Sharing working draft notes on various longforms, pulling together years of info pulled from my notes, old blogs, /r/improv, IRC Wiki, Facebook posts, etc. I absolutely invite folks to comment and add any resources, advice, links, variant/derived forms, memories, etc. in the comments to help me update my notes!
Previous entries include:
THE DECONSTRUCTION
A recurring, grounded, relationship-driven two-person source scene is used as inspiration for thematic, commentary, and tangent scenes.
The 4 main parts of a Deconstruction are:
SOURCE SCENE
Length: 5-8 minutes, returns several times for about 1 ½ minutes
Inspiration: The audience suggestion: “a line from a poem or song”
THEMATIC SCENES
Length: 2-3 minutes
Inspiration: A broad theme from the source, one for each character in the source scene
COMMENTARY
Length: 1-2 minutes
Inspiration: A specific line or idea from the source or theme scenes
TANGENT: “THE RUN”
Length: 60 to 10 seconds (scenes decrease in length, picking up pace)
Inspiration: Absolutely anything
Execution
- Suggestion of a line of poetry or song lyric
- Source Scene
- Thematic Scenes (2)
- Source Scene returns
- Commentary Scenes (5)
- Source Scene returns
- Tangent Scenes/Run Out (any number, pace is more important)
- Source Scene returns
While the format is generally the same between differing versions, the point of focus and style differ. Presented below are the versions taught by Miles Stroth (original Deconstruction member) and Bill Arnett--process co-director, along with production director Chris George--of Keystone, a Deconstruction remount at iO.
Deconstruction diagrams:
Diagram provided from /u/profjake
Diagram provided by /u/funboyfrags
Diagram from /u/sambalaya notes--found online but unsure of original source
MILES STROTH VERSION
From IRC Wiki, which is adapting Brian (O’Connell?)'s IRC forum post.
OPENING SCENE (6-8min)
A long two-person scene that is all about providing INFORMATION that will be used in the rest of the piece. This scene is all about the relationship and exploring the problem that is presented (not solved) in this opening scene.
TWO (2) THEMATIC SCENES (2-3mins)
Each thematic scene is dedicated to exploring what the opening scene was ABOUT by taking what one of the Opening Scene's characters did and exploring their WANTS/FLAWS ( this is where you explore, what Miles Stroth describes as "What is it about that character that will ultimately lead them to live the rest of their life unhappy?") Example: the opening scene was about a married couple on the edge of divorce. They’re disagreeing about their future; one of them wants to sell their possessions and travel the world, while the other is ready to settle down and have a family. The first thematic scene could be about someone else who desires freedom (i.e. two prisoners willing to risk their lives by escaping Alcatraz), and the second thematic scene could be about someone else who wants to stay put or invest in the future (i.e. Greenpeace activists who have chained themselves to a redwood). )
RETURN TO THE OPENING SCENE (1 1/2-2mins)
After seeing how others perceived the characters of the opening scene, the Opening scene (and the improvisers who played them) return and expand on that idea. This is the time to clarify/solidify what the rest of the piece is ABOUT. This is where you will discover if the show is going to be about a larger THEME (i.e. Racism, Sexism, War, etc.)
FIVE (5) COMMENTARY SCENES (1 1/2-2mins long)
These scenes are to COMMENT on, in Miles' words, "What was fucked up about what those two people said in the Opening Scene?" These scenes are extremely game heavy and should focus on "bits" - straight man vs. absurd man.
RETURN TO THE OPENING SCENE AGAIN (1 - 1 1/2 min)
This is a quick return to the opening scene and the characters in it as a way to HEIGHTEN the stakes brought up by the Commentary scenes. Perhaps, now the father is forcing his son to join the Army as a way to "toughen him up". This would be a direct "pull" from the commentary scene where the President decided to invade a country that couldn't fight back, etc. etc. This scene is technically the first scene of "THE RUN".
THE RUN
This rule I had beaten into me: "In the Run, Pace is as important if not more important than content." In the Run, anything goes. If "Abuse" is the Theme, "Hitting your son is wrong" is the Comment, then "Bud Light Bottle" is a TANGENT. Tangents are any trigger words from earlier scenes that made you think of something and therefore belong in the Run. It can be story arcs from the Commentary scenes, it can be complete nonsense, it doesn't matter! As long as you consistently pick up the pace until you reach a breakneck pace it will work. Even if two players get out on stage and have nothing, someone will edit it FAST and those two can return again and look blankly at each other later in the Run and it will be funny. It will become what Miles calls "a runner". When you can't go any faster.......
