Improv Classes, Dec. 20 and 27, 2006

While doing some catch-up work on the blog, I realize that there are a couple of classes for which I don't have pictures and never made a blog entry. We had our regularly scheduled classes around the holidays. The December 20th workshop had 15 people and we were able to do a Museum game, Puppets, an expert panel, our usual song, and some open form work.

On December 27, we had a smaller class with 8 people, so we took the opportunity to do a few two-person games that we haven't seen for awhile: Assigned Quirks; He Said, She Said; and Playbook (a.k.a. Actor's Nightmare). A Song and some open form work filled out the night.

And that concluded Santa Barbara Improv Workshop's 2006. It was a good year, and although I've gotten to a slow start, 2007 is starting out even better.

Class December 13, 2006

We've got a few pictures from the last class, thanks to Andy's skills with the camera. The lighting is pretty tough in our workshop space, but Andy keeps working the camera until we get some pretty nice shots, And thanks to the Picasa picture editor, I'm able to clean them up a bit for publication.

Li-at, Jennifer, Scott, and Scott are playing a Typewriter scene. We haven't played this in quite a while, but this was a nice scene taking place at a librarians' picnic.

This is also a typewriter scene with Karla playing an aide to Justin's governor. Marie is his wife who has walked in on their affair. I believe Scott is at the typewriter, but he's out of the picture.

In this scene, Scott, Justin, Patrick, and Li-At are playing Entrances and Exits. There's clearly something on the floor that has them fascinated.

Your basic Irish Drinking Song, with Marika, Neil, Li-At, and Karla. I'm sure there's a 5th singer, but I'm blocking the shot. I haven't decided whether the color balance in the picture is wrong, or Neil's blood pressure just spikes when he has to come up with a rhyme.

Finally, I decided to include this shot because it shows off Andy's skill with my (crappy) camera. Although I'm a bit uncomfortable seeing myself like this, I think it's a lovely shot. Thanks.

Back from Borneo

Hiya all - I'm back! Borneo was fabulous, very different than I expected, but easy, inexpensive, quite interesting, beautiful, and the food was fantastic. I was mainly in Malaysia and Brunei, and I can recommend it to just about anyone as a great vacation spot. I got back in time to sit in on Victoria's class last Wednesday (Novemeber 22). I think that was one of the best times I've had at an improv class in quite a while. I enjoy teaching, but I also enjoy just being a player - it gets my old rusty chops loosened up. Thanks to Victoria for filling in so beautifully! I've heard nothing but good things about every class she taught while I was away.

Starting this Wednesday, I'm back at the helm - hopefully with batteries recharged and a new focus on individualized feedback. More on that another time.

This coming Wednesday, November 29, we will be at the same address, but in Room C rather than in Jefferson Hall. I'll have signs up so it should be clear. It's only a one week substitution, we're back in Jefferson Hall the next week (December 6).

Victoria At The Helm

For the next few weeks, Victoria will be teaching the workshop. I'm on vacation until Thanksgiving (I'll be traveling in Malaysia) and this coming Wednesday November 1 the class is canceled. But the following Wednesdays will see Victoria shaking things up. Also, while I'm gone, this blog won't be updated much (or at all). I'll be taking along an improv book or two so I may have something to blog about. Otherwise, watch for a flood of posts just after Thanksgiving.

CLASS CANCELLED NOV. 1, 2006

We are canceling the class for Wednesday, November 1, 2006. The entire facility is being used for a rummage sale and they don't have an alternate space available. I wasn't able to find us another location (within budget and time constraints), so we'll cancel for this week. Sorry about any inconvenience.

Class October 25, 2006

Here are a few pictures from the last class, most of them taken by Andrew. I tried to color correct, but with mixed results, as you'll see. Our focus for the night was on physicalizing.

Scott made an appearance and is seen with Victoria in this Create an Object to Speak exercise. They are in a hospital's ER room, but I don't think they're dancing.

Marika, Allegra, and Jim are in another performance of the same exercise, but this took place in a jail. You can pretty much figure out the roles of each character just from this shot.

I like this shot of Neil. I'm not sure what scene this was taken from, but it captures his expression, well.

