The Magical Power Of Improvisation

Motor…Action…Improvisation!

For the last 34 years, my life has revolved around these words with all of my senses, montages, frames and at maximum speed. If I were to tell you about my childhood, then I would have more than 50 years to share with you; a childhood spent in theatre, among actors, stage directors, painters, sculptors and beside Valentin Uritescu, established actor and father, all elements that spiced it with freedom and creativity. Many of the experiences and techniques used in this protocol are inspired by the feelings and experiences I’ve had since then.

I am an actor, stage director, screenwriter, stunt coordinator specialized in fight choreography, acrobatics, combined falls, movement dynamics, body expressiveness, Kung Fu instructor, NLP practitioner, Points Of You practitioner.

I am 51 years old. Times have changed, values have changed. I’ve had a revelation. I have to do something else from now on.

I feel like I must help others; I’ve done it intuitively so many times, anyway. It’s made me feel fulfilled. My experience of over 30 years in Cinema, Theater, Events, Tv shows will now be of use for me as a trainer; a simple, direct, unique and spectacular style applied with a lot of humor during Personal Development sessions, trainings, workshops and team buildings – where the participants discover the fabulous universe of the self through various emotions, feelings, actions and exercises.

I’ve developed a program – “DYNAMIC PROTOCOL – STRATEGIA CHAPLIN” – in which we harmoniously combine techniques and exercises from: NLP, points of you, acting, body expressivity, martial arts, cinema, waterfall, improvisation.

Dynamic Protocol is divided in 3 modules:

1. Who am I? – Discover
2. Who I could be – Build
3. Who I choose to be – Integrate

An inner voice always guides me:

Detach yourself from “Conventional”. Change the rules of the “game”’. Break the “patterns”. Write your own “life’s role”. Direct your own “success”. The “power” is yours.

The universe moved, coincidence or not. I am stronger and more determined than ever. If I can adapt and reinvent myself, then I can surely convince others to:

Dream…Act… to freely fly to their own action take.

Therefore, all I have to say:

Motor…Action…!!!

We are part of the Whole/ Universe  from which we incarnated as spontaneous, curious and creative beings; the education we’ve received made us fit in some patterns, relaying on already tested ideas. When we need to solve a problem, we use our past experiences for a solution that worked, even though it might be just an imitation or an unoriginal idea.

We’ve been taught to be rational, even though rational thinking kills creativity. We tend to judge immediately any new idea or solution because it’s easier than to come up with one by ourselves. Sometimes we have the tendency to superficially simplify things. It’s like we see through a subjective, Ego related pipe; this is how we see our reality and we get caught in seeing it juts from our own perspective.

This protocol is a unique alternative for recreation and personal development, designed to relax physically and mentally, to develop control over body’s tolerance, confidence and self-esteem.

This protocol encourages participants to think productively, to always look for innovative ideas, unique solutions to problems, to ask themselves how they can look at a given solution, how they can rethink it or how many different solutions they can find randomly and how to generate alternatives and to be able to select the best one. Participants will learn how question beliefs and concepts, how to ask specific questions etc. In other words:  how to be creative. This means to deviate from past experiences and solutions known to work.

How I discovered the magical power of improvisation

In 1999, I was making preparations for the comic-parody series ”Badegard”. I was working frantically on the script. I was frantic because I had to write and arrange the dynamic images in my head, full of pursuits, martial arts and many gags. I was jumping around, laughing, crying, playing all the characters that were part of the script. I was dissociating myself in order to ”see” the angle of the room and the frame, in order to correct it and lay it out on paper. The fights, choreography and the actions scenes – I’ve ”lived” them in my room, only with the help of my imagination, boundless enthusiasm and the power of visualization.

All of this gave me an euphoric and creative state which made me feel invincible.

Only that inspiration didn’t always come. I had artistic blockages and I didn’t know what to do, how to resolve different situations, I didn’t know the technical possibilities nor the actors. I only knew that I had a budget of 400 lei (aprox. 82 euro) for each episode that I had to film it; and a two days period to do so. I was feeling desperate and I was losing confidence in myself; I had anxiety attacks about my success. I truly felt alone.

I was doing breathing and relaxing techniques in vain. My anxious state continued. When I had those feelings of despair, I would break the pattern by going fishing with my dad. Then, I had an idea: to study Chaplin’s work, not just to watch it. I took all his movies frame by frame. I came to understand his characters beyond their facial expressions by taking notes and doing tempo scheme for gags; I was identifying with him and we were entering the scenes “together”. As it’s said in NLP, I “modelled” Chaplin. I fell asleep on my desk and, suddenly, I understood how he constructed his gags. Evrika! Simple. By improvisation’s magical power.

 The characters were carefully constructed. Chaplin assumed his characters. He channeled them psychologically, kinesthetically and physiologically, building the right mental state in order to play those.

He was acting, reacting, behaving in different situations/ scene sets by IMPROVISING.

Through improvisation, he discovered unique relationships and behaviors, that fit to the situation. The humor and the action flowed harmoniously.

I also used this technique for script writing, staging/ production, performance and even for montage.

It worked then and it’s been working since then – for stage directing, play, martial arts, teaching, education, business and in many areas that involve, more or less, people interaction and communication.

I combined what I discovered and I perfected over the years with NLP techniques and exercises – thus, the “Chaplin Strategy” was born.