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Freeze! Using Theatre Improvisation Techniques to Practice Oral argument By Deborah L. Borman and Dana hill, Northwestern University School of Law 1 I. Introduction Some law students are absolutely petrified of the concept of oral argument. while many law students might have prior public speaking experience, moot court is generally the first time students speak extemporaneously on legal issues before a panel of questioners who are inclined to interrupt them with potentially difficult and rapid-fire questions. we prepare students for moot court not only to meet the challenge of a strong, clear, and well-reasoned argument, but also to alleviate the fear of making an oral argument, increasing students’ comfort level to achieve a good moot court experience, and, especially in a tight legal market, expand their legal career options. II. Background Prior to becoming co-presenters and coauthors, we separately considered the same inquiry: how can we improve the comfort level of students during their oral arguments through the use of theatre improvisation (improv) techniques? Our answer emerged out of differing life experiences: Deborah Explains: I am an extrovert. I have a theatre and music background, having written and performed my own plays in elementary school, and played roles ranging from a spider in a third-grade production of Charlotte’s Web to Maria in a high school production of the Sound of Music. I studied theatre and the oral interpretation of literature in college, and, as an adult, studied improv techniques at the Second city, etc. Training center in chicago. I also sang in several chorale groups and a rock band. 32 | The Law Teacher | FaLL 2012 I arrived at the idea of improv as practice for oral argument one morning at 5 a.m. during my first semester of teaching. Oral argument exercises were fast approaching, and one student, who did not speak in class, fearfully mentioned to me that she was not interested in participating and asked if she could sit out the argument exercise. I wanted to think of something that would help this student to open up, to ease her fears and to realize that she had something important to say. always thinking of fresh ideas and seeking a new way of expressing or explaining a technique in writing and Many of the rules for successful theatre improvisation correspond to successful teamwork and oral argument in moot court ... oral advocacy, I adapted the improv game “Improv Olympic” or “iO,” 2 for practicing oral argument and called it aO or appellate Olympic. Dana Explains: I generally need to thoroughly prepare and practice a speech to be in my “comfort zone.” I am less comfortable with extemporaneous speaking, even though I have videotaped myself in both extemporaneous and prepared speaking situations and my actual performance is the same in both. My experiences in broadcast journalism prior to law school and as a litigator in practice evidenced my abilities to perform in an extemporaneous setting. However, I felt more comfortable when I memorized my speech or had complete written notes. My perspective changed while I was a mid-level associate at a large law firm when I participated in a training workshop with a professional speech coach. when the coach provided feedback on my presentation, I expressed to her my discomfort with extemporaneous speaking, and she suggested that I take an improv class. I enrolled in a six-week class at a local adult learning center and the exercises helped to build my confidence and allowed me to trust that I could speak coherently and with authority without knowing exactly what I would say ahead of time. Sharing the Stage Together we formulated a two-step approach to answer our inquiry. First, we decided on several improv exercises as the “experiment.” Second, we surveyed our two classrooms of law students, measuring their comfort level with oral argument both before and after practicing oral argument using our games. III. Our Theory Based on our personal and professional experiences, we formed a hypothesis that some law students experience anxiety in anticipating oral argument. Before using the improvisational theatre games in class, we conducted a survey3 to gauge the accuracy of our hypothesis. Student responses reflected three common concerns about extemporaneous speaking: •Answering a judge’s question “on the spot;” •Losing their place in their prepared argument; and — continued on page 33
Freeze! Using Theatre Improvisation Techniques to Practice Oral argument — continued from page 32 •Talking too fast or stumbling over words. To alleviate students’ concerns, we turned to improv techniques. IV. Theatre Improvisation in the Classroom Guidelines for Performers and Rules of Improv In theatre, an improvised scene is successful when the actors involved work together and listen responsively to define the parameters and action of the narrative. The general principals of improv are offer and acceptance. With each spoken word or action in the scene, an actor may make an offer. The offer might include giving another character a name, identifying a relationship, location, or using physical gestures to define an invisible space object. The other actors are responsible for accepting the offers in order to move forward in the scene, by using “yes, and …” adding information. when an actor does not accept, for example by negating the message, she is blocking, which prevents the scene from developing. Some performers may deliberately block or otherwise break out of character for comedic effect. Known as gagging, this obstructive action generally prevents the scene from advancing. Other disruptive activities that cause irreparable harm to a scene include wimping, saying “yes” without offering any new information, and steamrolling, continually giving out offers without giving the other improviser a chance to respond, the opposite of wimping. The Games Yes and . . . The process of building on an offer in improvisation is known as “Yes, and . . .” and is considered the cornerstone of improvisational technique. every new item of information added to the scene helps the improvisers to refine their characters and to progress the action of the scene. At the beginning of the scene, the first actor begins by establishing setting and plot: actor #1: what a cold and treacherous day to wait for the bus in chicago! Following the “Yes and . . .” method, actor #2 will accept the premise and add onto the situation: actor #2: Yes and I don’t have any snow boots! actor #1: Yes and there’s no sign of any bus! actor #2: Yes and I’m thinking it’s time to move to Florida. The scene could continue on indefinitely with the actors simply agreeing with one another, or can move forward with the addition of a little conflict. Even when the actors affirm each response by adding something to the prior actor’s statement, the actors can still disagree: actor #2: Yes and I’m thinking of moving to Florida. actor #1: Yes and you’d be fried by the sun in Florida! actor #2: Yes and I suppose you’d rather stay here and freeze? actor #1: Yes! and after I make a fortune selling Ugg boots, I can retire to Florida in style! “Yes and . . .” exercises teach actors to embrace the ideas and concepts offered by fellow performers and to build the scene simply by affirming the statement of the prior actor. By contrast, if actor #2 blocks his fellow performer, the scene is halted: actor #1: what a cold and miserable day to wait for a bus in chicago! actor #2: It’s not that cold. You’re just a wimp. By blocking actor #1, actor #2 stopped the action and killed the scene. Freeze! “Freeze!” is a basic improv game that helps to build improvisational skills and entertain simultaneously. at the beginning of the game, all the actors stand in a line at the back of the stage. One actor then comes forward to ask the audience to name a simple, everyday action. The actor takes the first suggestion that appeals to him and immediately begins to pantomime the action. The Freeze occurs when the upstage actors watch for an interesting position and one actor shouts: “freeze.” The downstage actor immediately freezes in whatever position in which he finds himself at the time “freeze” is called out. The actor who called “freeze” then comes downstage to join the first actor and then immediately launches into a new scene. The actor joining the scene has the responsibility for the first line in the scene. The two actors then continue their scene until another of the upstage actors calls “freeze.” Both onstage actors immediately freeze and the new actor makes her way downstage. Studying both frozen actors, the new actor chooses one, taps that person out of the scene, and assumes the exact same position as the prior actor. The new actor then launches into a new, completely unrelated scene. The process of the “freeze and add” is repeated until the actors onstage begin to feel the game has run its course. V. Theatre in the Classroom-Courtroom Many of the rules for successful theatre improvisation correspond to successful teamwork and oral argument in moot court and classroom practice. Oral advocates must listen to judges, co-counsel and opposing counsel’s arguments in order to respond properly — continued on page 34 The Law Teacher | FaLL 2012 | 33
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