Skip past the pleasantries and dive into the meat of the scene immediately. Play your characters as if they have a sense of history and develop that depth within a few lines of dialogue. Both your writer brain and actor brain will be engaged as you learn simple tactics that will give you insights and avenues to explore in any situation that you are thrown into. 

ASAF RONEN is the Co-Producer and Education Director of Austin’s annual Out of Bounds Comedy Festival and the author of Directing Improv: Show the Way By Getting Out of the Way. He regularly performs, teaches and produces in Austin where he is the Founder/Dean of The Seed. He has been the Education Director at The Institution Theater for eight years and the Conservatory Director at ColdTowne Theater. He has taught and performed improvisation in Canada, Great Britain, Norway and in thirty-one of these United States with such groups as the B. Iden Payne Award winning Confidence Men (improvised plays in the style of David Mamet), Immigrants: The Musical (a Hamilton-inspired longform that explored the cast’s immigrant experiences), and imp (mostly silent improv). He was also producer on TRUST US, THIS IS ALL MADE UP, a documentary on legendary improvisers TJ & Dave that premiered at Austin’s South by Southwest Festival in 2009 and helped develop the improvised film Days of Delusion with director Scott Myers. In 1999, Asaf founded the improv website, YESand.com of which he was Editor-in-Chief.