Out of My Throat

This past CSz rehearsal I elected for the "What's Your Problem?" session.  In it, eight of us got to improvise and then be told what are tendencies are to be aware of them and then try to correct them.  Mine has always been trying to enunciate better.  Matt said I talk out of my throat and to help vary it up I should try to talk not out of my throat; to get out of my throat.  But that's not what I want to talk about.

To start the session has us walk around the stage and, in turn, pretend to be one of the eight that was on stage.  So at one time I had 7 people pretending to walk and talk like me.  There would be two halves to this: 1) walking and talking like this person in a show and 2) walk and talk like this person in a social situation, like at a party.  These exercises are always a little weird because some people you know really well and can do the mimicry pretty well.  Others you don't know so well and you feel lost in trying to do a fair representation of them.

What I found weird was when it was my turn to be mimicked, I myself was trying to do an accurate representation of me.  "What am I like in a show? What to I normally do?  I think I do this thing so I'll do it."  That's what I was thinking.  Then in the party situation I was talking to Rance, who was trying to do me.  "What do I normally talk about at parties? How do I stand usually in this situation?"  Basically I was really over thinking this.

I also didn't really take in what other people were doing while mimicking me, even though that's really what I wanted to do.  I really wanted to step back and take it all in.  And during the party situation, I wanted to roam around and see what the different groupings on stage were doing; how did they think I acted at a party?  Instead, I small talked to Rance while at the same time thinking "this is boring, I get the group over there is having a better conversation."  And I felt that if I went over to another group he'd get offended that I ditched the conversation we were having.  Because I know that's what I think in social situations.  I'm constantly looking for a better conversation and it's something I'm trying to fix.  I want to be able to give 100% of my attention of the person I'm talking to; to give them respect.  So I guess I actually did a good job of acting like myself while I was over thinking about how to be myself.