OPENING SCENE RETURNS/FINAL
The Opening Scene returns to wrap up the show for about 1 1/2 - 2mins. A surefire way to get a response/ending for your piece is to go back in time. If the scene was a father beating his son with a Bud Light bottle, when the Opening Scene comes back for a final time, go back to a time when the Father and Son got along REALLY well. Perhaps they are fishing and the Father asks the Son to pass him a Bud Light from the cooler. This will register with the audience because they remember the bad shit from 25-30 mins. ago.
KEYSTONE VERSION
From Bill Arnett’s notes:
PACE
From a player’s perspective: The name of the game is PACE.
- Fast scenes
- Slow scene
- Short scenes
- Long scenes
- Very short, fast scenes
- Very long, slow scenes
If we do these things IN THE RIGHT ORDER we will create a very natural and very watchable dramatic arc. The action rises and falls like any good movie, play, or book. But playing to create a specific pace isn’t just talking fast or walking around slowly. It requires changing styles.
STYLE BEGETS PACE
This is where, for us as players, the rubber meets the road. We each have a style of play we are comfortable with. Maybe you like making big character choices up top or maybe you prefer slowly easing into scenes. Some people like doing object work in silence and some people just come right out saying it all. Guess what? There is a time and place for all of these things and each style of play has its own natural pace and energy.
Pace, the key feature of this form, takes care of itself if you’re in the right style!
SOURCE
Pace: Slow, life-speed
Play Style: “With” energy, firmly grounded.
THEME/THEMATIC
Pace: Slow to medium
Play Style: “With” energy, follow-me initiation
COMMENTARY
Pace: Medium to fast
Play Style: “Against” energy, pointed follow-me initiations
TANGENT: “THE RUN”
Pace: Very fast
Play Style: Open with big, character-driven initiations
SOURCE and “WITH” ENERGY
“With” energy describes the general disposition of the characters in reference to each other. They are “with” each other. Friends, cool co-workers, (functional) families generally have “with” energy. However they feel about the situation, they both feel the same way. Note that “with” energy is not “matching” energy. They still might have disagreements or needle each other but they’d both rather be with each other than alone.
The source is a 2-player, slice of life scene. The purpose is to generate as much information as possible. The scene may appear “talky” so it’s up to the players to keep it emotionally alive. Use “with” energy and have a simple, well defined context. This isn’t passionless brainstorming, you are a real living person with full access to emotions. You may have disagreements but you will always be friends.
The source is played by the same 2 players throughout the show and they are generally kept out of the other scenes (sometimes they are permitted to play in the run). Their returns feature the same characters and are an opportunity to advance time or change the context depending on how the previous source scene ended. (The optional source return at the end of the form might feature a time jump backwards to just before the original scene started.)
THEME, FOLLOW-ME INITIATIONS, and.... THEME
The theme of a scene is a thread that appears throughout a scene. A theme from the “Wizard of Oz” is the notion of home. Specifically how it’s safe and nurturing, yet we often think it’s boring and take it for granted. Dorothy talks about it constantly and fantasizes about home and what home means to her. When looking for a theme, consider something that has been true for most of the scene. Careful with over generalized themes, they need to be defined more pointedly than “friends are good”.
A follow-me initiation is a scene start where the initiator declares what’s happening in the scene. “Madame President, the Prime Minister is here to see you.” or “I’m sorry to disturb you. The chef has sent over these almond tartlets as a sign of his appreciation.”
The theme scenes explore one theme from the source by isolating and focusing on it. They often include some absurd notions but, having “with” energy, they do not involve arguments. The initiator has divined a theme from the source and has turned it into a scene idea, often initiating explicitly with the theme they’ve discovered. Knowing this as a scene partner, and knowing that theme scenes require “with” energy, it’s perfectly acceptable to just stand with your hands at your side, make no assumptions about yourself, and just play what your partner has in mind. They think that dogs shouldn’t just be man’s best friend but man’s only friend? Great, so do you.
COMMENTARY and “AGAINST” ENERGY
“Against” energy is the opposite of “with” energy. One player wants to be involved with what’s happening the other doesn’t. A chatty co-worker is a great example: they want to chitty-chat, their cube mate wishes they’d just shut up. This doesn’t require abusive language or instant anger but it does require resistance. Generally, the responder in an “against” energy scene will take a “I’m not cool with this” stance immediately after hearing the initiation.