Okay, I had to throw this shot in. Ben and Dustin. You've gotta go with the interesting verticals in this scene.

I also like this shot. It looks like they are listening to the most interesting feedback.

Eric and I are in the middle of a scene that I know was all innuendo. Think Brokeback Mountain, but the topic of discussion is camp food.

A fine class with 16 people that night. It's funny how 16 in the class starts to feel like a small class. We took advantage of the situation to do some extended open scenes, and I was pleased with how well they all went.

Class October 18, 2006

We had 11 people in our class this last Wednesday. It wasn't that long ago when I would have considered that a BIG class. Compared to most of our classes for the last year, however, it seemed pretty small. We took advantage of the opportunity to do exercises and games in smaller groups. For the night, we focused on character work. "Character Intro", "Greetings", "Info Booth", "Class Photo to Scene", "Panel of Experts", and (of course) "Animal Xform" were the exercises and games that had everyone stretching character creation. Throw in "One Word Story", an "Irish Drinking Song", "Three Line Drill", and some "Freeze Tag" and we had a pretty busy night.

Only a couple of pictures from the class, I had to do a little tweaking to get them presentable.

I like "Animal Xform" because you can explore new charateristics for portraying a character. Here Todd (parrot), Mike (octopus), Patricia (possum), and Marika (donkey) are transforming from their assigned animals to humans influenced by the characteristics they found while acting out their "totem". I found the characters to be very believable, interesting, and often a stretch for the performers. They moved away from their usual character portrayals.

"Panel of Experts" allows each player to create a character appropriate for their assigned topic. In this scene, Eric is the moderator for a panel discussing hair. Mike player Luis, a French hair stylist working in New York. Jim played Stephen, Luis' long suffering assistant with wildly different philosophies on hair. And Justin created Jeff, a natural hair zealot who considers cutting hair to be morally offensive. He said my favorite line of the night, "Justice for Hair!"

Class October 11, 2006

When there aren't any pictures, there isn't as much to write about from a class. We were down to 17 players, which makes this class a relatively small one. And, we had no brand new players, everyone was returning with some experience. So, we did a few more 3 person games. In addition to the warm ups, we got in a nice "No P" game and a full round of "Playbook" (aka "Actor's Nightmare"). Everyone got in a song (a bit of a challenge this time) and we had the time to do a 3 line drill (long form) as well as a few rotations of a Montage.

My two favorite lines from the night:

"She wants you to nurse the damn thing", said by Jim to Allegra, quoting a message from her sister regarding a newly born child.

"I loved you once", said by Mike to Victoria in a Montage scene.

Class October 4, 2006

Unfortunately, we don't have pictures from this class, so this will be a pretty short post. There were 18 people who attended with 3 of them new to our workshop and new to improv. Once again, the new players were quite good, enthusiatically jumping up to participate, and making some great choices on stage.

My favorite opening lines of the night was given by Mark: "Mom, I'm home! The cops let me go."

Recital September 30, 2006

Here they are: the 15 screen shots I've collected from last night's recital. I laughed almost as hard replaying the video as I did during the show. I tried to pick out a representative frame for each piece, and the only games I missed were those that didn't really look good in a single, static image - like Tag Out Story.

Opening and Warm Up

I was pretty pleased with this opening shot, until I realized I was missing Andy, Victoria, and Mike. They get enough exposure from Caught in the Act, so I'm glad all the other players have a good clear shot (well, and me of course). From the left we have Neil, Justin, Marika, Eric, Alan, Scott, Patricia, Allegra, Teri, and Ben.

Pillars

We had two great volunteer word-givers from the audience. Mike and Neil were given "laundromat" as their starting location, and at this point, the word "twit" was given out to be applied to Neil. I think our volunteer word giver surprised and embarrassed herself. Neil, on the other hand, is in a pretty typical pose.

Story Story Die

This is the start of the piece, so everyone is still in play. Andy is starting off, and he had been given something like "ineffectual evil" as his emotion/attitude. Victoria, Eric, Alan (from behind), Teri, Patricia, and Ben round out the players in this frame.

Irish Drinking Song

Teri, Victoria, Patricia, and Andy belted out this song about Irish immigration in the 19th century ... oh no, wait. This one was about NASCAR.

