Annoyance Level Two – Week Three

We started off class today as per usual wit a series of open warm-up scenes to get the juices flowing.
After a number of these Rich had us pause on the Back line and posed a question to us:

What is Heightening?

And: How can you Heighten your Character?

The three answers we came up with for the latter questions were to focus investing more in our Physicality and Emotions or to focus on the idea of Repetition (finding patterns our characters had established and keeping them alive: be it a certain phrase or sound, nervous ticks, reactions, etc)

The rest of the class focused on heightening.

Rich had us all stay in a line on the back wall and picked one person to start off. They were to say a simple line dialogue: “I’m here to stay.” Then the person next to them has to repeat the line while heightening it in some way: “I’m here to stay, mom and there’s nothing you can do about it.” This then continues down the line till everyone has gone – each person adding on to the line heightening it in some way.

After everyone had gotten to start off a line in the above exercise Rich had us grab a seat and asked for one person to get on stage. That individual was then asked to say a line of dialogue and then repeat it five times (each time heightening it in some way).
After this had happened another player joins her on stage and a scene starts where the first person has to use those five lines as their first five lines of dialogue. The player joining them can respond however they want – but is encouraged not to tailor their choices to the lines they know are coming.

After everyone had completed this exercise we had run out of time.

We left class thinking about these ideas:

There are a lot of different ways to heighten in a scene
Often reinvesting emotionally in something can breathe new life into a scene
It’s not what you say it’s how you say it
Calling people crazy (on drugs, etc) can be a weak move if done out of fear or confusion – However played strongly & deliberately on both ends it can be a powerful choice and a fun scene.

Auditions – Chemically Imbalanced Comedy

Last week I came across a notice announcing an audition for a brand new sponsored long form troupe to be part Chemically Imbalanced Comedy (CIC).
http://www.cicomedy.com

Now for those of you not in the know, “Chemically Imbalanced Comedy (CIC) is an organization of artists from the Chicago area and beyond, dedicated to providing performance opportunities for comedic artists.”
The group is around 7 years old I believe – they sponsor and create sketch, stand-up, & improvisation in weekly shows and also performs and produces comedic plays (some original works, some not).
They also are the producers behind the kick ass Snubfest improv festival
( http://snubfest.com )

Recently (like in November) the group signed a lease on a brand new theater space - roughly four blocks north of my apartment.
So considering the fact that I’ve been itching to start performing regularly again, the theater’s amazingly convenient location, and the chance to get some audition reps in – I quickly signed up.

The auditions were Earlier this afternoon – Sat, Dec. 15th, from 1-4pm. It was to be all improvised so there was nothing to prepare (yay) and we were asked to bring a headshot (or at least a current picture) and resume.

Anyway I got to the theater early to sign in – the place is a very nice black box theater, with a small entryway that doubles as the lobby/concession area. The place has around a 50 seat capacity (maybe a smidge more) set up in stadium style seating - along with a back stage area (behind a large curtain, big enough for small set storage) and a kitchen area in the very back. All in all certainly no iO or Annoyance – but a nicer space than the Playground theater.

When I got there – already a number of hopefuls were sitting down – probably around 30 people. It turns out I knew the Director from interning at iO – great guy named Jorin, performs with the Improvised Movie: OFP, and is on a Harold team along with the Producer (who I also knew from interning) at iO.
I got into the space and started filling out the paper work (standard audition fair – contact info, conflicts, etc) and a card with my physical description on it – and I ran into three other people I know who were trying out. One guy was from my level 2 class at iO, another is currently in my level 2 class at the Annoyance, and then one girl I know from college improv festivals – she was part of the host troupe to Whistler’s very first festival ever (complete tangent warning – there are around six people from the troupe: Absolunacy currently in Chicago involved in the scene, all of whom rock and met at that festival).

Anyway by the time things finally got started a little after 1pm – there were a little over 50 people hopeful for one of up to ten spots on the new team (around 1-5, pretty good odds for Chicago). All the people were of varying experience levels – some had graduated places like iO or Second City but had never (or been cut) from a team – others this was their first audition ever.
The director quickly had us count off by five dividing us into (you guessed it) five different groups (I was in group four… along with my friend from Absolunacy and my iO level two class – how fortuitous).

Due to the number of people and the limited amount of space – groups 4 & 5 chilled in the audience and the other three groups separated and got warmed up.
After they got warm – group one was asked to stay on the stage and my group (#4) went into the back kitchen area to warm-up.

Before this however the Director clued us in to what he was looking for: not necessarily funny – but people who listened, supported each other, and built off what their partners gave them.

The warm-ups were very relaxed actually – especially since I already knew two people in my group (makes a huge difference) – and lead by one of the theater staff. We warmed up till group one was done with their audition and then snuck back in to find seats.

We got to sit and watch groups 2 & 3 audition. The format was as such: the group got up on stage and formed a back line – the producer would call out the name of one person from the group who would hop out and start a scene, and then one other person (didn’t matter who) was to hop out and support them – the producer called scene – and that was it. The focus was on two person scenes (but if multiple people stepped out, no big deal).
In other words basically like almost every class I’d had at the Annoyance so far – rocking.

I never got to see group 1 go through the paces – however there were a lot of really entertaining moments from both group 2 & 3 and a lot of very talented people
(One of the reasons as someone who’s run improv auditions before part of me doesn’t like the idea of having the other groups sit and watch, it can get people in their heads – or psych them out … especially if they are in the last group and have been waiting for a while – that said at the time I didn’t care since I was enjoying watching the other people*).
There was however a slant toward the talking head scene - and very few characters appeared (especially concerning actors varying their physicality … voices might change a bit, but often it was the actor up there playing a verbal ping pong match – which a lot of performers get away with up here, but isn’t my favorite type of improv to do).

Finally my group got up – before we started I gave myself two goals: first start right away, the moment my name was called, or my foot stepped out to enter a scene I was to snap into something (emotion or physicality etc) – and second vary up my physicality*

It was a ton of fun playing up there – I felt very laid back the entire time (basically just like I was in class – which btw all my time doing this sort of thing at the Annoyance, I’m sure helped).
Our group had some good scenes, some meh scenes, probably a great/terrible scene or two – I wasn’t really paying attention to the quality – just watching the other players play and have fun doing it.

Afterwards I stuck around to watch the final group go – they were a little bigger than the other groups as a few latecomers got tacked on to them. I think all the waiting and watching must’ve gotten to a few of them – as there were a few rough moments (one or two instances of people judging their scene before it was even over … one poor girl was basically silent her first time out – just mime writing – and you could see on her face she wasn’t happy with that choice).
My favorite initiation of the audition was from this group though: “Yeah, so I’m a Satanist, let’s just get on with our exploration of the Mars Surface.”

After it was all over – the Director thanked those of us still around for making it such a touch decision for them. As I headed to grab some food (the whole process lasted about 2 hours) I really had no idea what my chances were (well 1 out of 5, but besides that) or exactly when I would hear back (I figured sometime in the next 24 hrs). It’s usually a good sign when you can’t recall your performance (unless you were black out drunk), but I had laughed a lot in that audition. Though I had fun, which is always a huge plus at an audition* though I have a number of evening conflicts.

Anyway I grabbed some food and afterwards went home to my apartment – as I was walking in the door, my phone started ringing. Long story short it was the Director telling me I was in (this was a little over an hour after it had ended) – booyah.
So I am now officially a member of a CIC sponsored team – we start rehearsing in Jan, and performing either late Jan, early Feb – the new year is already looking up.


* Really I think the reason I did well in this audition and felt so relaxed was because I really focused on the idea that I was just there for fun going in. I mean sure I definitely wanted to make the team, and get a chance to start performing, but I continually reminded myself – that if I didn’t make it, there were other auditions (in fact I’m already signed up for Second City general auditions come Jan – I can’t possibly get it, though I’m looking forward to the experience – and just yesterday I found out about another theater holding auditions which I would’ve signed up for the moment I found out this didn’t work out – hell if I had more time I’d do it anyway, but already my plate is getting rather full) or worst case I start up a practice group come Jan. and perhaps start performing with them (this I might still do).
But I went in to this with the goal of it being for the experience and for fun – and it was … bonus was I got it.

iO Level Two – Week Eight

So this was our last class for Level Two at iO and for it we had a kick-ass guest teacher: Miss Rachel Mason, Director of the Training center at the theater.

Today’s class was all about mirroring and symmetry – mostly using dance ideas. We started off with the traditional name game.
After this Rachel had us for two rows on stage, one line behind the other – facing the audience (staggered so you could see the people in the back row standing in between those in front). Next each person took turns (after Rachel initiated it) hopping out in front as a drill instructor and would give a command (sound and motion to copy) for the group to perform ten times in unison. This was to get us in the mindset of mirroring each other and finding a rhythm.

Next Rachel had us all get in a straight line according to height forming a single column in the center of the stage facing the audience. She then asked the person in front of us to make a simple hand gesture (and the rest of us were to watch and make complimentary gesture to the person in front of us): if the person in front lifted their hands up pointing at the ceiling – the next person might put his hands out pointing at the floor, then the person behind them might point to the right, and the person behind them to the left….etc.

