The final assignment in the class I'm teaching this semester was basically: "pick a social issue or news item and respond to it in some way using humour." One of my of students produced this.
I've convinced Emerson to let me run an "Improv For Writers" workshop, on the assumption that short story writers in particular can benefit from doing the sort of character- and plot-work that improv scenes require. I'm doing a pilot version over the next two Sundays, with the hope that I can expand it next semester if it goes well.
My goal is two spend the first week (two hours) getting people broken into improv basics, and the second week (three hours) focusing more on stuff like the aforementioned character and plot.
So, since this ostensibly started as a blog about improv, does anyone have any suggestions on good exercises for complete beginners?
