Friday, November 20, 2009
Is there anybody ..... out there???
I checked back to look at the list of improv books that I don't have and now I miss people :(
Monday, August 17, 2009
Movies: A Cheat Sheet
Hey ya'll. In our class with Maureen on Saturday, she had suggested we use this to discuss some "Pop Culture" movies, books, music, etc., to make sure our teammates (and selves) are not blindsided with suggestions we are unfamiliar with. Because we can't all watch the movies we would like, I thought about making a Cheat Sheet of movies we are likely to get as suggestions, and what should be known about each of them to help make a scene passable. I will start one about some of the movies I think we should know for now, with possibly a TV one to follow. I would appreciate it if people could add, especially to the movie one with current releases, as being a father of a 2-year-old has prevented me from seeing anything since 2007. My picks and hints are:
1.) Star Wars. If you have not seen at least the original trilogy, you should take a sabbatical from Improv until you watch them, mimmick them, and work on your: Darth Vader breathing; Chewbacca yelling; Yoda's syntax-changing verbal skills; and your lightsaber sound effects.
2.) Titanic. It's a long movie, yes. But watch it, even if in fast-forward, and get down: the whole "King of the World" moment at the hull of the boat (overdone, but good for a cheap laugh); an English-accent "Iceberg! Right ahead!"; sweaty sex in a fogged-up Model T; the string quartet "Gentlemen, it's been an honor playing with you tonight"; and the "Never let go" speech at the end. I'd also throw in the line, "I want you to draw me in this... and only this."
3.) The Princess Bride. I don't think I've ever heard this called out as a suggestion, except for the one time I did before I was in a troupe. Some great lines that you need to know to pull this off are: "I'm not left handed" (during a sword fight); "Anybody want a peanut?"; and "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die." Actually, I just think everyone should see this movie; it is one of my favorites.
4.) E.T. If I were to get this, I would pretend I had a gun and wonder aloud why I was trying to shoot someone with a walkie-talkie (an unneccesary change Spielberg made in the re-release, and probably a joke 1/3 of the audience would get, on a good night.) But the bigs ones are E.T. saying, "Phone Home," "Ouch", and "Be Good." Use your scariest voice and point your finger. And mention Reese's Pieces, too.
5.) Forrest Gump. Your best Southern-accent, with a little extra "da-hoo!" twang thrown in. "Life is like a box of chocolates...", "Stupid is as stupid does...", "Run, Forrest, Run!" I'd probably jut out my lower lip and do Bubba's "Shrimp has a million uses..." speech. So don't steal it.
I'll add more as they come. Please add some of the superhero (Spider-Man, Transformers, Batman), Sci Fi (The Matrix, Star Trek), and Fantasy (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Carribean) if you can, and any classics I haven't added (The Godfather, Gone With The Wind, etc.) Thank you for your support and cooperation.
1.) Star Wars. If you have not seen at least the original trilogy, you should take a sabbatical from Improv until you watch them, mimmick them, and work on your: Darth Vader breathing; Chewbacca yelling; Yoda's syntax-changing verbal skills; and your lightsaber sound effects.
2.) Titanic. It's a long movie, yes. But watch it, even if in fast-forward, and get down: the whole "King of the World" moment at the hull of the boat (overdone, but good for a cheap laugh); an English-accent "Iceberg! Right ahead!"; sweaty sex in a fogged-up Model T; the string quartet "Gentlemen, it's been an honor playing with you tonight"; and the "Never let go" speech at the end. I'd also throw in the line, "I want you to draw me in this... and only this."
3.) The Princess Bride. I don't think I've ever heard this called out as a suggestion, except for the one time I did before I was in a troupe. Some great lines that you need to know to pull this off are: "I'm not left handed" (during a sword fight); "Anybody want a peanut?"; and "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die." Actually, I just think everyone should see this movie; it is one of my favorites.
4.) E.T. If I were to get this, I would pretend I had a gun and wonder aloud why I was trying to shoot someone with a walkie-talkie (an unneccesary change Spielberg made in the re-release, and probably a joke 1/3 of the audience would get, on a good night.) But the bigs ones are E.T. saying, "Phone Home," "Ouch", and "Be Good." Use your scariest voice and point your finger. And mention Reese's Pieces, too.
