Improv is the new Woodstock

I was watching some fantastically great hip and cool improv at Studio 34 this past Thursday night. I saw two giants of the improv scene: Rare Bird Show and Illegal Refill. To know how cool that is I guess you might have to be part of the scene - and that is the right word too. Improv has become a scene. I am going to try to describe the experience for you. Here goes:

I made my way over to West Philadelphia around 9:15- 9:30. I knew the kids from Fletcher would be there,  cause they would just be getting outta rehearsal. 

The show wasn't until 10. I was a bit early. I walked into a large warm yoga studio replete with cushy sofas and large haremesque pillows. Members of Illegal Refill and Rare Bird Show were scattered about the large room, broken off into smaller groups and holding relaxed conversation. 

"Hey Fletcher, one of you wanna run the door for us?" asked Alexis . "Sure" says Buseman - or something like that. I mean its improv right, who needs a plan? 

Anyway - the studio slowly started to fill up with kids in cool t-shirts who had probably just locked up there environmentally friendly bicycles on the street below (I wouldn't know about that, I take cabs). Before I knew it, the place was packed with young 20-30 somethings. They crowded into the old office chairs, sat cross legged on various and sundry giant pillows intermittently spread out on the floor, and, after a while, even leaned against walls.

I looked at the audience at one point during the show and I saw a sea of cool haircuts and faces (both familiar and new) turned upward toward the stage and smiling. As I looked at this sea of attractive young faces I got this feeling, and I am not entirely sure about this, because I was never cool, but I got this feeling that these kids were hip. They were not the usual dorky Star Trek loving nerds you hear about assembling to see some make-um-ups. They obviously weren't at Studio 34 because they had nothing better to do with their time. They were there to see improv - because seeing improv has suddenly (or not so suddenly) become cool. 

I don't know how educated the crowd was about what they were watching. Somehow I don't think they were there because they has studied improv. It was clear, however, that they enjoyed it. To them, I imagine, its like seeing a band you enjoy. I do believe there are even such things as improv groupies. 

Besides being cool, seeing improv is also economically friendly.   Its so not corporate - ya know?  The show was, in fact, free! Yes, free! - and also BYOB. Everything about the show had such a hip underground feeling to it. I know it is a hard feeling to impart, especially over a blog, but fortunately you can experience it for yourself the third Thursday of every month.  

So come be part of the underground improv scene.  What am I saying? obviously,  if you are on the PHIT blog or you look good in a t-shirt you already know about it!

back to my roots

I start teaching for PHIT again this weekend. It will be the first class I have taught in just about a year and I'm definitely looking forward to it.

For those who aren't familiar with PHIT from the beginning, the whole idea of a theater started with classes. There had been a few one-off classes taught on longform by folks like Matt Holmes, Bobbi Block, Alexis Simpson, and Tony DiGerolamo when I sat down with a few people in October 2005 and laid out my vision for PHIT.

The first improv class I ever taught was a Level 1 class that shifted all around Houston Hall on the Penn campus because it was a space I could get for free (I was still affiliated with Penn at the time). Every week I would realize I had to teach the class in a few hours and then sit down to try and write what exercises I would do. About halfway through I realized they would want some kind of performance structure to do and settled very haphazardly on The Armando. I'm thankful I didn't ruin them all. In fact, a couple of people turned out pretty darn good: Mark Dames and Jay Brenner were both in that first class. Along with a girl named Sarah Handfest. Sometimes you just cannot make this stuff up.

From that, we've come a long way. There is now a fully written out curriculum with class goals, exercises, descriptions, etc. for each of our improv Levels (the curriculum totals around 65 pages for all three improv levels). We've got a dozen plus people who've taught classes at the theater - and many, many more if you include workshops - and we've started sketch classes.

And now I'm back teaching, at least for a few weeks, which I'll stop short of calling a nice *break* from the business side of things (because that never goes away), but instead call a nice thing to look forward to on Sundays...

You hear that Level 3 students??? Don't mess this up!