I have it on good authority (well, the one Irish person who attended the show) that this isn't really an Irish song.

Really?!

Alphabet

Mike, Justin, and Scott were given the set up "prison camp". At this point in the scene, the warden (Scott) is trying to get on with a pottery class while the prisoners are spending a lot of time talking about escaping.

Almost all of the letters in the alphabet were used in this scene, although I do not guarantee that they were used in the order they are normally given.

Open Scene

Andy and Allegra had "nurses" as their starter. So, of course Allegra was stealing drugs (and anything else she could get her hands on) from the hospital. In this frame, Andy, the holy and pure co-worker, has discovered that she has tracks on her arm.

Our shows are all about providing life lessons for the kids.

It's odd how many scenes that night involved drug abuse in one form or another. Not normally a theme for us, they weren't particularly out of place. Just noticeably different.

Surprise Lines

Marika, Allegra, and Ben were given "train station" as their location. I think the surprise lines were delivered fast and furious, just like they should be. It was a good scene.

My favorite surprise line was "I'm 64". I just found it delightfully mundane.

Puppets

For me, this was the funniest scene in the whole show. It was physical, situational, and Neil played his positions with some wonderfully simply but appropriate lines. From left to right, we have our volunteer puppeteer Mark, players Scott and Neil, and our second volunteer Kelly. By this point, Kelly was lost in hysterical laughter and was basically rough-handling Neil around the stage. Scott continued to set him up, and Neil just played out lines that addressed the wacky poses Kelly was putting him in. I finally stopped the scene because I couldn't breath anymore.

Emotional Zones

This scene had the funniest single line of the night. In this shot, Teri is showing a cow's tail to Eric and Andy. The setup was a cattle drive, and Eric's character had been preparing steak for dinner. But, Andy's character was a vegetarian. Teri's character, trying to be helpful, said "...try this tail, it's almost a vegetable".

Hmm, it was MUCH funnier in the show.

Continuing Scene, Changing Genre

In this shot, Victoria, Scott, and Neil are playing their scene as a Film Noir. The setup was the location "amusement park". I love the way Victoria is just vamping it up. Look at that pose...and in sneakers!

This scene went on to be about incest. As I mentioned before, we are nothing if not educational.

Expert Panel

Sorcery was the topic for this expert panel made up of Justin, Allegra, Ben, and Marika. Neil did a great job as MC. In this frame, Justin is discussing finger painting and sorcery. Allegra's character is trying to hit on Ben's character, and Marika is contemplating being 300 years old.

My favorite moment during this scene was when Neil dealt with a question from the audience that was off track. He claimed there was a technical violation because the asker hadn't raised her hand, allowing him to avoid the having to get an answer to the question. Nice!

Open Scene

Eric and Mike were given "hairdresser" as a profession, and in this shot they are discussing the Parisian Finger Cut.

I liked the physicalizing that occurred during this scene. The chair helped a lot as both players got in and out of it throughout the scene. Eric was really expansive in his miming. It was wonderful to watch him dunk his head into a water bassin while washing his own hair.

By the end of the scene the two characters had switched roles, with Mike's character giving Eric's the haircut.

Step Out Musical

At this point in their scene, Victoria, Andy, and Allegra were dancing their way off stage in the final number of the musical.

Their scene had involved a mother that had "tried everything" to raise her kids, like abandon one and spoil the other. They finally came together at the end and this final group song was about teamwork. It involved a lot of stomping and train noises as they worked their way off stage. It really worked much better on stage than it sounds from this description.

Really.

Switch Dubbing

I'm sorry this frame is so blurry, because this was one of the cleverest moments of the night. Eric had timed the rhythms of my calling "switch" for this scene, and he set up a big kiss just before I switched him and Victoria into the scene. So he was celebrating his success before a big smooch on stage with Victoria. Nice.

Final Bows

Okay, in this somewhat blurry shot, captured from the video of our final bow, I've gotten at least a smidge of every player's face. From left to right: Patricia, Mike, Justin, Eric, Scott, Teri, Ben, Victoria, Allegra, Marika, Alan, Neil, and Andy. All are taking a well deserved bow at the end of a very successful show.

