Source: https://www.deviantart.com/johnnygreek989/art/Earth-Fire-Air-and-Water-440854649
I’ve had this idea in my head for a while and thought it would be a fun little article to blog about!
The premise is to map the elements seen in such popular fantasy series as “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (or ATLA for those in the know) into some of the “Primal Forces” of Improv. What do I mean by a “Primal Force”? Basically, anything that can inspire you, and you can feel it powering a performance when you harness it.
Now you could try to be like Aang, and master all of these elements yourself, becoming an “Improv Avatar”. Certainly I think that we should all strive to have an appreciation for all parts of the Improv craft. However, you don’t have to! Every improvisor has their own superpower, and it is the mix of those superpowers that result in something greater than the sum of its parts. Much like Republic City itself, and the Pro-Bending Arena from Korra 🙂
Ok ok, enough Avatar references. Without further ado, let’s get to the list!
I’ll start with the element that I think gave me my biggest boost, which is Fire! Fire is the element of passion, and listening to your Heart. Often Fire-prov can light up the stage with dazzling energy, like Happiness or Anger, but it can also be smouldering and subdued with emotions like Melancholy or Envy (all the better to set blaze when the time is right). Fire-provisors like to “Follow the joy”. Whenever you feel something on stage, you are connecting with the power of Fire 🔥
If Fire is all about emotions, then Air is all about Ideas. If you have a natural ability to play with words, effortlessly recall scene details and love patterns, then you are an Air-provisor. I would say Game of the Scene is mostly in the domain of Air-prov. Air-provisors like to ask “If this is true what else is true?” and like to rationalise the information in the scene. In this way they tend to act as “Improv Dad”, clarifying details in a scene, tidying the narrative and knowing how to finish a show.
The Earth element encompasses all forms of physicality. This is quite possibly the rarest form of improvisor from my experience and it is such a pleasure to watch someone who has truly mastered it. I wanted to list many of the hallmarks I see as associated with Earth-provisors:
Finally we come to Water. To me Water is the most variable element, because Water-provisors take inspiration from their scene partners (originally the word that came to mind was “Nurturing” but I will be dammed if I break my pattern of association each Element with a word beginning with ”p”). Water-prov treats their scene partners like geniuses, and works hard to support them in a show. Water-provisors like to mirror their scene partner and reacting to them is of paramount importance.