Transaction scenes

[LaughAtlantis]

I'm producing and directing an improv show set in the workplace - workplace to be determined by the audience, so it could be an office, but it also could be a flower shop or a pizza place or whatever. I'm a little concerned about transaction scenes and how to keep them interesting/deflect them/give them weight/all of the above. Varying it will no doubt help - not every poured drink at Cheers was the same, certainly the ones poured to Norm had added weight than those to other customers.

Armed with the knowledge that not every transaction can be about the relationship (though certainly some can), any thoughts on how best to accomplish this/ rehearse this?

 

[JRellman]

You can develop the relationship between the workers, like this show, which was set at a bakery.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rcHouxqChs&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL03FF2BD87B35C44A


But sometimes you will have a transaction. And if you are doing a transaction, you will most likely have to develop a relationship between the customer and the employer. You should rehearse this. You say not every transaction can be about the relationship, but I would disagree. I think a customer and an employee can always develop a relationship; they get to know each other. Heres a death by roo roo show that takes place in a sandwhich shop but with customers and such:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyeFemMm9s0

 

[mike short]

It is my take that a transaction is just an action. And we all know that every improv scene is not about the action; it's about something else. The problem comes when all we do is just play out the realism of a transaction; once the action is completed there's no compelling reason to stick around in the space. Remembering all that, once we focus on something else, anything else, during that transaction, we'll be fine. The second problem comes when we realize we're in the middle of a transaction and, having been told that they are an awful no-no, we panic and scramble to inject something into the scene. So the thought process is: always focus on something besides the transaction, and if you are acting one out, don't panic.

So what else can we focus on that can put us in a strong place? A few months ago I did a workshop with one of my groups during which we only played teaching or transaction scenes. Maybe it was a function of the way we like to play, but our scene naturally steered towards character. We rarely got around to completing a sale. Every scene had a very interesting character inhabiting the role of both the vendor and the customer. Challenge yourselves to play interesting characters; they can exist anywhere. Spending a day on that armed us with our weapon when confronted with transactions; you might find your own weapon.

It'll also be useful to brainstorm the other kinds of situations that might occur in a workplace. Breakrooms, lobbies, stockrooms, offices, salesfloors, those are just places. All of life can happen in a workplace. That couple could have just picked the tire shop floor room as the place for their break-up. That boss's son might have just picked this lunch hour to call and come out of the closet to him. Etc. etc.

 

[Holmes]

The problem with transaction scenes isn't the transactions; it's that people focus on successfully completing the transaction (like in real life; we're trained to make them smooth and fast), instead of doing improv (playing your character, finding an interesting thing, exploring it).

People also tend to have problems with exits and entrances in improv. We get used to a typical improv scene that involves two people standing at 45-degree angles to each other with mimed cups and talking about a farting giraffe.

In some scenes, you might find yourself really wanting to leave a scene (perhaps because you're done buying that cold-sore cream), and maybe that's just what is needed. Maybe your exit can lead to someone else's entrance. It's common to do a walk-on or cut-away to add information to the scene, but maybe an exit turns your scene into something like that.

Don't be afraid to exit or enter scenes.

 

[SixSider]

Another "trick" is making what you are buying important to you. Give the why.

"I'm buying flowers for my wife's grave. It's the third anniversary of her death."
"Dude, I have so many cold sores. I gotta stop sleeping around so much."
"I've been a vegetarian for 20 years. This is the first roast beef sandwich I had since 1992."

These may help you make richer discoveries that help you explore who these people are.

 

[Markb]

As a general rule, in our scenes we assume that the characters already have an intimate (not necessarily sexual) relationship. This works in pretty much any location. For example, in a restaurant, the waiter might have to serve his ex-girlfriend. The transaction then serves to illustrate the nature of the relationship. Maybe the waiter "accidentally" spills wine on the ex-girlfriend, showing bitterness or hatred. Maybe he brings an extra slice of pie to the table hoping to rekindle the relationship.

The transaction can also influence or alter an already established relationship. In a hardware store, maybe the cashier charges full price for the friend/customer's purchase while the friend/customer feels that he deserves a break on the price because they're best friends (and even served as best man in the cashier's wedding).

In all of these instances, the transaction is important to establishing the nature of the relationship and serves a real purpose.

If we're not making the assumption of an existing, intimate relationship, I think all of the other responses here are really good!

 

[lefty]

I don't have a problem with transaction scenes, and I think the prohibition against them is more about something else than the actual transaction scene.