PHIT & NMSS' 30th St Station FREEZE

This past Monday PHIT made it's first foray into the world of Improv Everywhere style flashmob stunts. We had been thinking about stuff like this for a couple years, but I had always felt like we'd just be repetitive. However, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society got in touch with us last fall and wanted us to replicate the Grand Central Station Freeze that was done in NYC a few years ago as a way of raising awareness about MS (a disease which keeps people from moving eventually). It seemed like a good cause.

We had a lot of people signed up, and our actual group ended up being smaller due to the weather - a huge snowstorm - on Monday, but NMSS did still edit together the following video so you can get a feel for it. Check it out:



One really cool thing coming out of the event is people's interest in doing more stunts like this. So we may be doing one again soon. If you've got ideas for good stunts that are original, post them below... so far the best thing I've heard is a Snuggie flashmob.

Asaf Ronen's "Getting Yourself Out of Your Own Way"

Feeling unhappy with the quality of my work with Activity Book, and having an almost tangible sensation of being blocked mentally, I decided to sign up for Asaf Ronen's workshop, "Getting Yourself Out of Your Own Way."

Turns out to have been the best improv-related move I've made in a while. Ronen addressed exactly the issues that have been plaguing me since I started working with Activity Book.

My big problem (in improv and in life) is that I feel an incredible amount of pressure to be "nice." In improv, this is compounded by those lessons we are all taught when starting out:

"Always accept your scene partner's offers."

"Be there for your scene partner."

Granted, these are important lessons to be learned. However, when we spend too much time worrying about our partners, we ultimately end up failing them because we don't make strong choices and offers, and ultimately, we force them to do all the work in a scene.

For example, this is my thought process in a scene:

My partner and I walk out on stage and he begins to mime the act of shoveling. This is a perfectly good physical choice and offer. However, in my mind, I'm thinking:

"Okay, he's shoveling, but what is he shoveling? Is he shoveling snow? Dirt? Or, maybe he's digging! But what is he digging? A hole in which to bury treasure? A grave? Whose grave? His? Mine? But am I sure he's using a shovel? Maybe he's a farmer using a pitchfork on some hay!"

I get so caught up in worrying about getting it "right" that I am unable to add anything to the scene. In trying to be an "unselfish" scene partner and honor my partners' choices, I end up failing them.

The focus of Ronen's workshop was teaching us how to be "selfish" and focus more on ourselves and our choices and less on trying to anticipate and figure out the full extent of a scene partner's offer. Through a series of exercises we learned that if both partners enter with strong choices, even if those choices don't appear to be related, those choices can come together to form a good scene.

The exercise that had the strongest impact on me involved a series of trajectories that Asaf drew on the floor, using painter's tape. The trajectories varied in length and direction (straight, angled, up the wall) and ended with an X. Calling us out in pairs, Asaf instructed us to choose a trajectory, follow it to the X, and develop an attitude, character, or need along the way. Then, we were to begin a scene without checking in visually with our partner.

Naturally, we all found it difficult to resist the instinct to look at our scene partners, because we've all been taught that improv is all about taking care of your partner. But by focusing on ourselves, we were able to avoid second-guessing ourselves and bring strong choices to our scenes. The truly amazing part of this exercise, however, was seeing two people with seemingly incompatible choices coming together to create a good scene without directly relating to each other. Coaching us to "widen the circle," Asaf taught us that we can embrace our partners' choices without letting go of our own choices. If one person decides that he is a stuffy English butler and the other decides that she is an astronaut exploring Mars, a stronger scene will result from both partners accepting the presence of a butler on a Mars expedition rather than from either partner dropping his or her character.

Another way to think of it is as a Venn Diagram, with each person in the scene represented by a circle, and the scene represented by the area of overlap. The best scenes happen when the scene partners work together to find the overlap.

Of course, many people have tried to teach me this lesson, but years of conditioning are not easily undone. What made the difference for me was seeing this concept isolated and explored in a fashion not unlike a laboratory experiment.

At the end of the three hours, I felt that I had a better understanding of improv, and of my own strengths and weaknesses. I'm still working on bringing these lessons to my work with Activity Book, but I do feel that I'm not quite as "in my head" as I have been. Asaf Ronen's workshop more than lived up to its name.