She had us do a number of these and then moved us onto to motion and sounds. By the end we’d start in the line and then after some patterns were set, we’d peel off to either side of the stage organically complimenting and mirroring each other until we were basically improvising dance routines.

After a number of these Rachel divided us up into two group and told us we had five minutes to come up with a bit: anything we wanted to do. Our first bits were very premise heavy – lot’s of dialog, however Rachel kept us at it until slowly we were planning less and less, talking less and less, and doing more. In the end we had two perfectly silent scenes – my group started two at a time slowly walking out and setting a table, then sitting behind it – only to end with the final person walking in, blessing all of us, and sitting in the center as Jesus creating a tableau of the last supper. The other group did a fun piece as mimes (one of who sneezed, causing others to gasp …. And so on – causing the sounds to build and the miming to break down).

In the end she let us know that what we were basically doing the entire time was creating organic openings and even group games – which we’ll be using in later classes as we start performing actual Harolds.

From the class we took these ideas:
Creating characters inspires our dialog
What we say is very important, what we do is twice as important
Judgment is the enemy of improv
Silence can speak volumes
Go all the way for it – your imagination is your only limit in this art form
Try shit on (especially in class)
Everywhere you look: there’s your inspiration

Annoyance Level Two – Week Two

So class started off today with all of us hopping up and performing some completely open two-person scenes to warm-up.

After we had all gotten a few scenes under our belts, Rich paused us and gave us only one caveat for the next round of two person scenes: Everyone had to play different types of Assholes. This was a lot of fun (cause all too often people’s characters on stage default to being overtly nice because of the idea of yes and, you can still follow that idea though and be a dick about it) though there were a few scenes that simply devolved into arguments. However over all the scenes went fairly well, because since we were all focused on experimenting with as many different types of Assholes as we could think of – it lead to us finding more subtle ways of being a dick as opposed to being confrontational.

After a number of these scenes Rich paused us again and told us we were making a change: now instead of Assholes everyone had to play different types of Retarded people in scenes – again as many different variations of retarded as we could think of.
At first glance of course that might seem like an odd request – it almost sounds like someone might do if they were parodying a terrible improv troupe – though again with everyone doing it we had some great scenes (though some less than stellar scenes definitely surfaced).

After we had run the retarded character gambit in a number of scenes – Rich sat us all down and asked:
“Why did we do this?”
(Besides it being hilarious for him to watch).

He ended up answering his own question:
First off he wanted to get in our heads that we should be free to take on ugly characters (characters who are impolite, mean, cruel racist, offensive, etc.)

We played Assholes because he knew as Assholes we’d be less likely to drop our shit/POV.

We played retards because “Those people need to be taken down.”
Seriously though it allowed us to play much more with physicality and more opportunities to find very simple patterns in our scenes and exchanges.

Over all the exercise forced us to concentrate on creating characters instead of premises.

Next Rich had everyone stay seated and asked for two people to ho up on stage. We started doing two person scenes like this with the focus on starting immediately and snapping into characters from the get go.

To do this – he had the two players up start a scene and then he’d yell switch (usually right after the initiation) – when that happens the actors must instantly start a new scene (snapping into new characters). Eventually he would let one of these run for a minute or so and then the next pair would go.
This was a great exercise and I love anything like this that forces you to snap into multiple characters fast as it always leads me to finding some of my most unique choices and really altering my physicality.

iO Level Two – Week Seven

Short entry about this class – as it was mostly geared towards discussion of each other.

So due to some untimely circumstances – this ended up being our last class with Susan (she had to head back home for family matters) – who led to us shaking up the schedule a bit.

This class was all about celebrating ourselves as performers – so one at a time each of us went to sit up on stage while the rest of the class took turns telling us what they enjoyed about watching us and working with us on stage.
Susan of course added her two cents to the whole process – and then after the love fest – she gave each person a specific challenge in order to get them to play a character/energy/etc that was squarely outside their comfort zone – or at least far different than anything she’d seen them do as of yet (I was asked to play a James Bond type with a focus on his subtle sexiness and mystery).

It was an incredibly fun class, and a bit sad – as most of us will end up split up for the following levels at iO – and we will all miss Susan.

Annoyance Level Two - Week One

So a brand new session has started at the Annoyance – and I’m in a new class with a new teacher and a bunch of new faces.
It’s crazy how many differing levels of experience we have in this class – there are people on current and former Harold teams at iO (One or two are from a great team that sadly just got cut from the roster), a bunch of people from other ensembles/theaters (second city, PH, CIC, etc) around the city, one or two people who direct at iO and other places as well as a few who’s only training have been Annoyance so far – or limited college experience.
The teacher (is actually who my level on instructor had for level two when he went through) is Rich Sohn – and is incredibly Snarky (can I use that word?), but in a fun way.

Class started off with brief introductions – quick overview of people’s experience and names then we were all asked to hop up on the back wall to get things started.
Rich let us know we’d be doing a series of quick two person scenes where he would call one person’s name and that individual would have to quickly jump out and start a scene and anyone on the back line could hop out to support them.

After only a few of these Rich had us pause since he noticed that sometimes people were hanging back just a little bit in starting their scenes (or jumping out) kind of like they were waiting for something. So he added a few things to the exercise.
The instant he called someone’s name they had to start a scene (basically from the back wall) – id there was hesitation he’d call scene right there (before any words had been spoken) and call out the hesitation.
Next if there was too much exposition at the top of a scene (as though someone was setting up a planned premise) – he’d call the scene – and again call it out.
Everyone was encouraged to leap out there ASAP in order to support the person who’s name is called – as soon as they here someone’s name.

And thus with these additions the scenes started up again – overall it lead to much more interesting offers and tighter scenes for the most part, however the one difficulty was it became very easy to let scenes pass you by (and a few people only got out when their name was called): with everyone leaping to get out there and support you had to really be on your toes if you wanted to get out there at all (though overall that’s a good thing in a lot of ways).

After a number of these scenes – Rich sat us down and we talked briefly about how they went.
During this he left us a few pieces of advice for when we were up there:

“It’s hard to turn your brain off, just cause you’re on the back line – so if you have to think, think more of what sort of energy you might bring instead of a premise”

Your best chance for success is to bring “something” at the top of a scene

Just make a choice at the top – then take a second to recognize that choice and heighten it

The “Rules” of improv were basically diagnosing symptoms instead of causes for bad scenes ~ The Annoyance POV


After this and a short break he introduced the next phase of the class to us. He had everyone keep there seats for this and asked two people to hop up on stage. For the rest of the class we just did super short two person scenes (just the initiation – maybe 3 seconds each) and then stopped and talked about the choices we as a class saw the pair make at the top of a scene (and what they might heighten from there) – and then asking the pair (what choices they made and where they might take it).
It was very interesting to see the types of choices people made and how they were perceived – though it did come at one or two points come somewhat close (though thankfully never all the way there) to choice coaching: where a teacher basically uses the phrase “you should have…” (Which I hate for oh so many reasons). Though again thankfully it did not go there.

As the class ended he left us with this thought from Mick Napier:
Fuck Your Fear

Annoyance Level Two - Week One

So a brand new session has started at the Annoyance – and I’m in a new class with a new teacher and a bunch of new faces.
It’s crazy how many differing levels of experience we have in this class – there are people on current and former Harold teams at iO (One or two are from a great team that sadly just got cut from the roster), a bunch of people from other ensembles/theaters (second city, PH, CIC, etc) around the city, one or two people who direct at iO and other places as well as a few who’s only training have been Annoyance so far – or limited college experience.
The teacher (is actually who my level on instructor had for level two when he went through) is Rich Sohn – and is incredibly Snarky (can I use that word?), but in a fun way.

Class started off with brief introductions – quick overview of people’s experience and names then we were all asked to hop up on the back wall to get things started.
Rich let us know we’d be doing a series of quick two person scenes where he would call one person’s name and that individual would have to quickly jump out and start a scene and anyone on the back line could hop out to support them.

After only a few of these Rich had us pause since he noticed that sometimes people were hanging back just a little bit in starting their scenes (or jumping out) kind of like they were waiting for something. So he added a few things to the exercise.
The instant he called someone’s name they had to start a scene (basically from the back wall) – id there was hesitation he’d call scene right there (before any words had been spoken) and call out the hesitation.
Next if there was too much exposition at the top of a scene (as though someone was setting up a planned premise) – he’d call the scene – and again call it out.
Everyone was encouraged to leap out there ASAP in order to support the person who’s name is called – as soon as they here someone’s name.

And thus with these additions the scenes started up again – overall it lead to much more interesting offers and tighter scenes for the most part, however the one difficulty was it became very easy to let scenes pass you by (and a few people only got out when their name was called): with everyone leaping to get out there and support you had to really be on your toes if you wanted to get out there at all (though overall that’s a good thing in a lot of ways).