Class September 27, 2006

Wow! We just topped last week's attendance with 22 people in class last night, including me. Four of the players were brand new to improv, and they still jumped up and participated in just about everything. The camera got passed around a fair amount. There were at least 4 people that I saw taking pictures. I'm trying to keep the total number of pictures in a post down to a reasonable amount, so I'm looking into how I can provide a slide show utility. There are a lot of fun pictures, even after I throw out all the really blurry ones.

Victoria, Ben, Scott, and Marika are in a Continuing Scene, Changing Genre game. It probably goes without saying that they are in the middle of a Mystery.

Teri, Neil, Brian, and Dustin are playing the same game, but from the looks of this picture, they are performing as a Children's Show.

I like the expressions in this picture. Mark looks scared and Karla looks really mad at Eric's Dad (sorry, I don't remember his name). Mike just looks lost. The location was a drug store, but I believe that this segment was being played as a mystery.

This was one of my favorite moments of the night. I don't remember the location, but Betts, Jim, Patricia, and Allegra are performing this part of the scene as a light opera. It was a very fun piece and just look at those expressions.

Here, Andrew, Scott, Justin, and Eric (son of Eric's dad), are also performing in a Continuing Scene, Changing Genre (I had clear pictures for all 5 iterations of this game, so I was able to cover everyone in a picture!). I don't know if this is the part where they were performing an Opera, but that was certainly the most memorable genre!

Even though there were a lot of other great pictures from the night, I wanted to include this shot because I think it's just a sweet capture of these two very funny women.

I think we had a very full night, and we also had a chance to prepare for the Recital this coming Saturday. Don't forget, the show starts at 8:00, this Saturday September 30.

IT WILL BE FUN

Class September 20, 2006

I want to thank Andy for grabbing the camera and taking these shots. Last night was a big class, with 21 people including me. We still got everyone through 5 games, separate from the warm-up exercises.

These pictures don't capture everyone, but I picked out 6 that I think represent the class pretty well.

This was a panel of knitting experts. The players are Allegra, Ben, Marika, Scott (one of the two), and Neil who played the MC. They had a pretty good range of characters, although I think the favorite was Slash (Scott), a parolee who made his knitting needles from toothbrushes in prison.

What was wonderful about this scene was how all the players kept endowing an event that had been offered in the initial introductions by Mary Beth (Marika). There was a horrible knitting accident in 1998. Rather than focusing on the external event, they made it affect each other in an immediate way. Lot's of feelings and support. Nice.

The second panel consisted of experts on snowflakes. Scott (the other one), Diana, Sharon, and Eric were experts, and Jim served as MC. I think Julie Langsrom (Sharon) from Minnesota ("don't you know") was the best played character since she interacted enthusiatically with everyone. But Starshine Zephyr (Eric), who was searching for his personal snowflake, was quite memorable.

We don't have a shot of the third group since Andy was in that one (oops, flaw in the system).

This is the fourth panel of experts. Mark, Rosey, Brian, and Karla played experts on lollipops. Allegra was the MC, although she didn't make it into the shot. Mark is explaining how his character survived a horrible lollipop accident.

Now we have a couple of shots from the Irish Drinking Songs. I don't remember the topic of this one, but Victoria, Ben, Allegra, Patricia, Karla, and Jim were setting the bar pretty high for the following groups.

Here, Rosey, Scott, Scott (yeah, both of them), Lisee (oh man, I hope that's spelled right - I'm already sorry for screwing up the pronunciation of her name the whole night), and Teri. Somehow, I had the 4 brand new players teamed together for the song. Luckily, Teri served as an anchor. They all did great, especially for the first time.

Actually, the new players were great all night. ALL of them were quick to jump up on stage when given the opportunity. ALL of them actively participated in the scenes without overwhelming them. I've been pretty impressed with the caliber of new players coming to the workshop.

This last shot is from one of the Entrances and Exits games we played at the end of the night. The setting in the shot is a police station, and a police officer (Patricia) is trying to get the confessed murderer (Teri) back to her cell. Another officer is off stage (Lisee), and the interrogating police sergeant (Scott) was basking in his good police work.

We went a bit late, but I think the night was worth it.