One good thing about them is that both players have a pretty obvious want, and they have something to do. Plenty of scenes where the characters know each other don't have those. When played in a specific way-- you're not the indistinguishable shopper and the cliched cashier, but very specific ones--, and when we find why we're seeing this moment (the "what about this day is different than every other day?" thing), and we have everything we need for a great scene without inventing the "didn't we go to high school together?" way to bail out on what was already there. Play the truth of it all.

This is way better than finding ourselves in a transaction scene have having all the horror stories of why they're bad swimming in our head-- the prohibition against them takes us out of the moment. Everything that is wrong with a transaction scene can go wrong in any other scene, and often does. No one wins anything by doing no transaction scenes. I'm way cooler with the "no questions" rule thing than the no transaction scenes thing.

 

[Markb]

I don't think anyone proposed prohibiting transaction scenes but provided suggestions and options on how to get the most out of them.

 

[Lord Hatsumi]

react

 

[mike short]

I don't think anyone proposed prohibiting transaction scenes but provided suggestions and options on how to get the most out of them.

Lefty's talking about the general societal prohibition—as in the note we often hear from teachers and coaches—not any prohibition as specifically mentioned in this thread.

 

[lefty]

Yes, thanks for the assist Mike. I meant the general prohibition against them.

 

[Markb]

Oh, I see. Thanks for the clarification. Actually, I wasn't aware of a bias against transaction scenes. I guess we try to apply pretty standard principles to all scenes and never explicitly labelled transactions scenes as such.

 

[David Siegel]

Make the choice you already know each other...even if it's just from being a regular customer or something mundane like that.

In a transactional scenario with a total stranger, there is an extremely narrow range within which to find anything unusual/interesting.

 

[mike short]

...even if it's just from being a regular customer or something mundane like that.

I especially like this and want to point it out. Because nothing reads like an invention more than "Didn't we know each other in high school?" which seems to be the weird default. Just being a usual regular customer is plenty to start from.

 

[lefty]

David presents the prohibition I'm talking about, the idea that two people in the Le Creuset outlet don't more often have more meaningful conversations than best buds.

(and wow I dive into a 1/2 rant.)

My best friend had a 4 year old kid and none of us knew it-- because we're polite around each other and we keep up fronts and all that BS. And when we all found out, none of us cared or really talked about it, because our friendship was more important than whatever happened where he felt he had to compartmentalize his life. All that there was was missed opportunities to share and help out and learn from each other-- like everything else in all our lives. That's "real" and playing it real would never get anything fun to play.

I think total strangers can be effected by each other in ways best buds can't, and beautiful scenes can happen about new things that never happened before for the characters-- all because one of them confessed something in a transaction scene and the other was effected and they found a communion.

By making a "mundane" choice, then we're putting off the big choice we're supposed to be going for-- not big as in loud crazy and shocking, but big in the truth department. I mean my god we are in an economy largely built on impulse buying where people hope some purchase will make them happy: will this book fix me, will this moisturizer make me hot, will this cup cake make me forget the way my boss takes me for granted. Fess up to something truthful and be effected in a truthful way. Truthful isn't necessarily historically accurate, but it's about a feeling and an impulse or a reaction we've all seen or shared, but we get to it via something that is unique to us the players.

Honestly, a transaction scene is a perfect place for that. Strangers are the perfect people to be non-judgemental and honest with each other. Strangers can't trot out the old bail-out-on-the-moment line of "didn't we talk about this ..." (no, and the audience knows you didn't because you literally are two characters born only moments ago and we want to see you in the fucking moment react now) or any of the other tricks we use to bail out of forging a communion with someone. if 2 players don't want to find communion then they can do that bullshit scene as husband and wife or as strangers. All the techniques that build great scenes are available to strangers, perhaps more-so than to besties.

 

[ALuisPereira]

First of all:

Second of all:

It's preferable to not teach students through transaction scenes because it is a ticking time bomb. Not only is it just waiting for a manager or next person in line to ask, "is everything ok?" for a laugh, but there's extra tension on the performer to find a reason they're ordering McDonald's for 3-5 minutes. It's that extra tension that teachers and coaches want to relieve while players learn the basics.

My two cents, make a big choice right up top if you recognize you're in a scene that may be considered a transaction that typically ends very quickly. I saw Delaney initiate a scene by saying, "Welcome to Mcdonald's, but we have no buns! No buns!"