After a number of these scenes – Rich sat us down and we talked briefly about how they went.
During this he left us a few pieces of advice for when we were up there:

“It’s hard to turn your brain off, just cause you’re on the back line – so if you have to think, think more of what sort of energy you might bring instead of a premise”

Your best chance for success is to bring “something” at the top of a scene

Just make a choice at the top – then take a second to recognize that choice and heighten it

The “Rules” of improv were basically diagnosing symptoms instead of causes for bad scenes ~ The Annoyance POV


After this and a short break he introduced the next phase of the class to us. He had everyone keep there seats for this and asked two people to hop up on stage. For the rest of the class we just did super short two person scenes (just the initiation – maybe 3 seconds each) and then stopped and talked about the choices we as a class saw the pair make at the top of a scene (and what they might heighten from there) – and then asking the pair (what choices they made and where they might take it).
It was very interesting to see the types of choices people made and how they were perceived – though it did come at one or two points come somewhat close (though thankfully never all the way there) to choice coaching: where a teacher basically uses the phrase “you should have…” (Which I hate for oh so many reasons). Though again thankfully it did not go there.

As the class ended he left us with this thought from Mick Napier:
Fuck Your Fear

iO Level Two – Week Six

Today our class ended being moved downstairs to the Cabaret theater – I have to say, you don’t really realize until you’re on it having to actually improvise how terrible the sight lines are for that stage (and how tiny it is) – you have to stay within about 2 feet from the back wall to prevent turning your back to any audience members on the sides.

Anyway after ranting about the stage with Susan we started off the class with the now familiar name game – I think it’s fair to say now that we’ve finally mastered each other’s names and hand signs.

After a quick round of this Susan let us in on what we’d be doing for the rest of the class: Story Theatre. Now for those of you not in the know Story Theatre was a concept brought into the improv world by Paul Sills back around 1969 in Chicago, which basically consists of the players narrating their own characters' actions. Circa 1970 Sills adapted it and created a musical named: Story Theater
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Sill%27s_Story_Theatre ).

With Susan we focused on the method behind story theatre – namely the narrating of improvised fantasies/stories with a major focus on using our bodies and environment to visualize and create the stories.

The warm up to this (to give you an idea of what the hell “Using our bodies to visualize…yada yada” means) consisted of Susan asking us to do such things on stage as: be a school of fish (which lead to all of us swimming about the stage), create a thrown for a king and queen to sit on (which lead to us hoisting two players to our shoulders, while other players became their armrests & foot stools), depict Jesus walking on Water (two of us hoisted Jesus aloft and moved him forward as he made a walking motion over the rest of the group who started writhing like water), and my favorite Flying people around (I went first …. The entire group hoisted me up and flew me around the stage … incredibly fun and a great moment of trust… and probably most of the group's workout for the week). In the end one of the secrets she let us in on was the simpler the better: if it only takes three people to fly someone – then just use three (that frees the rest up to create more of an environment).

All in all it was an incredible amount of fun (and probably the most actual improvising in a single class I’ve done so far at iO). We basically were told we could hop in and out of the pieces whenever we felt like it – as long as at least 8 or so players were on stage … so didn’t start out in a piece but feel like making a move from the audience – leap up and join in. It was great fuck ensemble work (I was up the entire time).

Though right before she let us loose she gave us a few pearls of wisdom that not only apply to Story Theatre but actually to improv as a whole.:

When you’re flying another player around on stage, don’t stand directly under them. Don’t try and be a Hero! Always support the neck and head & set them down feet first.

“Lead with people instead of plot.” Plot will come after the people are established in a scene

“You don’t know where the product is going to take you, so enjoy the fucking ride.”

“Speak in sentences, not paragraphs.” It’s hard for your fellow player (especially in Story Theatre) to respond to long-winded paragraphs

When in doubt, match your scene partner’s energy – a lot of improv (and especially story theatre – or any group work) is about mirroring and symmetry on stage

With Heightening don’t think about “what we could do better” instead focus on thinking “what did we do” and what is needed.

And at the end of Class – Susan left us with this little tidbit:
“The only time you look shitty is when you hesitate while you’re wondering what is going on. Or when you make a choice only to change your mind half way through.”
Act/be confident and you’ll look great

Have you ever seen someone take a shit on stage...

I most certainly have - at least I saw someone mime taking a shit on a stage.

Anyway I've recently been going over some of my old notebooks from my time spent improvising in New York (I spent a summer there taking classes at the amazing UCB theater). In one of the notebooks I found a recounting of one of the most bizarre scenes I’ve ever (to this day) seen in my life… so for your pleasure here they are (NB these are completely true I wrote down the dialogue and situation right after they happened – that’s how much they affected me).

An older gentleman and the overly sexual young lady (anyone who has taken a lot of improv classes or spent time in the community knows the type I'm talking about) from our class take the stage -
To protect their identities (it’s been a couple years, I don’t recall their names at all – just have them written in my note book as old guy and slutty chick…at the time it made sense) I will refer to them as Adam & Eve in the retelling below.

Adam & Eve stand in the middle of the stage looking around – quickly Eve turns to Adam and says:
Eve: “I don’t know if they are going to like us having sex in the mall in front of all these people.”
Adam: “No they’re going to love it.”
Adam quickly spins Eve around so she faces away from him, bends her over, grasps her hips and begins thrusting his crotch into her ass with incredible vigor. After a few moments of this:
Eve: “Sweetie I don’t think this is working.”
Adam slowly stops his thrusting as he thinks for a moment, allowing Eve to straighten and face him. Finally an idea comes to him
Adam: “Fine let’s try killing each other”
Both Adam & Eve pull knives from seemingly thin air and begin stabbing each other in the chest with no apparent effect.
Eve: “Maybe we should go back to creating art.”
Adam squats down and mimes taking a shit on the stage.
Fin

And there you have it friends - I can’t believe I had managed to forget all about that scene till now… ah memories.

Anyway that’s all I’ve got for now - hope you enjoyed it.

ciao

Annoyance Week Eight – Level One

This being our last class of the session – Dan wanted us to make sure each of us got the chance to do as many different scenes in as possible (more room for us to stretch our muscles and experiment) and of course make sure we grasp some of the core idea behind the Annoyance philosophy (more on what these are later).
However he also announced he planned to randomly pre-select a set time for certain scenes (anywhere from 5+ minutes to 5 seconds he told us) through out the class with out telling us before hand. So while some scenes would be un-timed and edited when he felt appropriate – he always kept his watch in his hand – and you never knew if you were in a timed scene (much less how much time you had) till it was over.

Now what this little caveat did (especially after the first few scenes lasting mere seconds) was to quickly ingrain in our minds the necessity (and power) of not only initiating strongly but also the importance of having something that you can sustain indefinitely (or at least 5+ minutes).
For me definitely it lead me toward immediately giving myself something the moment I stepped on stage: picking an emotion, physicality (how I walked or stood), or a few times even just making myself make a sounds as I stepped out (and once going out to grab/establish an object) and went from there. Now all those things very quickly lead to a character for me (which rocked) though at the moment I was stepping out I wasn’t ever really thinking in terms of choosing to e a specific character: I never thought “Oh I’m going to enter as the loud southern racist” or “Now I’ll play a Quasimodo/Igor rip off”, etc. Though I found characters like that from the way I walked (often the way I walked/stood in lead to a voice and an attitude or emotional response and thus to a character) and then armed with that little protection I would be in a great position to either initiate something with my partner (based on my character’s attitude, and whatever I might perceive off of them) or respond to any initiation my partner gave. And this, in a slightly convoluted nutshell, is the idea behind a lot of the Annoyance theory.

Through out the class it became very interesting to see how other people either coped with the possible time restraints that could at anytime occur. Some fell into the same thing I was doing, a few protected themselves by right off the bat endowing their partner as something (which in turn either defined themselves or quickly lead to it – for example right as we enter the stage someone saying to me “Mom I need..” sets up our basic relationship context).

I use the word context because in my mind Mother/ Child isn’t so much a real relationship (neither is, doctor/patient, husband/wife, etc in my mind) but a context in which to define and clarify your relationship. To me at least the relationship comes from basically just how the two characters feel about each other and then can be further defined by how they express that emotion and further by their context (for example: I might decide I love my partner’s character – they might decide to hate me. That’s our basic relationship. If I openly show my love for them, and they secretly seethe in hatred – that further defines our relationship – and then if my partner is my parent and I’m a child – bam there is our context, now we get to play in it). As you can see I still think the context is important as hell – but at the end of the day what I personally am most interested in finding is how I feel about the other character and vice versus (then, how we show it, then yada yada – though it rarely goes in such a nice concise order as that). The trick of course is the context is easy – call someone mom and bam there’s that layer … the emotions you have to show.
This idea also touches on my own definition for the idea of what the “Game” is, but that’s another whole post topic and I’m already digressing enough.

Other people came out with their preconceived opening lines, characters, and even premises. A few came out occasionally with little more than energy and the expectation that their partner would do something and then they’d build off that. Still the majority of scenes were surprisingly entertaining.
In the end though I know I preferred working with the other players who had decided to lay the groundwork for their characters when they stepped out.

After class had ended Dan again quickly went over a few of the core ideas we should hopefully take away from this class (they are below) – and told us we rocked and invited us out for drinks (first night he didn’t have rehearsal directly after our class).

