Understanding the Harold

[spacemud]

Trophy Wife is a really great Harold team from iO West in Hollywood.

I believe their video archive of weekly shows goes back about 2 to 3 years, maybe more.

http://trophywifeimprov.com

 

[El Jefe]

The blog The House That Del Built — with which I have no association — has many thoughtful posts on performing, teaching and coaching improv in general, and the Harold in particular.

 

[Morgan Hearst]

Thank you so much for the video links. I'm embarrassed to say that I've never seen a Harold and so I'm going to be devouring these videos and will, no doubt, come back with some very stupid questions

 

[lefty]

I think it is important to remember that The Harold was created as a way for Del to get his actors to get away from or to stop relying on plot to create the performance. I don't have a citation for that, but I'm sure I could find one if pushed.

Here is a second-hand quote. It is from Kozlowski's The Art of Chicago Improvisation, but he is quoting Truth in Comedy (Close, Halpern, and Johnson):

the group was searching for some way to unite all their games, scenes, and techniques into one format; they developed a way to intertwine scenes, games, monologues, songs and all manner of performing techniques​

For the Harold to not be a fossil it should incorporate whatever you have available and what ever the performers think will serve it rightly, in any given moment. The formula (Opening, 3 1st beats, group game etc) is fine and works and can be used to create a great performance. So can the pot luck approach that appears to have been the thing before the formula became formal.

Drilling the Harold over and over in a particular way in a particular style will teach student improvisers (of which I am one, not to sound above the fray) to play in a particular way, not a universal way. While improv is improv and the skills translate from style to style and form to form, the skills needed to do a 25 minute Harold are not the skills needed to do a 40 minute Deconstruction or a Slacker. Drilling in just general scene work and scene structure, to me is more universally useful than drilling any single form.

 

[mike short]

I tend to agree. I like to think that The Harold is great for groups of people who are new to each other and need to learn how to work together well. The training wheels structure creates a formula for success. In time, a group can begin playing A Harold, which is a show that takes the shape of the people making it. (Does that make any sense? You know what I'm trying to say.)

I think it's important to learn the formula in order to learn good habits. It's also then good to internalize those habits and not rely on the formula to provide them for you.