh attracted both my attention and that of the audience. So I left the stage and went down to this woman’s seat in the audience. I approached her and jokingly asked if everything was all right. The audience found this extremely humorous and I thought that I had successfully absorbed an unexpected reaction and used it to my advantage. However, by the time I had returned to the stage my mind had gone blank. I could not remember what part of my monologue I was up to. I simply stood there silently until I finally figured out where I was. The improvisation and caused me to lose my train of thought. In this case, I was unable to avoid the negative consequence of this unexpected reaction. It takes a grand master, i.e., a very experienced actor, to use the positional style perfectly.

In addition to absorbing unexpected outcomes and avoiding their negative consequences, a good improvisational actor must set up his material parameters so that at any point he can switch to another position. To a certain extent, the main material parameter of the improvisational actor is the play’s script. While improvisation is important, it is clear from the second example above that too much deviation from the script can lead to negative consequences. The actor must strike a balance wherein he is able to improvise based on unexpected reactions from the audience and can return to the combinational script without difficulty. The actor must be able to move easily from one position to another based on the personality of a particular audience. The script, however, is not the only material parameter with which the actor must deal. He must also understand the rules for interaction with the audience in order to set up a predisposition for developing a plan. He must understand that it is unacceptable to insult the appearance of an audience member, or to physically harm anyone in the audience.

Clearly the positional style is the preferable approach to interactive theater. This style allows for unexpected outcomes to be used to one’s advantage which is obviously an essential characteristic for this type of play. In addition, the positional style is based on the fact that one has either a goal or a direction of development but no idea how to achieve this goal. Since actors know nothing of their audience prior to show-time, this facet of the positional style is essential. All this is not to say that the combinational style is wholly inadequate for improvisational acting; it is simply inadequate when used alone. When a position is set up properly, it will lead to the use of a combination. Only after each scripted line is recited can the play end. For this whole scheme to work perfectly, however, an actor must be a grand master.

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