Image courtesy of BrendanMc
Buzz Focus has a great write up on the DeCoster Premier at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.
My personal favorite scene of the evening was when Neuringer introduced her team to the Wizard of Oz yellow-brick-road exhibit, which each player cleverly tied into a historical metaphor. The scene culminated in a proclamation that the yellow-brick-road was a metaphor for the gold standard.
I couldn’t agree more, although my personal highlight was DC from Derrick and Ari’s really amazingly heightened analogous scenes about the savior and the eternally persecuted retailer. Really simple, really well played, and DC’s first Harold night scene.
Tomorrow night is the debut of Raynard who is a group of new players, some of which I have had the pleasure to play with. It’s not something you want to miss.
After watching 36 hours of a 56 hour improv marathon, improv stops looking so much like improv and more like a math equation. You can see patterns forming between performers and see differences in the way geographic locales play. After watching 36 hours of improv, you become a bit of a machine, analyzing each scene for what worked and what didn’t.It was however in this haze of performers, dank body odor, and beef jerky that I truly saw improv for what it is, a groundwork for group mind. A set of traffic patterns to allow a group of performers act like one singular entity. When a group was acting as a whole, they seemed to be reading eachother’s minds, moving in time with one another. When it worked it was incredible (Buiscutville [Creepy guys in a Van], Delta Force 2 [What Happened? Where Were You?], Bruckheimer [An Army of Homeless People], Reuben Williams [Pierre Runs Away]) and when it didn’t, it wasn’t incredible.
Punctuating this mass of performances were the UCB 4 themselves, who got on stage frequently to talk to the audience and answer questions. That for me, was one of my biggest highlights of the marathon. I must have heard Ian Roberts talking over 3 hours about life, love, and improvisation and the majority was truly brilliant. When the 4 got on stage together they really did seem to transform the space. While they really were performing bits the entire time, the energy was contagious.
Read on…
So, it’s been almost a week and I’m just now starting to write about the end of the marathon. It was pretty intense. Unfortunately after seeing two of the three ASSSSCat shows on Sunday I got home and slept until Monday then I had to get up bright and early for work. However, eating nothing but beef jerkey and energy bars during the DCM, to keep me going, actually led to some mean hypertension which made me ill. I spent Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday getting rid of a mean sodium induced headache. Luckily now it’s all over and I’m busily drafting a wrap up of the DCM complete with about 20 or so lessons I learned from watching 36 hours of improv.
This is just my way of saying, I haven’t forgotten about you, I’m just not as sprightly as I used to be.
P.S. — I’m not actually sure I was ever as sprightly as I used to be, but that’s between me and my poor memory.