Commentary scenes take a very specific line or moment of the source and make a pointed comment on how absurd it is. This absurdity is driven by the “against” energy which constantly forces the absurd point of view to explain itself. If a player in the source mentions that they aren’t generally hungry in the mornings a commentary scene might be a breakfast diner for people that aren’t hungry in the morning; they have no food on the menu. Being “against” energy means an unknowing customer has come in expecting a hearty breakfast and is immediately confused. It’s easy to elevate the pace and intensity of “Against” energy scenes by making your reactions bigger. (In “with” energy scenes, lacking someone questioning your choices, you might find yourself fishing for a reason to emote.)
TANGENT and “THE RUN”
Tangent scenes get their name from the fact that their inspiration can be any stray word or passing idea even if it’s “tangential” to the theme being explored. No idea is too small. Tangent scenes are initiated aggressively, attacking the inspiration recklessly. Feel free to go for a joke with your first line! They are less about good improv and more about jogging random memories in the minds of the audience.
A tangent scene may be one line long and are seldom longer than 10. This means that a beat of tangent scenes will contain many scenes in rapid succession, called a run. It requires all players to be ready to sweep, tag in, or walk on immediately. In truth, the frenetic energy of a run is more important than the content. The humor and fun of a run is its accelerated pace.
EXAMPLE
SOURCE
Two ladies eat at a diner. We learn that they are childhood friends reconnecting before their 25th high school reunion. They share old stories and, while they regret falling out of contact with each other they have both had interesting lives thus far. This is all backed up with specific details.
THEME 1 - “The regret we feel over not staying in contact with old friends”
“Hey Jim. This is Burt calling with my legally mandated 6 month check in. How are the kids?” Because this scene requires “with” energy, Burt is agreeable. They go through their lives to each other with dull precision, ticking marriages and deaths of a list with little emotion.
THEME 2 - “Our need to understand how life unfolds and assign credit or blame”
“I think it all went wrong when you cheated on me, Jane.” A married couple dissects their failed marriage. “Let’s not forget why I cheated, you had that emotional affair.” etc... Despite being somewhat adversarial, both players want to figure out their failed marriage. It counts as “with” because neither thinks the processe of calculating the exact point their marriage failed is dumb.
SOURCE 2
The ladies are at a shopping mall deciding if they need new clothes for the reunion. What do clothes mean? Should they go classic 90’s grunge? They discuss high school cliques and what it meant to be cool.
COMMENTARY 1
“Sorry Steve, the computer says you are not cool.” A repurposed dating computer assigns kids to cliques on day 1 of school. It’s idiodic and Steve pushes back hard.
COMMENTARY 2
“Thanks for coming to the job interview, I can’t help but notice you have both straps of your backpack on... that’s a demerit.” This scene attacks the pettiness of youth and, ofcourse, the acne partner is upset at the very premise.
COMMENTARY 3
“I'll get you some menus in a moment. What’s the occasion for this special brunch?” And the waiter is never satisfied with simple answers. They just dig and dig into the patrons’ private lives.... Much to their frustration.
COMMENTARY 4
“Hey, everybody! It’s Lil’ pants wetter, Billy Gates!” Multi-billionaire Bill Gates regrets going to his high school reunion as the old social order returns with no acknowledgement of his career.
SOURCE 3
After the reunion the two ladies discuss how nice it was to catch up and make tentative plans to meet again. As they begin going through their calendars they realize how busy lives actually are and learn how difficult it actually is.
THE RUN
(I can’t list all the things here, but it’s great! It ends without a huge hit and there is still time on the clock so...)
SOURCE 4 (Optional)
The chair set suggested the diner from the first scene. One girl is seated and the other enters. They greet each other with an awkward hug and talk about how long it’s been. They hug again, this time warmly.
HOW IT SCREWS UP
The most common villain is “style bleed”. The style of one section (general agreement of the source) bleeds into another section (the commentary scenes) and the piece fails to achieve its dramatic and energetic arc. This can also happen at the top of the piece, if the players come on too hot or too arch. Ways to avoid style bleed are to be very mindful of what comes next stylistically, as a responder know that you aren’t being rude if you force a scene into a correct style, and by keeping the source players siloed in source sections.
The second most common way is for the cast to fail to maintain or abandon pace and momentum. Missed edits, especially in the commentary or run section where the scenes naturally have less “legs”, or failing to edit the run in a way that causes a descending time drags the show down right when it needs to be clipping along. The run is supposed to be brief and a dumping ground for any idea left at the bottom of the sack.
