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SECOND CYCLE P1: I can’t think of what to do to make those thinking things.” The ‘thinking things’ was a reference to gaps. The incident was discussed in the focus group where the participant explained what happened: There were many things. I started really feeling this situation and I became truly sad. So I gave up. I imagined: if 1 was a dad and my daughter was leaving what would it feel like. And I also knew how the story continues. I really wanted to convince her, but then I knew so little about her, so it was hard to say anything. It was interesting to watch others, it all looked quite interesting from the outside.’ When I probed further in the focus group asking about the dramaturgical structures the same student said: “I think one reason I stopped was because I found it really hard to create this gap. I’m not an actor, and I know you didn’t expect us to be actors, but one needs to understand the whole thing to see where one can bring in such a twist”.’!* It is important to understand what proved as an obstacle for this student. Ihe first account suggests that this participant found the emotion of the situation overwhelming, and she also refers to the closed improvisation, where the ending is already determined, as blocking her objective in the situation. She also added that the pressure of having to create a gap in the improvisation was too much, but as this was the factor she mentioned straight away in the lesson, it clearly played an important role in her freezing. Thisaccounthighlightsthatitisimportanttoadjusttheamountofresponsibility placed on participants appropriately. Ihere are many factors that influence if a situation is good enough for an improvisation, this added pressure can take the focus away in some cases. In hindsight this improvisation could have been structured more skilfully to offer more space for action. In this situation the daughter was packing her rucksack when the father came in, the participant playing the father did not have a clear enough objective or a specific action that could offer grounding for participation in the improvisation. Though the major obstacle here was the pressure of creating gaps, the references to many other aspects of the situation suggests that participants can only create DEs if all other elements of the improvisation are well structured, as in good LTD improvisations. Another general feature for consideration is the group’s interest in drama; there were evident differences between groups I worked with in this respect and the motivation to deal with such challenges needs 712 V1_56B_verbatin transcript. 713 F 56B. 714 F 56B. + 219 +
