Wants!

LATE FOR WORK AGAIN!
I was running late for work. Sure it was the third time in a week, but I was still wrestling with waking up after having been out or the office much of the past year. I parked a couple blocks away and began walking fast toward the office. Down at the other end of the street a tank faced me, technically it was a military assault vehicle. Thing is, it had its gun trained on my position. I stopped. Then the hatch opened above the gun turret and my boss popped his head out. Uh, look you need to move away from the building. What?! I stood frozen in fear. Step away from the buildings he reiterated. Sorry were his only words as sadness encompassed his face. Then he once more let me know that I had been late three times that week. Come on man, I know I’ve been late but a tank? There are numerous wants in the story above. Can you identify them?.

SETTING THE WANT 
Let’s set some wants. Okay, so there’s my characters want and your characters want and the wants of the scene which could all be one and the same but probably are all different and may even change during the scene. Talk about feeling needy. Right?! That's a lot of wants. Truth be told we all are needy. We just show it differently. That is, we all have wants in our lives and in our scenes.

Life reads like a film script. Each day has an overall beat and with that beat there is a want, next there are scene beats and dialogue beats, each with their own wants. Every story beat from the overarching story beat to the sentence you just delivered to your scene partner, has a want, and at times the want is one that changes as the scene unfolds. The changing want is just what it sounds like. A characters need changes as their circumstances change. Wants also change as the people around you change.

THE EMOTIONAL WANT
When two improvisers have a scene together each improviser brings a want into the scene. Doing so adds an important element that makes an impression and helps move the scene forward by driving the characters and their actions. Sometimes the want of the scene is a simple one that is pre-thought out.

My character wants to go out for the evening for example. That's my characters want and it need not be clear to the other improviser though they may pick up on it. The important thing is that my characters want is driving my actions with a goal.

There is also another type improviser that doesn’t think consciously at all about choosing a want. They wait for their want to organically appear based on other facets of the scene. This improvisers emotional wants usually become clear to those on stage as well as to the audience.

MULTIPLE WANTS
Wants can be deep or shallow. Both are effective.The scene may dictate that there is a specific want for the scene and one personally held by each of the improvisers as well.

All this talk about wants from the stand point of human needs does leave the scene over to an easier type of want that is not a human want at all but something a bit more mechanical that serves the scene just as well in some cases.

THE STRUCTURAL WANT
The structural want is not an emotional want, it's structural but serves the improviser by taking the place of having a want. Before entering a scene or after entering and seeing the scene needs a bit of spice choose a non emotional structural want to drive the scene. The results will be that emotion bubbles to the surface of the scene.

These structural wants are behavioral rather than emotional. There are times when a change in structure or behavior drives the emotion of the scene and can be used instead of claiming a want.

An improviser might choose to enter the scene with a behavioral change or want such as “speaking in detail”. Everything the improviser talks about in the scene is done by using an extraordinary amount of detail. You might enter the scene and describe the exact cup of coffee with all its specialty syrups and how many pumps and where the name is written on the cup and how it’s written and at what table you are planning on drinking said coffee and how it’s positioned in front of the window etc. There are many ways to use details.

Another behavioral or structural change in the place of having a want might be continuous object work by your character. That is your character will always use an object of some sort in the scene while in the scene, though your character never speaks about what you are doing. Eventually the audience will notice how well or poorly you do your object work and they will be on board with you whether you are doing object work well or not. Your object work will  affect the scene because how you perform it will change as the emotions of the scene change.

Another behavioral or technical change in place of a want is to come into the scene and have very high emotional reactions to everything that’s happening in the scene especially things that do not deserve a heightened emotional reaction. This behavioral change will definitely lead to one or more emotional wants being discovered or even an emotional want that morphs, changing throughout the scene as the scene changes. Heightened emotion always adds an interesting extra dimension to an improv scene.

There are other behavioral or technical concepts your character can put in motion to drive the scene. Still having a simple yet strong want may be the best.

Human behavior devoid of emotion, triggers emotional behavior. It’s human nature. We are creatures of the heart when at times we should be creatures of the head and vice versa. Just remember, as an improviser or an actor being a creature of the heart speaks volumes on stage!