So far after one level down I definitely like the Annoyance approach.

Advice we took away from Level One:
How you do what you do is who you are
Finding a Character is as easy as taking a step or making a sound - (it's all in How you take that step or make that sound)
The best way to protect everyone on stage is to first protect your self - by finding a character/attitude/point of view to stick with.
Playing in character is playing in power
At the top of a scene do something, anything ASAP (no one cares what) then figure it out
When you step off that back line enter like a shotgun blast*

And of course:

Always Challenge Yourself


*Enter like a shotgun blast doesn’t mean every scene has to start with you leaping on stage with incredibly high energy and play really intensely – but instead enter (and initiate) with that authority, that power. You can’t deny a shotgun blast – and no one’s going to miss it when it goes off in front of them.
My little alteration to this is to think of your self as being a gun. When you’re in a scene every thing you do (every offer, every choice) is a bullet. Even when you first step on that stage your trigger is pulled and a bullet is fired – that’s your first shot… the shot that let’s you know what type of gun you are. What type you are in any given scene depends on how you do your thing – the important part is coming off that back line come out shooting – (and after you pull that trigger you’ll find out what type of gun you are).

iO Level Two – Week Five

We started off the class with a rousing repeat of the name game that has become our staple. Alternating from passing the focus by saying someone’s name and making their sign (though now we don’t even repeat our own sign, we just immediately pass the focus along) – to just making their sign with out saying anything – and finally (a new version today) looking at one person while saying their name and making another person’s sign (the focus goes to whoever’s sign you made).

Next Susan had everyone hop up on stage and simply start walking around. She urged us that for this exercise we were to use as much of the space as possible – don’t just stay on the stage, run around the room, back stage, in the audience, by the bar, wherever.
She then let us know that we were basically going to play a big old game of follow the leader – we would have to copy whatever movement, sounds, everything, the leader did – after a decent amount of time (at least a couple of minutes) whoever was the current leader could pass along leadership to someone else by making prolonged eye contact, until they took over. Susan then designated a leader and the shenanigans began.

We ended up running all over the Del Close theater – up in the chairs, behind the bar & stage. We ran, we jumped, we crawled, and we sat. I’m sure we probably looked & acted like an insane pre-school class during recess where the teacher had foolishly handed out foot long pixie sticks 15 minutes before. Still even though we all ended up completely out of breath & covered with sweat with our muscles burning by the end of it, we had a blast.

After everyone had a turn leading (and about half the class had passed) Susan had us grab a seat (well actually it was really more like Susan said enough and we collapsed on stage). She then asked us a simple question: (unlike most entries I’m going to be paraphrasing her, as I forgot my notebook): You like everyone else doing your shit didn’t you?
And she was right we did. It brought up a wonderfully fundamental part of improvisation – every ridiculous little thing we did (be it howling like a dog while twirling like a ballerina across the space, picking lice out of people’s hair, frolicking about, or whatever) didn’t feel weird at all when everyone else was doing the same thing. Hell it felt great.


After this little pow wow we had (our much needed) break – where we all to recover some of our energy.

After the break Susan had us all grab a seat in the front row only to deliver a dire warning about the next exercise.
She let us know that this was week five, and where things started to matter – she knew we knew in our heads what we “should” be doing on stage & in scenes to be “great”, our big problem was just getting to the place where we were doing it – so she warned us we’d better not fuck up this exercise (she was very adamant about that). Then with this bit of encouragement she let us know what we would be doing for the rest of the class:
Two at a time we were to get up on stage and do a scene where the focus was to do the worst improv we possibly could – ever.

Oh it was fun – I ended up going second and continually denied as much of the reality my partner created as I could, ignored him half the time, and got to break the fourth wall – asking advice of Susan, and “not being comfortable with that offer” – though my partner as well plenty of vulgarity and ridiculous stereotypes came out as well ( a little bit afterwards I wished I had gotten the chance to go again as I would’ve simply walked in and shot my scene partner before taking my own life – which would’ve either lead to my partner having to do a one man scene – if he denied my shotgun blast to his chest – or two minutes of us just lying there).
Other notable moments were when one person left the stage to go behind the bar and pour himself a glass of water mid conversation – one person leaving the building during a scene – a very white (pale, red hair) started off his scene with the line: “Where is that nigger…”, and a score of meh premises, denials, pimping, vulgarity, etc. etc.

Afterwards we all sat down and Susan dropped a bombshell on us. She said that we had all pretty much failed the exercise – every scene people the rest of us were laughing and enjoying it (some parts of it at least) – and what was the reason for that? Because we were in a way protected by the umbrella that we were doing bad improvisation. Again we were all doing the same thing – (although not all at once on stage – but all the scenes shared that theme). She even mentioned that I specifically in order to do “bad improv” had taken on a character of an insecure improviser, not been insecure myself – and cited other such examples.

Basically even though we were deliberately trying to sabotage ourselves it still worked because both people in each scene were on the exact same page and went with whatever was thrown at them, working together – even if what was thrown was terrible and in fact the idea of not working together. And that was merely reinforced by the whole class doing the same thing. We had protected each other by mirroring each other basically – if one group had done a slow patient really focused and great scene somewhere in there it wouldn’t have worked out as well.

In the end we left the class with these ideas:
One person acting like an idiot on stage is just that - an entire group acting like idiots together is art.
Treat everyone’s offers like they are brilliant and perfect in scenes & they will be – though be careful of abandoning your own offers for the sake of others.
Beware of catching NIDS & FIDS: Nice Improvisers Disease & Frustrated Improvisers Disease

Annoyance Level One - Week Seven

Try and guess how class started tonight....if you said with an interpretive dance session you're either a smarmy A-hole, or have not been reading this blog before today. If you said open scenes as a Warm-up to get us in the mood - you'd actually be wrong (I know shocker). We started off class today with a little pow wow with Dan, since it is the second to last class (a single tear drops on to my keyboard even as I type that) he wanted to know id there was anything in particular we really wanted to work on - anything from the earlier classes that really struck a chord with us, or we weren't quite sure about - or any expectations/questions that we had coming into the class about the Annoyance style or improv in general that we wanted to focus on.

We decided to go back over some of the object and environment work and then also focus more on prolonged character stuff - same characters in multiple scenes, and then snapping into different characters quickly (and really fleshing them out quickly).

We then jumped into some open warm up scenes to shake off the cob webs.

After that Dan had us each pick up a unique object that was either in the room or we had brought with us (preferably not pencils or papers, but something with some weight to it). We then stood in a circle and just took a little time feeling the object, seeing how we held it - then placing it down and miming that object in our hands (I chose my wallet - there sadly wasn't much to work wit in the room).
After a bit we passed our objects to our right and began again - felling the new object, really paying attention to how we handled it.
After we had done it with all the objects - Dan had us start doing two person scenes, at first actually using our physical objects. At random points Dan would walk into the scene and pluck the physical object out of our hands and tell us to keep going and keep using the object - just miming now. He'd watch how we were using it miming then randomly insert the object back into our hands - being very adamant that when he inserted it we were not to try and adjust our hand position.
After a while it became pretty evident that some times a few people lost the feel of their object after it was taken out of the scene for a while - though after a few scenes everyone was doing amazingly.

We then put our objects down (or in my case back in my pocket) and continued on with more scenes where we focused on creating and using objects and using our environment - all the while Dan was keeping on eye on what we were doing - sometimes stepping in and just adjusting us slightly to give a little more space - or asking what happened to the table - it was never intrusive, or disruptive - and just kept people on their toes. After a while he really didn't have to do anything.

Next we did a number of scenes focusing on varying character between each of them. After a while this transitioned into before each scene Dan had one person step out and start a simple mono scene - sometimes he would give people a character (for example one of my suggestions was: You are the best mechanic in the world) and then you have about 30 seconds to just exist as that character in an environment. Then once it was clear you had a feel for the character another player would enter the scene - already in progress (again you weren't pretending to talk to someone who wasn't there you were just existing as that character - maybe talking to yourself, possibly silent - relying completely on physicality to embody that character - so the entrances were real entrances) and a scene would commence.

After doing a number of these we ended the class with a series of two person scenes where we were free to take inspiration from anywhere - be it stuff we had worked on in this class, previous classes - or our own personal challenges we had been given in week 5 (for me last week) - or again anything that we fancied.

A few bits of advice we took from this class:
You can practice object work at home - and don't be afraid to take your time with it
Finding a Character is as easy as taking a step or making a sound (it's all in how you take that step or make that sound)
How you do what you do is who you are
Always Challenge Yourself

iO Level One – Week Four

We started off class again with the name game (we are getting better at it, however the hard part now is not so much remembering peoples names, but exactly what their motion was).

