One Group Mind performs all kinds of performances, including improvised, scripted, broadcast, and filmed.
However, all of One Group Mind's performers originally receive their instruction in the art of long form improvisation.
What is long form improvisation?
Most people know short form improvisation, like the popular TV show "Whose Line Is It Anyway." Short form improv tends to have a gimmick associated with a 3-7 minute structured, improvised game. Suggestions are requested from the audience before each game.
In contrast, long form improvisation involves a group of anywhere between 2-10 people getting a single suggestion from the audience and exploring that suggestion through a series of connecting scenes, games, songs, and monologues that can last up to an hour. At no point do the improvisers stop to plan or discuss what is happening or what has happened. The product is usually a piece that has realism and comedy and takes the audience through a roller coaster of emotions and laughter until they find themselves cleverly at the beginning. With its overlapping storylines, the best way to describe it - it's like the popular TV show Seinfeld... ...but improvised.
One Group Mind's signature training and performance piece is the Expansion Tree. Discovered in 2005, the Expansion Tree arms the improviser and group with techiques that can be used to react to any situation. It stresses truly reacting to the events and dynamic of the piece as the piece unfolds, as opposed to a defined structure of a piece.
In a very basic sense, every action has an effect and a possible set of reactions. Understanding what they are and how to use them is the definition of improvisation. A good chef doesn't need a recipe, they know how to make a masterful meal using the ingredients in anyone's kitchen cabinet!
Want to see an Expansion Tree that was performed live and recorded? Click on the sample to the right.
Want to learn more about long form improvisation? You can read our online book by signing up for the Improvisers Guild!