PHIT Show Highlights

[Amie? Amie!]

There were lots of great moments from last night's Fletcher and Rare Bird Show sets that made me just so so happy.

Matt and Nathan were overall, amazingly patient. I liked the black out after taking the suggestion and haven't seen Rare Bird do this before -- me likey. Especially with a really informal-talky opening, it did a good job of signaling to the audience the "beginning" of the set proper. There were some talkers and sharers in the audience and this simple lighting move effectively put an end to audience shout-outs. Niiiiiiiiice. I know that's something we struggled with at times in Illegal Refill doing the living room.

Rare Bird had some great characters, especially from Matt Holmes (I loved Mr. Megaphone). I also loved the simplicity of the scenes -- they didn't generate a whole bunch of material, they really delved right into the dynamic or information that was already available to them and explored it really thoroughly.

Fave quotes -- "more Braveheart......less like Mel Gibson," Mr. Megaphone's R.E.A.L. acronym "Realistic Engagement Amongst Lutherans" and also, in general, Nathan's idea to dry out the insides of a Panda with salt so that it could be worn with a suit.

Fletcher's set was fantastic. It was their third set with the newest cast members and they are gelling really well. What I appreciated most about their set was its cohesiveness. There were very natural, recurring games and themes throughout. They did a great job of "creating a world" in their piece -- something my coach always used to say about creating an environment/set of rules that's a context for the whole piece. You guys created, heightened, and were consistent with the whole geography-sex connection and the idea of having sex/hooking up to get ahead in life was explored in so many different contexts. Love it.

Thanks for an awesome show, youse guys. What did other people think of some of the PHIT shows this week?

 

[Holmes]

Thanks for mentioning that Braveheart line.
Afterwards, we talked about how the welcoming banter to the show brought up Demolition Man and that got me thinking of movie references that carried over into the show (several in my head, only some that made it out into the scenes).

We're not going to "Luke and Han on Hoth" these pandas!


Before the show, Nathan and I decide we'd do a strict Harold format, which we haven't exactly done in a while, and it really helped to not have any great characters, games, or material disappear. We ran out of time before we could do a third beat of it (that probably would've involved hollowed-out pandas singing not loudly enough about the Lutheran church) but I think it was a great show.

I'm going to praise Nathan publicly here for his information-offering. I'll often start with a loose character idea a physicality a line of dialogue, etc. without having any idea of who/what/where and Nathan is great at responding with some kind of grounding offer that gets a laugh and puts us in a scenario to then play.
"It's an ant farm." was the perfect example of that last night.

 

[kristenschier]

amie second megaphone megaphone megaphone! such radical instant agreement! amazing!

character work in rarebird show was also fun. i like the way they surprise themselves. you can only do that when your not playing safe.

funnny as i'll get out.

wonderful show rare bird show! pleasure to watch!

also a nod to the new guys in fletcher some fantastic stuff all around and i am proud to be playing with ALL the members - "new" and "old" - of such an amazing team

 

[kristenschier]

there were also some groups that performed at PHIT that weren't PHIT related that i thought had good shows (i think its cool PHIT invites outside performers all the time)

i remember a line from angry people building things:
andrew mistakenly said "pretard" and someone called him on it (forget who, but whoever it was was listening like a hawk - so good move)
then he said: "that's what happens before you become retarded" - brilliant

but angry people (hope you don't mind me speaking my mind right here on the irc) you need to intentionally do a longer scene somewhere towards the middle of your set. you tend to be super fun and gamey and that is a great style - so i don't want you to lose it, however, this makes for shorter scenes and causes you to play too close to your source material at times, and then before you know it you run out of stuff to do as the show becomes more and more reflexive.

solution: play a longer scene in the middle that is more relationship and less game based, either that or go back to your opening (which i love) in the middle. this will give you more to pull from. you guys are great, but you tend to suffer cause you run out of steam- i have told you this before, i think i am right, so LISTEN TO MEEEE!

i also remember alli king of leo callahan being very specific about object work:
she said "let me just put the break on this dolly full of microwaves" and that specificity was all she needed to be hi-larious! it was a great show!

 

[kristenschier]

since i didn't get to see it i would love to hear about the cagematch

fellow fletcherite dan rich, fellow n crowder brandon libby and cszer (also a fellow) jason stockdale worked together to conquer cagematch, with thier show the ones your mother warned you about.

tell me all about it boys!

 

[Loki]

J, B Libs and The Richness triumphed? Sweet.

 

[maughangl]

The did indeed triumph, by a single vote. I'm super-excited that they will be back - that show is so much fun!

 

[Amie? Amie!]

Supercongrats to everyone in Kevin Allison's last Sketch class for their one sold-out and one almost-sold-out class show. I don't think I've ever seen a class show sell out at any theater, ever before.

 

[kristenschier]

i heard all the house team shows were really cool this weekend

would love to hear all about them

i enjoyed watching activity book i loved when kim came in and said "ice cream truck" cause she said it sooo funny

i hate to brag on it but have to mention the fletcher show - it was sooooooo good
highlight was the tableu of the last supper
dan's mysterious apartment
and gill feeding me turkey soup like an airplane
and ducks! - who could ask for more?

everyone worked sooooo well together so so well

 

[AlexGross]

All the shows were awesome this weekend but one scene totally won my (nerdy) improv heart. It displayed game and character work perfectly! (If you were at the theater Saturday you probably already heard me raving about it) It was Everything Must Go!'s Bar pick-up scene. The one where Milkshake rode a chair during the whole scene. It is still making me laugh.