Attendance
Vi, Paul, Kazi, Brandy, Emily, Deborah, Karelisa, Doug, Alycin, Taryn, and myself.
Before rehearsal began, we discussed (note, the calendar review & discussion took 20 minutes and that is to be expected for the first rehearsal of the year. I plan to keep the discussions under 10 minutes, but frequent reading and use of this blog will help to keep the discussions to a much lower time:
Calendar:
Informal rehearsal will be held this Wednesday, 15 Jan, 7pm, Emily's house.
Next Sunday's rehearsal (1/19) will be at Karelisa's 7:15p-9:30pm.
Sunday (1/26) rehearsal and every Sunday afterward (until further notice) will be at the Actor's Warehouse 7:15p-9:30pm (email with info to be sent out).
Satchel's Show, Wednesday, 1/29, show starts at 7pm with a 6:15 call time.
Discussion
We started the improv group one year ago. Some of us had a lot of experience with improv, some of us had some experience, and some of us had none. So, last year's goals for the group were to work on the basics of improv and continually improve upon them throughout the year and to eventually incorporate long form into the shows. We resoundingly accomplished both goals.
This year's goal for the group is to reinforce last year's goals and that means hammering home the basics of improv so they become second nature: no rejections/denials, zero pointless questions, always supporting, always agreeing, and characters galore.
An additional goal for us is to polish our stage performances so they look and feel professional. The way we organize the show and how we present it onstage will gradually begin to take shape. This means smoothing out our transitions between games as well as the energy we put out throughout the whole show. Also, we can work on including short set performances between some games (perhaps a dance or a fake boxing fight or 10 second stand up/monologue or a 15 second song, etc.).
This will allow us to accomplish next year's goal of performing in festivals and at hospitals or prisons or schools or events/benefits, etc. as well as traveling to other cities and perform (by creating brother and sister improv troupes in other cities who will host us when we travel and then we will host them when they travel to Gainesville).
Vi also added that she would like us to focus on creating and maintaining characters so that we can, as individual players, portray more than one character during our shows.
Kazi suggested we go out as a group and go bowling, but we interact, bowl, and be a character while we are there. Excellent idea and Kazi is going to lead the charge to set up a bowling night for the troupe.
I also brought up that once I am fully employed and back on the up and up, I intend to look for a commercial space in Gainesville for us to use as an office, studio, rehearsal space, and what-not. This space could be used by anyone in the group for their own use (rehearsing for stand up, dance, singing, etc.) or video/photo shoots, as well as the group using it for spontaneous rehearsals. More information to follow.
Rehearsal Notes
Warm-ups: Shakedown, make a face ripple effect, big booty (Brandy finally lost her big booty title!).
Exercise: Interview (everyone answered questions first as themselves and second as a character and they had to maintain this character throughout the entire session).
This exercise went on for about 50 minutes and became a surreal trip into some sort of madcap false reality. I let it go on for that long because maintaining character is not easy to do and sometimes it takes a while to figure out who/what your character is. As Alycin noted, people fell in and out of their voices (accents) and characters.
During the exercise, I purposely rejected/denied when it appeared someone was going to die or leave the room. In exercises, we never want to leave the stage or die, simply because the exercise's goal is to maintain a character. So, for future use during exercises, we should avoid situations where killing another person is going to happen. Same thing with leaving the room. It's hard to maintain a character when you're dead or off the stage. :-)
During shows (games and long form), death and leaving the stage are obviously possibilities. But, a good lesson here to think about is if you voluntarily leave the stage or you kill someone or tell them to leave, it should really fit the scene. Don't use the exit or death until you've tried other ways to work the scene. That's why I love Goon River, because even when you're dead, you still have a voice! I'm not saying that leaving the stage or death are wrong (they can be the best thing, sometimes) - I'm just suggesting to not overuse them or use them inadvertently.
Game: Physical/verbal freeze tag: We played this game for 35 minutes and ended the rehearsal with it. The number one thing I noticed: Not enough people were jumping in. I know some people believe improv is based on being inspired, but half the fun is actually doing it when you're not inspired just to see what will happen. Don't be afraid to yell "freeze" if you have no idea what you're going to do. Once you're onstage and in position, your instincts as well as your partner's will take over.
Be aggressive, especially during freeze tag. Don't worry about ending scenes early or anything like that. This is improv brain storming - let the rage take over! ;-)
Waiting for inspiration during improv is a safe way to play and there's nothing wrong with it, except that you're leaving a universe or alternate universe(s) of possibilities go by waiting. Take a chance.
Throw yourself out there and let us be the net. We all fall flat, it's going to happen, but I'd rather see an energetic attempt fail than no attempt at all. Freeze Tag is the perfect game for letting your hair down and just rolling with it.
Don't wait to be inspired - inspire!
Rehearsal Edits:
In future rehearsals, I will eventually break us down into smaller groups while we perform exercises. This will allow us to go through more repetitions and cover more ground. This will happen once we're all aware of what the goals are for each exercise and we're all comfortable with group critiquing.
Final thoughts: When you go on stage - bring an emotion or attitude and a physical representation of that emotion/attitude with you. By doing this, you're not just relying on quick wit and verbal foreplay and you're giving your fellow players a lot more to work with. It also doesn't hurt if you're doing something (smoking, playing with a yo-yo, doing dishes, looking through binoculars, texting, etc.).
If you have any questions, comments, and/or suggestions, please respond below. Your participation is vital!
A very fun, positive, and energetic first rehearsal of 2014. I am looking forward to see where we go this year!