PHIT Resident Group websites going up

When we originally started down the "House Team" path over a year ago I was really excited about all the web-presence stuff we would be able to do with them to get word out about PHIT. Then I realized getting websites designed is expensive... and that we didn't have a graphic designer at our beck and call 24 hours a day... and that we had no publicity photos. Of course, I still *wanted* to do it - but we weren't quite ready when the House Teams premiered in October.

So here we are now and it's February and the publicity photos are finally starting to trickle back in along with people's headshots, and we've sorta added a 4th group with The Moops and I'm finally starting to get stuff up. I think the websites we have are quick and dirty for now. They have some nice stuff up, and for a designer with as limited a skill-set as I have they are pretty good - but we will be upgrading these sites in the future.

For now though... check out:

http://www.activitybookimprov.com
and
http://www.themoopsimprov.com

Comments are genuinely, sincerely appreciated below!

VIM Radio debut

If the question is "Where can I hear local improvisors perform a show without leaving the comfort of my sweatpants pile?", then this is your answer:

VIM Radio

Sneak Preview episode, RSS feed to come.

Dr. Cold and Miserable or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Have My Picture Taken

Last Saturday, which was one of the coldest days in recent memory, the members of Activity Book descended upon a warehouse north of Center City for our first-ever house team photo shoot.

Now, two things I always try to avoid are going outside on the coldest days in recent memory and having my picture taken, so I was not exactly bubbling over with enthusiasm as I headed out of my apartment (running a bit late, of course) and loaded up my car with an assortment of wardrobe changes and props. However, my mood started to change as my commute turned out to be stress-free and I managed to arrive ten minutes before the call time of 2 PM. Even better, I found a parking spot right in front of the warehouse. Movie star parking! My mood continued to elevate when I spotted Michael Schwartz getting out of his car with his assorted wardrobe changes and props. Within moments of exchanging hellos, Jason Stockdale pulled up and I felt even more at ease. There really is safety in numbers.

Entering the warehouse turned out to be a surreal experience. There appeared to be large double doors on the front of the building, but the entrance was actually a small door cut into one of the alleged large doors. (Visions of Jason's trompe l'oeil whistle danced in my head...) Even stranger, the door appeared to be too small to fit through, but as I approached, either it got bigger, or I got smaller. Curiouser and curiouser!

The warehouse turned out to be just as cold as the street, as the sole source of heat was a small propane heater, but that didn't seem to dampen the enthusiasm of photographer Tom Lovelund and his crew, who were in constant motion, setting up lights, bounce cards, reflectors, and tripods. Just as enthusiastic were Executive Director Greg Maughan and Artistic Director Alexis Simpson, who had successfully supervised the Everything Must Go photo shoot earlier that day. I chatted with fellow ABers Alan Williams, Kim Breslin, and Rick Horner as the rest of the group arrived.

But the arrival that created the biggest sensation was that of the pizza delivery guy. Watching steam waft out the pizza boxes added a surreal touch -- a mouth-watering fog effect! Not one to be shy around food, I pounced on the pizza like a beach urchin on Sebastian Venable. Soon, we were all gathered around our "craft services" table, where Greg and Alexis led us in a discussion of the PHIT Resident Group (grant proposal-speak for "house team") Manual. They discussed their plans for the house teams and for PHIT -- a great pep talk!

Around this time, Tom signaled that he was ready to take our individual head shots. Naturally, I ducked behind everyone else and watched as my teammates handled their camera time with ease. Eventually, it was my turn, and I'm sad to say that nothing short of a morphine drip would have gotten me to loosen up. Standing in front of the camera, scowling and tense, I found myself thinking that I was fast becoming the neurotic, pain in the ass member of Activity Book, just a bottle of vodka and a handful of Seconals away from turning into the Neely O'Hara of PHIT. I think poor Tom knew he wasn't getting anywhere with me, so he snapped a few pictures and sent me back to the safety of my teammates.