We then jumped right into some scene work. Susan had Nine of us hop up onstage while the rest sat down. She then told them they were going to do an exercise called 9 to 1, 1 to 9 (for those of you who've played it it's 5 in, 5 out - but with more people). Basically how it works, for those of you not in the know, is the players form a line (in this case two lines on either side of the stage) and Susan numbers them 1 - 9. Whoever is number 1 then steps out and starts a single person scene - as soon as we have an idea what's going on (so this shouldn't be an epic one man show) number 2 jumps out and starts a completely new scene with number 1 - then 3 jumps out and starts a new 3 person scene, then 4 starts a four person scene - and so on until you get to number 9 who initiates a 9 person scene, then it get interesting.
After the 9 person scene goes on for a little bit and we get the idea (though this one should be a little longer than the previous ones) whoever is number 9 has to find a reason to leave the scene (or walk off stage/ out of the room / you know what I mean). As soon as 9 leaves the scene reverts back to the previous scene: scene number 8 (same scene that number 8 started just farther along: shouldn't start up right where they left off, should be a little bit of a time dash).
Then you rinse and repeat with the people finding a reason to leave and the scenes regressing till you get back to number 1 and his single person scene.

Each group went with the second time around, whoever was number 1 became 9 and so the order of who went in reversed (and of course brand new scenes).
When my group finally went (we were the second group) I ended up being number 1, which I have to say is a lot of fun and really shows you how terrible your memory can be - though I'm proud to say we got all our scenes in the order they occurred in - that's the beauty of ensemble work - if you don't know what the fuck is going on chances are one of the other 10 people on stage do.

After this exercise we then took our break.

Once we were back from break we were introduced to one of my favorite exercises that I have learned in Chicago so far: Suicide.
Simple premise, one at a time everyone in class gets up on stage and has to act out either a suicide or an accident where they end up dead. The two caveats are take your time & make it real (no wacky Road Runner bull shit).
Oh yes and one other little thing - every time someone steps on stage to do this the rest of the class must scream (with passion and enthusiasm) "DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE...." until the begin.
Maybe it's a sign that I'm a little messed up but I loved this exercise - after I went I desperately wanted to go a few more times cause I kept thinking of more fucked up ways to do it. In my defense, I really love improv that goes to those fucked up places - that doesn't play it safe and takes risks and crosses boundaries - that invokes really strong emotions - It's why I love Harsh (improvised tragedy, NYC group used to run a lot at the PIT and UCB - really awesome look them up - and love the idea of the Horror, Early form invented by Del - took a tragic news story from the paper - like child died in fire, murder, school shooting, etc and then basically did a deconstruction based on it - also some of my joy were the ingenious ways of killing themselves people thought up).
At one point Susan even mentioned I was clearly having the most fun watching this (heck I started passing out mime torches during the die, die, die rant).

This was also hilarious when people walked near the theater (as the other classes going on in back had their break as we started this, so they were walking pass the door to the theater as we were screaming DIE, DIE, DIE....).

Anyway there were some wonderfully impressive deaths - one that really stands out is one guy was staring at his watch for a while, kept looking out the window as if waiting for someone, all the while checking an oven (we thought he might put his head in it). Instead he finally took a cake out of the oven, put candles in it, lit them brought them over to the table. Started really depressingly singing Happy Birthday to himself while grabbing a shot gun from the way (really slowly singing it too.... say a line then sigh, load a shell, then another line, cock it sigh, check the window) - till finally he blew out the candles and put the barrel in his mouth. The reaction us was great - some of us laughed (this guy), some clapped, some visibly groaned, one girl burst into tears. All in all fun times.

We ended the class with these words of wisdom:
Memory is the first thing to go when you're on a roll and it is the most important thing in improv
Scenes are about people
If you uses people's real names in scenes it can really limit them
If you take your time and Make it real - it's so much more powerful (whether you're eating a bullet or getting cash from an ATM)

Annoyance Level One - Week Six

Open Warm-up scenes again to start the class (Is it weird that now every time I go to my annoyance class at the start I think of Pinky and the Brain - note if you don't know about this cartoon, go download some episodes you poor poor deprived people - "What are we going to do tonight Brain?" "The same thing we do every night Pinky.... open scenes to warm up.")

Next Dan challenged us to think of other improvisers you know or admire (or hate) – or if you’re not much into the scene pick a friend – and try to imitate the way they improvise (or would improvise). What sort of characters would they play – it’s not about doing impressions but think of the choices they might make. Vary it up each time.
This actually lead to me making some very different character choices from what I normally use (and especially in class I'm all over the radar with my characters). It probably didn't even come near to how the few performers I picked play, but I just thought of one single trait of theirs I either liked, or at least recalled. One set of characters in particular that I really enjoyed were inspired from a good friend of mine at iO and came about imply because on stage he really takes his time with full deep breaths never rushing to speak, but patiently waiting and rarely jumping in with out a full breath in him.

Next Dan had us do a quick series of two person scenes and once everyone had been in one scene he asked us to keep the same character we had just done for a series of scenes.
From this (after a number of scenes) we transitioned on the fly into a series of three person scenes (sometimes more) with these characters – focusing on entrances and exits into these scenes (sometimes director calls it sometimes it’s natural).
As we got to see these characters interact with each other in the same environment in different capacities.

We then had our break.

When we came back we jumped into some open scenes just to get the juices flowing again and after a few Dan had us pause.

He told us we were going to do a series of Scene gauntlets – each person would be in 10 rapid fire 2 person scenes (few seconds usually) in a row. Each scene we must be a completely different character – if one character is too similar Dan will ask us to do another scene.
This was great (though a few people had a little trouble at first, until they got a few scenes in) - I always enjoy challenges character wise like this - and what was awesome about this was that not only were you forced to do 10 characters back to back in scenic situations, each time you went in for another person you were doing yet another character (at least none of us decided to repeat any).

Then the last 10 or so minutes of class we just did open 2 person scenes where we were free to draw inspiration from any of the characters we did before or from anywhere in general.

A few things we took away from class:
You Can Find Inspiration for a Character From Anywhere
The only limit to how many characters you can play/create are limites you place on yourself
Characters can fit into any scenario
The longer you wait to do something in a scene [snap into character, pick up an object, name an object/activity, etc] the harder it becomes to do something

Annoyance Level One - Week Five + iO Level Two - Week Three

I sadly had to miss (and didn't get a chance to make up) thanks to pneumonia.

Though I did find out the next week what I missed from my Annoyance class (I'm going to sit in on Susan's third class next session). Apparently that entire class was devoted to Character work - with some individual feedback on the types of character choices you make. They did character monologues and then after everyone had done one the class did a series of scenes as those characters. Then repeated a couple times so they got to try one a few different characters.
Near the end Dan challenged people into playing characters outside people's normal choices.

My personal notes on characters were that I had great specificity (added a lot of information in scenes a lot of details) - I should try out playing more oafish characters, and try a few characters who spoke only a single line at a time.

Despite many rumors to the contrary I am still actually alive...

Though barely it seems. I just managed to win an epic battle with pneumonia (yes you read that right - who the hell gets that at my age anymore... sigh I thought it was just for old people or babies to worry about) which had completely out of it the past two weeks.

I had to miss out on one week's of classes due to it (which sucks). Though fear not soon the tales of the classes I had right before the disease struck - and this week - shall be told and they shall be told right here where they belong (I just have to transfer my handwritten notes to electronic form - so stay tuned).

The story behind me discovering that I had this fun filled disease is interesting though. I started feeling terrible after working at iO Friday the 26th - headache, cough and what not. Went to bed thinking not too much of it. Woke up with a fever and chills Saturday and assumed I had caught the flu - as it usually passes in a few says thought nothing more about it. Got sicker and sicker all Saturday and Sunday - terrible fever, chills, coughing, headache, and a general feeling of tiredness.
Finally Monday I gave up and went to see a doctor (the closest one being at a hospital nearby). They put me in a waiting room doctor came in listened to my breathing and instantly sent me to the emergency room for a chest x-ray and treatment (this worried me a bit mind you).
When I got there I had to wait in a waiting room for them to ready a bed for me - I was in there with this total bitch of a woman who had broken her arm bike riding earlier that day.

The whole time she kept complaining about having to wait to have her arm set - I'm in the corner half dead at this point - she finally asks me if I'm in a lot of pain too ... to which I reply (cause I think it's true at this point still) that I have a terrible case of the flu. She gets incredibly worried and starts yelling for a nurse and demanding to know why the hell they'd put me in their with her - did they want her to get sicker.
When they come to take me away to go to a room (before her mind you) I can her her complaining as to why the hell I'm going first as she has a broken arm and I'm just a little sick.

Later on I run into her again as I'm coming out of the chest X-ray room - she's waiting to go in (Note by now they've told me they think I have a bad case of pneumonia) as I'm leaving and she's being wheeled in I hear her ask if they are going to spray down the room first as the last man had the flu and if she catches it while here there will be hell to pay.

Anyway long story short (if that's possible now) they kept me there for most of Monday on antibiotics and a special inhaler thing (blew what looked like smoke into my lungs when I inhaled) and finally released me after about 12 hours there.
The nest two weeks sucked terribly as I slowly recovered - but was so tired all I wanted to do was sleep. But luckily I survived.

iO Level Two - Week Two

Class started off this week with all of sitting on the stage in a circle and playing the same name game we started off with last week. Susan is determined that we learn each others names in this class (and it's working very well too) cause as she says so often: once you know people's names you can start to care about them.

