Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
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From: steiner@bert.eecs.uic.edu (Karl Steiner)
Subject: Re: IF and AI
Message-ID: <1993Apr24.145705.1870@bert.eecs.uic.edu>
Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
References: <C5y70t.Fp6.2@cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Sat, 24 Apr 1993 14:57:05 GMT
Lines: 23

The improvs I mentioned in a previous post were app. 5 minute comedy sketches 
where the audience suggested characters and situations. There was a wide 
variety of situations, and probably differing skill levels of the actors, but 
in general the audience responded more enthusiastically (laughed more and 
harder, more applause) at sketches that maintained some touch with the 
original premise and achieved some sort of closure.

By shape, I mean a story that has a setting, conflict and resolution. Some 
sketches never established a conflict in the given setting and with the given 
characters. Some started with one conflict but kept introduced more and more 
subplots so that in the end no conflicts were resolved and the cohesion 
between events was tenuous. Other started with an original conflict, 
introduced perhaps one or two subplots, then at least wrapped up the original 
conflict at the end. While I don't know the though processes of the actors, I 
would suspect some internal process must have been taking place that guided 
the actors in choosing which leads to pick up on and which to drop, and how 
and when to wrap things up. It was my observation that the sketches that had 
some shape were better appreciated than those without.


Karl


