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
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
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).
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).
Friday, November 16, 2007
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
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
Thursday, November 15, 2007
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
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
Sunday, November 11, 2007
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)
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)
Saturday, November 10, 2007
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
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
Thursday, November 8, 2007
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
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.
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.
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