Next she broke us up into pairs (well actually she told us to go stand next to the person in class we knew the least about and those were our pairs) for a series of mirror exercises. We started off with the basic mirror exercise where one person leads movement and the other person follows - then the leader switches - and finally in theory no one is leading and no one is following really, the pair are simply moving as one (honestly about 75% of the time I ever do this - and Susan even mentioned this though used more profanity - one person does a lot of leading at the end - though I've had a handful of experiences where it was actually really great give and take and it really felt as if no one was leading we were just in the zone, which rocked...this wasn't one of those times).
Next we had to begin speaking and moving at the same time, still in pairs and then the exercise really got kicked up a notch.
Susan picked two pairs to stay on stage and had everyone else sit down. The two pairs on stage were then told they were going to do a scene where each pair was a single person (they had to mirror each other the whole scene, talk as one, move as one - say "I" not "we" - etc). My pair was in that first group - we ended up cobbling a shoe (at least that's what the action we were doing was in my mind) the entire time and talked like we were addressing a retarded child. Susan had us do it again this time having us talk faster and faster - much better when we thought less about mirroring each other and actually just did something.
Each pair did two scenes which ate up a good chunk of class time and each time the quicker the pairs simply either started doing an action or speaking - the better the scenes went - even if words were messed up - they simply became new words that Susan made sure were repeated since: Repetition turns wacky BS into facts.

After each scene we would talk about what happened a little bit then moved on.
A few very important ideas came out of those discussions:
Don't worry about finding the "appropriate" object in an environment (Some of the best examples of this can be found in the UCB sketch show from comedy central - note if you haven't seen it, go buy the dvd or download the episodes the Time Machine episode from season one is a near perfect Harold turned into a sketch and filmed minus the group games - in one episode, Bucket of Truth, a couple is being shown a house which has a Hot Chicks room among other weird things inside it).
Specifics Are More Fun for Everyone
Arguing comes a lot from Frustration
Taking is just as vital as Giving (just try not to do either too much).
And probably a million other things I wasn't fast enough to write down.

After this exercise we ended with doing individual truthful monologues based on a themes Susan gave us - and then had time for a few scenes based off some of them.

We took away from this class these bits of advice (along with the ones above):
The "Game" is just any pattern
You're Doing everything on Stage for a Reason, So Don't Drop it
It's an Evolutionary Art, once you master something you'll fine more to work on
Fear the Safe Zone - that funny thing/bit/character/voice/walk you've "mastered"- the place where you say I'll take risks tomorrow.
Always take Risks! Challenge Yourself!
Fucks ups (mistakes) are Good

Annoyance Level One - Week Four

Class started off as it always does in order to get us in the groove of things with a series of open warm-up scenes.

After a number of these scenes, once we were all loosened up a bit, Dan, our teacher, went ahead and told us to start initiating vocally in some way the moment we stepped off the back line. So we could instantly start saying something – or simply make a sound, but it had to happen the moment our feet moved us off the back line.
It lead to a few instances of people almost talking over each other at the top of the scene however - even the most seemingly contrary comments worked themselves out because both players remained committed to their choices.
For example: "Good day for fishing isn't it." paired with "Give me all your money." Leads to a fun scene where a fly fisherman is mugged out in a forest as he stands in a river.

After a little bit Dan had us pause and let us know he was going to start calling people out two at a time to start these scenes and as soon as you heard your name you were to step out and initiate instantly. This served two great purposes - first it helped get the few people in the class who weren't as comfortable (or just as quick as some of the others to just jump out and initiate - and it kept all of us from really being able to pre-plan opening lines or whatever for when we stepped out.
This actually lead (for most of us at least) to a lot more of verbal initiations that weren't dialog (such as sighs, screams, laughs, etc).
These initiations had by far the easiest times adapting to one another - and were (from what I experienced and saw at least) were the most fun to play with, as they gave an instant point of view/attitude to play with in the scene (and of course from that an instant character).

After we had a run through a number of those Dan had us pause again and told us what we'd be working on for the rest of the class: Environment work (dunh dunh daaaaaaaaah - I ad the suspenseful music - note it sounds very suspenseful in my head at least - sense for a lot of improvisers environment and object work is a bane - I know I too often ignore it in my own work).
Dan broke it down in a way I had never had explained to me in class before (at least in terms of environment).

There are basically three types of environment to work with:
Primary: the room, immediate space you are in and the objects contained within.
Secondary: Building containing the room you are in (in the case of a scene outdoors the space beyond the confines of the stage - so the rest of the field/forest/ocean/etc.) and the objects contained therein.
Natural: Temperature, Time, Weather, etc.

Now I've had teachers talk a lot about the Primary and Secondary environments in classes and workshops - though the secondary one comes up far less often (and usually in relation to the note: "If you're going to mention going to the {so and so place} I want to see you go there - you don't have to stay in the room you are in..." or when talking about entering and exiting).
However, very rarely has anyone really talked about initiating the natural environment (oh I know almost every improviser at one point has done a scene where you're both cold - be it out in the snow or trapped in a freezer - but how often has the weather really played a role in one of your scenes - I know for me not that often). It really opens up a whole new layer of fun - and things to play with besides merely the objects you might find in your primary space.

We jumped right into scenes now where we could only talk when we interacted/added to the environment somehow (I've played a similar exercise before where you can only speak when you create a new object - however now our environment includes the weather and reacting to it - woohoo). The first few scenes for a few people were a little rough until everyone realized that they didn't just have to worry about creating new objects or stepping around chairs.
It was really eye opening in a lot of ways - asking someone to turn on the light completely adds a new dimension to a scene (especially if it's half way through it), taking off a coat when you enter through a door can say so much too (even more if you shake the water off it, or dust off some snow first).

Next Dan had us work more on our object work (dunh dunh daaaaaah) we were told that off to either side of the stage (well honestly room, but eh) were magical boxes filled with any and every item we could ever possibly need and that during the scene anything we needed we could get from there instantly.
Again at the start there it took a little bit for people to get used to the idea but soon we were having really object rich scenes (sometimes maybe a little too object rich) and we got to see how useful it is to have various objects in your environment as you can quickly go to them and use them to breathe more life into your scene work.

For the the final exercise of the class Dan had a third of us stay on the back line, while everyone else sat down. He had the people up one at a time enter a room and create an environment (he gave us a location and set one thing in it - and then one by one each person went in and created at least one new object and interacted with two things already there - the first person had to create two objects).
After the group had finished going through and basically fleshing out the environment they were in - they had a series of two person scenes in that environment.
Then after everyone had a at least one scene - that third sat down and another group got up and did the same thing - then once they were done the final group went.
Dan then had the whole class hop on the back line and we were told that for the last few minutes of class we were to do open scenes where we could be any characters we wanted but all of the scenes had to take place in one of the three created environments.

A few things we took away from class:
Initiate ASAP - it'll jump start your scene
Words Aren't the Only Way to Initiate - sounds, body language, physicality, object work, etc work just as well (and sometimes better)
There are Basically 3 Types of Environment to Play With
Anything/Everything You Need you Can Create Instantly on Stage - the art is learning when something is actually needed
You're Playing in an Entire World, Not Just a Space That Fits on the Stage

iO Level Two - Week One

I meant to post this yesterday – but time just got away from me.

I started level two at iO Tuesday with the wonderful Susan Messing teaching. I have to say if anyone who reads this ever gets a chance take a class/workshop or see a show with this woman – do it (NB: if you are easily offended – she definitely will at some point though).
With her telling us how now we were entering the level she developed while high in her tub and cautioning the few latecomers to never be late to her vagina again the class started.

Throughout the entire class she managed to drop more pearls of improv wisdom than I had a chance to right down, but she started off the class with the advice that in a lot of encapsulates the theory behind iO’s style of teaching: You succeed if your friends succeed.
We began by sitting on the stage in the Del Close Theater and starting a simple name game – we’d go around the circle and each person would make a gesture while saying their first name – then every one repeated it. We continues until everyone had gone and then began sending the focus to each other by first saying our own name and making the gesture – then making the gesture of someone else and saying their name (they would then repeat their own and say someone else’s). Eventually we were passing the focus simply by making the gestures of people and making eye contact.
This was done to help us learn each other’s names cause as Susan says: once you know someone’s name you can start actually caring about them (this goes right along with her mantra about characters on stage as: since it’s a fucking legal obligation to name a child you should damn well name characters created in scenes too).

We then quickly jumped in to a warm-up I have played once before called Caligula. It’s basically a giant game of twister without the polka dotted mat and spinner. Everyone gets in a circle (or cluster) and touches some part of their body to the people next to them. Next everyone take a big step forward and begins moving slowly about while constantly retaining physical contact in someway with the rest of the group. The entire time as we were squirming about Susan kept reminding us to follow our bodies – go where they needed to go and to not try and to not aim for somewhere safe, somewhere easy.