Recital Scheduled

It's official. We have Jefferson Hall reserved for the next class recital. Here are the specifics so that you can start letting friends and family know: Date: Saturday, September 30, 2006 Time: 8:00 pm until 9:30 pm Location: Jefferson Hall, 1525 Santa Barbara Street

I passed around a sign up sheet at the last class and I'll continue signing people up at the next. If you don't have a chance to sign up and would like to participate, please contact me.

Irony?

Here's the thing: I'm not sure whether this is an amazingly ironic moment, or a setup by a very clever improvisor in the workshop. We rent a small performance space for our workshop, and I usually arrive a couple of minutes early to start setting up. Last week I unlocked the door, and there on the stage was a table with a lovely vase of flowers. Not thinking beyond the fact that I had to now clear the stage, I moved everything to one side and the class went on.

Afterwards, as we were clearing up I put the table and vase back on the stage. At that point, several much more observant players in the class pointed out that this was a physical representation of my classic Yes And talk. That description appears in my previous post on the subject.

Well, we were all impressed and amused so we took several photos. I even mentioned at the end of the posting for lasts week's class that there was a special picture which deserved its own posting. You can see that picture at the top of this post.

However, in the interim it occurred to me how this was all a bit too perfect. Like maybe it was a setup. Perhaps someone who's heard my talk a few too many times (anyone who's been in the class more than a month) realized how damn funny it would be to put a table with a lovely vase of flowers out for me to accept and perhaps add something.

So, which is it. A beautiful cosmic coincidence, or a funny setup that I didn't even get until a week later?

Either way it's damn funny.

Class September 13, 2006

Isn't that a great shot of people just having a good time on stage. And to think, they're all singing. Very cool. It was a big class on Wednesday. Eighteen people showed up ready to risk it all on stage. I was number 19, and we filled the room with some fine short form work. Three were brand new to improv, but each of them enthusiastically jumped up to participate, even for some games that were new to me.

Inspired by my search for websites with game listings (see my previous post), I brought several new variations on games we normally use for the workshop. I think they worked out really well, especially for such a large group.

In addition to new players and some new games, we also debuted our new curtains. I planned on posting an image as I was building the damn things, but they took so long I never had a chance to stop and photograph them. I think they'll work out fine, but there are a couple of tweaks I still want to make. I'm such an engineer.

Okay, that expression on Scott's face makes this scene work for me. I believe he was playing a horse, although during this replay scene there was a critical beat when the horse lifted it's leg. Hmm, I guess we're more urban than I realized.

And Victoria made her triumphant return after her adventures in house remodeling, moving, and a trip to the Burning Man event. We missed her, and she came back ready to play. In fact, in this scene I believe she was playing an octogenarian who couldn't quite make it to Burning Man.

You know, I don't remember what was actually happening in this scene. but, I like just making up what might have been happening.

What I like about this shot is that it doesn't involve me doing push-ups. It was one scene, okay. Don't ask.

Once again, a very good night of improv work. I'm always happy to have such enthusiastic new players, especially when they're dragged in by their relatives and on their honeymoon. But, that's a story for another time.

Class September 6, 2006

There were a lot of great photos from the class last night. Thanks to all the players who picked up the camera and took shots throughout the night. I picked out a set that I believe covers everyone who was at class. Early on, we did an exercise where the dialog could not be about the environment. Here, Alegra, Eric, Marika, and Patrick were at an archeological dig, but discussing Allegra's blindness.

Her hand is on his leg. Really!

Same exercise, but here Geof and Mike are discussing the lousy gifts they got their mothers. At the same time, they're firemen cleaning up after a big fire.

Sol looks rather pained during this Irish Drinking Song, but Ben's just happy it's not his line. I think Phyllis finds Sol more amusing than my directing (yes, that's my hand).

Oh yeah, Neil and his new haircut. Sweet.

Teri seems amused by his last line in the Irish Drinking Song.

I liked this shot of me directing. It looks like I'm about to give some dynamic bit of stage direction or wise advice.

This is Eric and Jim during a Three Line Drill. I don't remember what the scene was about, but I love Jim's face in this. A very enthusiastic response.

No, Patricia is not flipping off the new guy, Geof. That's her index finger. I think she was actually miming the polishing of her fingernails since she was playing a prostitute being saved by a friend.