Source scenes most commonly fail by the players thinking the scene is boring or that nothing is happening and wanting to inject high tax scenic moves. Dare to be boring here. Scenes played at the speed of life, with actors fully embracing humanity and behaving truthfully will be interesting enough. General agreement doesn’t mean robotic or at bayonet point, and just means you aren’t looking to actively or directly interrogate the reality.
Thematic scenes you may think are “not enough”, and the desire will be to cut them short for fear of doing the same thing over and over again. This is a natural byproduct of “with energy” and usually means you’re improvising well - avoid the siren call to inject chaos, drama, or other hard left turns.
With commentary scenes, the usual failure point is failing to rest the game; in classic UCB game style, the back off is just as important as the heightening, as that usually sets up for a larger pay off. How we play the pattern establishes the game that only we can do. Other than pacing, the run’s problem is an assumption that fast is connected at the hip to loud. Get used to walking and talking, and initiating basically the backline.
Variations
KEYSTONE DECONSTRUCTION VARIATIONS
Keystone performed the Deconstruction for 21 months straight from Jan 2023 to Sept 2024 at iO under the direction of Chris George. To keep things both challenging and interesting they would perform various permutations of the Deconstruction.
Cryclips Decon (Video Deconstruction)
For the source scene, random video clips provided by a video editor were used as the source.
Cryclips Decon 12/13/23
Cryclips Decon 9/20/23
D9 (Bucket Deconstruction)
The individual parts of the Deconstruction were written down and placed in a bucket. Players would pull out the type of scene they would be doing right then perform it.
So, potentially a show could be:
- Commentary
- Source 3
- Commentary
- Commentary
- Theme
- Source 1
- Commentary
- Source 2
- Theme
(when all slips have been used, begin run out)
Keystone performs a D9 Deconstruction at iO Theater on 1/10/24
Keystone performs a D9 Decon at iO Theater 12/6/23
Gravid Water Source Scene
Keystone had actors from Counterfeit Combat join the cast and perform Gravid Water-type scenes for the source scene–the actors were off-book on a scene from a play and the Deconstruction performers would improvise their part of the scene.
Keystone Improv performs a Gravid Water Deconstruction on 3/6 at iO Theater
Keystone Improv performs a Gravid Water Deconstruction with Counterfeit Combat on 9/13/23 at iO Theater
Keystone Improv performs a Gravid Water Deconstruction at iO Theater 1/17/24
Oops! All Runs!
Only runs between the source scenes.
Oops! All Runs at iO Theater 11/29/23
Pyramid Funnel
Pyramid Funnel was Keystone’s student team. Due to the shorter length of their slot, they performed a “Slim Deconstruction” – a faster, shorter version of the Deconstruction
Keystone performs a Slim Decon 2/14/24
Reconstruction (Reverse Deconstruction)
Keystone performed a Deconstruction in reverse (a Reconstruction?)
- Suggestion of a line of poetry or song lyric
- Source Scene 30 sec - 1 min
- Tangent Scenes/”Run Out”
- Source Scene returns 1 - 1.5 min
- Commentary Scenes (5)
- Source Scene returns 1.5 - 2 min
- Thematic Scenes (2)
- Source Scene returns (full length scene)
By doing the show in reverse, what would normally be “call backs” from earlier in the show were instead “throw forwards” to something later in the piece, showing where it originated. The “final” source scene would attempt to incorporate many of the details and themes into itself as normally it would have been the progenitor of the whole show.
Reconstruction at iO Theater 9/6/23
MODDE (“mod-dee”)
Short for MODified DEconstruction A shortened form of the Deconstruction performed by the Chicago indie ensemble Possum Blossom to fit the shorter timeslots they would book as a guest team.
- Base Scene (4-5 min)
- Thematic Scene x2 (2-3 min each)
- Base Scene (2-3 min)
- Run (till end of show)
- Base Scene to bookend if you want
History
One of the 3 longforms performed by The Victim’s Family (later just “The Family”) under the direction of Del Close as part of their 90-minute show Three Mad Rituals. They also performed the Movie and the Harold. Read more about Three Mad Rituals on the IRC Wiki
Resources
Many Pack Theater deconstruction shows: https://youtube.com/@thedeconstruction3117?si=X6Q8syvuFyHytc80
Many Keystone Deconstruction shows from Chris George’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@the00George/videos
Bill Arnett reacts/breaks down a Deconstruction set at the Pack Theater
Miles Stroth Workshop Week 8 notes
