CIC Rehearsal - Experimentation

Tuesday night I had the second rehearsal for the new improv troupe I'm in, sponsored by CIC. I titled this entry Experimentation, because that was basically what the rehearsal was all about. Our Director Jorin has a couple different ideas of what might end up being the shape of our shows - and tonight was the first attempt in figuring out how best to mesh his ideas with our group dynamic.

One of the key things Jorin had an idea for us to focus on for possible use in our future shows was an adaptation of an exercise he had us do the first night (it all ties together people): The last exercise centered around a group of characters simply engaged in a conversation on stage. The idea is to adapt this into an opening for our piece instead of the traditional Chicago style Organic opening or the typical monologues, word associations, etc.
Personally I really like this idea, partially because back with Suspicious of Whistlers (and more importantly perhaps - because that's where we came up with it - the three man endeavor I was a part of Secret Pizza Party) we had a similar version of this we called the banter - which was just the actors having a conversation inspired by the suggestion - and partially because when it worked (see Secret Pizza Party especially) it lead to a lot of fun information/inspiration to play off of.
The key difference between these two versions is of course the fact that in the one we are working on for the CIC troupe - it is a conversation held among a group of Characters in a scenic situation, which is inspired by the suggestion. Still the same potential pit falls are present in both: ten people (or really more than four or five) trying to have a conversation on stage is hectic at best (and especially to keep it short enough for an opening, hard as hell), and there's always the danger of people trying too hard (aiming more for laughs than just conversing...or turning it into more of a group scene).

The experimentation process went a little choppy at first - as some of the ideas thought up to combat the above pit falls - just lead to clunkier and somewhat clunkier situations. Ideas like half the group conversing while the other half supports in some other way - like painting the scene around the characters (or even before the conversation takes place to set up the locale) were tried to combat the numbers issue. Then the other big hurdle was getting everyone in the group comfortable with quickly snapping into characters after the suggestion and having a natural conversation as them.

At the end of the rehearsal process we still had yet to hammer out the best way to approach this idea - but we managed to rule out a number of possibilities and all the time we are getting more and more a sense of how we play together.
I think our biggest problem right now with the opening is focusing too much on the idea of location - namely where the conversation is taking place on stage (making sure the conversation isn't taking place on a void) - instead of first locking down the idea of characters conversing with each other naturally and then figuring out a way to set it in a space/context.
Though all in all the group itself has a great energy and when we get going on scenes - we play fast and make some kick ass moves (and the idea behind the opening I think is sound) so I'm still very excited for us to start performing.