Knowbody to Love... / Elastic Baby Steps...
I'm starting to see now that if I want my school improv team to get anywhere... to be as good as, say, "The Urban Lemmings" at Hamilton, I need to find a way to take some more time with them and really develop their skill. The time really isn't available to me right now. Maybe it will be in the spring after Guys and Dolls closes; but I really have to think about it for next year. My principal had me running scared a little, referring to the Knowbodys last year as "Organized Silliness." He said this to me as well as to some parents. It was a pretty deep wound, and compelled me to seriously downplay the Knowbodys as we came into this year. As I look at the kids I'm working with now, I can see how Hernazi would have that opinion of the show. In a way, the "organized silliness" lable is reflective of some of the attitude that is presented by the kids who participate. Last year, one of my stronger seniors publicly compared the show to "Who's Line" and "Green Screen". Granted, we were working on short-form at the time, but the comparrison made me feel that I failed in teaching something.
I notice in the past two days that if we patiently work on the fundimentals (taking more time with it than, say, a Level 1 class at IO with a class full of adults) then a little at a time, they get it. Sometimes I have to put a lot of limitations on them in order for them to get to what's important in the scene. I decided not to bog down my beginners with a ton of games. I find that if I want to get them beyond "organized silly" I can't overload them with game rules and gimmics. It's counter productive to my goals. Sure, it's fine to do "Count Down," "Forward Reverse" and "Chain Murder" in the classroom and at the Drama Club social; they're easy enough gimic games that you don't have to get too deep in the improv theory in order to enjoy doing or watching them. But in order to build stronger scene work, I have to work those skills. I'm only teaching them "Freeze" and "Show Me That." These are both short form games, but they work best when strong scene skills are used. The irony of "Show Me That" is that it is one of the only short form games that resembles a long-form format, but it opens itself up to bad short-form gimmics. The kids love the game, and in its best moments it's a lot of fun to watch and conduct (one moment in particular motivated me to call out "Show me a Smurf Mafia." God, how I wished that were in an Apollo-12 show). Unfortuneatly, some of the more enthusiastic (and arrogent) students have a habit of jumping into scenes that don't need them, only to layer on chaos and destroy any good work that might be happening. I had to rein them in a little, playing one round where I would only allow two person scenes, and forcing the players to stay out of at least two scenes before jumping out again. Better scene work resulted... not all the time, but at least things got to develop.
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Last night, Elastic Theater did a freebee at The Trunk Space. We did "Penguin Week," Tommy and Stacey did their "T-Rex" demonstration, and I improvised a McChutney rant about being a mall santa. Not our greatest show. Small turn-out... Tommy and Stacey were "on" (I had never seen the "T-Rex" thing; it was a joy to watch from behind the curtain) but I think the McChutney thing could have benefitted with a little rehearsal. Not necessarily and plotted out script, but at least I could have practiced once or twice so that I could fine tune the timing and figure out what ideas were delivering well. I somewhat wrote the thing out in my head... which, if I really think about it, is probably the most destructive tactic I can use for myself. If I write something out on paper, or type it, I can see the words outside of my mind's eye and I can edit. If I just improvise from nothing... well, I haven't done many one-man shows so I think my improv is stronger when I have someone else to play with... Last night was reminicent of a character I did in Farce Side back in 93 called Joe Murdock. He was a sports reporter who knew nothing about sports, and less about everything else... I never rehearsed these bits, but planned them out in my head. They could best be described as hit or miss. I only did the character for a semester and stopped (just as Buddy was about to tell me not to do it anymore).
Nancy from Great Arizona Puppet Theater also brought one of her shows. The event became a plug for next month's puppet slam. This is all well and good, but I think Stacey was a little disappointed that Nancy came along on our booking. She really wanted this to be an Elastic Theater event independant of GAPT. I can understand that, but I don't think there was any harm done. We have a good relationship with GAPT, and it doesn't hurt to plug the next slam.
Tommy and Stacey have been talking about Elastic Theater's potential for growth. This excites me. I think it goes right along with everything that's happening with CFWP. While Elastic Theater's growth is entirely it's own, it's nice to see that everything is moving and the same healthy pace. Tommy wants to challenge us all creatively (play to the top of our intelligence; get away from the talking poop). Stacey wants to continue improving the quality of our puppet construction. I want to see us expand into the community and do more stuff beyond the slams.
Wonderful things are happening.
Stacey and Tommy have been flexing their mad skills, making hand-made finger puppets. Their selling for $8 a piece at The Trunk Space... and really selling. I'm proud of them for that. Considering things that have been happening to them in recent months, I'm happy to see all of the positive creative outlets becoming available to them.
Sometimes I love my life. :up:
