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prusik[Slight cat waxing since it turns out that my scene 2 is probably really scene 3... or 4. This means I need a new scene 2. *sigh*]
Boston Improv Festival was this weekend. I didn't get a chance to catch any of the acts, but I did decide to make time for a couple of the workshops. Clarion sucked up pretty much every moment of my free time (and then some) until now. Figuring out whether I wanted to keep learning improv was something I'd do "after Clarion." What would be... uh... now. I figure this is a good chance to do that.
Saturday, I did two workshops in a row: An introduction to the Bat, and techniques on developing organic group games. As it turns out, they were an interesting juxtaposition as they were polar opposites.
The Saturday afternoon workshop was an introduction to the Bat, a long form which is kind of like a Harold, but in the dark. (But not a structured Harold. This was much more freeform and organic.) When I'd registered for the workshop, I hadn't realized that it was also an audition for a performance of the Bat Saturday night. After we'd all introduced ourselves to each other, Joe Bill, the guy conducting the workshop, basically mentioned that this was an also an audition for the 11pm performance and that we should put this out of our minds.
I had no problems with this. Three-quarters of the class were seasoned improvisers already performing at the festival. One-third, at least, had done the Bat before. Joe mentioned he already had four people in mind. I was not getting cast for the Saturday night performance. (Those of you familiar with this story structure, or are my Facebook friends know what's coming next.)
The Bat is conducted in the dark. It is an almost purely verbal exercise. The organic group games we worked on were purely wordless. So, I had two hours of all talk and no physical action followed by two hours of all physical action and no talk. Kind of neat how that worked out. I had a great time at both workshops. What I learned from both will help me in my future work should I do any.
After the second workshop, I walked out of the main theater space towards the lobby. Or I attempted to. Now I wonder if the festival's co-director was waiting for me because I literally did not get one step past the door before he stopped me. He tells me that I'm doing the Saturday night performance. Fortunately, I was in "improv mode." Rather than freaking out, or saying "WTF?", I simply accepted the offer and moved the scene forward. I'm thinking that Joe must have posted the cast list in the green room. (i.e., if someone didn't tell me, I wouldn't have known to show up.) So, suddenly, I find myself performing at the Boston Improv Festival. (The freaking out and "WTF?" hit on the subway ride home which is As It Should Be.)
Fortunately, the festival's co-director was also the guy Saturday night wrangling the performers. I didn't have to explain "No, I don't have a performer's pass because I didn't know I was performing until 6 hours ago." As it turns out, when the cast congregated in the green room, it was very much a "one of these people is not like the other" moment. Let's just say that everyone else cast had performers' passes. (Note that the only person who seemed to notice or care was me.)
As we passed 11pm, one of us joked that they'd stashed us down here as a decoy and everyone else from this morning's workshop was doing the show as we spoke. Made perfect sense to me. I was still back on "Why am I here?"
(As it turned out, Joe had shows back-to-back, the second of which was at 11pm. We didn't see him until just at little before we were to go on. It started late in any event.)
Anyway, after the delay, we did do the Bat. It was wild, chaotic, and a lot of fun. There's lots of stuff you can do with overlapping scenes and transitions that are much easier when it's voices only. The Bat we did felt like it'd gone so quickly, but it'd ran just over 20 minutes. I really wish we could have done another right after. Also note to self, after 20 minute in the dark, the lights, when they come up, are really bright...
I went to a few more workshops on Sunday, and they were good. My thought coming out of them though is that what I need the most is practice. Like writing, I don't improvise well if I'm panicking. Running scenes over and over will help me more than anything else right now. Maybe if I can get through an audition without panicking, I'll get cast in something. (The Saturday afternoon audition doesn't count. I was not actually auditioning. I was much too distracted by learning how to do a Bat.)
ImprovBoston has a weekly open practice session. I was thinking about going to some of them. (Unfortunately, I can't make it every week.) Now, I probably will, at least for a while.