Okay, I loved the colors in this shot and the looks of sheer boredom. Teri is in the reddish orange, Andy in green, and Allegra in light blue. I believe I was discussing a One Act that they were going to perform, and I had clearly captured their imagination. As I recall they all did quite well.

I like this shot because both Phyllis and Justin were clearly having a good time.

For some reason, I kept calling Justin by the name of Travis at the end of the evening. I don't have a good excuse, I was just wrong. Sorry Justin.

So that was the evening, and it was a good one. There's another shot that we took just after the class, but it deserves its own post, later.

Class August 30, 2006

I want to thank Mikki for snapping pictures through this class. I had a pretty good set to chose from. We had a particularly good night, and it was nice change to have an experienced set of players. I love having new folks come into the workshop, but it's also good to have a small, experienced group.

Here's a sample set of pictures.

I liked this ABC scene between Sol, Teri, and Lily. Teri was the counselor as the other two argued over who needed to be seen first.

Ah, the smoking scene. I believe this was also an ABC scene between Andy, Ben, and myself. The setting was a cigarette factory, and Ben was the quality inspector. Luckily, the picture where I was licking the cigarettes was too blurry to publish.

The songs were particularly good this night. That's Andy, Abbe, Karla, Teri, Jim, and Patrick belting out the Irish Drinking Song. I was directing, and that's the back of Ben's head.

This is the start of a 3 line drill, with Andy preparing an emotional setting for Patricia's opening line.

You may have noticed that there aren't the usual curtain panels on the edges of the stage. There's an amusing story behind the missing curtains, but let's just say it was my fault that we now have the opportunity to build some fresh new stage settings!

Class August 23, 2006

I brought the camera ... really, I did! It was broken ... no, really ... ask Andy

Rats!

So, no pictures this week. Really unfortunate because there was some great physical work. I think just about everyone came up with interesting characters for the Class Picture scenes, and several had great physical traits. And, Emotional Zone kept everyone moving, so the stage picture really held our interest while it kept changing.

Okay, and now for my favorite line of the evening (or at least the most notable). Eric threw this out in the middle of a Repeating Scene Changing Genre game:

I been through you like a man with a cream puff in the big one

I believe it was delivered in a Film Noir version of an office scene

Class August 16, 2006

Well, no photos from this class; I forgot the camera. Ah well, next time. We had 5 new players show up this week. They came with a variety of stage experience but not much improv. That made for a pretty fun class, although with 16 people in the workshop right now, our range of experience is pretty broad.

We did a few more large group pieces, including 5 Letter Word, Switch Dubbing, and Entrances & Exits. My favorite line for the night (and I appologize for not writing down who delivered it):

My Aunt likes the suppositories

Class August 9, 2006

Another large class, this time about 16 people. And, the camera became a group tool that anyone could pickup and use to snap a shot or two. So, we had a pretty good selection from the class. Early on, we went through an exercise of hitch-hiker, and this is a shot of Metro, Patricia, and Scott.

I don't remember what characteristic Patricia brought into this round, but I appreciate Scott's sneering driver.

I included this shot of Allegra, because I wonder if she's like this when just driving around town?

Plus, I really dig the red racing stripe on the shoes.

I found this shot in the middle of a group of scene pictures, and I think I just like Andy's noggin. You can see Karla in front and Mike behind, with a half shot of Patrick's head. I'm going to assume that Mike is just squinting, and not sneering at what he's seeing.

And just what is Colby doing there, under Andy's chin?

Okay, this one was shot during a Pillars scene, with Scott and Mike as pillars.

I'd say that Shirley is desperately trying to not react to Jim.

Metro is delivering the next line of an Irish Drinking Song. I think Eric is swinging a beer stein, rather than taking a swing at Metro. Patricia and Patrick are preparing for their lines and yes, that is my hand, directing with a speed surpassing the capabilities of most digital cameras.

There were some other pictures, but I think that's a pretty good representation of the class. Thanks to all the players who picked up the camera and shot a few.

My favorite line of the evening was Ben's, who in response to his partner saying something like "...look at you striding in here all full of yourself" responded with "Yes, I do like to stride".