Intervention: Improvising With Attention Deficit Disorder

[benorbeen]

I have a helluva time hearing.

It's during long-form. It's not that I'm not listening, it's that I'm listening yet not hearing. I can't follow things. I will watch, keep eye contact, tell myself to listen-godamnit-listen, but so often I fail at comprehending the simplest thing going on.

I'll even be in 2-person scenes, and can't tell what for the life of me the other person is talking about. It's as if they're speaking another language, even though it's clear English.

I think a lot of it comes from tension on my part, that I'm frozen up onstage and get desperate to motor things along. However, I have insisted for a long time that I have a significant case of A.D.D. that really gets in the way of my work. In school, I couldn't read ... still can't very well ... because I can't focus. And that translates to watching plays, some movies, and especially participating in improv, in that I haven't a clue what just happened or is happening right in front of me.

I know a few people have admitted to A.D.D. (<b>Cute Little Puppy??</b>), and I was wondering what things you do or have done to overcome or battle with/through the handicap. Teachers: Do you have any recommendations for mounting the challenge?

I wanted to ask Delaney at the last class, but I don't get a sense that many people deal with this. Or do they? I guess I'll find out here.

Eagerly awaiting your replies,
Ben

 

[shel]

from a fellow player and ex-psych major (for a brief time - i majored in everything at some point):

i think the easiest way to help yourself focus is to learn to chunk. it's really the best way to learn. think about scenes this way (thank you heather and kerensa) - you have narrative, thematic, and tangential scene work. e.g. plot-driven scenes, scenes that work on a theme, and scenes that kinda take an idea and run it on a skew. obviously, there are more, but breaking it down this way is useful. you usually don't know until the second beat what the scene will be, but you'll find it. so, in the first beat, do this - watch each scene, not trying to remember EVERYTHING, but just major points. get the who, what, where, when, why and log it away somewhere. i know you can be in a trance after your own scene, especially if you felt really into it, but just look at your partner from the back line and feed off him/her and it will come back to you. when in doubt, look into your partner's eyes and trust and give give give. if you repeat in your head a few times the basics of what's going on in scenes, defining as you watch from the back (i know it takes you out of the moment sometimes, but if you want to play intelligently you have to do it). as far as when you're IN a scene, just make your character believeable and, since it is improv and wacky stuff can and should happen, jsut respond as your character would. then evaluate later. that's what's worked for me.

 

[DucoGranger]

Bam!

Shell I absoultly right. I have the same exact problems as you do Been plus a mild case of dyslexia (thats why I cant spell too well).

I dont know if this could work for you but its worth a shot: In my senior yoar of High School I was in my first and so far only lead role. I palyed Willum Cubbart who was by far the one with the biggest line load. Umm about 1300 I think with three monolgues and two of them spanning a page and a half.

It was terriable. I would always get lines mixed up, miss my cues, what have you, because my mind would uncontrolably wonder, or the dyslexia would pop in. It got to a point where not only I was getting fustrated but my director was about to cancle the poduction becase the main charicter could not act. Soo the next wekend I worked on my lines as I had done befor but with a new mind set; I was intent on becoming Willum. I studied the lines like I would study a person and the next monday when I got on that stage I WAS Willum. Not just acting like him but a made up reality that I realy was him. From then on memorization was simple and I never missed a beat.

So I know how you feel and this is the best suggesting that I can give you since its the only thing so far that worked for me. Be like one of thoes great child actors, like that Osmond kid, and create for yourself a false sence of reality. Become your charicter and it will give you ADD somthing constructive to do. I hope it helps

 

[Ali Davis]

Couldn't hurt...

Have you thought about yoga classes?

I don't have ADD, but I do think too much. I started practicing yoga for the workout, then gradually began to notice that while I'm doing it my brain shuts up. Stilling the mind and developing your ability to concentrate is a big part of what yoga's about.

I recommend any class that calls itself Bikram, Astanga/Ashtanga, or Vinyasa. All of them get you into doing things so hard that you can't do anything *but* concentrate on exactly what you're doing right at that moment. (And don't worry - you don't have to be all bendy. Every teacher I've ever had has taken care to ramp up beginners gradually.)

I'd also recommend it for fellow hyperverbal folks; yoga forces me to think nonverbally. If I let the verbal part of my brain take over during a pose (you can feel it happen - it's freaky) I fall down.

Anyway, on a superficial level it's a good workout and over time I've found it to be very, very helpful.

 

[Carlos]

my 2 cents

I don't know if I have ADD, but I do have problems similar to benorbeen's in my scenework -

"their lips are moving, but there's no one in my house ."

it's kind of like a disconnected feeling - you see what's going on but you can't understand the other player/s.

the times where I've been able to make sense of the information being thrown at me I felt as though the scene was progressing painfully slow yet upon asking others whom had watched the scene/s - I was told that in fact it was a fairly normal pace.

I guess at this point in time as an improvisor and particularly after having seen lightning fast teams (Respecto comes to mind.)

I find it difficult to start slowly, and even more difficult to build slowly, however I also find that if I don't start and build slowly - I'm lost from the get go...

My advice to myself - Go Slow, go very very slow...

After all I'm sure Chopin couldn't play simple etudes at the beginning

After all you can start a scene in Hell, but where do you go from there?

rudiments!

improv-scales!

and a big ol' hook holding those big ideas back until they're needed.

Carlos

 

[Ari]

ADHD posterpuppy says....

The best thing I did for myself was see a doctor about it and get medication for it. I am a serious, serious advocate of that. Failing that, drink lots of coffee. Caffeine relaxes ADD/ADHD people. Seriously. Of course, different stuff works for different people. I dimly suspect that improv attracts more than its share of ADD/ADHD freakshows like myself (perhaps b/c we could never be bothered to learn lines).

I don't know about any sure-fire strategies for keeping ADD at bay. Honestly I don't really think there are any. It's a disorder, after all. Chemical thing. It's not, after all, like we can't be bothered to focus or forget to notice things (though I was certainly raised to believe otherwise). For me -- and of course everyone approaches improv differently -- Shell's suggestions wouldn't help. I find improv to is organizational as opposed to creative, and the body of information is all out there in front of you, to expose the patterns and codes and organize them. I personally need to just be washed over by the information and see what I can process. That's part of what makes it so much fun. Not thinking, reacting. You know, like the Matrix.

Oh, fuck. That's actually a really good example. To me, improv is like the Matrix.

Ah yes. Off topic. How deliciously ironic. Anyway.

You may already know this, but ADD/ADHD medication does <b>not</b> in any way impede your creativity or thought process. It's actually pretty great, just focuses you up. But again, depends on the person.

On the other hand, if you don't have healthcare, then... crap... I dunno what to tell you.

And of course, when weighing my advice, remember that I am just a really cute, talking puppy.