Afterwards we took a brief break to catch some air (up till this point for some reason the AC wasn’t really working in the theater, so we were all covered in sweat – thank god it quickly got fixed) while Susan laid some of her improv philosophy on us:
Scenes are all about the people you meat in them (the characters) and the Harold or whatever form/show thing you’re doing are just little worlds where they live.
There are basically two types of scenes out there: Little slice of life scenes - this is a typical day in the life of the Johnson family type shit. And shit hits the fan scenes – this is the day where something unexpected/weird/whatever happens in the lives of the Johnson family.
The first three seconds of any scene is your promise to the audience of how you’ll be/act the rest of the scene.
You’re body is the only thing you own in a scene – everything else comes out through discovery.

This last bit of wisdom sent us into the next exercise. She had all of us hop up on stage and begin walking around normally. She then asked us to begin leading or focusing on specific parts of our body as we walked. For example: Leading with our arm, chest, forehead, hips. Telling us we were all hand models and to really focus on our hands – focusing on our eyes – first keeping them wide, as wide as we could – then squinting. Etc, etc. As we walked about each time focusing on something different she asked us to think about how it made us feel and to say hello to each other as we made eye contact – every time the hellos came out very differently. The exercise is a perfect quick door to creating new characters – just changing one little thing about your physicality can instantly give you a character and change the way you feel and act.
Susan next had two thirds of the class sit down – and got out 6 chairs for the rest of the class to walk around. As they walked (normally again) she asked the rest of us, and herself, what part of their body they were leading with/focusing on naturally.
After we had picked them out she asked everyone on stage to change it – focus on a different par as they walked and then after they had something – to sit down in the chairs (and to keep that thing, and the way it made them feel in mind). What followed next was basically a big group character interview (hot seat – for you theater people). She told everyone that they all new each other somehow and to be inspired from how they were just walking and be someone other than themselves. She then had all of the characters on stage introduce themselves and began interviewing them as to how they knew each other and for specifics about their lives. It was very interesting to see how quickly everyone found a relatively rich character and managed to interact with each other as they were questioned. Of course there was slight hiccup early on – as the third person in the first group, when Susan asked him to introduce himself, paused looked around for a minute and then asked if he was just supposed to make something up or what (though after the exercise was explained one more time – it all moved along beautifully).

After the whole class had a chance to be up in the exercise it really hammered the idea home that physicality an lead to a very rich character if you let it – it also set us up for her next comment: that people want to connect with each other (especially on stage). Very quickly on stage in this – even beside the caveat that we all knew each other – character found special relationships with each other. One person made themselves my sister and that I hated her, in the group scene even with our knowing each other as a group was being stuck at an airport together – people found all kinds of little games to play or connections to make with each other.

We then got our next piece of advice: be a doer on stage – once you’re on stage do something, anything – just make a damn choice and do something.
From this we quickly went into a series of big group scenes with half the class on stage. Once the group got up there they were given a location and asked to immediately start doing something – no dialog at first (she was going to interview us again – about the scene) just start interacting in the space.
The first took place in an emergency room and we quickly found out – with Susan again interviewing them – that there were only two doctors, the family of a guy who got his dick stuck in a chair, a man who answered the phone the docs, and a mortician cause the situation was grim.
The next scene took place at a firehouse – which we quickly discovered had no captain (he was away on vacation) and was part of an experimental urban out reach program that had criminals and drug addicts doing community service as firemen and was about to fail their monthly inspection.

We ended the class with these bits of advice:
On stage try it on, be a crazy drug addicted whore – psycho killer – whatever (take risks, don’t play it safe, lose your filter/censor). Off stage if you do it, get therapy.
Improv (and comedy in a lot of ways) goes against human nature. It’s Human to try and figure out how to do something before attempting it – with improv the moment you step on stage you just have to do something and then figure it all out.
If you aren’t having fun on stage – you’re the asshole.
And of course: “Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke.”

Annoyance Level One - Week Three

As usual class Monday night started off with all of us up and jumping right into a series of completely open “warm-up” scenes. Two people, no rules just right (the outback steak house scene method).

After we were sufficiently revved up from the scene work our instructor had two people step out and face each other. He then asked the two players to simply begin a back and forth stream of consciousness (word association between the two of them). Anyone of the two could start it – only caveat was to treat it like a game of ping pong – you serve up a word/short phrase your partner then needs to return a new word and so on – keeping it short and trying to just be inspired by what was said last.
I was in the first pair up and we began associating – it started with me saying the word “eyes” and ended up with a slew of drug references toward the end (after a few interchanges of course). On the word “Bong” the instructor yelled freeze and asked us to immediately jump into a scene. – We only got a few lines in before it was cut – but the moment he called for a scene we both snapped into a character (both stoners – laid back types) with dialog reminiscent of the entire journey we’d just taken verbally.
The key to this exercise (as quickly became apparent as other went up – and more and more scenes were started as such) was to instantly start a scene/doing something when the instructor called for it. The only times that scene floundered were when one or more of the players hesitated after the word association ended – instead of just going off whatever was the last thing said.
When we discussed it afterwards some people in the class mentioned that they froze for a second because they felt the last word/words said were so uninteresting compared to other stuff they discovered in the association.

Nest we leapt into more open scenes though this time we were asked to try and really focus on getting that sort of back and forth give and take we found doing the word association in our scenes – really focusing and being inspired by each line of dialog and/or action presented by our scene partner. These scenes plus the above exercise really hammered home how key listening is to any improvised work – and not just hearing what your partner is saying so you don’t mess up a name, or mistake the object he hands you for a grenade when it’s a puppy – but the idea that: listening is a willingness to change.
Now it doesn’t mean you have to change – it just means you willing to – be it action, emotion, whatever. Honestly the only part of improvising where you really have to “work” (not really the right word but it will do) is the first instant of a scene – you have to make yourself step out there and make a choice (can be what you say/don’t say, how you stand/sit/walk, attitude, reaching for an object, how you look at your scene partner, and a million other possibilities) after that it’s all about reacting to and building off of what your scene partner says – again like a game of ping pong, you have the serve and then you’re off (sure there are some crazy moves you can pull, put some spin on the ball, lob it, power slam it, whatever – depending on how you want to play – though you’re still just returning that ball).

Now during one of the above scene there came one of those rare instances of basically flat out reality denial. It started off with one of the girls in the class beginning a scene using a metaphor to explain her relationship with the guy on stage – it went something like this: “Have you ever scene the movie Cube where all the people are trapped inside a moving box of death and every time they think they are getting out of the box and moving on they find themselves in just another damn box with a brand new mechanism trying to end their lives – that’s kind of how I see our relationship right now and I want out of it” (note it was more eloquent and described the movie better than this)
To which her scene partner responded:
“Uh… lady you’re crazy I don’t know you and you’re not in any sort of box. You’re in a hospital and I’m your doctor.”
The scene kind of ground to halt after that – though afterwards we got into a very interesting discussion about what happened. Our instructor brought up the idea that even with those exact same two lines as the opening the scene could’ve worked – or almost any sort of seeming flat out denial situation like that: as long as both players are committed to their choices. For example what if she was a crazy woman who thought she had a relationship with her doctor – she would keep insisting they were long time lovers that weren’t working out –while he continued to add to the not knowing her aspect - as long as they were committed the audience would eventually catch on. It’s obviously not an ideal situation of course – but it brings up a great point – there are no wrong moves in improv as long as you commit to them.

We ended the class by running a series of two person scenes where each player was given a specific challenge about the types of inspiration they should try on: We were given. Some of the ones were: Coquettish, Airy, Rock star, Bombastic, dictator subservient, etc. All with the caveat that we take it and make it our won – so whatever the inspiration means to you (and also that instead of making your character a Rocker/Rockstar in every scene take some characteristics you associate with a rock star and play them - or what do you first think of when you hear rock star, dictator, etc then use that).

Things we took away from class:
Listening is a willingness to change
Commit, commit, commit to everything you do on stage
A Character/attitude can fit anywhere an entire scenario can’t
Play outside your comfort zone – follow your fear

I'm not going to be masturbating you...

I don't care what smooth line you give me I just ain't masturbating you. I got me a girl - we're separated, like a surgeon cut us apart - but I still got one. Now you can masturbate me - or you can give me some change, whatever works for you.

This is the wonderful bit of dialogue I caught while standing just outside of the McDonald's the other night around 2am (well actually it was more of a monologue I suppose) between a homeless guys and a young man. You see this McDonald's is open 24hrs - however after around 11pm/Midnight the dining room closes and it operates just it's drive through window and a nifty little walk-up window - perfect for all of us alcoholics who keep odd hours (but are just responsible enough not to be driving).

I was waiting for my food (if you can call it that) and just behind me were a group of young kind of preppy looking guys. I guessed they were probably early 20's sophmores in college somewhere in the city. Well a homeless guy saddles up besides the youngest and most uptight looking of these three guys - and then belts out the above (looking and sounding genuinely offended and aghast at the idea) while staring this kid dead on in the eyes (and to really give you an idea this guy looked filthy - long unkempt beard, maybe in his 50's, army jacket, missing some teeth, etc). People in McDonald's look at him, people walking by stare for a bit, and this kid looks like he was hit by a truck and turns bright red.