5.) Forrest Gump. Your best Southern-accent, with a little extra "da-hoo!" twang thrown in. "Life is like a box of chocolates...", "Stupid is as stupid does...", "Run, Forrest, Run!" I'd probably jut out my lower lip and do Bubba's "Shrimp has a million uses..." speech. So don't steal it.
I'll add more as they come. Please add some of the superhero (Spider-Man, Transformers, Batman), Sci Fi (The Matrix, Star Trek), and Fantasy (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Carribean) if you can, and any classics I haven't added (The Godfather, Gone With The Wind, etc.) Thank you for your support and cooperation.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
TCIF Musings
Here I am, finally getting around to sharing my thoughts on the workshops I took during TCIF.
The first workshop I took was with Bill Arnett called Characters With a Point of View. I found this to be very helpful, as he gave us an extremely simple way to create a character: string together an adjective and a noun. Voila! Lonely balloon, whiny zookeeper, perfectionist coach, nervous general, savage panda, burned-out lawyer, ditzy crossing guard, intimidating apple, jealous microwave...these are all characters. This really spoke to me because I need to keep the improv simple. Otherwise I get into my head trying to create a character that has the depth of the Pacific Ocean. And then the moment is gone.
The other Bill Arnett workshop I took was The Power of Keeping It Real. We have heard this many times about playing the truth of the moment. There are endless opportunities to do zany and absurd stuff, and that end of the spectrum is certainly funny. Taking snippets of everyday life that anyone in the audience can relate to also yields memorable moments. Bill's thought was for you to be cool or uncool with your partner's choice. Our workshop just played out some exercises reinforcing this. One exercise was to respond with an emotional noise (not a verbal response) to your partner's declaration before you engage in dialogue. The noise deemphasizes the declaration, which is good; the scene is not about the declaration, anyway. "I made a Boston Creme pie." "[shrieks of joy]" gets you on the path of not talking about the damn pie. So is "I made a Boston Creme pie." "[stomps around angrily]".
Another exercise was something you could call Armchair Psychologist. Two people would engage in a scene, and a third person would observe it. After the scene is done, the third person analyzes each character like a psychologist might. The key here is to look for behavior, not actions. Not exactly sure how this exercise fit in with the theme of the workshop, I just remember doing it and thought it was interesting.
A third workshop I took was with Zach Ward called Spread to Survive. This was a technique that would be employed in a Harold structure, though it could easily fit into any multi-scene structure we do (a montage, even freeze tag, maybe some others...). Zach noted that occasionally you are in a scene that you know is not going anywhere, characters are blase, and there is not much established that would warrant calling it back later (like would be done in a Harold). You could spread out the world of the characters with other people who know of them. These Spread scenes exist as their own unique scenes with different characters, not just regurgitating ideas from the original scene. In that regard, Spread scenes are considered "one-way".
For example: if your scene involves a doctor unloading all his personal problems on an unwitting assistant, you could spread that out to a scene with new characters where the opening line is "My doctor was an emotional wreck. I do not want to see you turn out like that." That first sentence ("My doctor was an emotional wreck.") acknowledges the previous scene, and that is the entire connection of the Spread. The second sentence ("I do not want to see you turn out like that.") indicates this scene stands separately, not having anything to do at all with the doctor from the previous scene. It gets right to the relationship of the characters in this new scene. Spread scenes should connect characters, not objects.
The idea is that a Spread connects two scenes with the tiniest of threads. That way "boring" scenes end up serving a purpose: setting up a better subsequent scene. The earlier (shittier) scenes look better in retrospect by drawing on a detail used. In theory, you could have a scene, Spread that scene, Spread that second scene, Spread that third scene, and even Spread that fourth scene. If you finally hit comedic gold, the audience will feel rewarded for sitting through some mediocre scenes to get to the payoff. Those threads will help the whole structure "make sense".
Zach also had an interesting take on scenework that had nothing to do with The Spread. He thought you could approach a scene like an architect, where you build a scene from the ground up. He also thought you could approach a scene like an archaeologist: a scene/world already exists, and the player is just unearthing it and showing it to the audience. His preference was to go for the archaeological route.
The first workshop I took was with Bill Arnett called Characters With a Point of View. I found this to be very helpful, as he gave us an extremely simple way to create a character: string together an adjective and a noun. Voila! Lonely balloon, whiny zookeeper, perfectionist coach, nervous general, savage panda, burned-out lawyer, ditzy crossing guard, intimidating apple, jealous microwave...these are all characters. This really spoke to me because I need to keep the improv simple. Otherwise I get into my head trying to create a character that has the depth of the Pacific Ocean. And then the moment is gone.
