Two Baltimore Improv Group troupes (Ice Cream Social and Gus) headed down to Carrboro, NC, in late February to attend and perform at the
2008 Dirty South Improv Festival. During that time they saw a lot of improv and took some workshops.
We wanted to share people's experiences and learnings, so here's some feedback from a few folks who went.
(photos of Ice Cream Social and Gus' shows taken by Megan Wills)Megan Wills
I loved the festival, especially the workshops. I started on Friday with the Power Improv workshop with Mark Sutton of Bassprov. I liked the way he would take note of certain scenes and then bring up what was weak or strong about it later. It made it a lot less intimidating at the time. He really encouraged us to commit to characters and to play them through our own personalities. He encouraged us to not give 'too much information,' and would stop you if he felt you were telling something that you could just as well show. He taught us that we could deal with frustration by simply listening, and creating a game that others couldn't ignore. He definitely empasized "taking care of our own sh**", as Prescott says.
My first Performer Workshop teacher was Anthony LeBlanc of Second City. We did some interesting warmups, including a slightly different variation of the 'Samurai' game as well as one I hadn't seen before called 'Where have my fingers been?' Both of these have already been brought back to Freshmonkeys. He helped us concentrate on two person scenes by doing some throwaway scenes, then by performing duologues (my absolute favorite thing ever!). He liked to make us begin scenes in silence, which made us choose characters and relationships without talking. He would make us do three-line scenes where the first line was an offer, the second was a reaction to the offer, then the rest was silence until the third line, which ended the scene on a beat. He also emphasized big-time game play and heightening the scene.
My second Performer Workshop was taught by Will Luera of Improv Boston. He stood out because he took a bit of extra time to try and really get to know who each of us was. We did several warmup games with him, after which we each came forward and did monologues about 'my pet peeve' and 'something I really like,' in which we displayed strong emotions. We then did 'character development' exercises he had created.
In one, we began with two lines of people. Each end person on opposite ends would come forward and face diagonally. Will would stand between them and assign each a letter of the alphabet. Each would begin to make the sound of the letter (B= Buh buh bee bbbbb, etc.) until connecting with a specific sound. They would then experiment with making that sound until a character developed. You could either just continue to make the noise and create a physicality to go with it, or you could begin a monologue as the character. When Will felt like each had a strong character, he would direct them to move in towards each other, meet in the middle, then move to the end of the opposite line. Each person would get a different letter so characters would vary.
In the second variation of this game, performers would deal with the physical shape of the letter rather than the sound of it, trying to draw from this physicality to create their character (which could be very physically awkward and challenging). These were games which really forced you to think outside the box to create a character, and I think they will be very valuable to our troupe. We ended out the day by doing 'scenes about nothing,' (a tie for my absolute favorite thing ever!) in which no additional characters could appear and no outside events could affect the action. It reminded me of Bassprov a bit. The challenge was to have a simple con
versation, and develop characters and relationships without creating extreme events or spouting out a ton of dialogue.
Prescott GaylordI was very moved by Dr. Fantastic. This blew my mind for their ability to throw out convention while simultaneously being in agreement with each other on what was going on. This was true group mind, and showed me at least one aspect of what I have been going for.
I also enjoyed Bassprov. They are kind of proof that any conversation can be a good scene if you believe in it.
I liked Jr. Varsity - just good solid improv. They also liked to explain everything - but organically - and later. So like 5 scenes later - they would answer a question that may have come up before. Awesome!
I did a couple of good things in my workshops -
One was (with Joe Bill) using the reality of yourself to play a scene. We had to have honest conversations, then we did the same thing with a strong emotion. They were great scenes.
The other workshop was all about listening. The main point was all problems come from not listening. I am on board with this philosophy, but I would tweak it to say that all problems come from not being on the same page or "group mind." Think about it, any time a scene sputters - there was always a time right beforehand with partners not picking up on each other and getting each other's back.
Richard FordI learned some great warm up games. In addition, we did a great exercise of doing 60 sec 2 person scenes, 30 sec 2 person scenes, 15 sec 2 person scenes and 5 sec 2 person scenes. The 5 sec scenes were the strongest. This is because it forces the players to make bold emotional decisions immediately. The lesson learned is make the decision of how you feel about your partner immediately and then stick with it. Own the emotion, let the emotion create the character, but don't let it define the character.
The festival was amazing. It was great to see so many improv troupes from all levels of experience and quality. Beat box, Cajones, Bassprov, Midnight society, junior varsity high school reunion and Dr. Fantastic all blew me away.
I am hoping to attend as many improv festivals and applying to as many as I can. I was tremendously pleased with the weekend, I also enjoyed getting to know more of the members of BIG.