As Tom and his crew prepared to shoot our group photos -- they set up one of those huge roll-out backdrops just like in the movies! -- the rest of us chatted, ate more pizza, and played with the props we brought for the shoot. Alexis captured these behind-the-scenes happenings with her camera, and the results can be seen on PHIT's Facebook page. (There's a picture of me with Mr. Peanut and I don't look half bad!)

To get us warmed up (figuratively and literally) for the conceptual group shots, Tom took a series of photos of all seven of us interacting with each other. (Hats were involved.) Immediately, being with my teammates, I started to feel more at ease. Then, for the first set of group photos, we were told that we would be photographed in groups of two or three, and then those photos would be composited into a full group photo. First up were Kim and Jana, who invoked The Wizard of Oz and seemed enviably at home in front of the camera. Next came Kelly Jo, Michael, three very large crayons, a crocheted Big Bird, and some very interesting antics. Finally, Jason, Alan, and I were called into service. Having Jason and Alan to lean on (as well as a Nintendo machine and a stuffed Fievel to play with), I was finally able to relax fully and get into the spirit of things.

Then came the time to shoot our "Find the Differences" photos. The idea was to recreate one of those games in which the player must spot the differences between two seemingly identical drawings. Much time was spent on finding just the right pose for us. Then, as we held the pose, Greg and Alexis added and subtracted props, and made other changes. More photos were snapped, and before we knew it, we were finished.

However, there was still a bit of unfinished business to attend to, as Tom announced that two people had to have their head shots retaken. One person had to have his/her photos retaken due to "shine" issues, and -- surprise! surprise! -- I had to have mine retaken because I looked "cold and miserable." "But I'm always cold and miserable!" I protested, to no avail. "That's just who I am!" Ever the diplomat, Greg calmly and patiently explained that PHIT simply could not use photos of one of their performers looking uncomfortable. So, before long, I found myself back in front of the camera. Sensing my discomfort, everyone stepped up to cheer me on and distract me from the task at hand, and Tom managed to get the necessary shots.

And, on that note, the first-ever Activity Book photo shoot came to an end. I have to admit that, when it was all over, I actually felt a bit sad. Although I was not exactly the easiest or most cooperative subject, I did manage eventually to get into the right frame of mind. Plus, it's hard to stay in your shell when you're surrounded by supportive people whose company you genuinely enjoy and who make you feel at ease. So, I want to take a moment to thank Greg and Alexis for making all of this possible, Tom and his crew for all their hard work and patience, and Rick Horner and my fellow ABers for putting up with me and my moodiness.

(Now, if I can just convince Greg to use the Mr. Peanut photo as my official headshot...)

what won't we do for a little publicity?

Today I went to my first ever photo shoot. It would have been a lot of fun to see how this type of thing goes down, but it turns out that I was also in charge of the artistic direction of the photos. I thought we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted going in, and then I just had to work desperately to keep up with trying to learn how to do something as I was doing it.

It turns out pictures are not taken the way they appear on publicity postcards. So after a fair deal of goofing around, our awesome photographer Tom Lovelund, pulled me aside and explained that although the end product was a picture of all 8 members of my cast (for example), the actual photos would be best taken individually and then stitched together. Mind blowing. Honestly, I didn't know how to react... so there was a lot of trusting that went on.

The next most prominent thing to mention about the shoot was that it took place in a HUGE warehouse. And said warehouse ended up sorta, lacking...um... heat. Very chilly. As people were processing through headshots we had a few cast members running out to wait in their idling cars, and many other huddled around space heaters in coats. Then Rob Cutler from Everything Must Go completely lost it and started posing for photographs wearing only a carboard box (large at least) and socks. Real trooper, that guy. Or maybe a nutcase. I really can't be sure.

Fortunately the morning group helped us work through kinks in our system so that the afternoon went quickly and got great stuff for us to use promoting Activity Book. The stories from that session were far more tame, although the photos themselves were not.

We're going to try and get up some photos of us taking the photos on the blog - as well as some short snippets of what a photoshoot looks, sounds, and feels like. Keep an eye for them sometime next week (once I've figured out how to get them off the phone and onto the interweb).