Was pretty excited to sign up for this class over at Magnet Theater and as there is still a spot available before Sunday’s class, I thought I would bring it to your attention, if you didn’t know about it already. Forsooth!
NEW!!! IMPROVISED SHAKESPEARE with Blaine Swen ONE DAY WORKSHOP!!!*
Take a risk! Learn how to create a fully improvised story using the language and themes of William Shakespeare! We’ll explore the use of heightened emotional responses, rich character subtext, finding the game within a scene, and developing a sense of play. Our class will be filled with power struggles, star-crossed lovers, sprites, kings, queens, princesses, sword-play, rhyming couplets, asides, insults, persons in disguise and all that we’ve come to expect from the pen of the Great Bard. One day workshop. Limit 16 students. Pre-requisite: Level One or equivalent experience.
Availability: OPEN
Instructor: Blaine Swen
Dates: January 25 (One Day Workshop)
Day: Sunday
Time: 3-6pm
Price: $50
Location: Pearl Studios 500 8th Avenue 4th Floor, between 35th/36th Sts
For specific dates and locations click here.
Remember: Your registration is not complete until you have paid.
*Cod piece not included
When I first started taking improv classes in April/May of 1996 with the UCB Walsh, Besser, Ian and Amy were the only people teaching long form in New York. Indeed they were the only people teaching long form formally in New York for the next three years or so until Armando and Kevin Mullaney and Ali Farahnakian showed up.
While there were always people taking classes once or twice there was probably a group of about 40 people
Who.
Took.
Classes.
Took two classes a day, three classes at a time and the like. Really into it. Saw shows constantly. There was truly nothing like it at the time. The classes all felt blazing and raw, full of talent and potential.
Just as an aside, these were the days at Solo Arts when you could walk into ASSSCAT 10 or 15 minutes before it started and pick your seat.
All the UCB were incredible teachers for different reasons and with different focuses and that core of students really admired them and listened carefully to what we were learning. Classes were a simple joy. After a few months I had the vague thought that the “laws” that “govern” improv had applications off the stage and sort of aligned with the introspective and spiritual work I had done and cultivated in my life.
One day Amy Poehler gave our class a truly astonishing note – I don’t recall what spurred it.
Treat the stage with respect. Treat it with total and complete reverence. The stage is my church. There is no place that I feel more alive, more myself, more truthful, more satisfied and happy.
Some people go to church to feel in touch with that creative force that some people call God. Well, I get that on stage. I have learned more about the person I want to be and can be from the lessons I have learned in improv classes and performing in shows. That is why I am here today. So if the stage is my church, improv is my religion.
Now, two people up for a scene and just rock out with your cocks out.
It was a stunning moment. Amy just flashed an invitation to a secret part of improv if you wanted to go there with her. Improv wasn’t just being funny with smart funny people getting the rush of being funny on stage for paying customers. It wasn’t therapy, it was opportunity to see yourself differently and be free to just be a truer version of yourself somehow.
All terribly mystical, I know. But it appealed to me and rung deeply true. But a corollary arose in me after considering Amy’s note for a few days. I didn’t doubt for a moment the veracity of Amy offered – that improv offers a method and approach to living a more satisfying and fulfilled and genuine life – I was experiencing that by osmosis somehow.
But the corollary was that if improv could teach us about being better people, more in touch with the power that some people call God…could the great religious traditions teach us something about improv? I already had a deep and well studied library with great religious texts in it and got to work reflecting upon the question.
In further posts I’ll post my investigations and experiments with what the 10 Commandments teach about improv….then maybe I’ll go into some of the other spiritual traditions.
Maybe.
First, thanks for the warm welcome Ben, I look forward to participating in the community here!
I’m a life long fan of comedy, and have been intrigued by improv ever since I learned that Ghostbusters was created by a bunch of guys who were good at it. And I thought, from watching many shows, that I ‘had’ it. After all, Truth in Comedy isn’t a long book. I’ll just get this 100 pages under my belt, and then practice until I get good!
Turns out that improv, like any other art, is a little more complex than that.
In my class at iO Theater with Craig Uhler (both the theater and the teacher come highly recommended) we were asked to do a basic exercise. Two people, with a conflict, but the trick was we couldn’t actually talk about the conflict itself. Simple, yes, but as a long time fan and only recent participant, it was enough to keep me occupied onstage.
As the pairs took turns, some groups made excellent scenes. Upon study of these excellent scenes, we came to realize that they were good because they focused on development of the characters instead of the conflict. That is to say, they used the given conflict as a starting point, and fleshed out their relationship from there.
In comparison, the scenes that didn’t go anywhere (I have a feeling mine was one of them) got hung up on the stuff that they were given as a start, and were unable to break away into the life behind the stuff.
When performing in a two person scene, there are exactly two topics that will make the scene work, the audience laugh, and the students sign up for your classes. These two topics are guaranteed to always be the right topics to focus on, from now until the end of time.
Those topics are you and the other person.
Anything else, the setting, the conflict, the situation, all of it is dependent on the two of you (or however many there are on stage). Don’t worry about that. Find out who that other person is, and the scene will slowly unfold organically, and the audience will laugh.
A basic point, sure, one that the experienced and intelligent readers of Improvoker have had drilled into their heads for years. But the next time you’re watching a scene that isn’t quite working, whether it’s a performance, a class, or whatever, be sure to keep an eye on how much character development you are seeing. Odds are, it’s not enough. There’s no humanity in the improv, just an attempt at jokes. And without humanity, there’s no scene and no funny.
We at improvoker are very pleased to announce the addition of Philip Buuck of mychicagoimprov.com to our writers. We are excited to see what’s happening in the Chicago improv scene and egarly look forward to hearing Philip’s thoughts on improvisation.
One of my closest and dearest friends Abra “Pinky” Tabak has just been added to UCB house team Bastian. As someone who has thought Abra is one of the most talented improvisers I have ever met, it’s good to see UCB thinks so as well. As for adding her to Bastian, I can’t imagine a better group for her warm and supporting personality.
The kids on Bastian, as I have told them in various states of drunkeness, are one of my favorite Harold Teams because of their incredibly supportive playing style. So look out for your new member of the flock, she is the jam.
Congratulations Abra! See you next Tuesday.