To Be a Master, You Must Remain the Student
To be a master, you must remain the student.
We all want to master improv. But a true master accepts that he's never going to master what he's trying to master.
Shunryu Suzuki explains it better in his book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: “If your mind is empty… it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.”
When we have been improvising for a while, we think we know everything, especially if we have success. We can let the rules of improv, or a certain style of play, or our status interfere with our progress. It can become even more difficult to have a beginner's mind if you start teaching, coaching or directing this crazy art form.
But to be a master, you have to remain a student. And as cliche as it sounds, even though I have been an improv teacher for more than 30 years, I do always try to learn from my students, regardless of what level they are at.
Yes, it's easier to be open-minded to a more experienced student, but if I’m truly using my “beginner's mind,” I should realize that a good idea can come from anyone. The hardest part is not to judge it.
I got a good reminder of this when I was teaching improv class the other night. I was teaching an exercise to help students learn more about creating an environment in their scenes.
It's a simple exercise. I put two people on stage and give them an activity, like driving a car. They remain silent, miming the activity of driving the car. During the scene, I will change what type of car or vehicle they are driving. For example, I will yell out: "Minivan. Show me you are driving a minivan."
Sometimes the players may change characters. We now may see a mother and father in the front seat who are handing juice boxes to their imaginary kids in the back seat. Then I will then yell out, "Bicycle. Show me you are on bike.” Then, “Amazon truck. Show me you are on an Amazon Truck." This is all done in silence with miming.
When I was finished explaining the exercise, one of my students who is taking his first improv class says, "Can we yell out the changes to the environment?"
Can you believe that in the 25 years that I have been teaching this exercise I have never thought of this? I can.
I thought about it, and we tried the student’s idea, and guess what? It was a better exercise. The suggestions the students gave were far more creative and inspiring than my old, tired ones and the students were more involved in the exercise, and I was excited to try something new.
When the class was over, I was really happy that my mind had been open enough to hear my student’s idea. It confirmed to me that in order to master something, I must remain the student, even when I am the teacher.