July 2011
2 posts
Del Close Marathon!
The Del Close Marathon is less than 2 weeks away and I could not be more excited! The DCM is like Improv Christmas for me. One of the best parts is seeing what improv looks like in other parts of the country. The differences can be in form or style or sensibility. I’m going to post a few of the shows I’m looking forward to for one reason or another during the lead-up to DCM.
May 2011
21 posts
Austin's Parallelogramophonograph describes some... →
"Janus Dance"
Full description
2 players perform a slow dance together; each with their head on the other`s shoulder. Hence they are not looking at each other. While dancing they perform a 2-3 minute scene.
This seems like a fun way to exercise many different aspects of good improv. Namely: listening, having an activity (and not talking about it), intimacy and relationship, and creating an interesting stage...
Hyperlinks
My good friend Asaf Ronen developed this form a few years ago. Asaf, by the way, is the author of a fantastic book I suggest picking up titled “Directing Improv.” But more on that some other time. In this form, the audience can be in control of editing, by shouting “click” when they wish to see a new scene. The word or phrase that was “clicked” on becomes like...
JTS Brown
From an interview with Craig Cackowski:
J.T.S. Brown was not a form so much as a philosophy of play. It was designed for a large cast (10-14 people), to involve as many players as possible at a time, to have a higher level of theatricality and polish than a typical improv show, and to encourage any move to be made at any time, with the idea that anything that happened was the perfect thing to...
FACE →
FACE features an instrumental jazz quartet that, from a single audience suggestion, creates an original “score” on the spot while 6 actors weave a 45 minute, fully improvised show of music, motion, comedy, and dramatic theater.
FACE is one of the cooler free-form shows existing in NYC right now. It’s an interesting marriage of music and improv that doesn’t result in a...
Sickest F***ing Stories I Ever Heard
Via Sickest Stories
The Sickest F***ing Stories I Ever Heard is Chicago’s popular, late-night, adult comedy show! Each performance features a rotating cast of comedians and unique storytellers, sharing TRUE tales of sexual misconduct, painful personal injury and bad hygiene, while the cast drinks beer and plays poker, onstage.
I was able to see two performances of this a few years ago in...
Neutrino
Via FuzzyCo
Like conventional improv, Neutrino performances begin with troupe members soliciting story ideas from their audience. Once armed with enough raw materials for a film, the cast members join forces with guerrilla camera crews and take to the streets. Using real locations, real props, and even recruiting real extras, the teams shoot an entire movie based on audience input. For the...
Improsia
This show has an interesting framing device: A woman is trying to teach three strange men about some simple, well-known aspect of human experience. The set up is has a hint of the Twilight Zone about it, as who are these men that are not aware of or cannot comprehend these things that everyone knows. However, in being taught, the men begin to enact situations and scenes that surround the central...
Gravid Water →
Gravid Water is basically a much more refined, polished version of the game Actor’s Nightmare. One actor does have the script. But it’s memorized and in their head. There’s a set and props. The only thing missing is the other half of the dialogue.
What’s fun is that the scenes swing wildly from working perfectly (because the improvisor has picked up on every nuance and is...
The Scene →
In “The Scene”, five veteran improvisers come together as one common mind – the Director. The Director’s mission is to explore the possibilities inherent in an initial improvised scene and to rework that scene until it reaches its natural conclusion. As such, “The Scene” sets out to marry the often juxtaposed concepts of creative process and finished product (and entertain the audience equally...
The Mock →
This was a neat show I got to be in once years ago. Wish there was more of an internet memory of it for me to show you. It was a very simple format; 3-4 improvisors get microphones, an old B-movie gets played, and we crack wise to it. For most of the group, this is the first time ever viewing this movie.
(I cheated when I was in it and watched it once to make note of any patterns. But it still...
WatchImprovised Golden Girls