The other Bill Arnett workshop I took was The Power of Keeping It Real. We have heard this many times about playing the truth of the moment. There are endless opportunities to do zany and absurd stuff, and that end of the spectrum is certainly funny. Taking snippets of everyday life that anyone in the audience can relate to also yields memorable moments. Bill's thought was for you to be cool or uncool with your partner's choice. Our workshop just played out some exercises reinforcing this. One exercise was to respond with an emotional noise (not a verbal response) to your partner's declaration before you engage in dialogue. The noise deemphasizes the declaration, which is good; the scene is not about the declaration, anyway. "I made a Boston Creme pie." "[shrieks of joy]" gets you on the path of not talking about the damn pie. So is "I made a Boston Creme pie." "[stomps around angrily]".
Another exercise was something you could call Armchair Psychologist. Two people would engage in a scene, and a third person would observe it. After the scene is done, the third person analyzes each character like a psychologist might. The key here is to look for behavior, not actions. Not exactly sure how this exercise fit in with the theme of the workshop, I just remember doing it and thought it was interesting.
A third workshop I took was with Zach Ward called Spread to Survive. This was a technique that would be employed in a Harold structure, though it could easily fit into any multi-scene structure we do (a montage, even freeze tag, maybe some others...). Zach noted that occasionally you are in a scene that you know is not going anywhere, characters are blase, and there is not much established that would warrant calling it back later (like would be done in a Harold). You could spread out the world of the characters with other people who know of them. These Spread scenes exist as their own unique scenes with different characters, not just regurgitating ideas from the original scene. In that regard, Spread scenes are considered "one-way".
For example: if your scene involves a doctor unloading all his personal problems on an unwitting assistant, you could spread that out to a scene with new characters where the opening line is "My doctor was an emotional wreck. I do not want to see you turn out like that." That first sentence ("My doctor was an emotional wreck.") acknowledges the previous scene, and that is the entire connection of the Spread. The second sentence ("I do not want to see you turn out like that.") indicates this scene stands separately, not having anything to do at all with the doctor from the previous scene. It gets right to the relationship of the characters in this new scene. Spread scenes should connect characters, not objects.
The idea is that a Spread connects two scenes with the tiniest of threads. That way "boring" scenes end up serving a purpose: setting up a better subsequent scene. The earlier (shittier) scenes look better in retrospect by drawing on a detail used. In theory, you could have a scene, Spread that scene, Spread that second scene, Spread that third scene, and even Spread that fourth scene. If you finally hit comedic gold, the audience will feel rewarded for sitting through some mediocre scenes to get to the payoff. Those threads will help the whole structure "make sense".
Zach also had an interesting take on scenework that had nothing to do with The Spread. He thought you could approach a scene like an architect, where you build a scene from the ground up. He also thought you could approach a scene like an archaeologist: a scene/world already exists, and the player is just unearthing it and showing it to the audience. His preference was to go for the archaeological route.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Notes: Improv In a Nutshell
Notes from a workshop with Michael Gellman:
A character knows more than the actor
The product of a scene is not your responsibility. It is the character's responsibility
Emotion and Reaction = Honesty
Pick something and find something about it to have a strong emotional connection. Out of the emotional response will come a character
Characters must have stairs to climb in a scene
Our discoveries come through objects, others and the environment
If you get a suggestion such as "you are in the desert" think about the possibilities. You don't have to be thirsty just because you are in the desert. "Fuck it...make a sandwich if you want!"
A character knows more than the actor
The product of a scene is not your responsibility. It is the character's responsibility
Emotion and Reaction = Honesty
Pick something and find something about it to have a strong emotional connection. Out of the emotional response will come a character
Characters must have stairs to climb in a scene
Our discoveries come through objects, others and the environment
If you get a suggestion such as "you are in the desert" think about the possibilities. You don't have to be thirsty just because you are in the desert. "Fuck it...make a sandwich if you want!"
