Here are some of my notes from my styles workship, taught by Randy Dixon… at least the parts I had time to write down! There was a lot I wanted to absorb!
Styles can come from all kinds of things. Playwrights, genres, and movie directors are common. More esoteric styles (for improv) might include painters, musical styles, “-isms”, and philosophies.
We’re interested in Style as the fingerprint of the author: if all stories are basically the same, its style which sets one author apart from another. We want to learn to recognize that style and figure out how to inject it into our own acting and storytelling: in other words, we want to embody the style.
Some improv may reference a style rather than embody it. An example of referencing would be improvising Shakespeare and introducing somebody as a merchant, you know, from Venice. Good study of styles should allow us to embody it.
One of the best ways to absorb a style is to see the best examples and the worst examples. The worst examples has the advantage of being much more obvious–especially since you’re not too engaged to pay attention to the style.
Learning the little facts that your audience will never know can be very helpful. The example Randy gave is that Shakespeare put a lot of Greek and Roman mythology into his plays: not because the British were particularly savvy about mythology, but because it was illegal, at the time, to talk about God on stage. As such, mythology was a bit of a code, so that Shakespeare could still talk about religion with the audience. Todays audiences won’t know this, but if you, as an improviser, ask for a blessing from some Greek god, it will sound Shakespearian to the audience.
Many genres have sub-genres, and knowing the time and place in which they were set is useful. Another example given by Randy is the Paranoid Science Fiction of the 50s, set against the backdrop of the second Red Scare.
Finally, many styles have more basic styles in which they’re set. Theatre has its own style, with careful blocking, directing, and scripting, in combination with a stage-friendly set, producing a certain feel. Film, on the other hand, has its own feel (or feels, since film has changed so much over the years).
Finally, there’s the question of audience perception of styles. Early silent film was hand-cranked, and sometimes only appears sped up today because of the standardization of film speed. Most audiences will recognize sped up action as a part of silent film.