It was hilarious - and perhaps one of the best solicitations I've ever heard for money - at the very least it was effective. The kid quickly gave the guy a dollar just to get rid of him. Best part of all though, the moment the kid gave him the dollar the guy cracked a huge shit eating grin and said:
"Yeah I knew you were thinking about my dick."
And walked away laughing - you should've seen the kid's face, like a tomato and his friends gave him hell for it - it was the perfect end to a fun night out.

iO Level One - Week Eight

Yesterday was our final class in level one at iO (how time flies). It’s a pseudo bitter-sweet moment being done with level one, as the class had a number of very entertaining and talented people in it who sadly due to schedules have all now been split among the numerous level twos.

Before the last day two of my classmates got the idea in their head to arrange a sort of good-bye banquet….in the last class. They sent e-mails around and everyone brought some sort of food item (mostly things like beef jerky, donuts, chips, etc – though one person brought homemade tortillas and there was a salad and a few other actually food items – even our teacher was in on it…she brought the jerky). We all met 30 minutes early and ate and discussed which sessions of Level Two we had gotten into.

Eventually 7pm rolled around and we got started. Our teacher decided that on this the last day we were going to stray a little from the syllabus (keep that on the DL) and go ahead and perform the Harold followed by a surprise exercise. She asked for six people to hop up and told them the opening they were going to use was the Invocation. They got their word and jumped into it.
The first Harold went pretty well (very well considering it really being the first any of them had done). Their opening ended up creating a beautiful stage picture of someone riding a bike as they were talking which eventually morphed into a “Hell Bike” by the end with the Devil astride it. Really the only critique afterwards was the fact that they ended up too close to the initial suggestion: Bicycle – both group games centered around people cycling or bicycles and in a number of the scenes they appeared (and in general most of the scenes took the ideas from the opening too literally and they never really explored the themes they found in different settings).
Next five others and myself hopped up. We were told we’d be doing the Conducted story opening and got the suggestion Mop – then we began. Our opening told the story of a janitor, picked on by his peers – who only found solace in his mop – yet which he eventually forsook for a wet-vac. By the end we had discovered that the mop was magical and could fly yet tragically died alone despite it trying to improve others lives.
Our scenes went really well – we started off with a three person scene (one guy occasionally walked in and out as the new guy at a school) while his “friends” picked on him behind his back – making all kinds of assumptions about him from what he was dressed as (and a nice nod to the opening where the janitor was picked on). The second scene involved a parapsychologist who had been called into investigate the haunting of a family’s home where the appliances moved by themselves and had been for the past four weeks – the rest of the group got to help by making chairs move on stage. The final scene involved a poor old lady who got a neighbor boy to clean her gutters – yet constantly distracted him with depressing stories about her life and parties she got humiliated at. The first group game involved everyone excited about moving into their new entirely glass house which would serve as a perfect example to other families by showing how them the “perfect family lived.
The second beat first scene heightened with scenes about two closet racists on a golf course (playing 8 holes, cause 9 is too strenuous and 18 is just ridiculous and only for showoffs) as a their caddy and grounds keeper walked in and out (while they were they were very polite and chummy – yet the moment they were off stage the two let their true colors show commenting on stereotypical nonsense). Then there was a ghost party and finally a family who were living a peaceful life until the Harlem Globe trotters came in and started disrupting their house (don’t ask me where exactly that came from).
We had some trouble with our second group game (as everyone ended up on stage for the globe trotters scene – which some though merged into the game and other didn’t) – yet the peace ended nicely as we discovered the ghosts were kids who had been picked on who killed themselves out of shame – and many different types of bullies learned their lesson (and the globe trotters came back to play the ghosts at one point…which was weird but amusing).
Though there were some hiccups – pretty good over all (and I got to be racist – hooray).
The final group went and was asked to use monologues as their opening. They sadly jumped the gun a little bit and didn’t let the monologues go long enough (or get enough out – they only had three really short ones) – so that left them a little short on inspiration. A number of the scenes were very interesting but some lacked relationships and their second group game was just chaos with a lot of people over talking.
In the end though considering that for most it was their first introduction to improv let alone the Harold (note a form we’re not supposed to fully know till level 4) it went smashingly well.

Then we were told about the surprise exercise. Our teacher asked 6 more people to hop up on stage and bring chairs. She arranged all but two in a line the others she put on the end facing in ward (so it was an incredibly long flat u). She asked us to sit (but told us we could move if we wanted) and let us in on what we were doing. We were asked to do a 6-person scene focusing on tension between characters. She told us that we were in a hospital waiting room and off to the right behind a door was someone very dear to all of us – and they might not make it. However we could not focus on that – the scene was to start after we had all already spent a long time talking about their fate – and now we were to try to not talk about them or the situation at all – but have it in the back of our minds.
We began and quickly discovered we were all part of a big family – with an abusive dad, entitled grandpa, feuding siblings – with the youngest feeling that no one wanted him– a deaf middle child, stuck up sister, and takes after his dad eldest (and an alcoholic uncle). Very tellingly there was no mother present – and afterward we all agreed that rather quickly it seemed unspoken that was who was I the hospital and she was the only glue holding the family together. It went incredibly well – there was great give and take and we never talked about the situation except for the final line where the youngest pointed at the dad and said this is all your fault you put her here which shut everyone up and was the perfect ending.
The next two groups ended up talking about the situation a little too much which kind of hurt the exercise as once it was brought up (the other situations were they just saw a house explode outside the window and are not sure people made it out – and there’s a jumper on the ledge in the building across the street that they can see) tore the focus away from the relationships and toward the situation. Still there was fairly good give and take considering six people on stage- but very quickly into both scenes you could see some characters become far more focused on the jumper or the house than on what was going on stage.
In the end we did a 19-person scene with the same caveat (alien spaceship had landed in a field near us – we had already talked about it to death now it was time for us to deal which each other). Went fairly well – but again a lot of people ended up just speculating about aliens and eventually walking toward the ship.

All in all the exercise was really interesting as it brings up the idea that really in any scene – no matter interesting extreme the situation the focus is about the interaction between the characters (the relationship_ and how powerful either doing something or letting something affect you can be when you don’t talk about it or focus on it.

I have to say I'm very excited to move on to Level Two (I'm taking it with Susan Messing who rocks) and very interested to see how my internship will turn out.
Also though I'm only a few classes deep over all - I'm rather glad I decided to take classes at the Annoyance concurrently since so far they have served as a great compliment to each other - one focusing exclusively on scene work - while the other is gearing me up towards group improvisation and learning specific forms.

I have the Power!

The power to retrieve large amounts of alcohol from behind locked doors and take them to where the public may consume them, the power to take your tickets and answer your questions, the power to remove trash at will and (if the manager says so) throw your ass out...in other words I am officially working for the iO theater in Chicago - booyah. I'm going to be a theater intern (cough... people's bitch...cough) And I just had the mandatory meeting for all new interns the other night - and it was a great start to the whole shebang.

I walked into the theater to find around ten other people sitting downstairs in the cabaret theatre (there ended up being 14 new interns this session – a record for the theater). The manager of the Theater – Mike, came in a little after everyone got there (to the theme from the exorcist mind you – played from the sound booth by Jason Chin a teacher/director/performer at the theater). He gave us the lowdown of the different type of positions – some interns would work the offices upstairs (back behind the Del Close theater) during the day – taking calls, dealing with paperwork, getting coffee – the usual office type intern stuff, some interns would be in charge of the box office – in the evenings – a couple hours before shows and during shows – ticket sales, merchandise, phone calls/reservations, etc – and then some would be working in the actual theaters – taking the tickets and seating customers, bar backing and occasionally helping the bar staff any way necessary (if they need help making drinks bam, stocking, bam, getting glasses, etc), set up & clean up for shows, dealing with customers the most directly often times (hecklers, overly drunk, or just questions and of course seating them), and opening and closing the theater. Of course during the entire briefing Jason Chin was in the light booth punctuating the speech with musical cues and lighting effects – much to the amusement to everyone.

(Note most new interns are theater interns – though very few are level one students/just beginning level two – it’s the earliest you can get into the program and most of them were level 3 or up – so I’m low, low man on the totem pole).
We got a tour of the whole theater – stock rooms, offices, theaters, etc – and then we finally got to see our schedules. I’m the closing shift of Friday nights and a theater intern. The good news is I get to see (no matter which theater I’m in – and often you run back and forth) one of the best shows/teams at the iO and am around to watch the open jam. Also from what I’ve heard this is the shift most likely to let you go early as rarely to people outside of performers stay too long after the final show lets out – and once it’s just performers you can relax. The bad news is it’s one of the theaters busiest nights usually (Saturday closing is the worst form what I’ve heard – as you’ll often stay an hour longer than Friday) – though at least I’ll stay busy – and the official hours are 9pm-2am (so potentially walking home very late in very cold weather – thank god I’m close), and my Friday nights are kind of shot. Still my level one teacher told me she started out in the exact same shift and loved it – so it should be interesting (it does mean I’m half the team responsible for closing the theater – trash duty woohoo, yet I also get the most potential chill time during my shift.

Anyway it goes it should be interesting – and after this session I can trade up to a different shift since I’ll no longer be a newbie.