Like I said, not quite the weekend I'd expected. It turned out well. (Now, I just have to write the new scene 2...)
Boston Improv Festival was this weekend. I didn't get a chance to catch any of the acts, but I did decide to make time for a couple of the workshops. Clarion sucked up pretty much every moment of my free time (and then some) until now. Figuring out whether I wanted to keep learning improv was something I'd do "after Clarion." What would be... uh... now. I figure this is a good chance to do that.
Saturday, I did two workshops in a row: An introduction to the Bat, and techniques on developing organic group games. As it turns out, they were an interesting juxtaposition as they were polar opposites.
The Saturday afternoon workshop was an introduction to the Bat, a long form which is kind of like a Harold, but in the dark. (But not a structured Harold. This was much more freeform and organic.) When I'd registered for the workshop, I hadn't realized that it was also an audition for a performance of the Bat Saturday night. After we'd all introduced ourselves to each other, Joe Bill, the guy conducting the workshop, basically mentioned that this was an also an audition for the 11pm performance and that we should put this out of our minds.
I had no problems with this. Three-quarters of the class were seasoned improvisers already performing at the festival. One-third, at least, had done the Bat before. Joe mentioned he already had four people in mind. I was not getting cast for the Saturday night performance. (Those of you familiar with this story structure, or are my Facebook friends know what's coming next.)
The Bat is conducted in the dark. It is an almost purely verbal exercise. The organic group games we worked on were purely wordless. So, I had two hours of all talk and no physical action followed by two hours of all physical action and no talk. Kind of neat how that worked out. I had a great time at both workshops. What I learned from both will help me in my future work should I do any.
After the second workshop, I walked out of the main theater space towards the lobby. Or I attempted to. Now I wonder if the festival's co-director was waiting for me because I literally did not get one step past the door before he stopped me. He tells me that I'm doing the Saturday night performance. Fortunately, I was in "improv mode." Rather than freaking out, or saying "WTF?", I simply accepted the offer and moved the scene forward. I'm thinking that Joe must have posted the cast list in the green room. (i.e., if someone didn't tell me, I wouldn't have known to show up.) So, suddenly, I find myself performing at the Boston Improv Festival. (The freaking out and "WTF?" hit on the subway ride home which is As It Should Be.)
Fortunately, the festival's co-director was also the guy Saturday night wrangling the performers. I didn't have to explain "No, I don't have a performer's pass because I didn't know I was performing until 6 hours ago." As it turns out, when the cast congregated in the green room, it was very much a "one of these people is not like the other" moment. Let's just say that everyone else cast had performers' passes. (Note that the only person who seemed to notice or care was me.)
As we passed 11pm, one of us joked that they'd stashed us down here as a decoy and everyone else from this morning's workshop was doing the show as we spoke. Made perfect sense to me. I was still back on "Why am I here?"
(As it turned out, Joe had shows back-to-back, the second of which was at 11pm. We didn't see him until just at little before we were to go on. It started late in any event.)
Anyway, after the delay, we did do the Bat. It was wild, chaotic, and a lot of fun. There's lots of stuff you can do with overlapping scenes and transitions that are much easier when it's voices only. The Bat we did felt like it'd gone so quickly, but it'd ran just over 20 minutes. I really wish we could have done another right after. Also note to self, after 20 minute in the dark, the lights, when they come up, are really bright...
I went to a few more workshops on Sunday, and they were good. My thought coming out of them though is that what I need the most is practice. Like writing, I don't improvise well if I'm panicking. Running scenes over and over will help me more than anything else right now. Maybe if I can get through an audition without panicking, I'll get cast in something. (The Saturday afternoon audition doesn't count. I was not actually auditioning. I was much too distracted by learning how to do a Bat.)
ImprovBoston has a weekly open practice session. I was thinking about going to some of them. (Unfortunately, I can't make it every week.) Now, I probably will, at least for a while.
Like I said, not quite the weekend I'd expected. It turned out well. (Now, I just have to write the new scene 2...)