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Your Faces
I miss you guys! Look forward to seeing you next Saturday! I took some notes at the workshop I attended. I'm putting together a real gollywopper of a powerpoint right now. (not really but I wanted a reason to use gollywopper)
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
New Boys In Charge
Hey ya'll. I didn't notice any Outtakes on this notification email from Stevie Ray, so I thought I would post it here so we can all share our congratulations with Jason (and Kappelhoff, too.)
Here is the letter from Mr. Ray, in its entirety.
Hello all:
We are proud to announce some great changes at Stevie Ray’s.
Jason Bindas and Dave Kappelhoff are no longer just Troupe Leaders. They have moved into the positions of Creative Directors. This means they are responsible for ensuring that our shows at the cabaret continue to grow creatively, and that each member of the troupes grows as well. They will either act as troupe leaders or, if a separate troupe leader is assigned, they will help the troupe leader direct the shows.
Jason Bindas has also been become the Director of the School of Improv. He will be in charge of making sure the school serves the needs of the students and teachers.
Dave Kappelhoff has become the Director of the College Division of the School of Improv. We have typically focused on adult improv classes, but now it is time for the school to expand. Dave will be responsible for building a whole new program focusing on college improv classes.
John Haynes has become the Director of the Youth Division of the School of Improv. He will be responsible for building a new program focusing on improv classes for students 18 years old and under.
Jason will work with Artistic Director, Pamela Mayne on all school programs. We hope to begin partnerships with outside organizations, corporations, schools, colleges, and community centers to offer classes throughout the Twin Cities.
Any questions about the school should be directed to Jason.
Mark Bergren will continue to teach advanced improv classes and special programs.
Stevie Ray will stay out of the way.
And that is it. So, congratulations, Jason, on the promotion. I trust you will do exceptional in this new position.
Woooooooooooooooooolhouse
Here is the letter from Mr. Ray, in its entirety.
Hello all:
We are proud to announce some great changes at Stevie Ray’s.
Jason Bindas and Dave Kappelhoff are no longer just Troupe Leaders. They have moved into the positions of Creative Directors. This means they are responsible for ensuring that our shows at the cabaret continue to grow creatively, and that each member of the troupes grows as well. They will either act as troupe leaders or, if a separate troupe leader is assigned, they will help the troupe leader direct the shows.
Jason Bindas has also been become the Director of the School of Improv. He will be in charge of making sure the school serves the needs of the students and teachers.
Dave Kappelhoff has become the Director of the College Division of the School of Improv. We have typically focused on adult improv classes, but now it is time for the school to expand. Dave will be responsible for building a whole new program focusing on college improv classes.
John Haynes has become the Director of the Youth Division of the School of Improv. He will be responsible for building a new program focusing on improv classes for students 18 years old and under.
Jason will work with Artistic Director, Pamela Mayne on all school programs. We hope to begin partnerships with outside organizations, corporations, schools, colleges, and community centers to offer classes throughout the Twin Cities.
Any questions about the school should be directed to Jason.
Mark Bergren will continue to teach advanced improv classes and special programs.
Stevie Ray will stay out of the way.
And that is it. So, congratulations, Jason, on the promotion. I trust you will do exceptional in this new position.
Woooooooooooooooooolhouse
Friday, June 26, 2009
The Special Outtakes Show
Yo. So this was discussed at the beginning of this round . . . the whole "Let's have a special Outtakes show, where we kick all of the existing audience members out to let all new audience members in for The Outtakes portion of the night." Then, nothing more was talked about it.
Until now.
Let's pick a show, dammit. We've only really got four shows left. July 18th, Aug 1, 15, and 29th. I My vote is for one of the last two, the 15 or 29. It would give us time to actually get confirmations from the invitees about yes or no or both and really hammer home the point.
You know?
Let's have a date picked in one week. Can we do that? One week . . . I'll Facebook this to LJ since she doesn't have access to this yet (by her own fault, of course.) But if you see this, pass the word to the other Outtakes to let them know to come and check it out.
Wooooooooooolhouse
Until now.
Let's pick a show, dammit. We've only really got four shows left. July 18th, Aug 1, 15, and 29th. I My vote is for one of the last two, the 15 or 29. It would give us time to actually get confirmations from the invitees about yes or no or both and really hammer home the point.
You know?
Let's have a date picked in one week. Can we do that? One week . . . I'll Facebook this to LJ since she doesn't have access to this yet (by her own fault, of course.) But if you see this, pass the word to the other Outtakes to let them know to come and check it out.
Wooooooooooolhouse
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