Art simulating real life on stage

After a very depressing few days at the Skiff, I was more than ready for a fun-filled performance. I wrote two articles about an Illustration teacher who was in a coma for 11 days and his family had decided to take him off life support. I don't know if sensitive stories are going to get easier to process as I write more of them, but it is hard to imagine myself being completely numb to heart ache and death.
Sometimes it is hard to collide my two worlds. Journalism and Theater. Although, they do have similarities I have been realizing their differences more and more. In journalism, I must be objective and unattached to stories. In theater, embracing emotions is celebrated and connecting and understand human feeling is essential.
Being a good improviser entails a lot of studying and listening to the world around you. Though most people might think that artists try to separate themselves from the world, good artists in fact, are always observing. What makes improv so funny is when an improviser can portray a character on stage that everyone in the audience feels connected to. Maybe an audience member is reminded of their mother or sister or best friend. That is where the genuine comedy comes from. Characters don't even have to be exaggerated to be funny. When characters are so close to a real personality, that's when they are the funniest.
My goal for this week is to be more observant of people's gestures and the way they carry themselves. I am usually aware of how people are feeling, but I don't always pay attention to how they show these feelings through body language. If that doesn't make any sense, here's an example:

Portraying the emotion "frustration."
Jennifer: tenses her whole body up and cross her arms and legs, but hardly says a word.
Alice: keeps talking at a rapid pace, she flails her arms everywhere and keeps hitting things around her.
Joshua: starts to explain why he is frustrated and can't get a full sentence out. When he can't explain what he is trying to say he stomps his feet on the ground and shakes his legs rapidly and seems very on edge.

See all these (made up) people feel the same emotion, but go about expressing it in a different way. The intent is for art to simulate real life on stage.

During practice this week Ricky focused on doing a scene as if it were real life, as oppose to adding little unrealistic moments into the scene just for the sake of being funny. As easy as it sounds, "be realistic," it is really hard when you are trying to, "be funny." Then... if you don't try "to be funny," will it end up being funny? Then I start dissecting it and thinking so much that it just makes me mess up. In any event, I try to soak in the notes during rehearsal, and hope that what I have learned comes out in my performance. That way when I am performing, I am not stressing myself out about being perfect.