First CIC Rehearsal

So last night was the first rehearsal for the new improv troupe I’m in sponsored by Chemically Imbalanced Comedy (CIC). Usually we would be meeting in CIC’s brand new theater (well 3 months old now) however there was a slight scheduling conflict with the dress rehearsal of a play they are currently putting up, so we met in Sheil Park (for those of you not in the know – this is basically one of the ubiquitous locales where random improv rehearsal are held a lot in the city, as they have rooms for rent and on the cheap).

Anyway the first rehearsal went great. There are 10 of us in the group and everyone seems like really great and talented people (though one person couldn’t make it as she’s currently in rehearsal for a play at another theater through Jan … so who knows perhaps she’ll be evil). We started off just basically chatting a bit to get to know each other and our Director (who also rocks btw … ok enough fanboying for the group) a little better. Jorin (our Director) then had us circle up and began with some warm-ups. An ubiquitous, first time we’re improvising together, learn names game – a sharing circle, where we all took turns sharing a story about something non-improv related that happened to s over the holidays - a fun new warm-up I’ve never seen before which is basically a rhythm based “would you Rather” game called That’s what I like, where you start a simple clap rhythm and then one person in the circle asks the rest of the group a questions with two possible outcomes (would you rather be able to fly or be invisible…etc) and then to the beat everyone in the circle takes turn answering one or the other …. After everyone goes the group says in rhythm, Cause that’s, that’s what I like, cause that’s that what I like .. and a new person asks a question.

We then ended up doing some quick free form montages basically just a chance to play with each other. Before each scenic exercise we would run about the stage high fiving people to get our energy up and connect with each other – then we’d just start from that.
We played pretty fast and loose and had no problem with group scenes (which is both surprising and probably a great sign). Afterwards Jorin had us switch over to focusing on a little longer two person scenes and then pseudo Armando based on our previous stories from the sharing circle – with one person recounting the tale again and the rest of us picking out inspiration from it.

Finally we ended the practice focusing on something that I think went incredibly well – it started off with half of us just sitting on stage in chairs and just having a conversation about a random topic Jorin gave us. After both halves of the class had a chance to just have a normal conversation as such – Jorin then had us mix up into three person groups and told us we were basically going to the same thing (just have a simple conversation on stage) however this time instead of being ourselves, he was going to give us characters and then we were to simply have a conversation as those characters. It actually went very well (as I might’ve said before) and is perhaps one of the simplest methods and descriptions I’ve heard in a very long time that leads to really interesting and good improv: just characters having a conversation on stage.

Afterwards a bunch of us went out for drinks at a local tavern and managed to turn more than a few heads with the turns our conversation took. All in all I am very excited about this new troupe.